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Eight Nights
One for each night, they shed a sweet light ... the perfect
book for those special people at Chanukah.
GAIL ZIMMERMAN
Arts eT Entertainment Editor
#0,4 . `
CANDLE #1:
FOR THE SPIRITUAL SEEKER
In Talking to God (Alfred A. Knopf:
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day 5:30 - 9:30
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www.detroitjewishnews.com
11/29
2002
88
Geoffrey Wigeder
7%.<6.i.Feia.0.1.90xtzelgietcie44
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NM Ma 111.1,1111WAILIS
47690 Grand
NPUGROSCHU
Find out
before your mother!
$19.95), Rabbi Naomi Levy offers
personal prayers and blessings she has
written for all occasions and for people
of all faiths. Touching on the entire
range of human experience, Levy's
simple and direct words address every-
thing from realizing one's potential at
work to combating self-pity.
Prayer is a prelude to action, writes
Rabbi Levy. "A prayer takes just a mat-
ter of seconds to utter, but its influ-
ence on our lives, on our behavior, on
our hearts, on our perceptions, can be
permanent. A moment on our lips is a
lifetime on our souls."
Rabbi Levy, author of To Begin
Again, was in the. first class of women
admitted to study for the rabbinate at
the Jewish Theological Seminary and
was the first Conservative rabbi to lead
a congregation on the West Coast.
CANDLE #2:
FOR THE YIDDISHIST:
Centuries of Jewish culture are
borne witness to in No Star Too
Beautiful (W.W. Norton & Company;
$39.95), an anthology of Yiddish sto-
ries from 1382 — the date of the ear-
liest extant Yiddish literary manuscript
— to the present, edited and translat-
ed by Joachim Neugroschel.
Of the 80 stories in the book, 65
have never before been translated into
English, including nearly all the mate-
rial from the Middle Ages through the
mid-19th century. In addition,
Neugroschel has replaced poor original
translations of another dozen stories,
including those by authors such as
Y.L. Peretz and Sholem Aleichem.
Prose, verse, narrative, epigrams, brief
stories and excerpts from 1,000-page
novels are included.
Neugroschel is the winner of three
PEN translation prizes and the transla-
tor of more than 190 books, including
works by Thomas Mann, Franz Kafka
and Marcel Proust. Born in Vienna,
this 2001 National Jewish Book
Award finalist currently resides in New
York.
CANDLE #3:
FOR THE BIOGRAPHY BUFF
From the slums of Manhattan's
Lower East Side to the glamour of
stardom, Rob Edelman and Audrey
Kupferberg's Matthau: A Life (Taylor
Trade Publishing; $25.95) covers the
often complicated personal story and
multifaceted career of this great comic
actor and "grouch extraordinaire,"
who once joked, "I'd rather not be
badgered and overcome by hoards of
fans, but if someone comes up to me
in a civilized manner and says, loved
you in The Last Jew from Trinidad' I'd
say, 'Thank you very much.'"
Matthau was written with the coop-
eration of Matthau's second son,
Charles. The biography looks at the
screen legend's impoverished but cul-
turally rich upbringing as a child actor
in New York's Yiddish theater; his
gambling addiction; his repeated
health scares; the dysfunctional aspects
of his family life; and his personal and
professional partnership with Jack
Lemmon.
Edelman and Kupferberg, both lec-
turers in film history at the University
of Albany-State University of New
York, also are the authors of Meet the
Mertzes and Angela L _ ansbury: A Life on
Stage and Screen.
CANDLE #4:
FOR THE FACT FINDER
Compiled by Editor-in-Chief
Geoffrey Wigoder and Co-Editors
Fred Skolnik and Shmuel Himelstein,
The New Encyclopedia ofJudaism
(New York University Press;
$99.951$79.95 until January 2003;
call 800 - 996 - NYUP), is a comprehen-
sive, lavishly illustrated one-volume
work that presents every aspect of the
Jewish religion. With entries from
"Aaron," the elder brother of Moses,
to "Zunz, Leopold," a pioneer of the
scientific study of Jewish literature,
liturgy and religious poetry, it repre-
sents current thinking among scholars
representing all major branches of
Judaism.
The original version, selected by the
American Library Association as an
Outstanding Reference Book, was
published in 1989 but has been
unavailable for many years. It has been
revised with updates of the original
thousand entries, nearly 250 new
ones, a new introduction, guide for
usage, new illustrations, as well as an
annotated bibliography.
The late Geoffrey Wigoder was edi-