Jewish Noir Ii

Jewish Noir II is unique collection of twenty-three all-new stories (and one reprint) by Jewish and non-Jewish literary and genre writers, including numerous award-winning authors such as Gabriela Alemán, Doug Allyn, Rita Lakin, Rabbi Ilene Schneider, E.J. Wagner, and Kenneth Wishnia, with a foreword by MWA Grand Master Lawrence Block. The stories explore such issues as the perpetual challenge of confronting resurgent anti-Semitism in the US, the enduring legacy of regional warfare in the land of Israel since biblical times, how the “entitled” behavior of certain ultra-Orthodox communities can fuel anti-Semitic attitudes, Jewish support of the civil rights movement, greedy Jewish businessmen who reinforce negative ethnic stereotypes, the excesses of “golden ghetto” American Jews, the appeal of “tough” Israeli-Jewish soldiers and mercenaries, how real estate fortunes are made, and the consequences of political corruption that feed into an exploitive system, how obsession can lead “good” people to do “bad” things. The stories in this collection include many “teachable moments” about the history of prejudice, and the contradictions of ethnic identity and assimilation into American society.

"Jewish Noir is a unique collection of new stories by Jewish and non-Jewish literary and genre writers, including numerous award-winning authors. The collection has more than 30 contributors, from Marge Piercy and S.J. Rozan to the Yiddish writer Yente Serdatsky, whose story 'A Simkhe, ' published in the Forverts in 1912, is appearing in English for the first time. The tales herein explore such issues as the Holocaust and its long-term effects on subsequent generations, anti-Semitism in the mid- and late-twentieth-century United States, and the dark side of the Diaspora (the decline of revolutionary fervor, the passing of generations, the Golden Ghetto, etc.). Jewish Noir's stories also include many 'teachable moments' and conversation starters about the history of prejudice and the contradictions of ethnic identity and assimilation into American society."--

From its earliest days, the American film industry has attracted European artists. With the rise of Hitler, filmmakers of conscience in Germany and other countries, particularly those of Jewish origin, found it difficult to survive and fledùfor their work and their livesùto the United States. Some had trouble adapting to Hollywood, but many were celebrated for their cinematic contributions, especially to the dark shadows of film noir. Driven to Darkness explores the influence of Jewish TmigrT directors and the development of this genre. While filmmakers such as Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, Otto Preminger, and Edward G. Ulmer have been acknowledged as crucial to the noir canon, the impact of their Jewishness on their work has remained largely unexamined until now. Through lively and original analyses of key films, Vincent Brook penetrates the darkness, shedding new light on this popular film form and the artists who helped create it.

From Sun to Sun is highly unconventional crime novel that presents two parallel stories separated by twenty-five centuries. The first set in modern New York City, featuring a hardworking smart-mouthed Latina investigator, Felicity Ortega Pérez, specializing in forensic accounting and document examination, as she hunts for a missing person who holds the clue to an ancient mystery. Little does she realize how deep the criminality goes and what she will learn about her own hidden past. The ancient section is a radical revision of the Book of Ruth—the first person in the Bible to convert to the religion of Israel. When Ruth’s husband dies under strange circumstances, she must join the exiles returning to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple in order to secure a future for herself, her grieving mother-in-law Naomi, and her future offspring. Unfortunately, the returning exiles also include religious leaders like Ezra and Nehemiah, who plan to “purify” the land by expelling all the foreign women, and Ruth must prove her worth under dire conditions, including a major famine. From Sun to Sun is a tale of love, devotion, and sacrifice depicting the challenges facing two determined “foreign” women as they battle ignorance, hatred, and indifference in two distinct historical periods—Iron Age Israel and the modern world. Each in their own struggle to find justice and a place in society—a seemingly endless battle in a time of social upheaval, fluid identities, and diverse cross-cultural complexities. In short, the novel is about combating prejudice, and who gets to decide who is “one of us” and who is a “foreigner,” and what it takes to prove you belong.

