Dr. Tamar Frankiel on The Power of the Hebrew Alphabet by Gloria Abella Ballen

The new book by Gloria Abella Ballen on The Power of the Hebrew Alphabet will be out later this year, and Dr. Tamar Frankiel,  has written the following about it.

The Hebrew letters, understood as building blocks of the universe, have inspired commentators and artists since ancient times.  But rarely do the letters find a lover so tender and passionate as Gloria Abella Ballen. With this book, you hold in your hands over 200 pages of artistic genius, exalted by the mystical quest and tamed by a deep caring for meaning and tradition.

What is perhaps most surprising is that I do not tire of looking at these pages. Just when I think to move along and flip through the pages, a new piece will catch my eye and I slow down again.  Almost certainly, you will want to see these larger, closer; you will want to step back and look from a distance. You will wish you could feel the textures.

But especially, you will smile. This book awakens a subtle yet profound joy..." 

Dr. Tamar Frankiel

President of the Academy for Jewish Religion

Los Angeles, California

This is a landmark artistic  interpretation of the mystical qualities of the aleph-bet, and it is a book that will inspire you and leave you filled with joy.

Coming Soon.

Watch for the Announcement of the Publication.

Ruth H. Sohn - Crossing Cairo: A Jewish Woman's Encounter with Egypt

Ruth H. Sohn

Crossing Cairo: A Jewish Woman's Encounter with Egypt

Ruth Sohn’s Crossing Cairo is simply FASCINATING. A treasure-trove of candid reflections on society, religion, politics, history and national memory in today’s Egypt. I strongly recommend the book for anyone interested in Egypt or planning to visit it.
--Suleiman A. Mourad, Ph.D.
Professor of Religion
Smith College

Gaon Book ebooks

Gaon Books

Announces

The Rabbi Wore Moccasins

and

My New Middle East

Now in e-book on Amazon

Best Book Awards - Four Finalists from Gaon Books

Four Gaon Books Chosen as Finalists

New Mexico/Arizona Book Awards

Congratulations to the authors

God's Prayer: The Sacred Task of Living

Michael L. Kagan

God's Prayer: The Sacred Task of Living

God’s Prayer reaches the deepest spirituality through prayer/poetry, modern day psalms that guide the reader into realms seldom reached. These prayers are for all humanity and cut across religious lines to include Jews, Christians and Muslims. Michael Kagan leads us to pray for all God’s children and for all life.

The Rabbi Wore Moccasins by Rabbi Arthur Gross Schaefer

Arthur Gross Schaefer

The Rabbi Wore Moccasins

Jews, American Indians, Spirituality and Ethics Wrapped into a Page Turning Mystery

Ancient riddles wrapped in spiritual enigmas inside a page-turning mystery, The Rabbi Wore Moccasins calls to mind The Celestine Prophecy, Mutant Message Down Under, and The Way of the Peaceful Warrior - all journeys that make you think, feel, and stay up very late reading!

Cheri Steinkellner - Emmy, Golden Globe and Writers Guild Award writer and producer of Cheers, Broadway writer of Sister Act and Hello! My Baby

Not just a good strong mystery but an irresistible inside look into places we rarely get to see.

Jeff Arch – Oscar and academy award nominee screenwriter for Sleepless in Seattle

Professor/Rabbi Gross-Schaefer has blessed us with a rabbi sleuth reminiscent of Harry Kellerman with a taste of Tony Hillerman, and the lucky reader of this absorbing mystery will come away with wisdom from two traditions.

Malka Drucker - author of 20 books including the award winning Frida Kahlo, Rescuers: Portraits of Moral Courage in the Holocaust.

My New Middle East by Mati Milstein

Mati Milstein

My New Middle East: Inside the Israeli Conundrum

Best Book Finalist for Political Writing

New Mexico/Arizona Book Awards 2012

The Jewish Daily Forward Review of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi's Books from Gaon

Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

with Netanel Miles-Yepez and Michael L. Kagan

 "tremendous amount of knowledge"

Rachel Barenblat

The Jewish Daily Forward 

Gaon Books Selected as Finalists for Best Book Awards

Two Gaon Books

Selected as Finalists of New Mexico/Arizona Book Awards

Patricia Gottlieb Shapiro

Coming Home to Yourself:

Eighteen Women Reflect on their Journeys

Coming Home to Yourself  honors the changing face of aging and shatters stereotypes about older women. The diverse, multi-cultural group of women featured in this book are vital, resilient, and continue to grow. They have all experienced a turning point later in life, which has brought them home to their deepest selves. No matter what their culture, religion, lifestyle, economics or personal challenges, all the women arrived at the same internal destination: a place within themselves of comfort and familiarity, of harmony and wholeness, and of acceptance and love for themselves. Their moving stories of self-discovery and empowerment will inspire women of any age to continue their quest to find their own authentic home.

