Sonia Taitz

Aug 19, 2024 | jewishbookcouncil.org | Sonia Taitz

Review By – August 19, 2024 In an era in which anti­semitism seems to be every­where, R. Derek Black’s mem­oir, The Klansman’s Son, is fright­en­ing­ly time­ly. Black grew up as the ulti­mate white suprema­cist. Black’s moth­er was once mar­ried to KKK Grand Wiz­ard David Duke; their father, Don Black, was a proud KKK leader whose hero was Adolf Hitler. Through­out Derek’s child­hood, Don shep­herd­ed his son to ral­lies.

Jan 29, 2024 | jewishbookcouncil.org | Sonia Taitz

Review By – January 29, 2024 We Must Not Think of Our­selves is a nov­el so exquis­ite­ly writ­ten that it ele­vates tragedy to art, and beyond art, to a soul-expand­ing testament. It is faith that ani­mates this book — the faith that life, and love, can sur­vive anni­hi­la­tion. It’s based on the sto­ry of Emanuel Ringel­blum, who began a secret project at the War­saw Ghet­to in 1941. Inter­est­ing­ly, the project’s name was ​“Oneg Shab­bat” — the plea­sure of the Sab­bath.

Oct 2, 2023 | jewishbookcouncil.org | Sonia Taitz

Review By – October 1, 2023 The title of Kim van Alkemade’s nov­el, Count­ing Lost Stars, seems like an oxy­moron, jux­ta­pos­ing loss and beau­ty. Why did she choose it? Per­haps because dur­ing the Nazi regime, per­se­cut­ed Jews were forced to wear yel­low stars that dis­tin­guished them from their non-Jew­ish neigh­bors — and because vic­tims of the Holo­caust have since been analo­gized to shin­ing stars. But who is count­ing them? How exact­ly were they lost?

Jun 21, 2023 | jewishbookcouncil.org | Sonia Taitz

A Cas­tle in Brook­lyn is a res­o­nant nov­el that tells its sto­ry slow­ly and incre­men­tal­ly, the way a wall is paint­ed and repaint­ed over time. Telling the sto­ry of a sim­ple Brook­lyn house and its inhab­i­tants through the years, Shirley Rus­sak Wach­tel rich­ly char­ac­ter­izes this mod­est struc­ture and the lives lived with­in its walls.

Feb 22, 2023 | jewishbookcouncil.org | Sonia Taitz |Karen Wilson

Kün­stlers in Par­adise is a delight­ful book that mean­ders through time and place, from 1939 to the present, and from Vien­na, Aus­tria to Venice, Cal­i­for­nia. The word Kün­stler itself means ​“artist” in Ger­man — which is fit­ting for an art­ful sto­ry about four gen­er­a­tions of a cre­ative, musi­cal fam­i­ly. Schine’s tone is often whim­si­cal, fairy­tale-like, yet her nar­ra­tive under­pin­nings are ambi­tious and momentous.