2011: A Year in Books

The holidays are over, the coffee-table books have all been unwrapped and set aside, and winter isn't going anywhere for a while. In short, it's time to settle in for some good reading. The literary critic D. G. Myers here presents the 38 best Jewish books of 2011, all of which merit your attention.

2010: A Year in Books  D.G. Myers,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  From the popular to the scholarly, a reader's and buyer's guide to 34 of the best books of 2010.  SAVE

Retrieving American Jewish Fiction  D.G. Myers,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  A historical symposium of some neglected classics, and an introduction to the avot and imahot of American Jewish writing.  SAVE

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Plum Street Temple, Cincinnati.

America's Holy Haunted Houses

Halloween is most certainly no Jewish holiday; yet its spooky mood is curiously congruent with the ambience that overcomes American synagogues this time of year.

Take My Synagogue—Please  Philologos,  Forward.  In referring to the place where they worship, most Jews prefer to use a name other than "synagogue," the ancient Greek translation of beit k'nesset.  SAVE

Pay to Pray?  Jack Wertheimer,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  Why, some Jews ask, should synagogues maintain a heavy-handed, materialistic bar to participation precisely on the most sacred days of the Jewish calendar?  SAVE

Toward the Multiplex Shul  Reuven Spolter,  Chopping Wood.  More and more congregants prefer to pray in more intimate surroundings and for shorter periods of time; herewith, a modest proposal for their (increasingly abandoned) rabbis.  SAVE

Living Wills for Synagogues  Jane L. Levere,  New York Times.  A matchmaking effort pairs philanthropists in places that boast thriving Jewish populations with small-town Jewish communities facing demise.  SAVE

Desperately Seeking S’lihot  Allan Nadler,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  Even as the penitential service has been transformed into a major event in the liturgical calendars of non-Orthodox congregations, there has been a catastrophic loss of mimetic musical traditions.  SAVE

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All These Vows

No one knows for sure how Kol Nidrei originated. It is by far the best-known Yom Kippur prayer, but in fact it is neither a prayer nor actually recited on Yom Kippur. Rabbis have never liked it.

The Curious Case of Kol Nidrei  Herman Kieval,  Commentary.  The best-known ritual of the High Holy Day services has a paradoxical and controversial history. (1968)  SAVE

A Prayer from the People  David B. Green,  Haaretz.  "The purpose of the High Holiday liturgy is to reestablish the notion that even a demystified world need not be without mystery." (Interview with Lawrence A. Hoffman)  SAVE

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Jonah and the Music of Yom Kippur

Leviticus 10 tells us that Aaron's sons Nadav and Avihu died for bringing "strange fire" before the Lord in the wilderness. As a result of their deaths, according to Leviticus 16, God instructed Moses to ordain an annual Day of Atonement.

My Favorite Book in the Bible  Harold Bloom,  New York Review of Books.  Jonah is a sly masterpiece, a parody of prophetic solemnities, a magnificent piece of literature because it is so funny.  SAVE

The Bible Scholar Who Didn’t Know Hebrew  Anthony Grafton,  Jewish Review of Books.  Elias Bickerman may not have heard all the harmonies in Jonah, but he heard much else.  SAVE

Kol Nidrei Quartet  John Zorn,  Milken Archive of Jewish Music.  Neither a setting nor an arrangement, John Zorn's clever and imaginative composition evokes Yom Kippur's mood of awe and introspection. (Audio)  SAVE

Chromatic Vows  Arnold Schoenberg,  Milken Archive of Jewish Music.  Arnold Schoenberg's Kol Nidrei takes a drastic departure from tradition. (Audio)  SAVE

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