Shapiro has a master’s degree in social work and specializes in writing and speaking on women’s issues, midlife and friendships. She is a widely sought lecturer, writing coach and yoga teacher. Pat Shapiro is an award-winning author who has written or co-authored seven other nonfiction books

Vanessa Paloma

The Mountain, the Desert and the Pomegranate:

Stories from Morocco and Beyond

In The Mountain, the Desert and the Pomegranate Vanessa Paloma looks at the mysteries of life on multiple levels. Spirituality and felt perceptions influence what we see, hear, and do. From coyotes that join in a chorus backing up the soprano singing in the desert to the pomegranate and the Berbers who live in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco and geckos that live in towers in Casablanca, life is full of mysteries. 

“Vanessa Paloma...is a passionate scholar and performer of songs from the Sephardic Diaspora from North Africa to Turkey...” -- NPR

“Paloma...brings richness of heritage to her work as an author, performer, teacher and preserver of Ladino songs and music.” -- Hadassah Magazine

“Vanessa Paloma, the Nightingale of Jewish Sephardic Music”

-- MarocHebdo International magazine, Morocco

Chutzpah: Leadership of Jewish Women

Chutzpah: Leadership of Jewish Women

Two New Gaon Books

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Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi -- New Books

Click on the Image to Enlarge It

Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

A Hidden Light: Stories and Teachings of Early HaBaD and Bratzlav Hasidism

with Netanel Miles-Yepez

A Hidden Light is the much awaited sequel to A Heart Afire: Stories and Teachings of the Early Hasidic Masters. While the earlier volume discussed the Baal Shem Tov and his heirs, A Hidden Light explores the stories and teachings of the early twentieth century Hasidic masters.

“Hasidism calls our attention to the mobility that takes place throughout the life of an individual Jew: an inner journey. Hasidic teachings, texts, and stories come as guides to that journey. In this beautiful book, Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and Netanel Miles-Yepez recreate the world of early Hasidism, and through their retelling of the journeys of the Rebbes, they bring us to the spiritual landscape of Ukraine, letting us travel from the court of one Rebbe to another, tasting the different traditions and personalities.”

-- Prof. Susannah Heschel

Dartmouth College

All Breathing Life Adores Your Name: the Interface between Prayer and Poetry

with Michael L. Kagan

In these interpretations of Jewish sacred literature Reb Zalman leads the reader to new understandings of spirituality.

“Zalman explains that these poems are not translations. They are, instead, free verse evocations of themes and imagery inspired by our liturgy and collective psyche. Their nuance marks the intersection of an often undecipherable tradition and contemporary life. They bring what might otherwise be lost into the light of everyday spirituality. 

After all, that is what Zalman does, who he is. He takes old Jewish stuff (legend, mime, gibberish, and gesture) that people either didn’t know existed or, if they did, don’t know what to do with it, and slips it back into our back-pockets when we’re not looking. And then we say, months, years later: “Oh, yes, Zalman taught me how to sing / pray / meditate on / dance / understand / do that. Indeed, Zalman has been doing that for almost three generations of otherwise rootless and assimilated American Jewish spiritual seekers. He is our way “back in” and “back home.” And these poems are a complete set of VIP entry passes.”

-- Rabbi Lawrence Kushner

Vanessa Paloma - The Mountain, the Desert and the Pomegranate

Vanessa Paloma

The Mountain, the Desert and the Pomegranate

Stories from Morocco and Beyond

These stories are about the mystical nature of life and intriguing stories of life experienced. It is Jewish Morocco, and California, and Israel from inside the mind of living there.

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See Vanessa Paloma discussing this book on YouTube

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Judge Anne F. Schlezinger - Pulling It All Together - One of America's First Jewish Women Federal Judges

Judge Anne F. Schlezinger

Pulling It All Together 

Diary by One of America's First Jewish Women Federal Judges

Ron Duncan Hart, Editor
Shulamit Reinharz (Brandeis University) Introduction
Orit Rabkin (University of Oklahoma) Epilogue: The Art of Women’s Diary Writing

Anne Schlezinger’s diary gives a personal day-by-day narrative of the building of the American Jewish professional class of the Great Generation. Like many others of that generation, she lived through the sacrifices of the Depression and World War II and had a special focus on achievement in her own life. This detailed narrative gives us day by day accounting of life as she told it. Sometimes as a reader, we want more information, and then subtly, almost without knowing it, we realize that she has given us more than we were able to realize. It is in the details of lunches and dinners, parties, shopping trips, office meetings, trial hearings, and conversations with friends and colleagues in more than 17,000 diary entries that we realize the legacy of information about life during her time that she has left for us.

