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Two middle-aged women defied the Nazis. One ‘wrote’ a book that betrayed the other.

March 9, 2025March 9, 2025Jesse Orine

There’s an ignoble tradition of falsified memoirs. “The Hitler Diaries,” a forgery published in 1983, fooled even a Hitler expert. “Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years,” published in 1997, was sold as a survivor’s testimony but turned out to be a hoax (the part where the author was raised by wolves might have been […]

Restoring Palisades School Libraries, One Book at a Time

February 7, 2025David Rutman

Donate Hi everyone, As you may know, I’m the owner of Zibby’s Bookshop in Santa Monica, CA and a (part-time) Palisades resident who has been deeply affected by the fire. I’ve just finished organizing a pop-up clothing drive for 800+ families who lost their homes with items donated by 50+ brands. Now, I’m committing to rebuild the school libraries for four Palisades […]

Reviewing ‘Now You Are Here’ by Sarah Goldstein

April 6, 2024April 17, 2024Arsen Mayer

Sarah Goldstein’s mother, Leah Krupit, lived with Alzheimer’s disease for a quarter of a century. She survived more than twice as long, in some cases five times longer, than most people who are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia. Bringing her mother to Israel and caring for her during her final years […]

Reviewing ‘Bummer’ by Marcus Burnstein

March 17, 2024March 17, 2024Arsen Mayer

The significance of the title of Marcus Burnstein’s book Bummer will, I am afraid, be lost on many readers born and raised in North America. Other Anglos – as we in Israel indiscriminatingly dub all English-speaking people – will get it. A “bum” in American English is something quite different from a “bum“ in British […]

‘THE ELEPHANT IN MY ROOM’: Helping Israeli kids cope with war – review

December 23, 2023December 23, 2023Arsen Mayer

Yael Walfish is a social worker based in Passaic, New Jersey. She wrote a therapeutic coloring book for children in Israel to help them cope with fear and trauma. The book is being distributed for free, with crayons, to displaced children in Israel, with versions in Hebrew and English. The Elephant in My Room is […]

Boost your vocabulary throughout your life to be a better reader

December 13, 2023December 13, 2023Arsen Mayer

A number of factors affect how we learn to read for the first time. Some of these factors benefit girls more than boys. Our reading skills and understanding of a text depend on the ability to decode texts, learn the letters of the alphabet, and know the different words and how they sound. However, vocabulary […]