Jews and Judaism played a significant role in the history of the expansion of Europe to the west as well as in the history of the economic, social, and religious development of the New World. They played an important role in the discovery, colonization, and eventually exploitation of the resources of the New World. Alone among the European peoples who came to the Americas in the colonial period, Jews were dispersed throughout the hemisphere; indeed, they were the only cohesive European ethnic or religious group that lived under both Catholic and Protestant regimes, which makes their study particularly fruitful from a comparative perspective. As distinguished from other religious or ethnic minorities, the Jewish struggle was not only against an overpowering and fierce nature but also against the political regimes that ruled over the various colonies of the Americas and often looked unfavorably upon the establishment and tleration of Jewish communities in their own territory. Jews managed to survive and occasionally to flourish against all odds, and their history in the Americas is one of the more fascinating chapters in the early modern history of European expansion.

This book brings together a collection of 16 essays, first published in the Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, that explore Jewish communities in North Africa, Turkey and Iraq. The discussions are located primarily in the 20th century but essays also examine the Jewish community in 16th-century Istanbul, and in early modern Morocco. Topics include traumatic departures of communities from countries of centuries-old Jewish residence, and relocations; pilgrimages to holy sites by Mizrahi Jews in Israel; resonances of Shabbetai Zevi in Turkey and Morocco; "otherness" and the nature of homeland; the Sephardi culinary heritage as realised in the cookbooks of Claudia Roden; sites of memory, such as Kuzguncuk in Turkey; and a controversial view of the exclusions and erasures that Arabized Jews have undergone. In this unique collection a major, but not exclusive, theme is that of the instability of memory, and the attempt to understand the interactions between memory and history as Jews recount their experiences of living in, and often leaving, their past homelands. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Modern Jewish Studies.

When the Jews fled Iraq for Israel, they could not take their material possessions with them, but did take their rich cuisine. Delicious dishes like Smack ab Thum oo Rihan (Garlic and Basil Fish) and Burekas im Gevina veh Tered (Feta and Spinach Pie) are included in this unique book. Jewish Iraqi aphorisms and beautiful photographs complete this presentation of the foods of the Iraqi Jews. As the saying goes, Man yakle al ein au el'thum (Who desires the food, the eyes or the mouth?).

Three outstanding historical thrillers in one superb volume. Treat yourself to the further adventures of Bernie Gunther, the iconic detective, 'One of the greatest anti-heroes ever written' - Lee Child 'Kerr's Bernie Gunther novels are modern classics' Simon Sebag Montefiore THE ONE FROM THE OTHER Munich, 1949: Amid the chaos of defeat, it's home to all the backstabbing intrigue that prospers in the aftermath of war. A place where a private eye can find a lot of not-quite-reputable work. It's work that fills Bernie with disgust - but it also fills his sorely depleted wallet. Then a woman seeks him out. Her husband has disappeared. She's not looking to get him back - he's a monster. She just wants confirmation that he's dead. It's a simple enough job. But in post-war Germany, nothing is simple. A QUIET FLAME Posing as an escaping Nazi war-criminal, Bernie Gunther arrives in Buenos Aires and, having revealed his real identity to the local chief of police, discovers that his reputation as a detective goes before him. A young girl has been murdered in circumstances that strongly resemble Bernie's final case as a homicide detective with the Berlin police. A case he had failed to solve. The chief of police suspects that the murderer may be one of thousands of ex Nazis who have fetched up in Argentina since 1945. Who better, therefore, than Bernie Gunther to help him track that murderer down? IF THE DEAD RISE NOT - Winner of the CWA Historical Dagger Berlin 1934. The Nazis have been in power for just eighteen months but already Germany has seen some frightening changes. As the city prepares to host the 1936 Olympics, Jews are being expelled from all German sporting organisations - a blatant example of discrimination. Forced to resign as a homicide detective, Bernie is now house detective at the famous Adlon Hotel. Two bodies are found - one a businessman and the other a Jewish boxer. As Bernie digs to discover who killed them, he unearths a plot that finds its violent conclusion twenty years later in pre-revolutionary Cuba.