Although she was a strong woman and professionally driven, but at times she was unsure of herself. She talks about her desire to be a professional woman and her doubts if she is being a good wife and mother. After a failed romance she was slow to accept the attentions of the man she eventually married. Through each stage of her life she narrates her daily life, and she weaves in her concerns about the issues facing her.

For More Information on Judge Anne Schlezinger Click Here

Haketía: A Memoir of Judeo-Spanish Language and Culture in Morocco

Haketía

A Memoir of Judeo-Spanish Language and Culture in Morocco

Estrella Jalfón de Bentolila

Haketía: A Memoir of Judeo-Spanish Language and Culture in Morocco is a personalized study of the Judeo-Spanish-Arabic language of the Jewish community in northern Morocco. It was the vernacular language of Jews in the region until recent decades. Haketía dates back to time of the Expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492, and it is to be distinguished from Ladino, another Judeo-Spanish language, spoken largely in the territories of the former Ottoman Empire.

With the twentieth century diaspora of the Moroccan Jewish population, Haketía was carried to the Americas, France, Israel, and other countries. In these newly adopted lands, the language was not learned by the newer generations, and its use has been declining. Now it is spoken primarily by people of the older generation, who have their roots in northern Morocco.

The vocabulary of Haketía includes a rich array of fifteenth century Castillian words, as well as Arabic verbs with Castillian declensions. Haketía is written with Hebrew characters.

This memoir of Haketía is an ode to the language of the author’s childhood and the memories of the life that she lived in the language. It is a recognition of the cultural creativity and diversity of Jewish populations that have adapted to many different cultural settings around the world.

Angelina Muñiz-Huberman - A Mystical Journey

A Mystical Journey

Angelina Muñiz-Huberman

Award-Winning Latin American Jewish Woman Writer

A spiritual odyssey to find life in the link between love and mysticism

“The uniqueness of Angelina Muñiz-Huberman’s historical novel lies in its combination of poetic prose, apparent simplicity, and an improbable happy ending. Within the structure of the archetypal journey of the hero, a Jewish teenager in late sixteenth-century Spain manages to avoid the Inquisition by joining a perilous Christian pilgrimage to the Holy Land. He is assisted by a magical muleteer who appears and disappears periodically in different guises until the protagonist and his beloved Miriam are safely settled in the northern town of Safed.
“Although the author’s fascination with Jewish history and her poetic style mark the majority of her books of fiction and essays, I consider Tierra adentro (A Mystical Journey) her most outstanding work and one that contributes significantly to her reputation as one of Mexico’s and Latin America’s most important writers.”

Seymour Menton (Translator)
University of California

Angelina Muñiz-Huberman is one of Mexico’s best writers, and she has published more than thirty books of fiction, poetry and essays in recent decades. Her work has been recognized with more than a dozen international prizes, including the Woman of Valor Award from the American Sephardi Federation to the Jerusalem Medal granted by the state of Israel.

For More Information Click Here

Patricia Gottlieb Shapiro - Coming Home to Yourself

Patricia Gottlieb Shapiro

Coming Home to Yourself: 

Eighteen Wise Women Reflect on their Journeys

Coming Home to Yourself by Patricia Gottlieb Shapiro is the story of 18 women in mid-life who reflect on the journey through their decades of life, the changes they have had, and how this has affected them. Each one is resilient, having survived difficult events, deaths of loved ones, and health issues of their own for some. This is a book to be read by younger women as well as older women to understand the challenges of life, how to survive the difficult events, and celebrate the good ones. For More Information on Coming Home to Yourself, Click Here

Finalist Best Book Award 2011, New Mexico/Arizona Book Awards

Rabbi Min Kantrowitz has written a Kabbalistic meditation guide to the experience of counting the Omer for the 49 days following Passover. It was nominated as the Best Religious Book of the Year in 2011 and was selected as a "Book of Note" by the Jewish Book World magazine. Rabbi Kantrowitz gives suggestions for meditation and reflection during the 7 weeks of counting the Omer. Her teaching guarantees the deepening of your insight into life. For More Information on Counting the Omer

Selected as a "Book of Note"for 2011 by the Jewish Book World magazine

By Fire Possessed

Sandra K. Toro's By Fire Possessed is historical fiction that tells the life of Dona Gracia Nasi, the most important Sephardic woman of the sixteenth century. Some people argue that she ranks among the most important Jewish women of the last 500 years. She inherited a wide reaching business empire, escaped the Inquisition in Portugal and again later in Venice, and re-settled in the Ottoman Empire that was friendly to Jews. She used her ships and wealth to rescue thousands of Sephardic Jews from the Spanish Inquisition and created communities, synagogues, and even businesses were they could work in the lands of the Ottoman Empire, which included present day Greece, Turkey, and Israel. She had a major role in creating the Ladino world of the Eastern Sephardim. She was a heroic Jewish woman to be remembered. For More Information on this Book and the Life of Dona Gracia Nasi, Click Here.