ABOUT THE BOOK:
For anyone who has politely turned down offers from a well meaning aunt of all ten plus volumes of the Jewish Encyclopedia, the hosts of Tablet Magazine​’s ​“Orthodox” podcast have created a compact, compelling, and hilarious solution. The Newish Jewish Encyclopedia, despite only comprising one volume, is expansive and comprehensive in what it covers. Flipping to a random page, one can learn about the 1976 raid on Entebbe, the basics of how eruvs operate to make Shabbat easier for religious Jews, and the Jewish roots of Esperanto, a constructed language.

The authors cleverly bring in images and graphics that transform the traditional encyclopedia experience into something technicolor. Entries are punctuated with a clever concoction of wit, seriousness and academic curiosity. Open up a page and see what you find out — who knew that the character of Bugs Bunny was allegedly inspired by Groucho Marx? The authors have created the improbable: the encyclopedia that you might actually leaf through and the coffee table that not only adorns but also educates.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Stephanie Butnick is the deputy editor of Tablet and has written for The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. She has a bachelor’s degree in religion from Duke and a master’s in religious studies from NYU. She lives in New York with her husband and their cat, Cat Stevens.

Liel Lei­bovitz is a senior writer for Tablet and the author of sev­er­al books, includ­ing, most recent­ly, A Bro­ken Hal­lelu­jah, a spir­i­tu­al biog­ra­phy of Leonard Cohen. He has a Ph.D. in video games from Colum­bia, a fact that makes his sev­en-year-old self very hap­py. He lives in New York with his wife and their two children.