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non-fiction

A group of Jews stands on a balcony overlooking the Moroccan Quarter and the Western Wall, with the Dome of the Rock in the distance behind it. Circa 1920–1933. (Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division)
August 2, 2025, 10:27 am
Western Wall, 1929: A Tisha B’av protest is ground zero of the Arab-Israeli conflict
In an excerpt from her new book, ‘Ghosts of a Holy War,’ author and journalist Yardena Schwartz details a pivotal moment in Israel’s pre-state history and its haunting reverberations today
By Yardena Schwartz
Sweater that Chana Zumerkorn from Lodz gave to her brother Joseph when they parted during the Holocaust (Yad Vashem Artifacts Collection, Gift of Joseph Zumerkorn, 11735)
April 23, 2025, 7:59 am
Clothing historian stitches together Holocaust history by focusing on ‘women’s work’
Nonfiction ‘Four Red Sweaters’ tells wartime stories of four young Jewish women while examining larger questions such as Nazis’ circular economy and perpetrator psychology
By Renee Ghert-Zand
A woman is carried over the crowd at the Lollapalooza concert in Pownal, Vermont, July 9, 1996. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)
April 9, 2025, 3:34 am
The surprisingly Jewish history of iconic counter-cultural music festival Lollapalooza
From its creator, to performers, promoters, and now the chroniclers of a new oral history on it, Jews have always had a hand in the traveling show that changed America
By Jordan Hoffman
Etta Shiber, seen in a publicity photo for the 1943 book 'Paris-Underground,' and Kate Bonnefous, shown in 1940, were friends and unlikely heroes of the early French resistance. (Courtesy Ballantine Books via JTA)
March 12, 2025, 6:08 am
Two friends defied the Nazis. Then one woman ‘wrote’ a book that betrayed the other
In ‘Paris Undercover,’ author Matthew Goodman digs up the truth behind a successful ‘memoir’ that played fast and loose with facts as one of its subjects sat in Nazi prison
By Andrew Silow-Carroll
Two 'Puck' satirical magazine covers featuring Mrs. Mandelbaum. On left (Summer 1884): The public feud between D.A. Olney and police inspector Byrnes. In the middle, depicted in blatantly anti-Semitic caricature, is a bejeweled Mrs. Mandelbaum. On right (1885): Mrs. Mandelbaum, safely on the Canadian side of the ‘fence’ for American defaulters." (Public domain)
July 3, 2024, 1:24 am
How a Jewish German woman in NY became America’s first major crime boss in 1859
Margalit Fox’s new book uncovers the fascinating life and capers of Fredericka Mandelbaum, who fenced stolen property and orchestrated complicated jewel heists and bank robberies
By Renee Ghert-Zand
'Fatherland,' by Burkhard Bilger (Courtesy); and Karl Gonner's undated prisoner of war photo. (Dépôt central des archives de la justice militaire)
October 4, 2023, 4:24 am
The ‘reasonable Nazi’ defended by the French villagers he oversaw
In his new book ‘Fatherland,’ Burkhard Bilger tells about his 1992 discovery that his grandfather had been tried for war crimes in postwar France – but that’s not the whole story
By Robert Philpot
Jonathan Rosen (Tali Rosen)
July 14, 2023, 6:35 pm
Author chronicles a friend’s descent into madness, and society’s failure to save him
In ‘The Best Minds,’ Jonathan Rosen examines how shifts in perception of mental illness and its treatment contributed to schizophrenic man killing his fiancée in a psychotic rage
By Renee Ghert-Zand
From left: Cedric Waters Hill, circa 1915,and Elias Henry Jones, circa 1915 (Jones, 'The Road to En-Dor,' 1919)
June 22, 2021, 11:14 pm
How a Ouija board sprung two British officers from a WWI Ottoman prison camp
In new book, ‘The Confidence Men,’ author Margalit Fox delves into spiritual trends and psychological mechanisms that enabled brilliant buddies to hoodwink Turkish captors
By Renee Ghert-Zand
The Galvin family (Courtesy of the Galvin family)
December 27, 2020, 4:01 am
In 2020 bestseller, journalist tracks American family plunged into schizophrenia
Robert Kolker’s ‘Hidden Valley Road’ recounts Mimi and Don Galvin’s quest for answers from the medical community as 6 of their 12 children are afflicted with severe mental illness
By Renee Ghert-Zand
1936 photo of Sir Victor Sassoon and three dancers who appeared at his Shanghai nightclub, Ciro's. (Courtesy)
September 17, 2016, 3:16 pm
How Jews once ran Shanghai, the ‘wicked old Paris of the East’
Montreal writer’s new book ‘Shanghai Grand’ spotlights a long and varied list of Jewish characters who helped drive the WWII haven’s dramatic bygone era
By Robert Sarner
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