The Spanish Synagogue in Prague may be one of the world’s most beautiful shuls. It is certainly one of its most-visited. The synagogue, built in 1868, sat empty for two decades before it was restored and reopened on its 130th anniversary in 1998, and has quickly became a visit de rigueur for many tourists to the city. You’ll find the Spanish Synagogue located in Josefov, Prague’s old Jewish quarter—and formerly its ghetto—in the city’s Old Town. It is believed that Czech …More

The publisher for Philip Roth confirmed that the Pulitzer Prize-winning American Jewish novelist is retiring from writing. The "Portnoy's Complaint" author, whose voice was heard as well through his alter-ego Nathan Zuckerman, announced his retirement during an interview last month with the French magazine Les Inrocks. Houghton Mifflin confirmed the decision last Friday, according to The Forward. Roth, 79, won the Pulitzer Prize for "American Pastoral," the National Book Award for "Sabbath's Theater" and for the …More

On “a Thursday in October,” the committee in Stockholm willannounce the 2011 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. And if the bookmakers’ odds—not to mention recent history—are to be believed, it will almost certainly not be an American, probably not be a Jew, and quite possibly be someone you have barely heard of. Actually, Ladbrokes’ favorite is Adonis, the Syrian poet, who is of course well known and who would make sense in the year of the Arab Spring (and …More

American Jewish author Philip Roth is among the 13 authors shortlisted for the biennial Man Booker International Prize which will be awarded on May 18 in Sydney. The prize is worth 60,000 pounds ($96,000) to the winner, and living authors whose works of fiction are either originally in English or generally available in English translation are eligible. It honors a writer's body of work as opposed to the annual Man Booker Prize for Fiction which is awarded for a single book. It is the first time that Chinese …More