5 comments about Hannah Senesh: Her Life And Diary, the First Complete Edition.

1. Hannah Senesh is known as the Joan of Arc of Israel, and is a national heroine in that little country of heroes and heroines.
   Her poems are learned by heart in Israel, and her acts of courage, self-sacrifice and love for her people, has led to forests, parks, streets and settlements throughout the country being named after her.
   
   Her diary, which begins when she was 13, shows her remarkable spirit, intelligence and love for the Jewish people and the Land of Israel.
   At the age of 23 she returned to Hungary as part of an Allied to mission to save Jews from the Nazi death machine. She was captured by the Nazis and tortured to reveal more about the mission and her comrades, but never broke under these circumstances. Her heroic and cruel death at the hands of the Nazis is recounted.
   
   The book is divided into several sections:
   Memories of Hannah's Childhood by Catherine Senesh, the Diary, the Letters, and the acounts by friends and comrades of her courageous mission into Hungary, and her cruel death at the hands of the Nazis.
   The final section consists of a reproduction of some of Hannah's finest poems.
   
   Hannah Senesh was born in 1921 to an assimilated Jewish family. Her father, a sucesful journalist and playwright died when Hannah was 6 years old. She was enrolled in a Protestant school. The deteriorating situation of the Jews in Hungary led Hannah to embrace Judaism and Zionism-the national liberation movement of the Jewish people, which she was passionate about and dedicated to.
   She became involved in Maccabea, a Hungarian Zionist students organization.
   But she also loved beautiful clothes and ice-skating and was enthusiastic about life and living. She was interested in astrology, spiritualism and development of the soul.
   The sensitivity of her gem of a soul and her intelligence is shown in this excerpt from her diary. It could serve as a testament to Hannah Senesh herself:
   "There are stars whose radiance is visible on earth though they have long been extinct. There are people whose brilliance continues to light the world though they are no longer among the living. These lights are particularly bright when the night is dark. They light the way for mankind",-
   Indeed in these dark days of the resurgance of anti-Semnitism and the Satanic international campaign to destroy Israel, it is comforting and inspiring to read her words.
   Also interesting are Hannah's words about Jewish nationhood and Zionism:
   'If we had to define Zionism briefly perhaps we could best do so in the words of Nahum Sokolow: "Zionism is the movement of the Jewish people for it's revival.'
   In these days when Jews around the world are being pressured by evil forces to renounce Zionism we would do well to remember Hannah's words.
   "We canot renounce a single on of our rights, not even if the ridiculous acusation were true- that Zionism breeds anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism is not the result of Zionism but of Dispersion. But even if were no so, woe to the individual who attempts to ingratiate himself with the enemy instead of following his own route. We can't renounce Zionism even if it does strengthen anti-Semitism...For only Zionism and the establishment of a Jewish State could ever bring about the possibility of the Jews in the Diaspora being able to make manifest their love for their Homeland. Because then they could choose to be part of the Homeland- not be necesity but by free will and free choice".
   In these days it is so important to remember her words and her story.



2. I had never heard of Hannah Senesh until I planned to go to Israel and was looking at possible places to visit. After I heard about her I wanted to know more. This book tells the story, in her own words of how a young Jewish woman came to be an Israeli hero. It makes me wonder if I too would have the courtage of conviction to stand up for something even to death. A very remarkable story indeed.



