David Lehman, a poet of wit, ingenuity, and formidable skill, draws upon his heritage as a grandson of Holocaust victims and offers a stirring autobiographical collection of poems that is his most ambitious work to date. Yeshiva Boys covers an expansive range of subjects -- from love, sex, and romance to repentance, humility, the meaning of democracy, Existentialism, modern European history, military intelligence, and the rituals associated with faith and prayer. The title poem is a work in twelve parts that blends the elements of espionage fiction, memory, history, and moral philosophy. It reflects David's experience as a student in an orthodox Yeshiva, and it, along with many other poems in the book, explores what it means to be a Jew in America, what is gained and lost in assimilating to secular culture, how to understand the peculiar destiny of the Jewish people, and how to reconcile the existence of God with the knowledge of evil. Beautiful, provocative, and accessible, this is David Lehman's most inspired collection.

The internal tensions and conflicts central to Haredi Lithuanian yeshivas in contemporary Israel are described with a focus on the rabinical authorities' attempts to respond to these difficulties and the changes the Haredi community is experiencing as a result

Joseph Rolnik is widely considered one of the most prominent of the New York Yiddish poets associated with Di Yunge, an avant-garde literary group that formed in the early twentieth century. In his moving and evocative memoir, Rolnik recalls his childhood growing up in a small town in Belarus and his exhilarating yet arduous experiences as an impoverished Yiddish poet living in New York. Working in garment factories by day and writing poetry by night, he became one of the most published and influential writers of the Yiddish literary scene. Unfolding in a series of brief sketches, poems, and vignettes rather than consistent narrative, Rolnik’s memoir is imbued with the poet’s rich, sensuous language, which vividly describes the sounds and images of his life. Marcus’s elegant translation, along with his introduction situating Rolnik’s poetry in its literary historical context, gives readers a fascinating account of this under-appreciated literary treasure.

Just A Few Questions: Barbaric Stories from an Ordinary Life by Abe Salem as told to Cindy Harris

From the pages of The Forward comes celebrated author Anne Roiphe’s episodic and brilliant novel of a big-city mayor and the struggles that shape the fortunes of his city, the life of his family, and the condition of his soul. Mel Rosenberg is the mayor of a city uncannily similar to New York, which is being terrorized by a string of unusual attacks. Hundreds of ducks are found dead in the park; animals mysteriously die at the zoo; dozens of people are killed by poisoned food; all of the elevator operators in one building are murdered; and the mayor is kidnapped. In addition to handling the city’s multiple crises, Mel must also contend with the pressures of his imperfect family—a daughter-in-law who is a compulsive shoplifter; an ungrateful son obsessed with status; an insecure daughter with a troubled marriage—not to mention a sexy, aggressive newspaper reporter who aims desperately to be his mistress. On top of it all, he becomes entangled in a high-profile political scandal that could ambush his aspirations of being elected the first Jewish president of the United States. With Secrets of the City, Anne Roiphe has delivered a fast-paced, engaging story written with humor, shrewd insight, and tenderness. Her characters explore issues that are as contemporary as they are timeless, and the plot has as many unexpected twists and turns as the West Village streets. This is an insider’s peek at life in the fast lane in the most brilliant and brutal city in the world, with all its secrets laid bare. From the Hardcover edition.

Woodstock Nation, 1969. Apollo Mission to the Moon. Chappaquiddick. Moratorium Day in Washington. My Lai. The draft lottery. New York beats Baltimore in football, baseball, basketball. Nehru jackets are out. Virginity is still in. Insulated in exotic Crown Heights, Jason Kole is in heaven. Safe from his draft board in seminary, comfortable in graduate school, he is busy applying his religious education to undoing religious girls. Once an Orthodox girl has permitted the very first touch, the only other boundary is to allow everything. But between those perimeters, ah, between those borders, lies the paradise of the semi-righteous. Jason is ready to taste forbidden foods, to ride in a car on the Sabbath, to move out, and to get it anytime he wanted it from Jean, the pro his buddy Jonesey knows on 38th Street. Then he meets Rachel, a girl without the pathways of Eastern Parkway in her past, a girl with her own place, her own bed, her own very good time. Damaged Goods is the story of 1969 and of Jason’s battles. In the shadow of the Vietnam War, he wrestles with his Old World father, his gentle mother, his ritual-filled upbringing, and the enticing but self-possessed Rachel. Damaged Goods is the story of a special Brooklyn: the Eastern Parkway promenades, the sins earned and cast away at Prospect Park Lake, Rockaway summers, special yeshivas for the draft eligible, Herzl House Plan parties, holidays inseparable from Holy Days.

A fantastical propaganda play depicting an armed revolt financed the purchase of the yacht Abril and its conversion to an “illegal” immigrant passenger ship renamed the Ben Hecht. The plan was to evade the British naval blockade and bring Holocaust survivor refugees to Palestine. Henry Mandel volunteered aboard the Ben Hecht, a converted yacht that challenged the British blockade of Jewish immigrants to pre-state Israel. Captured and detained in Acre Prison, Mandel aided the efforts of prisoners planning an escape. After release, Mandel helped set up a secret bazooka shell plant in New York, which he helped to reassemble in Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Mandel was an Orthodox Jew whose reminiscences provide a uniquely illuminating perspective on the creation of the Jewish state. Mandel’s story is explicated in a running commentary that includes the personal narratives of other members of the Ben Hecht crew as well as historical background.