This inspiring collection of stories, compiled by the well-known author, editor and anthologist Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins, encourages readers to reflect on the wonder, meaning and purpose of life by tapping into the core values, ethics, beliefs, history and emotions of life from a Jewish perspective. Chapters tell about:?Simple Goodness?Hope and Endurance?Continuity and Tradition?Lessons Learned?Light Out of the Holocaust?Great Escapes?Words of the Wise?Providence?IsraelPersonal and profound, this is a book that will send a chill up the spine, bring a tear to the eye, and warm the heart?collected by the co-editor of the New York Times best-selling Chicken Soup for the Jewish Soul.

Paints a panorama of Jerusalem in all her glory, from medieval times and the era of the Crusaders, through the poverty-stricken Jewish communities of the last centuries and their strength and heroism, ending with a look at Jerusalem today. Carefully researched, with stories, biographies, an index, charts, and photographs.

Focuses on the activities of Hillel Kook, a Palestinian Jew who spent World War II in the USA, under the adopted name of Peter Bergson, trying to convince the USA and Britain that saving Jewish lives should be a war aim. After failing to persuade the Allies to establish a Jewish army, in 1943 Bergson founded the Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People of Europe, which used high visibility tactics like newspaper ads and lobbying to attempt to arouse the reluctant U.S. government to action. The Bergson Group was fiercely opposed by assimilated American Jews who feared antisemitism, including the American Zionist establishment led by Rabbi Stephen Wise. Another antagonist was Jewish congressman Sol Bloom, whose position was close to that of the State Department, which opposed allowing Jewish refugees into the U.S. Reveals how the Emergency Committee used political pressure to get President Roosevelt to establish the War Refugee Board, which is credited for saving between 50,000-200,000 Jewish lives. Argues that many more could have been saved if the Jewish establishment had been less concerned with attacking Bergson and less preoccupied with exclusively Zionist goals.

A pioneer in the area of pluralism and interfaith relations, Rabbi Irving Greenberg has spent a lifetime working to overcome the history of hostility between Judaism and Christianity. This book is studded with provocative ideas, which challenge believers on both sides to grow in good faith. In sum, this book is a call for Christians and Jews to work closely together in their evolving partnership with God. Rabbi Greenberg takes us along on a personal journey, initially stimulated by his research on Holocaust testimony, that led to his rethinking of Christianity, and that ultimately gave rise to his belief that Christianity, Judaism, and indeed every religion that works to repair the world and advance the triumph of life, are valid expressions of the universal bond (brit) between God and humankind. In the second part of his book, Greenberg brings together, for the first time, seven of his most important essays on the new encounters between Judaism and Christianity in our generation. It concludes with a study guide and powerful responsive essays by leading Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish commentators, James Carroll, Michael Novak, Mary C. Boys, Krister Stendhal, and David Novak. - Back cover.

New York Times Bestseller! From the man who became Pope Francis, Jorge Mario Bergoglio shares his thoughts on religion, reason, and the challenges the world faces in the 21st century with Abraham Skorka, a rabbi and biophysicist. For years Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, archbishop of Argentina, and Rabbi Abraham Skorka were tenacious promoters of interreligious dialogues on faith and reason. They both sought to build bridges among Catholicism, Judaism, and the world at large. On Heaven and Earth, originally published in Argentina in 2010, brings together a series of these conversations where both men talked about various theological and worldly issues, including God, fundamentalism, atheism, abortion, homosexuality, euthanasia, same-sex marriage, and globalization. From these personal and accessible talks comes a first-hand view of the man who would become pope to 1.2 billion Catholics around the world in March 2013.

Artist Ilene Winn-Lederer's conception of Between Heaven and Earth: An Illuminated Torah Commentary had its roots in the unique invitation she designed for her son's bar mitzvah in the 1980s. The tri-fold card incorporated themes from the Torah, the Haftorah, and the commentaries on both books, and it led to many commissions for artworks based on themes from Jewish liturgy. Eventually this cumulative body of work inspired her to illuminate the complete Torah, and for five years she focused her studies and extraordinary illustrative skills on the creation of this book. The first five books of the Bible, the Torah, are divided into fifty-four portions, or parashiyot(singular parashahI/i>). Each week of the Jewish year, a portion is read and studied; every Jewish congregation in the world reads from the same parashah each week, and the Torah is read in sequence through the year. Between Heaven and Earth presents a two-page spread for each parashah, with Winn-Lederer's bold and beautiful imagery accented with Hebrew and English text excerpts rendered in her elegant calligraphy. The illuminated Torah is followed by a section titled "AfterImages: Artist's Notes," in which Lederer details the biblical story, symbols, and personal reflections that guided each illustration. She conveys her extensive knowledge of the Torah clearly and accessibly, offering her interpretations against a backdrop of years of scholarship. Between Heaven and Earth is a signature work from a consummate artist whose vision is informed by both tradition and her vigorous imagination. There is nothing else like it in the world.

Jeremy Brown offers the first major study of the Jewish reception of the Copernican revolution, examining four hundred years of Jewish writings on the Copernican model. Brown shows the ways in which Jews ignored, rejected, or accepted the Copernican model, and the theological and societal underpinnings of their choices.