Ben-Gurion summed up the situation of the Jews to a group of Zionists in New York shortly after the end of WWII: "The great centers of Jewish population in Eastern Europe were no more. The Jewish communities of Western Europe were decimated"...once the British were out of Palestine, "the Arab nations, despite their differences, would unite to invade the land, with the intent of destroying the Yishuv. This time, however the Jews would fight to defend themselves." President Truman was naturally sympathetic to the plight of the displaced Jews. Shocked at the results of Earl Harrison?s report of the situation of the DP?s living under guard behind barbed wire fences, Truman told a meeting of his staff that the report made him sick: "The situation at many of the camps, especially with respect to the Jews, was practically as bad as it was under the Germans." He eventually came to believe that partition in Palestine was the best solution for these Jews. Though upset by the passions generated by this issue and the pressures brought upon him to be vote for partition, and facing tremendous pressure from elements in the State Department, England, and an intransigent and implacable Arab world that promised "no partition, no further Jewish immigration and no Jewish State", he notwithstanding, stunned everyone by announcing that the United States of America recognized the new State of Israel shortly after midnight on May 14, 1948, making the United States the first nation to do so.... (Click here to read more.)

This fascinating book regales us with the inside story of this decision, and the many characters who played a role, most importantly, but not exclusively by any means, his closest and dearest friend, Eddie Jacobson and Chaim Weizmann. Truman?s role in the return of the Jews to Palestine after 2000 years would grow in importance and significance in his own eyes as time went by, and what Rabbi Isaac Halevi Herzog, Israel?s chief rabbi, told him at a meeting in 1949 remains true to this day and forever, that Truman "had been given the task once fulfilled by the mighty king of Persia, and that he too, like Cyrus, would occupy a place of honor in the annals of the Jewish people." - Larry Isaacson

This is a touching memoir that distills the early years of Billy's family life, much of it centered around his father until his untimely death when Billy was just 15. In it, we meet his talented brothers and uncles, the jazz greats they helped promote through their record store, The Commodore Music Shop, and the epiphany he had at his first Kutscher's hotel visit when he saw his first comedian - he wouldn't make it as a baseball player, but this he could do. He memorized the comedian's whole routine, played it back to his relatives in one of their gatherings, and loved the laughter it generated. "So Doc, I have 5 penises." The Doc asks "How do your pants fit? - He says "Like a glove." Billy has had some difficult moments in his life, but he got enough loving in the time he had with his parents to make room for more than a few laugh out loud moments in this wonderful little book. - Larry Isaacson

The 10th Legion, originally raised by Julius Caesar, took part in all his famous battles, from those against the barbarian Swiss and German tribes to the time when, dressed in his scarlet general's coat, he crossed the Rubicon to confront the armies of Pompey and initiate the vastly destructive Roman civil wars as well. They were as well the lead legion when Vespasian and his son Titus took Jerusalem and Masada from the rebellious Jews around A.D. 70, and took part in the reduction of Judea after the second Jewish revolt in A.D. 132.... (Click here to read more.)

There are lots of interesting things you learn from reading this book. For example, Plutarch quotes Caesar as saying of the German and Gallic cavalry at the battle of Pharsalus, that "Those fine young dancers won't endure the steel shining in their eyes. They'll fly to save their handsome faces." In truth, they didn't like the javelins being thrust into their faces, and lost the battle. Also, history's first use of boiling oil was a Jewish first, used to dissuade the Romans from climbing the walls of Jerusalem (only a temporary palliative). In the second Jewish revolt, Simon bar Kochba ran the Romans ragged for over 3 years, and caused so many casualties among the Romans, including the 10th Legion, that Hadrian omitted the customary "I and my legions are well" from his letter to the Senate that proclaimed that the revolt had been finally put down.

