Halban: 31 books

Theodor Herzl (1860—1904) was the Paris correspondent of the Austrian Neue Freie Presse when he took a momentous decision in June 1895: he would bring about the creation of a state for the Jews. In his attempt to realise this dream, he became the greatest figure of modern Jewish history and is today...

Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) is one of Germany's greatest writers. His agile mind and brilliant wit expressed themselves in lyrical and satirical poetry, travel writing, fiction, and essays on literature, art, politics, philosophy and history. He was a biting satirist, and a perceptive commentator on...

Michel Strauss embarked on an enduring love affair at the age of six when he saw for the first time paintings by Manet, Monet and Degas: the passion aroused by these artists never left him. This passion, this 'eye' as he calls it led to his becoming Head of the Impressionist Department at Sotheby's...

"I'm an Arab Jew. I listen to classical music in the morning and Arabic music in the evening." Surprisingly for someone so young, Nuri Imari (whose family we encountered in The Dove Flyer), is appointed advisor on Arab affairs to the Israeli government. With little guidance he is asked by...

An incisive biography of the guiding intellectual presence - and chief internal critic - of Zionism, during the movement's formative years between the 1880s and the 1920s. Ahad Ha'am ('One of the People') was the pen name of Asher Ginzberg (1856-1927), a Russian Jew whose life intersected nearly every...

An illuminating and witty dialogue with one of the greatest intellectual figures of the twentieth century. Ramin Jahanbegloo's interview with Isaiah Berlin grew into a series of five conversations which offer an intimate view of Berlin and his ideas. They include discussions on pluralism and liberty...

The author's childhood was spent in Fascist Italy of the 1920s and 1930s. Assimilated Jews, the family's relationship to their country was stronger than to their religion. Their subsequent fortunes and misfortunes were intricately tied to what would prove to be conflicting loyalties. Segre emerged...

Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786) was the premier Jewish thinker of his day and one of the best-known figures of the German Enlightenment, earning the sobriquet 'the Socrates of Berlin'. He was thoroughly involved in the central issue of Enlightenment religious thinking: the inevitable conflict between...

"Wherever I have found myself has seemed the proper place for me to be. I have never been an exile." When Ellis Douek was nine years old, his mother insisted that he take up embroidery - in case he decided to be a surgeon when he grew up. Of course she was right, as she always was, for he...

Chief Rabbi Emeritus Lord Jonathan Sacks evaluates of the role of the synagogue in Jewish life today. In it he explores the choices faced by religious leadership in the modern world, and the ways in which the synagogue embodies a living community of faith. His book Faith in the Future, described by...

Born into the 300-year-old Jewish community in Gibraltar, Abraham Levy spent his early years, which coincided with the Second World War, on the island of Madeira before returning to “The Rock”. There the family remained secure within a relatively observant community. By the age of eight he was...

"I am convinced, " says Jake Silkstone, the hypochondriac narrator of Clive Sinclair's still provocative novel, "that if Rabbi Nathan hadn't tried to rape Helga, our German au pair, during the course of my barmitzvah celebrations at the Café Royal on the evening of 21 May 1961, things...

Tribal leaders in opposition to the government, the corruption of occupation, society torn apart by shifting political loyalties... this is the background to one woman's powerful story. A Persian Requiem is a powerful and evocative novel. Set in the southern Persian town of Shiraz in the last years...

In a moment of idle curiosity, Musa tries on the modest garb of a Muslim woman to experience for himself what it's like to be veiled. While this causes much mirth among his fellow students at the Madrasah, the elders are not amused, viewing Musa's experimentation as a prank too far. Back at home he...