3. 
   The story of Hannah Senesh is the story of a heroine of the Jewish people. This volume contains her diary including a record of her early years in Hungry and her time in Eretz Yisrael, two chapters about her by her mother, and chapters by fellow soldiers in the British Army from the Yishuv who served with her when they were dropped behind enemy lines during the War. Hannah Senesh was the daughter of a well- known Hungarian playwright who died when she was six. She and her older brother were raised by a very caring and devoted mother . In her school where she was outstanding she suffered from Anti- Semitism. And as Nazi power grew in Europe she moved toward a deeper connection to her own Jewishness, at one point announcing that she had become a Zionist. Her diary records her decision to go to Eretz Yisrael, and her years of education there at Nahalal. It is the diary of a spirited, intelligent and idealistic person. She volunteered to serve in the British Army Unit which was to be dropped behind enemy lines in the hope of helping rescue Jews. She and her fellow soldiers from the Yishuv were connected with the Partisans' struggle against the Nazis in Yugoslavia. The day before she was about to enter her native Hungry where she most hoped to help the Nazis entered and took control of Hungry. Upon hearing this news she cried. A friend asked her if this was because she was thinker of her mother. She said ' That the entrance of the Germans to Hungry doomed one - million Hungarian Jews to death. She was not wrong. The greatest share of Hungarian Jews were eventually murdered by the Nazis. She entered Hungry was captured, and was placed in prison. The Nazis brought her mother to the prison , and told Senesh that if she did not give them the information that they wanted the secret radio codes she had they would torture her mother before her eyes. She begged her mother's forgiveness, and she herself was tortured. But she did not give away the information. Eventually she was taken out and shot to death . All those associated with her admired her tremendous courage and integrity .
   Her ambition was to be like her father a writer, but not a playwright but a novelist. Her love and dedication to the Jewish people in the land of Israel that she came to love so much are strongly apparent in the work.
   Perhaps the best tribute to her is her own words,
   "There are stars whose radiance is visible on earth though they have long been extinct.There are people whose brilliance continues to light the world though they are no longer among the living. These lights are particularly bright when the night is dark. They light the way for Mankind.'



4. Hannah Senesh is the story every Jew should know, a heroic woman who fought the Nazis, parachutting into Europe in the worlds darkest hour, but beyond that her wonderful diaries tell the story of a young Jeiwsh girl finding herself, and her Jewishness amid the tumult of Europe and the Kibbutzes of Aretz Israel. This is a wonderful new volume on a true Jeiwsh Heroin, a message to all generations that evil must be confronted, ironically sometimes it is the most unlikely people that rise to the occasion. A heartrending book.
   
   Seth J. Frantzman



5. For such a small stature as Hannah was, she is one of WWII's, strongest women. It is a must read for any philosophical or history buff. In addition, would make a great movie if someone would be wllling to do so.
   
   Once you pick up this book you will devour it. Her life and who she was will remain forever in your memory. I envy her.
   
   For 20 years Hannah's diary still remains so dear to my heart.

4 comments about Bitter Herbs: The Vivid Memories of a Fugitive Jewish Girl in Nazi Occupied Holland (Penguin International Writers).

1. I read this book in Dutch (because I am Dutch, so it made more sense) in my final year of high school, because I didn't have much time to read and write a report on a book and so I chose this book because it's short. And I thought it was amazing. I haven't read the English translation, so I don't know if all of it's amazingness shines through, but I'm sure it's essentially the same. I was completely struck by how this book could be so simple, yet so touching. Somehow it got to me and I still remember it vividly, even though it's been a few years since I read it. I really think everyone should read this book some time and be touched by its simplicity and at the same time its memorability.



2. I read this book many years ago in Dutch when I was in college. I am currently reading it again (side by side with the English translation this time as my Dutch is quite rusty). I've forgotten how much I liked it. It doesn't have the same impact that the original Dutch has. There are pictures that the word structure in Dutch gives you that English cannot. In English it comes out very choppy both in sentance structure and in ideas/concepts. When reading this one must remember that it is from the perspective of a small girl - not an adult. A child, thus, will process events diffently than an adult might. For example when the girl's (I don't recall the writer ever revealing her name) family are sewing the yellow stars they must wear onto their clothing. She thinks the stars are "pretty", not understanding fully what wearing a yellow star means. The book is filled with this type of irony. Even the title is ironic. The Bitter Herb is referring to the bitter herbs one eats at the Passover meal in the Jewish religion. It is reminding one of the bitterness of slavery the Jewish people endured for 400 years at the hands of the Egyptians. The writer is likening that Slavery to what the Jewish people again endured at the hands of the Nazi in the Holocaust. Overall an excellent read.



3. The book was written from the writers perspective when she was still a child. Her family gets send away to different places: concentration camps, labour camps, ect. The Jewish girl has to come to terms with the fact that she may never see them again. And how could she ever forget them if they don't return. Forgetting what happened and not talking about it was common to victems right after the war. After all, the Dutch people wanted to move on and many didn't want to think about the holocaust. That's why the writer describes her emotions almost clinical, which makes the book extra touching.



