Publishers can be shameless when it comes to trying to capitalize on a trend or a fad; and they can be particularly shameless promoters when it comes to taking advantage of the Jewish world's deep and abiding interest in the Holocaust. In the case of two recent books -- The Diary of Petr Ginz 1941-1942 , just reissued in paper...

Amherst College professor and prolific writer Ilán Stavans' most recent book, Resurrecting Hebrew , recounts the story of how, at the end of the 19th century, Lithuanian-born lexicographer Eliezer Ben-Yehuda reinvented the Hebrew language as the "centerpiece of Zionism" -- "the living tongue" of a new, modern nation to be known as Israel. The author, 47, who teaches Latin American...