Europe

At the turn of the 20th century, the presence of acculturated Jews in the renowned literary and artistic Viennese cafés was so pronounced that a proverb claiming that “the Jew belongs in the coffeehouse” was widely circulated in the city. Today, a hundred years later, the city of Tel Aviv can lay claim not only to serving some of the best coffee available anywhere, but also to fostering and sustaining a thriving café culture; a culture with heritage that goes back to the 1930s and the immigrants who came from cities like Vienna, Berlin and Warsaw.

At the end of 1992, referring to a 12-month period of embarrassing family woes including three of her four children’s marital break-ups, Queen Elizabeth famously declared the year an “annus horribilus.”

Any Jewish leader reviewing the events of the past 12 months might well refer to 5769 in the more familiar vernacular as an “annus bloodytsuris.”

Physical maladies, psychological illness, financial difficulties — these are pervasive in contemporary society and seem to be becoming more prevalent. And so are books meant to help people navigate through these choppy emotional waters. Judaism has answers for these problems: not a single, monolithic answer, but responses as varied as the Jewish people themselves.

Here are some current answers:

The Sun Will Shine Again: Coping, Persevering, and Winning in Troubled Economic Times. Rabbi Abraham Twerski. (Shaar Press, $9.99)