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She makes contact with a living personality, creating a portrait both sympathetic and clear-eyed.”—Geoffrey O'Brien, New York Review of Books   He was, according to Pauline Kael, “the greatest American screenwriter.” Jean-Luc Godard called him “a genius” who “invented 80 percent of what is used in Hollywood movies today.” Besides tossing off dozens of now-classic scripts—including Scarface,Twentieth Century, and Notorious—Ben Hecht was known in his day as ace reporter, celebrated playwright, taboo-busting novelist, and the most quick-witted of provocateurs. During World War II, he also emerged as an outspoken crusader for the imperiled Jews of Europe, and later he became a fierce propagandist for pre-1948 Palestine’s Jewish terrorist underground. Whatever the outrage he stirred, this self-declared “child of the century” came to embody much that defined America—especially Jewish America—in his time.   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In 2014, the Jewish Book Council named Jewish Lives the winner of its Jewish Book of the Year Award, the first series ever to receive this award.  More praise for Jewish Lives:   “Excellent.”—New York Times   “Exemplary.”—Wall St. Journal   “Distinguished.”—New Yorker   “Superb.”—The Guardian","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49512192475409,"sku":"GOR009759176","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49651804897553,"sku":"GOR012928607","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49657413468433,"sku":"CIN030018042XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50660655825169,"sku":"CIN030018042XVG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52491532173585,"sku":"GOR009993007","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/030018042X.jpg?v=1751433091"},{"product_id":"house-of-windows-book-adina-hoffman-9781900850629","title":"House of Windows","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49636234756369,"sku":"GOR003817252","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50683552727313,"sku":"GOR002590434","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1900850621.jpg?v=1751124281"},{"product_id":"sacred-trash-book-adina-hoffman-9780805212235","title":"Sacred Trash","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eNATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD FINALIST\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e WINNER OF THE 2012 AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION'S SOPHIE BRODY AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN JEWISH LITERATURE\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eSacred Trash\u003c\/i\u003e tells the remarkable story of the Cairo Geniza-a synagogue repository for worn-out texts that turned out to contain the most vital cache of Jewish manuscripts ever discovered.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e This tale of buried communal treasure weaves together unforgettable portraits of Solomon Schechter and the other modern heroes responsible for the collection's rescue with explorations of the medieval documents themselves-letters and poems, wills and marriage contracts, Bibles, money orders, fiery dissenting religious tracts, fashion-conscious trousseaux lists, prescriptions, petitions, and mysterious magical charms. Presenting a pan-oramic view of almost a thousand years of vibrant Mediterranean Judaism, Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole bring contemporary readers into the heart of this little-known trove, whose contents have rightly been dubbed \"the Living Sea Scrolls.\" Part biography, part meditation on the supreme value the Jewish people has long placed in the written word, \u003ci\u003eSacred Trash\u003c\/i\u003e is above all a gripping tale of adventure and redemption.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e (With black-and-white illustrations throughout.)\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49731070198033,"sku":"NGR9780805212235","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50044745285905,"sku":"GOR009755438","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50366586519825,"sku":"CIN080521223XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51875391832337,"sku":"GOR012565527","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53030306578705,"sku":"GOR014706460","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53239170760977,"sku":"CIN080521223XVG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/080521223X.jpg?v=1757672856"},{"product_id":"till-we-have-built-jerusalem-book-adina-hoffman-9780374289102","title":"Till We Have Built Jerusalem","description":"A biographical excavation of one of the world's great, troubled cities. 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A beautifully written rumination on memory and forgetting, place and displacement, Till We Have Built Jerusalem uncovers ramifying levels of one great city's buried history as it asks what it means, everywhere, to be foreign and to belong.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49752527470865,"sku":"CIN0374289107G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50350744961297,"sku":"CIN0374289107VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52644710646033,"sku":"GOR007583805","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53516220530961,"sku":"GOR009910644","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0374289107.jpg?v=1750910332"},{"product_id":"sacred-trash-book-adina-hoffman-9780805242584","title":"Sacred Trash","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eNATIONAL JEWISH BOK AWARD FINALIST\u0026gt;\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003ePart of the Jewish Encounter series\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOne May day in 1896, at a dining-room table in Cambridge, England, a meeting took place between a Romanian-born maverick Jewish intellectual and twin learned Presbyterian Scotswomen, who had assembled to inspect several pieces of rag paper and parchment. 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