From Endeavors, a UNC-Chapel Hill magazine:

When his mother died in 1965, Konrad Jarausch gave away all her possessions except a few paintings, some photographs, and a brown briefcase full of letters. “I held onto them because they were the only link to my childhood, a way of keeping my mother’s memory alive,” he says. “And I suspected that if I wanted to meet my father later, I might be able to do so through these letters.”

Jarausch eventually read these letters in 2005 and discovered not only a wealth of family history, but also a unique soldier’s perspective on life at the Western front during WWII:

For Jarausch, the letters shatter the myth that ordinary army units were innocent. Regular soldiers, not just the SS, caused the deaths of millions of POWs, rural Russians, and Jewish civilians.

This discovery moved Jarausch to assemble the letters into a book — Reluctant Accomplice. Read more about Konrad Jarausch and the stash of letters that represent his only connection to his father here: http://endeavors.unc.edu/father_and_the_fhrers_war. They also have some terrific artwork — sketches and personal photos — from Jarausch’s own archives.

Don’t miss your chance to see Konrad H. Jarausch at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars tomorrow at 4:00.

Professor Jarausch’s lecture will be based on his latest work Reluctant Accomplice: A Wehrmacht Soldier’ s Letter from the Eastern Front. The book was recently reviewed in American Jewish World News, where reviewer Neal Gendler noted, “It’s difficult or impossible to summon sympathy for a soldier in Hitler’s army — even one with no hatred for Jews — but the letters home of Konrad Jarausch do peel away stereotypes.”

Konrad H. Jarausch is the Lurcy Professor of European Civilization at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is also Senior Fellow at the Center for Contemporary History in Potsdam and DAAD-Professor at the Freie Universitaet Berlin.

If you haven’t already, RSVP to this Facebook Event and tell your friends! Hope to see you there!

Date: April 7, 2011

Time: 4:00 – 5:30

Location: Ronald Reagan Building, 1 Woodrow Wilson Plaze, 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington D.C.

More Info: Here

In a tribute to Albert Einstein’s birthday, this week’s Facebook book giveaway is The Ultimate Quotable Einstein (collected and edited by Alice Calaprice).

In The Ultimate Quotable Einstein, readers will also find quotes by others about Einstein along with quotes attributed to him. Every quotation in this informative and entertaining collection is fully documented, and Calaprice has carefully selected new photographs and cartoons to introduce each section.

• Features 400 additional quotations
• Contains roughly 1,600 quotations in all
• Includes new sections on children, race and prejudice, and Einstein’s poetry
• Provides new commentary
• Beautifully illustrated
• The most comprehensive collection of Einstein quotes ever published

Can’t wait for the book, and need your Einstein quote of the day? Then, here it is:

“I believe that a simple and unassuming life is best for the body and mind.”–1930, p. 13.

Need more? Then check out this facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Ultimate-Quotable-Einstein/131377483560655

While you’re celebrating Albert Einstein’s birthday today, remember it’s Pi Day as well. Why celebrate Pi Day on March 14th, you ask? Because 3, 1 and 4 are the three most significant figures of pi, of course. Today is also Canberra Day in Australia and Commonwealth Day in the United Kingdom.

Here’s an Einstein quote to A. Chapple, Australia, February 23, 1954: “I consider the Society of Friends the religious community that has the highest moral standards. As far as I know, they have never made evil compromises and are always guided by their conscience. In international life, especially, their influence seems to me very beneficial and effective.–Quoted in Nathan and Norden, Einstein on Peace, 511. Einstein Archives, 59-405.

And here’s a quote for the Brits celebrating Commonwealth Day today, “The wonderful experiences in England are still fresh in my mind and like a dream. The impression that this land and its wonderful intellectual and political traditions has made on me was even deeper, longer lasting, and greater than I had anticipated.”– To Lord Richard B. S. Haldane, June 21, 1921. CPAE, Vol. 12, Doc. 155

Each week’s book giveaway winner is chosen from the list of people who have LIKED us on Facebook. Haven’t LIKED us yet? Then go to the top of our Facebook page and click on the LIKE button. Be part of the drawing, it takes place this Friday.

The Ultimate Quotable Einstein, collected and edited by Alice Calaprice.

We are excited to announce that two Princeton books have just won National Jewish Book Awards administered by the Jewish Book Council! The purpose of the award, given annually since 1948, is designed to recognize outstanding books on Jewish topics each year. Awards are given in sixteen different categories, including debut fiction, scholarship, biography and [...]

