reviews - Jewish Book Council

CONTRIBUTORS
MIRIAM BRADMAN ABRAHAMS (MBA) lives in
Woodmere, NY. She is the mother of three,
an avid reader, Hadassah Nassau Region One
Book Coordinator, Hadassah Hewlett Herald
editor and webmaster, and book fair chair.
ERIC ACKLAND (EA) is a freelance writer, and
edits the Ideas and Innovation section for Presentense
Magazine.
SHELOMO ALFASSA (ShA) is a writer and historian
who researches the Jews of Iberia and the
Ottoman Empire. He is based at the Center
for Jewish History in New York City where he
oversees Special Projects for the American
Sephardi Federation. He has written several
books including, A Window Into Old
Jerusalem and The Sephardic Anousim. He can
be reached at: shelomo@alfassa.com.
BARBARA ANDREWS (BA) holds a Masters in
Jewish Studies from the University of Chicago
and has taught Jewish adult education classes.
SARAH ARONSON (SA) holds an MFA in Writing
for Children and Young Adults from Vermont
College. She is a full time writer and
has recently published her first novel, Head
Case (Roaring Brook) for young adult. Sara
blogs every Thursday for the Lilith blog.
BATSHEVA BEN-AMOS (BBA) has two Ph.D.s,
one in sociology from the U. of Pennsylvania,
the other in clinical psychology from Hahnemann
University/Hospital. In 2007, she
received a fellowship for The Summer Institute
on the Holocaust and Jewish Civilization
at Northwestern University.
MARCIA BERNEGER (MB) is a wife, mother of
two teenage sons, second grade teacher, and
in her spare time (lol) a writer of stories and
articles for children’s magazines. Her goal is
that one day she will have her own book
reviewed in Jewish Book World.
BARBARA M. BIBEL (BMB) is a librarian at the Oakland
Public Library in Oakland, CA; and at
Congregation Netivot Shalom, Berkeley, CA.
JACK BIELER (JB) is currently Rabbi of Kemp
Mill Synagogue in Silver Spring, MD. He has
been associated with Jewish day school education
for over thirty years. Rabbi Bieler served
as a mentor for the Bar Ilan University Lookstein
Center Principals’ Seminar and he has
published and lectured extensively on the
philosophy of Modern Orthodox education.
BARBARA BIETZ (BB) is a freelance writer and
children’s book reviewer. She is currently a
member of the Sydney Taylor Book Award
Committee. Barbara is the author of the middle
grade book, Like a Maccabee. She has a
blog dedicated to Jewish books for children at
www.BarbaraBBookBlog.Blogspot.com.
MARCIE LAVINE BLOCH (MLB) earned her MLS
from the University of Maryland, a BA from
the University of Pennsylvania and an MA in
English literature from Fordham University.
She has worked in synagogue and day school
libraries and is currently finishing her term on
the Sydney Taylor Book Award Committee.
JEFF BOGURSKY (JHB) reads a lot, writes a little
and talks quite a bit. He is a media executive
and expert in interactive multimedia.
BILL BRENNAN (BB) is an independent scholar
and entertainer based in Las Vegas.
ADA BRUNSTEIN (AB) is a freelance writer and
an acquisitions editor for MIT Press. She has
an MA in Linguistics from NYU and an MS
in Science Writing from MIT. Her writing
has appeared in The New York Times, New Scientist,
Discover, and The Vocabula Review.
LINDA F. BURGHARDT (LFB) is a New York-based
journalist and author who has contributed
commentary, breaking news and features to
major newspapers across the U.S., in addition
to having three non-fiction books published.
She writes frequently on Jewish topics.
DAVID COHEN (DC) is a professional copy editor
from Cherry Hill, NJ, and the husband of
Deborah Bodin Cohen, a 2006 National Jewish
Book Award winner.
ELLEN G. COLE (EGC), the librarian of the Levine
Library of Temple Isaiah in Los Angeles, a past
judge of the Sydney Taylor Book Awards, and a
past chairperson of that committee. She is a coauthor
of the AJL guide, Excellence in Jewish
Children’s Literature, and the recipient of two
major awards for contribution to Judaism
Librarianship, the Fanny Goldstein Merit
Award from the Association of Jewish Libraries,
and the Dorothy Schroeder Award from the
Association of Jewish Libraries of Southern
California. She is on the board of AJLSC.
MICHAEL DOBKOWSKI (MND) is a professor of
religious studies at Hobart and William Smith
Colleges. He is co-editor of Genocide and the
Modern Age and On the Edge of Scarcity (Syra-
cuse University Press); author of The Tarnished
Dream: The Basis of American Anti-Semitism;
and co-editor of The Nuclear Predicament.
STEPHEN G. DONSHIK (SGD), D.S.W., is a lecturer
at the Hebrew University’s Community
Leadership and Philanthropy Program. He
writes on the non-profit sector and has a consulting
firm focused on strengthening nonprofits
and their leadership for tomorrow.
ERIKA DREIFUS (ED), who most recently
reviewed Norah Labiner’s German for Travelers
for Jewish Book World, has reviewed books
for Fiction Writers Review, The Forward,
JBooks.com, Kenyon Review Online, The
Missouri Review, and The Writer, among others.
She lives and writes in New York City.
SUSAN DUBIN (SD) was the first librarian honored
with a Milken Family Foundation Jewish
Educator Award. She is the owner/director
of Off-the-Shelf Library Services and
Library Instructional Consultant at Valley
Beth Shalom Day School in Encino, CA.
JOSHUA DANIEL EDWIN (JDE) was born into a
family of incurably compulsive readers in Baltimore,
MD. He now lives in Brooklyn,
where he writes poems and reviews and reads
anything he can lay his hands on.
GIL EHRENKRANZ (GE) is a lawyer in the District
of Columbia specializing in telecommunications
law and international transactions.
He has been previously published in MID-
STREAM Magazine including an article concerning
Israeli military options regarding
Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
SHARON ELSWIT, (SE) is the author of The Jewish
Story Finder, head librarian at Claremont
Preparatory School in New York City, and an
adjunct professor with the Palmer School of
Library and Information Science.
MALVINA D. ENGELBERG (MDE), an independent
scholar, has taught composition and literature
at the university level for the past fifteen
years. She is a Ph.D. candidate at the University
of Miami.
HEIDI ESTRIN (HE) is librarian for the Feldman
Children’s Library at Congregation B’nai Israel
in Boca Raton, FL. She is a past chair of the Sydney
Taylor Book Award Committee and hosts
The Book of Life podcast, a monthly audio program
about Jewish books, music, film, and web,
online at www.bookoflifepodcast.com.
76 Jewish Book World Spring 5770/2010 www.jewishbookcouncil.org