Congratulations, Matti Friedman! His book, The Aleppo Codex, was named a finalist for the 2014 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature. The award “recognizes the unique role of contemporary writers in the transmission and examination of the Jewish experience. It is intended to encourage and promote outstanding writing of Jewish interest,” as the Jewish BookContinue reading

In an age when the importance of physical books is debated, here is a thrilling story about a book that meant everything. A thousand years ago, the most perfect copy of the Hebrew Bible was written. It was kept safe through one upheaval after another in the Middle East, and by the 1940s it wasContinue reading

Matti Friedman’s The Aleppo Codex is a book lover’s dream: Not only is it a book about a book, it’s a page-turning thriller. History dishes up some pretty compelling tales, and Friedman uncovered a spellbinder. “I expected to write a heartening story about the rescue of this book,” Friedman writes, “but instead found myself likeContinue reading