Roman legions were enlisted for at least 16, and in certain periods, for 20 years. No replacements were accepted in all that time, and all were decommissioned at the same time as well. Thus, the size and the strength of a legion varied depending on its losses over time to war and disease, and at what point in its enlistment period it was being engaged. Although the data is sketchy, the 10th legion, or what was left of it, was eventually destroyed in the Muslin conquests of Byzantium in the 7th century. A new age had begun. - Larry Isaacson

This diminutive book (111 pages) is filled with an enormous number of outsized ideas. Moses Ben Maimon, or Maimonides (Rambam), believed that the only purpose that made our lives worthy of living was to know God, the one true being. All else is vanity, and leads to worship of God not-for-its-own-sake instead of God for-its-own-sake. So if you observe the mitzvot for humanistic reasons, to be a better person or to get a reward, this may be permissible but your worship is God not-for-its-own-sake. When you love God for-its-own-sake only, then you understand what love of God really is. Thus, Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac reflects this kind of love, for as Liebowitz writes of the Rambam, "All of man's thoughts, feelings and values become null and void in the face of the fear of God and the love of God."... (Click here to read more.)

Halachah, Jewish law, codified by Maimonides in the Mishneh Torah, is an instrument of this divine worship. Maimonides felt that by observing the commandments you would learn to have faith (that is, knowledge of God), and once you had developed this faith, in an unusual dialectic, you would now appreciate that the purpose of these commandments is, in fact, to observe them: ..."and the purpose of knowing it is to do it."

Maimonides combined the rational processes of the mind with the activities of the body - he saw no artificial separation there. Both spheres were one, each directed in their own way towards knowing God, the mind through thought and the body through halachah. By the end of this book, we can begin to understand why Liebowitz concludes:"From Moses to Moses there was none like Moses." - Larry Isaacson

Sometimes we forget that Holland was a great sea and world power in the 17th century. Ironically, the Englishman Henry Hudson, who "discovered" the island we know now as Manhattan, was working for the Dutch who were always looking for a new route to the riches of Asia. Shorto contends that New Amsterdam was very much in the tradition of its namesake in Europe, epitomized by a "cultural sensibility that included a frank acceptance of differences and a belief that individual achievement matters more than birthright," and is the major source of those same character traits that mark our city today. Thanks to the difficult translation of once ignored archives written in old Dutch, Shorto has brought to life an exciting and formative episode in the history of our city and country.... (Click here to read more.)

He also brings to light much that is new and intriguing. The original "purchase" of the island for approximately $24.00 was perceived by the Indians not as an outright sale but as a kind of rental agreement and military alliance that included reciprocal rights and responsibilities. The local Indians who made this deal were used to defensive and shifting alliances protecting them from more warlike tribes, and saw these newcomers (who exchanged gifts of blankets, knives, kettles and other useful goods) as valuable allies. Also, when 23 Jews from Recife, Brazil showed up seeking asylum, Stuyvesant was aghast, but the Jews knew their rights in the Dutch system and appealed to the Dutch Republic, which granted them the right to stay. The authorities reminded him that "each person shall remain free in his religion," a law in force there and in New Amsterdam. It didn't hurt that certain influential Jews in Amsterdam had invested "a large amount of capital" in the West India Company either.

When the English finally came to take over the colony, there were few in New Amsterdam who were willing to defend it behind the autocratic and imperious leadership of Peter Stuyvesant and the Dutch West Indies Company. Even his own son importuned him to surrender. But that was not the end of the story. The Dutch took the island back nine years later in a bloodless reprise of its loss to the English (only to cede it back by treaty with the English fifteen months later) and in fact it changed hands five times in three decades. But King Charles of England who sent the flotilla that originally took the island from the Dutch had it right - "You will have heard of our taking of New Amsterdam... tis a place of great importance to trade, and a very good town." The Dutch had done marvels with the wilderness island, the king noted, "but we have got the better of it, and 'tis now called New York." - Larry Isaacson

