The Newsletter of Fig Tree Books

July 2024: Issue #56 --- Fredric D. Price, Founder & Publisher

COMING SOON: It Takes Two to Torah,

by Abigail Pogrebin and Rabbi Dov Linzer

For the first time, in one volume, readers can take a tour of the entire Torah through the medium of one challenging, instructive, irreverent, animated conversation. Between 2018-2020, an Orthodox rabbi and Reform journalist talked through the Five Books of Moses with candor, humor, emotion, personal revelation, and scholarship. Rabbi Dov Linzer and Abigail Pogrebin recorded these short dialogues—ten minutes per parsha—for a podcast for Tablet Magazine, and they have now been collected and edited by Fig Tree Books LLC so that the full exploration can be found in one place.

“This unlikely, inspired pairing leads to some of the most spontaneous, moving exchanges about our tradition’s foundational text.” - Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, Senior Rabbi, Central Synagogue

ABIGAIL POGREBIN is the author of My Jewish Year: 18 Holidays, One Wondering Jew—a National Jewish Book Award finalist—and Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk About Being Jewish. She’s written for the Atlantic, the Forward, and Tablet, and moderates conversations for the Streicker Center and the Jewish Broadcasting Service. 

RABBI DOV LINZER is the President and Rosh HaYeshiva (Rabbinic Head) of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, an Orthodox rabbinical school and Torah center, which promotes a more open and inclusive Orthodoxy. He has written for the Forward, Tablet and the New York Times, published widely, and hosted highly popular Torah podcasts.

“Each chapter also touches on hidden interpretation and insight into Divine meaning.” From the Foreword, by Mayim Bialik

ESSAY: You want context? Here's Context, by Micha Danzig

After Oct. 7, when Hamas terrorists and civilians from Gaza invaded Israel and mass-murdered, mass-raped, and mass-kidnapped almost 2,000 people in border towns and communities in Southern Israel, numerous anti-Israel advocates on various talk shows and in other mediums have been asked if they condemn Hamas or even condemn the Oct. 7  Massacre. 



And in lock-step — as if this was a distributed talking point from either the SJP, AMP, or some other Israel-hating umbrella organization — they all have provided roughly the same response; a refusal to condemn one of the most brutal, most video-recorded, monstrous, organized intentional massacres in modern history  — replete with children murdered in front of their parents, fathers and mothers murdered in front of their children, women being raped to death, the display of murdered women’s bodies to screams of revolting adulation from other Gazans over dead and mangled bodies and the murder and kidnapping of literal babies. And the refusal to condemn this horror is always based on the “context.”

Micha Danzig served in the Israeli Army and is a former police officer with the NYPD. He is currently an attorney and is very active with numerous Jewish and pro-Israel organizations, including Stand With Us and the FIDF, and is a national board member of Herut North America.

BOOK EXCERPT: A Lakota and a Jew

Walk into a Bar, by Alan Klein

As a six-year-old Jewish refugee to the US, I'd developed a psychological kinship with the Lakota (formerly, Sioux) that seemed both natural and meaningful. This unlikely cultural pairing would become evident to me soon enough, and thinking about it now calls to mind the lead-in to an old joke, "A priest and a rabbi walk into a bar..." The joke works off of obvious Catholic-Jewish differences, but as a child I felt that despite the obvious differences Jews and Lakota shared something very powerful. I'd naively, but importantly, come upon the transcendent quality of shared experiences that offset differences in blood and lifestyle. Anthropologists refer to the ability to seize on cultural common ground as Culture with a capital "C." With this view, the lead-in to the old joke, and even the joke itself, would be in question: "Two clergymen walk into a bar..."?

   As a refugee-child, America was my down comforter, stuffed with everything "American," but mostly baseball and Indians. Drawing it over me, I was safe. Fast forward to me as an adult, and those two childish preoccupations became the stock and trade of my career as an anthropologist. My areas of expertise became sport, and Native North Americans. I researched and published on a variety of sports, but mostly baseball, and I studied and wrote about the Lakota.

   My academic home For 41 years Northeastern University (Boston, MA) was my academic home, with brief side stints at a half dozen other universities.

JEWS OF DIFFERENT HUES: The Blue Butterfly of Cochin

You will always be home if you carry your stories with you. This beautiful book is a historical fiction based on the large-scale emigration from the ancient Jewish settlement in Cochin India to the new state of Israel. Leah was excited that she would soon be living in the Jewish homeland. Yet, at the same time, she was also sad to be leaving her beloved home in India. The character is a storyteller, and in this magical novel, a blue butterfly speaks to her, reminding her that with her stories, she will always have a part of her old home with her. Everything about life in Israel is completely different. The climate, the language and even the careers are nothing like home. The only familiar site is the same blue butterfly that is native to both India and Israel. When a friend shows her the olive groves originally created from transplanted trees, she realizes that they adapted to Israel and so can she. Like the olive trees and the blue butterflies, she makes her home in the new land as well. Siona Benjamin, originally a native of Mumbai, adds a magical quality to the book with her dreamlike illustrations. In telling the story of the Jews from Cochin, this book helps illustrate the diversity within the Jewish people. Although this is a Jewish story, the theme of change and facing a new home or situation is universal. I can honestly recommend it for any youngster. - StoryBook Lady

