January 21, 2025
R. Haim Druckman’s “Be-Hayyil uve-Ru’ah” covers a wide range of military-related issues. The book is noteworthy because the author (one of the leading voices in Israeli Religious Zionism before his death in 2022) cannot be easily categorized as a hawk or dove. Yitzchak Blau returns for a supplemental entry in the Alt+SHIFT series.
December 30, 2024
Yair Sheleg, a respected journalist and author, has penned an important Hebrew book, tracing historically important developments in the Religious Zionist world and questioning its future directions. In English the book might be called “The Triple Thread,” and Yitzchak Blau reviews Sheleg’s assessment of how the combination of the three values of religion, nationalism, and humanism are or are not properly balanced by the community today.
September 22, 2024
The Hebrew anthology “One Day in October” (Maggid Books), now released in an English translation, is a powerful collection of forty stories from October 7th that inspires and depresses, fills the reader with hope, as it makes him or her cry. Yitzchak Blau shows how editors Yair Agmon and Oriya Mevorach skillfully transformed these accounts into narrative chapters which will serve as a “first draft” in documenting the stories of Simhat Torah 5784.
May 2, 2024
The Hebrew anthology “One Day in October” is a powerful collection of forty stories from October 7th that inspires and depresses, fills the reader with hope, as it makes him or her cry. Yitzchak Blau shows how editors Yair Agmon and Oriyah Mevorach skillfully transformed these accounts into narrative chapters which will serve as a “first draft” in documenting the stories of Simhat Torah 5784.