A relentless tale of basically good people who pushed their envelope a little bit too far. Drugs, lots of money, a "lucky" find, some misplaced compassion and you have all the ingredients of a great thriller. An implacable and somewhat otherworldly enforcer seeks a missing $2,000,000, and to be in his presence by chance or design is not unlike a naked encounter with a great white shark. "The man looked at Chigurh's eyes for the first time. Blue as lapis. At once glistening and totally opaque. Like wet stones. You need to call it," he said. Much depended on whether it was heads or tails, I will say. This is not a cheerful story, but you'll read it quickly to the very end. - Larry Isaacson

This is a beautiful book, warm and compassionate, filled with love and consolation. Like Afghanistan itself, brought to life in its physical and mental texture, the characters start out in relative innocence, descend into a kind of madness, and regain their composure at the end. Nothing is the same, but something has changed, and grown, and though the future is yet unwritten, it appears that it will turn out all right. Hosseini writes towards the end that he "wondered if that was how forgiveness budded, not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night." An impressive first novel, open to all. - Larry Isaacson

This is a sweet little gem of a book about a small assortment of characters, each vividly drawn, who are bound by one violent act on an Israeli bus in a number of unforeseen ways. A young Israeli female soldier, a Palestinian terrorist, a German youth seeking the truth about his grandfather, a Holocaust survivor, and others related to them in ways large and small all find their world shaken to its core. Ms. Kass does a great job getting into the heads of all these diverse characters, letting you join them as they attempt to piece together the shards of their broken lives. - Larry Isaacson

This book, written in 1972, remains a classic. Herman is married to a Polish peasant who sheltered him from the Nazis for 3 years in a hayloft. He's in love with Masha who survived both Hitler and Stalin, sort of. Finally, his original wife Tamara, left for dead with their two children, turns out to be quite alive after all. Herman finds out about her through an ad in the newspaper directed to him by his name. When she shows up at an arranged meeting, she'd obviously been to a beauty parlor. Herman says "she made him think of a stale loaf of bread put into a hot oven to be freshened up." Herman tries to keep his lies straight, but it's a hopeless task. Overall, it's a deeply sad book about the consequences of great evil, but filled with moments of humor and grace. - Larry Isaacson

Embracing the contradictory forces of his secular and religious lives, Rosen (former culture editor of The Forward) uses the death of his maternal grandmother (and loss of the computerized journal that recorded her illness) to explore the gray space between the old and the new: "though proficient in neither" the Talmud nor the Internet, Rosen admits, "I am a child of both." As such, he takes us on an amazingly diverse journey from "the Talmudic hero" Yochanan ben Zakkai and the historian and traitor Flavius Josephus, through the works of Proust, Donne and Milton, and deep into his own struggles reconciling the lives of his father the Holocaust survivor and his mother, the American-born eternal optimist. It is a triumphant piece that speaks to the concerns and meditations of every modern Jew. - Josh Sucher

Comrade Tulayev was a Soviet apparatchik shot and killed by a disaffected citizen who happened upon him by chance. Kostia, the killer, overheard him talking to his chauffeur, who replied, "Very good, Comrade Tulayev." Kostia thought, "Tulayev, of the mass deportations in the Vorogen district? Tulayev of the university purges?" This, unfortunately, occurred in the 1930's, when Stalin was king, and terror ruled the land. What followed next was farce suffused with tragedy. "The first secret investigation produced 67 arrests in three days." The remainder of the book describes the ever widening ripples of the investigation which took down those in high places and low, as the plot metastasized in Stalin's brain. All were factually innocent, but the dignity of the Communist Party required sacrifices, and whoever refused such a sacrifice was aiding the bourgeois enemies of the revolution. This is a novel, but true nevertheless, and Serge's ability to get into the minds of those around Stalin is what drives this book and girds us with tension. We understand these men and women, and recognize how the cruel imperatives of the revolution compromised their basic decency and honor until they are utterly defeated by their own firmly held beliefs. - Larry Isaacson