Francine Klagsbrun has 2 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 2 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 2 ratings. The most-rated is Lioness.
Lioness
Summary
Golda Meir was a world figure unlike any other. Born in tsarist Russia in 1898, she immigrated to America in 1906 and grew up in Milwaukee, where from her earliest years she displayed the political consciousness and organizational skills that would eventually catapult her into the inner circles of Israel's founding generation. Moving to mandatory Palestine in 1921 with her husband, the passionate socialist joined a kibbutz but soon left and was hired at a public works office by the man who would become the great love of her life. A series of public service jobs brought her to the attention of David Ben-Gurion, and her political career took off. Fund-raising in America in 1948, secretly meeting in Amman with King Abdullah right before Israel's declaration of independence, mobbed by thousands of Jews in a Moscow synagogue in 1948 as Israel's first representative to the USSR, serving as minister of labor and foreign minister in the 1950s and 1960s, Golda brought fiery oratory, plainspoken appeals, and shrewd deal-making to the cause to which she had dedicated her life - the welfare and security of the State of Israel and its inhabitants. As prime minister, Golda negotiated arms agreements with Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger and had dozens of clandestine meetings with Jordan's King Hussein in the unsuccessful pursuit of a land-for-peace agreement with Israel's neighbors. But her time in office ended in tragedy, when Israel was caught off guard by Egypt and Syria's surprise attack on Yom Kippur in 1973. Analyzing newly available documents from Israeli government archives, Francine Klagsbrun looks into whether Golda could have prevented that war and whether in its darkest days she contemplated using nuclear force. Resigning in the war's aftermath, she spent her final years keeping a hand in national affairs and bemusedly enjoying international acclaim. Klagsbrun's superbly researched and masterly recounted story of Israel's founding mother gives us a Golda for the ages.
©2017 Francine Klagsbrun (P)2018 Tantor
The Fourth Commandment
Summary
The Fourth Commandment, a contemporary look at a cornerstone of Jewish life, explores the Sabbath’s origins and purpose, its basis in Jewish texts and traditions, and its meaning for the hurried lives we live today. Even people who have long observed the Sabbath will discover facets they know little about. Beautiful and evocative, the book takes listeners on a journey into understanding this sacred day in its many manifestations. Acclaimed writer and lecturer Francine Klagsbrun draws on her extensive knowledge of Judaism and personal experience in applying the profound lessons of the Sabbath to life today. Using the Bible, Talmud, Kabbalah, commentaries, and legends, she probes such questions as “What does Sabbath rest entail?” “How do we let go of our work mentally and strive for holiness?” and “What does the Sabbath teach us about our relationship to nature and the environment?” She also examines the Sabbath from a female perspective, raising challenging questions about women’s roles in relation to it. With warmth and erudition, she explains the “dos” and “don’ts” surrounding the Sabbath, the symbols of the Sabbath table, and the highlights of the day. The Fourth Commandment is rich in history and commentary - investigating the symbolic importance of candlelighting (early mystics saw the two lighted candles as masculine and feminine aspects of God), the significance of Friday-night marital sex, the affirmation of freedom and celebration of creation that run through the day, and much more. This is a book for the contemporary seeker, at all levels of religious knowledge.
©2002 Francine Klagsbrun (P)2012 Audible, Inc.