4. i had to read this book for an english non-fiction assignment. the only reason i chose it was because it has big writing, really ugly pictures on every other page, and it is only 115 pages long. it seemed to be the perfect book! so i started reading it, only to find out that it was the [...] book ever. the plot is ok, but in general, the way the book is written is at a very "easy" level english, which makes the book, a bit boring, and there is too much description. maybe this is because it was translated from Dutch, but in general it was not interesting. the truth is, it took me a month to read it. if i had chosen a longer book, but more interesting, i probably would've gotten through it a lot faster. in conclusion, dont read this book, unless you have a loooot of time to waste!

3 comments about Memoirs of a Jewish Extremist: An American Story.

1. I was fortunate to hear and meet Yossi at a talk in St Louis. I was very impressed with his insight and realism combined with passion for Jewish Life. Since I grew up in Brooklyn and spent a year in Israel, his adventures parallel my own although I was much lower key than Yossi. I am not an extremist. So his book takes me the extra step. This is a very valuable book for anyone who is interested in the Jewish experience.



2. one of the best books i hav ever read.touching and easy to relait to.very good.



3. This is a most unique subject matter - I know no other book on it - about a former member of the inner circle of the JDL (Jewish Defense League). On that note, HaLevi offers invaluable information about why he (and others) joined, and their activities. Most poignant is their work on behalf of the Jews in (what was then) the Soviet Union; Halevi and his "friends" not only pulled guerilla theatre-type stunts on traditional Jewish organizations here in the U.S., "commanding" them to help these forgotten Jews, but the JDL also travelled to the Soviet Union to try to "free" the Soviet Jews (it didn't work, however). The other most compelling piece in his book is his writing about being a child of Holocaust Survivors - his father, a Hungarian Jew, hid in the woods for years during WWII and was saved by a kind non-Jew. As my parents are also Holocaust Survivors, I can attest that HaLevi writes incredibly well on his background. He explains his own personal story, how he came to hate Gentiles, and felt that another Holocaust was inevitable. However, when he fell in love with a non-Jewish woman, this part of his life was drastically altered. A remarkable book; you won't find another one like it.

2 comments about Papa, Play for Me: The Autobiography of Mickey Katz.

1. Unlike previous reviewers here, I did not find this book either side-splitting or hilarious in any way. I never laughed out loud once. But I enjoyed the book because Mickey Katz came across as a warm person who cared deeply about his family, good music, and genuinely entertaining people in the manner they wished to be entertained. A conservative group would get a show tailored to them. A Las Vegas audience would get a show tailored to them. He was concerned for others always, especially his audiences. He always wanted them to get their money's worth.

   I was raised to think of Mickey Katz just as a Jewish comedian. I had no idea he was such an accomplished musician and showman. But his pride in his own accomplishments was dwarfed by his pride in his children's accomplishments, pride that was equally split between his two sons, one being the actor Joel Gray and the other being one of the founders of Telecredit.

   Mickey Katz was my father's cousin, and I must admit that I bought the book looking for clues to my own father's life. I got something different, but something good nonetheless.

   If your taste runs to the heartwarming autobiography, this is it.




2. Its great to see this book back in print... I must have read it over 18 years ago... it was hillarious then, and its just as funny now... I dare say almost as funny as those old 45's of his I grew up listening to. In fact, I'm happy that a "Greatest Hits" CD has been released, but it made me miss all those other 45s that I borrowed from my father's collection (and seem to have been borrowed back - - I can't find them !)

   Mickey Katz was a brilliant story teller... the book is packed with jokes and anecdotes - - even a bit of off risque humor here and there... and you can almost hear him talking in that nasal half all American/half Yiddish accent.

   Of course, someone had to bring it up to date... Josh Kun offers a "serious" and scholarly social commentary on the significance of Mickey Katz in Jewish society and American life. - - (Insightful, but Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....) once Mickey Katz steps in though, get ready for an incredible read... if you grew up in a traditional Jewish family, it'll bring back not only memories, but make you laugh your tookus off... and if you didn't... its still hillarious - - from stories of traditional Mexican musicians in Sombreros playing Klezmor when Mickey Katz's Yiddish parody of Tico Tico actually made him a Latin celebrity, to the story about the guy in the audience at the Jean Harlow show's with the rain coat who'd put on a show of his own...

