Explores the diversity of Jewish approaches to character and virtue, from the Bible to the present day.

Offers a bold new reading of Yiddish cinema by exploring the early diasporic cinema's fascination with media and communication.

Argues that the modern practice of critique emerged out of religious traditions and can in many ways be traced back to them.

Examines the Yiddish-Hebrew writer I. L. Peretz's alignment with the Jewish working-class in Eastern Europe and his devotion to progressive politics.

Originally published in Hebrew in 1944, this fascinating and moving account may well be the first memoir of the Holocaust.