Peter Ephross
By Peter Ephross
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Culture The Phenomenal Growth of the Jewish Olympics
The Jewish Olympics: The History of the Maccabiah Games By Ron Kaplan Skyhorse Publishing, 296 pages, $26.99 In “The Jewish Olympics: The History of the Maccabiah Games,” Ron Kaplan offers both a detailed account of the games and a deep exploration of the politics surrounding them. The Maccabiah Games — often called the Jewish Olympics…
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Culture Why Isn’t Dolph Schayes as Famous as Sandy Koufax or Hank Greenberg?
● Dolph Schayes and the Rise of Professional Basketball By Dolph Grundman Syracuse University Press, 224 pages, $24.95 Basketball player Dolph Schayes should be as famous as baseball slugger Hank Greenberg. Like Greenberg, Schayes was the first Jewish star in his sport. During his playing career, from 1948 to 1964, Schayes was a 12-time All-Star;…
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Culture Why We’re Living in the Golden Age of Jewish Baseball
Jewish museums in the United States often walk a tightrope when planning special exhibitions: Should they focus exclusively on the Jewish experience or study other ethnic communities as well? The former approach risks parochialism, while the latter would make the museum’s focus overly broad. In its new exhibit on Jews and baseball, “Chasing Dreams: Baseball…
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Culture How Hanukkah Entered American Mainstream
● Hanukkah in America: A History By Dianne Ashton NYU Press, 368 pages, $29.95 Hanukkah, I learned while attending a liberal Hebrew school in the 1970s, became an important Jewish holiday only in order to compete with Christmas. My teachers and, I imagine, many others said this with a mixture of sneer and pity: It…
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Opinion Ryan Braun’s Jewish Disgrace
The best of times has turned into the worst of times for Jewish baseball fans now that Major League Baseball has suspended slugger Ryan “Hebrew Hammer” Braun in baseball’s latest performance-enhancing drugs scandal. The Milwaukee Brewers slugger and former National League Most Valuable Player, who is the son of an Israeli-born Jewish father and a…
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Culture On Franz Kafka’s Birthday, Looking Through Lens of his Sexuality
● Franz Kafka: The Poet of Shame and Guilt By Saul Friedländer Yale University Press, 224 pages, $25 If ever there was an author whose works resisted analysis, it’s Franz Kafka. What does it mean, after all, that Gregor Samsa wakes up in “The Metamorphosis” and finds himself turned into a bug? In “Franz Kafka:…
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Culture Taking Politics Out of the Trotsky Debate
Leon Trotsky: A Revolutionary’s Life By Joshua Rubenstein Yale University Press, 240 pages, $25 During much of the 20th century, Leon Trotsky’s legacy was a source of strife on both the left and right — and 20 years after the fall of the Soviet Union, the scholarly controversy surrounding Trotsky has yet to fall into…
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Culture Background Check On a Nazi Hunter
Simon Wiesenthal: The Life and Legends By Tom Segev Doubleday, 448 pages, $32.50 When I was contributing to Simon Wiesenthal?s obituary in 2005 for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, I learned something that surprised me: The legendary Nazi-hunter didn?t personally hunt down a lot of Nazis. Sure, Wiesenthal helped capture some Nazis and their collaborators, and…
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