BOOK OF CUSTOMS: by Scott-Martin Kosofsky Book designer Kosofsky tells the history and develoment of the Minhogimbukh (Book of Customs), a beautifully-designed illustrated guide to the Jewish year, popular in Europe from the late 16th-19th centuries. Using the 1593 Venice edition as a model, Kosofsky revives the Book of Customs for modern usage, including all of the original woodcuts. THE JEWISH ORIENTALIST: by Tom Reiss A selection from Reiss' new book, Lev Nussimbaum, The Orientalist: Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life, discusses a type once familiar in the 19th and 20th centuries, the Jewish Orientalist who seemed to lose himself in the reverie of Eastern identity. THE ITALIAN GENIZAH: A lecture by Prof. Muro Perani Professor of Jewish History Muro Perani from the University of Bologna shares the recent discovery in Italy of thousands of parchment folia and bifolia dismembered from Hebrew manuscripts that were reused as book bindings in the 16th and 17th century. NOT TO WORRY: JEWISH WISDOM AND FOLKLORE by MICHELE KLEIN Michele Klein shows how Jewish wisdom and centuries-old, fine-honed coping skills — including prayer, wisdom from the Sages, meditation, mysticism and dream interpretation, music, and humor — can give us the courage to face a world that often appears uncertain and threatening. THE IRON TRACKS by AHARON APPELFELD How does one live after surviving injustice? What satisfaction comes from revenge? Can the past be left behind? The Iron Tracks is a haunting exploration of one survivor's complex, wrenching inner world.... SYNAGOGUES WITHOUT JEWS by RIVKA and BEN-ZION DORFMAN       Through word and over 300 exquisite photographs, Synagogues Without Jews tells the colorful histories of over thirty Jewish communities — in Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Slovakia, northern Italy, Greece, and the Czech and Slovak Republics — that thrived before World War II. It is filled with floor plans, elevations, full-color photographs, and descriptions of the synagogues that were the pride and joy of their congregations. And there are stories of people — of Jews of the past and of Jews of the present who remain... THE CASTLE by FRANZ KAFKA On the occasion of the publication by Schocken Books of a new translation of Franz Kafka's The Castle, PEN American Center sponsored an evening of tribute, reflection, and re-examination of Kafka's work. Important writers and actors (including David Remnick, Thulani Davis, Aharon Appelfeld, E.L. Doctorow, Cynthia Ozick, Paul Auster, Susan Sontag, Norman Manea, Mark Harman, David Remnick) participated in the program, which was held on March 26 at New York City's Town Hall and directed by Tom Palumbo. You can listen to any section of this important literary event, using RealAudio. SCROLLS of TESTIMONY by ABBA KOVNER Scrolls of Testimony is a profoundly moving chronicle of the Holocaust. The author, award-winning Israeli writer and poet Abba Kovner, intended this book as an almost liturgical account of the greatest tragedy to befall the Jewish people, and he wrote it in the Jewish tradition of megillot, or scrolls. Taken together, the pages are reminiscent of the Talmud, with the central text surrounded by notes and excerpts of poetry and prose. THE SUNFLOWER: ON THE POSSIBILITIES and LIMITS of FORGIVENESS by SIMON WIESENTHAL While imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp, Wiesenthal was taken one day from his work detail to the bedside of a dying member of the SS. Haunted by the crimes in which he had participated, the soldier wanted to confess to and obtain absolution from a Jew. Faced with the choice between compassion and justice, silence and truth, Weisenthal said nothing. But even years after the war had ended, he wondered: Had he done the right thing? THE BOOK of JEWISH VALUES by JOSEPH TELUSHKIN       In The Book of Jewish Values: A Day-by-Day Guide to Ethical Living, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin has combed the Bible, the Talmud, and the whole spectrum of Judaism's sacred writings to give a manual on how to lead a decent, kind, and honest life in a morally complicated world. Telushkin speaks to the major ethical issues of our time, issue that have, of course, been around since the beginning. The range of the book is as broad as life itself. THE JEWISH GRANDMOTHER        Psychologist and researcher Dr. Michele Klein has curated the Museum of the Jewish Diaspora (Beth Hatefutsoth) exhibition, "Be Fruitful and Multiply," shown on America Online throughout 1996. In this RealAudio interview recording, Klein discusses Jewish sources and traditions about Jewish grandmothers. DOCUMENTORS of the DREAM by VIVIENNE SILVER BROADY Documentors of the Dream: Pioneer Jewish Photographers in the Land of Israel 1890-1933 (Magnes Press and JPS, 1998) is the first comprehensive book to chart the origins and development of local photography seen through the eyes of Jewish photographers. The material is based on primary research mostly from Israeli archives, and interviews with descendants of the early photographers. Documentors of the Dream is the work of photographer and photo historian Vivienne Silver-Brody, of the Silver Print Gallery in the Israeli artists' village of Ein Hod on the Carmel. Enjoy also an audio webcast interview with Ms. Silver-Brody. EXILE at HOME by FREDERIC BRENNER In celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Israel, photograper Frederic Brenner has produced an exquisitely crafted book of black and white photographs of members of some fourteen recent immigrant families, all of whom he had previously photographed in their native countries. His photograph essay, Exile at Home (Harry N. Abrams Publishers, 1998), evokes questions regarding the definitions of "exile" and "home." Enjoy an audio webcast interview with the photographer.