THE JEWISH CENTER
435 Nassau Street
Princeton, NJ 08540
609-921-0100
For more information visit this Web site: http://www.thejewishcenter.org/news/events.asp#TheRebbe

Congratulations to Peter Cole, editor and translator of The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain, 950-1492 – he has just been awarded the 2010 TLS Risa Domb/Porjes Translation Prize!

This award is sponsored by the Porjes Trust in association with the Times Literary Supplement and administered by the Jewish Book Council in conjunction with the Society of Authors. It honors books that provide translations from Hebrew to English of “general interest and literary merit,” according to the Jewish Book Week website. This year marks the fifth triennial prize, awarding the best book published between Janauary 2007 and December 2009, and it comes with a prize of £2,000. Peter Cole was announced the winner in the Times Literary Supplement and awarded the prize at the recent Society of Authors Literary Translation Prize ceremony.

Cole’s book has also received several other accolades, including the 2007 National Jewish Book Award in Poetry and the 2010 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. To see a full list of prizes that The Dream of the Poem has been awarded, click here, and here to see a list of other recent award-winning books from PUP.

Next week, PUP author Jerry Muller will be visiting the University of Maryland to give a lecture based on his most recent book, Capitalism and the Jews. In his talk, he will discuss how thinking about capitalism and thinking about Jews has been affected by European thought, and will explain why anti-capitalism and anti-Semitism have been linked. This event is free and cosponsored by the University’s schools of Jewish Studies, History, and Business. If you’re in the area, we hope to see you there! Details about the event are below.

Jerry Muller, whose most recent title from Princeton University Press was Capitalism and the Jews, will be speaking on October 25 at the Washington DC Jewish Community Center (WDCJCC) as part of the organization’s 10-day book festival, which is running from October 17 to October 27. Muller will talk about the relationship between Jews and money, the topic of his book. The event will begin at 7:30 PM and will require tickets, which cost $11 (or $9 at the discounted price).

Samuel Heilman, another PUP author, also participated in the festival. Last night, he discussed his book, The Rebbe: The Life and Afterlife of Menachem Mendel Schneerson, which is about the life of the renowned leader who revived his community.

For festival passes or tickets for individual events, visit www.washingtondcjcc.org/litfest or call 202-777-3251. Same-day tickets may be available for purchase 30 minutes before the event. To see a schedule of the festival, click here. Hope you can make it!

The first of our fall subject catalogs are rolling off the presses. You are invited to browse our new Jewish Studies 2011 catalog online. There are many new and forthcoming titles to check out at:

http://press.princeton.edu/catalogs/js11.pdf

The 12th Annual Hyman S. & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival, presented by the Washington DC Jewish Community Center’s Morris Cafritz Center for the Arts, promises to “appeal to book-lovers with diverse interests including history, humor, fiction, politics, children’s stories and many more.”

I’ll say. The line-up runs the gamut from comedian Sarah Silverman with her autobiography The Bedwetter to Princeton University Press authors Jerry Muller, author of Capitalism and the Jews, and Samuel Heilman, author of the controversial biography The Rebbe: The Life and Afterlife of Menachem Mendel Schneerson.

The Festival runs from October 17–27, 2010. A full list of events and descriptions can be found at washingtondcjcc.org/litfest.

The 12th Annual Hyman S. & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival, presented by the Washington DC Jewish Community Center’s Morris Cafritz Center for the Arts, promises to “appeal to book-lovers with diverse interests including history, humor, fiction, politics, children’s stories and many more.”

I’ll say. The line-up runs the gamut from comedian Sarah Silverman with her autobiography The Bedwetter to Princeton University Press authors Jerry Muller, author of Capitalism and the Jews, and Samuel Heilman, author of the controversial biography The Rebbe: The Life and Afterlife of Menachem Mendel Schneerson.

The Festival runs from October 17–27, 2010. A full list of events and descriptions can be found at washingtondcjcc.org/litfest. Tickets will be available starting September 15th.

I confess I was attracted to this book by the title: Capitalism and the Jews (Princeton, 2010). Capitalism is a touchy subject; Jews are a touchy subject. But capitalism and the Jews, that’s a disaster waiting to happen. I don’t suggest you try this, but just imagine what would happen if you started a water-cooler chat with “Hey, what do you think of capitalism and the Jews?” Not pretty. So, being a bit curious, I wanted to know who would write a book with said title and what they could possibly say that wouldn’t get people calling for their head. Well, here’s what I found out.

Read more over at New Books in History and listen to their interview with Jerry Muller.