   Overall, this is one of those can't put down, laugh outloud books... (Wish he left some video footage behind... to the best of my knowledge he only appeared briefly in one film... playing clarinet for about 7 seconds in Thoroughly Modern Millie.)

1 comments about Abraham Geiger and the Jewish Jesus (Chicago Studies in the History of Judaism).

1. Geiger is without doubt one of the most lucid commentators on Liberal Judaism. Heschel has done an excellent appraisal of his work and this book is destined to become a standard text for the critique of Geiger. Geiger's work now has to be seen in the light of the wonderful and more revelatory "The Autobiography of Jesus of Nazareth..." by Richard G Patton which delivers the HUman Being of Christ in the same context as Geiger but without kowtowing to the early Christian politics. I hope Heschel has more works to offer because I found this work truly informative and easily accessible.

1 comments about And The World Closed Its Doors: The Story Of One Family Abandoned To The Holocaust.

1. And the World Closed Its Doors
   The Story of One Family Abandoned to the Holocaust
   By David Clay Large
   BASIC BOOKS; 278 PAGES; $26.00
   
   Reviewed by Howard J. De Nike
   
   There is irony in Leopold von Ranke furnishing the template for "And the World Closed Its Doors: The Story of One Family Abandoned to the Holocaust," by David Clay Large. Ranke, the great 19th Century German historiographer, inaugurated a scientific approach to history, insisting upon contemporary, firsthand sources. Large, a history professor at Montana State University and part-time San Francisco resident, takes this dictum to heart.
   Ranke's exhortation prefigures the modern canons of "social history." Exploiting personal letters, family albums, diaries, census records, polling tallies, and the like, a diligent researcher will be able to piece together an accurate narrative, one ultimately more trustworthy than offered by after-the-fact, self-anointed chroniclers.
   Large, whose previous work includes a definitive book on Berlin (2000) and a volume (co-authored with Felix Gilbert), that in its fifth edition is reputedly the greatest selling 20th Century European history text, takes advantage of a trove of letters exposing the increasingly despairing efforts by a German Jew, Max Schohl, to extricate himself and his family from the looming debacle.
   In 1938, Schohl opened correspondence with Julius Hess, a cousin he had never met, in Charlestown, West Virginia. The objective was to enlist his relative's aid in emigrating to the U.S. Instead Max suffered a continuum of frustration owed to FDR's documented pre-war policy denying desperately sought asylum to the bulk of Europe's Jews. That Germany recognized Max Schohl's heroism during the First World War by bestowing various combat honors, and that Max reciprocated with unstinting patriotism adds mockery to the unrelenting Nazi drumbeat.
   Alternating the letters between Schohl and his American cousin with a straight-forward telling of Roosevelt's tight-fisted diplomacy, Large does the rationale of social history proud: To reveal the effects of "great forces" upon individuals and the consequent actions of those individuals. Over half a decade, the Family Schohl attempted to emigrate, first to the U.S., then England, followed by Chile and Brazil, all to equal futility. Throughout, the reader knows the outcome - death at Auschwitz for Max, survival after forced labor for his wife and two daughters. But this hardly diminishes the suspense achieved through Large's taut prose and adept use of materials.
   Max Schohl, a distinguished chemist, owned a successful firm on the outskirts of Frankfurt. Never eschewing his Jewish roots, Schohl became a pillar of community life in the village of Florsheim, where he was a chief employer of the townspeople. During the worst times of the 1920s economic collapse, he ran a soup-kitchen and paid his employees in hard currency in place of virtually worthless German marks, a barrel-full of which might purchase a loaf of bread.
   Local esteem did Schohl and his family no good, however, during the infamous Kristallnacht. As with thousands of other Jews, thugs invaded the Schohl household on November 7, 1938, part of a Germany-wide attack. Shortly afterward, security officers took Max into "protective" custody and delivered him to Buchenwald concentration camp. Though his incarceration lasted but a month, the handwriting was on the wall, and Schohl redoubled his correspondence with Hess. Meanwhile, FDR contented himself with a perfunctory ambassadorial recall, and Hitler "billed" the Jews of Germany a billion marks as an "atonement fine" for cleaning up Kristallnacht debris.
   A hard-hearted dilemma confronted the Schohls. On one hand, under U.S. immigration law Max had to demonstrate that he was not "likely to become a public charge," while on the other, the Alien Contract Labor Law of 1885, aimed at barring Chinese, prohibited would-be immigrants from securing jobs prior to entry. As Large declares acerbically, "The famed lines on the Statue of Liberty might have been rewritten to say: `To hell with your huddled masses, send me your prosperous and well-connected, your stockholders, remittance men, and prospective heirs.' "
   Though the Schohls' predicament was replicated a thousand-fold across pre-war Europe, there is enormous value in hearing its firsthand voices. Not only are general lessons about bureaucratic impersonality on offer, but about national blindness, as well. Whether they are Salvadorans fleeing Death Squads or Liberians facing slaughter by run-amok revolutionaries, those with the power to open the nation's safe harbor must ask themselves to what extent policy is driven by racial stereotyping and narrowly defined self-interest.
   ________________________________________________________________________
   Howard J. De Nike is a Lecturer in the Anthropology Department at San Francisco State University.