Ariana Mizrahi is a writer, teacher, director, and doctorate candidate in education leadership and innovation at The Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration at Yeshiva University in New York City. Originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, Ariana enjoys reflecting on her diverse background as a proud Hispanic Jew. Ariana is also the Director of Hebrew Language Instruction at Yeshiva Har Torah in Little Neck, New York. Ariana lives in Brooklyn New York with her husband and three children.

Your copy should address 3 key questions: Who am I writing for (audience)? Why should they care (benefit)? What do I want them to do (call-to-action)?

Create a great offer by adding words like "free," "personalized," "complimentary," or "customized." A sense of urgency often helps readers take action, so consider inserting phrases like "for a limited time only" or "only 7 remaining!"

In this important and touching picture book, Mizrahi shares the history of Jews from Cochin, India, highlighting their magnificent ancient synagogue and the Jewish community’s traditions. As the Cochin Jews get ready to move to the land of Israel, a magical blue butterfly reminds a girl named Leah that even though we may need to leave things behind, we carry our stories and must pass them on to others. Readers will learn much from the backmatter. The stunning illustrations were done by artist Siona Benjamin, whose work was featured at the Milwaukee Jewish Museum in fall 2022. Perfect for all ages. -- Liza Wiemer ― The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle

GUEST COLUMNIST - EVE BARLOW, Creator of Blacklisted

Breaking the Habit

Eve Barlow @Eve_Barlow

"The interrupter"

Journalist. Zionist. Feminist. Scottish.

evebarlow.substack.com/subscribe

64.9K Followers

GUEST EDITORIAL: 9/11 + 10/7 = Boom!

by Thane Rosenbaum

If you’re cheering for Hamas, then you’re on the side of those who brought down the World Trade Center. On 9/11, Palestinians threw candy in celebration.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it’s not as if the news of the day doesn’t already fill us with dire premonitions. Doomsday scenarios are no longer the stuff of science fiction. Hand-wringing has been elevated to an Olympic sport.

Thane Rosenbaum is a novelist, essayist, law professor and Distinguished University Professor at Touro University, where he directs the Forum on Life, Culture & Society. He is the legal analyst for CBS News Radio. His most recent book is titled “Saving Free Speech … From Itself,” and his forthcoming book is titled, “Beyond Proportionality: Is Israel Fighting a Just War in Gaza?”

BOOK REVIEW: Bylines and Blessings, by Judy Gruen

Several years ago, author Judy Gruen shared this candid admission with a Jewish spiritual adviser who was visiting Los Angeles. “I’ve been working so hard to become a successful writer, but I’m not successful enough! I want to be successful in the material sense of the word and can’t seem to tame the beast of my ambition, which is suffocating my deeper wisdom.” By then, Gruen was an award-winning author of multiple books and had been published in The Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe and New York Daily News, as well as many Jewish newspapers and websites, including the Jewish Journal and Aish.com. She had embraced Orthodox Judaism in her 20s and in the decades that passed enjoyed the blessings of raising a family with her husband, Jeff, while also working tirelessly as a writer, editor, author and speaker. Gruen had built a deeply meaningful and nourishing family and spiritual life, but the thirst of her career ambition remained unslaked.

As a seasoned book editor, I’ve guided many writers on their memoirs, as well as books on Jewish philosophy, business communication, alternative health journeys, and more. I’m a regular columnist at the Jewish Journal and my byline is very familiar to readers of Aish.com.

ESSAY: Hamas has a secret weapon no one talks about:

Western stupidity, by Dr. Casey Babb

Since the advent of social media, the world has undergone an unprecedented period of mass stupefaction. To put it bluntly – large groups of people on both the left and the right are getting dumber faster. Sadly, this trend has proven to be tremendously beneficial for Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group hell-bent on Israel’s destruction.

In his 2022 article “Why the Past Ten Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid,” social psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt explains how online echo chambers have significantly weakened people’s ability to communicate with one another – particularly those with opposing views. As Haidt notes, tribalistic enmity which has been amplified and accelerated by things like Facebook’s Like and Share buttons, or X’s retweet function, has not only corroded nuanced thought and conversation, it has “supercharged” confirmation bias, the most significant obstacle to “good thinking.” However, what Haidt doesn’t address is how beneficial this tsunami of stupidity has been to the most nefarious people on earth – including terrorists.

Dr. Casey Babb is a Senior Fellow with the Macdonald Laurier Institute in Ottawa, an International Fellow with the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, and an Associate Fellow with the Royal United Services Institute in London, England. He teaches courses on terrorism and global security at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, in Ottawa.