Rabbi Soloveichik’s Favorite Books from 2023

To mark the close of 2023, Mosaic asked several of its writers to name the best books they’ve read this year, and briefly to explain their choices. (Unless otherwise noted, all books were published in 2023. Classic books are listed by their original publication dates.) Here is Rabbi Meir Soloveichik’s entry:

The two most fascinating books that I have read this year were published decades ago, yet are strikingly relevant in this very moment; one is still celebrated, while the other is entirely forgotten, but ought to be rediscovered.

The first is Henry Kissinger’s memoir Years of Upheaval (Simon & Schuster, 1982, 1,312pp., $37.50), which focuses on the last years of the Nixon presidency. The book is immensely instructive for its fascinating portrayals of political figures and reflections on the nature of statecraft itself. As Norman Podhoretz reflected in his original review of the book, whatever one’s view of détente, the book is a masterpiece of political writing. Its discussion of the Yom Kippur War, 50 years after it occurred, is of course profoundly pertinent to our moment.

The second book is by a man named Abraham Kotsuji, though that is not the name he was given at birth. Setsuzo Kotsuji was born in Kyoto in 1899, raised in the Shinto faith, and converted to Judaism at the age of sixty. His memoir, From Tokyo to Jerusalem (Random House, 1964, 215pp.), describes his heroic actions on behalf of Jews that arrived in Japan during World War II. The book is also a religious classic in its own right, a tale of a journey for Shintoism to Judaism that deserves to be republished today.

You can read the recommendations from other Mosaic writers by clicking here for part one, and here for part two.