Michael Magid’s It’s Not What it Looks Like is a a mix of self deprecating “misunderstandings” and biographical accounts of an upbringing in a mixed cultured environment. Magid discusses never really accepting an identity; and eventually coming to grips that being mixed (and feeling out of place) is okay. The album was recorded at the Genghis Cohen Theater in West Hollywood, CA.

Jewish art has always been with us, but so has a broader canvas of Jewish imaginings: in thought, in emotion, in text, and in ritual practice. Imagining the Jewish God was there in the beginning, as it were, engraved and embedded in the ways Jews lived and responded to their God.This book attempts to give voice to these diverse imaginings of the Jewish God, and offers these collected essays and poems as a living text meant to provoke a substantive and nourishing dialogue. A responsive, liv...

***2015 National Jewish Book Award Winner***In this powerful and timely book, one of the most admired and authoritative religious leaders of our time tackles the phenomenon of religious extremism and violence committed in the name of God. If religion is perceived as being part of the problem, Rabbi Sacks argues, then it must also form part of the solution. When religion becomes a zero-sum conceit—that is, my religion is the only right path to God, therefore your re...

According to Wikipedia, ""The Guide for the Perplexed is one of the major works of Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, better known as Maimonides or "the Rambam". It was written in the 12th century in the form of a three-volume letter to his student, Rabbi Joseph ben Judah of Ceuta, the son of Rabbi Judah, and is the main source of the Rambam's philosophical views, as opposed to his opinions on Jewish law... Moses Maimonides (March 30, 1135 Cordoba, Spain ? December 13, 1204 Fostat, Egypt), was a rabb...

Reform Judaism has been tested by the spiritual torments and ideological upheavals of the last two centuries. Now, Reform Judaism for the Rest of Us brings into discussion key tenets and opinions that shape current thinking within the faith and introduces ideas for its future development. Author Alexander Maller believes that the core message of Reform Judaism, a modern faith inspired by the Jewish heritage and the Jewish and American Enlightenment, is entering a new phase in its ...

Symbols of the Kabbalah: Philosophical and Psychological Perspectives provides a philosophical and psychological interpretation of the major symbols of the theosophical Kabbalah. It shows that the Kabbalah, particularly as it is expressed in the school of Isaac Luria, provides a coherent and comprehensive account of the cosmos, and humanity's role within it, that is intellectually, morally, and spiritually significant for contemporary life.

Here is a book that is both clarion call for a new Jewish agenda and a blueprint for an adventurous but genuine path toward spiritual growth and religious wisdom. Rabbi Niles Elliot Goldstein, founder and Rabbi Emeritus of The New Shul in New York City, says that most conventional Jewish institutions are out-of-touch and have relied too much on nostalgia, guilt, and fear—none of which resonate with modern Jews. He challenges Jews to adopt the "gonzo" spirit—the rebellious, risk-taking atti...

The Holy Fire: The Teachings of Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, the Rebbe of the Warsaw Ghetto is a journey into the mind and spirit of a sublime hasidic master in his moments of joy and tranquillity, and later, in his time of personal and communal catastrophe. The reader takes a voyage into the rich and variegated world of twentieth-century Hasidism in Poland, a world destroyed by the Holocaust. This is a volume inspired by a deeply sensitive and poetic individual of faith who is grapplin...

Brings together, and to life, the three-thousand-year-old messianic tradition as never before. Rather than simply reviewing the vast body of Jewish messianic literature, this book explores an astonishing range of primary and secondary sources, explaining in an informative yet inspirational way these teachings significance for Jews of the past—and infuses them with new meaning for the modern reader, both Jewish and non-Jewish.

Presented in the form of letters from a rabbi to his sons, Why Judaism Matters is common sense guidance and a road map for a new generation of young men and women who find Jewish orthodoxy, tradition, issues, and beliefs impenetrable in 21st Century society. By intimately illustrating how the tenets of Judaism still apply in our modern world, Rabbi John Rosove gives heartfelt direction to the sons and daughters of reform Jews everywhere.

The author writes: "Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak HaCohen Kook (5635-5695/1865-1935) was one of the greatest Jewish leaders of recent history. He was steeped in Jewish knowledge of all kinds, a master of halacha, Talmud, and Jewish philosophy, and he also had a good knowledge of the general philosophy and science of his day."Rav Kook was also a prolific writer and complex thinker who developed a system of understanding the events that were happening to the Jewish people. It was a time of c...

This exploration into the heart of Judaism shows that it’s time to reconnect with the ancient ideal of chutzpah (Jewish self-empowerment). Seeks to revive collective Jewish life and draw new generations to the Jewish tradition’s vital, significant and timely message by reasserting the Bible’s prescription of human possibility and responsibilities.