No comments about Those Were the Days.

No comments about Last Waltz in Vienna: The Destruction of a Family 1842-1942.

5 comments about The Times of My Life and My Life with the Times.

1. I enjoyed the Max Frankel story on many levels. The story of the family escape from Nazi Germany was riviting and worthing of an entire book. The balance of the book was not riviting, but was nevertheless interesting and entertaining. I might not have finised the book except that it is exceptionally well written (I guess that that should not be a surprise considering the source!). In many places in reads all most like poetry. Word choices were very excellent without getting cute.



2. This book begins in Germany, where the author was born in 1930. The account of how he and his parents got out of Hitler's grasp is vivid and breathtaking, and alone is worth the price of the book. Then his account of growing up in New York, his education in high school and college, and how he became connected with the New York Times is of sustaining interest, as is his account of his career there. I thought it equally as good as Katherine Graham's Pulitzer-prize-winning account of her career, and all it told of the Washington Post.



3. The first part of the book dealing with the author and his mother's travails in pre-WWII Germany in Weissenfels was absolutely the best part of the book. (And, this was unexpected as I bought the book to read about the editor of my favorite newspaper.) The author puts a human face to his German friends, neighbors, towns people, local officials, and even the Nazi that finally gave the exit visa to Frau Frankel and her son, Max. Even after the war and the Holocaust, Frankel admits he maintained some empathy with the ordinary German folk. I found this perspective to be refreshing and enlightening as it seemed more realistic of the German peoples and their behavior in pre-War Germany. (I do not wish to politicize my book review, please read the book to get your own opinion on this matter-- although one does have to remember Frankel's experiences were that of a young boy). In fact, most of the book was written in a honest, straight-forward manner. The authos's candor was a surprise on many topics including those of race. It is always refreshing to read an honest appraisal rather than the double talk you hear from politician-types.

   The remainder of the book amazed me that Max Frankel lived through and was involved in many of the historic events that occurred during the Cold War. Although at times Frankel seemed to explain in hindsight his prescience at events about to occur on the world stage. (As aside, you wonder why you didn't have people like him working for the CIA).

   An aspect of the book that I didn't enjoy was the author's apologetic tone in explaining his executive decisions while an editor at the NY Times. It seemed this portion of the autobiography was aimed at the co-workers and people at NY Times that Frankel had worked with.

   Definately, the parts of the book talking about the author's personal experiences, whether in Germany, Washington Heights, or the tragic illness of his wife were captivating. The rest about his career seemed routine.




4. The essential story of Mr. Frankel's extraordinary memoir has been amply described in the reviews on this site, and requires no further repetition by me. I urge everyone to read them, and of course to read the book.

   Hardly anyone can fail to be moved by the prelude to his story, his family's escape from the Nazis. Mr. Frankel's mother perhaps deserves at the least a book of her own story. A remarkable woman.

   Mr Frankel's story might be of another brilliant journalist whose professional story alone is worth the telling, and it is. But for me, it is his almost brutal, scalpel-like self-dissecting to reveal to us his inner turmoil in meeting challenges of his life-style and career that riveted me to the book.

   Early in life, he tells us, he learned to always prepare an escape route, another way out. Repeatedly, he recounts many brushes with conflict where he seemed to side-step adversity, to protect himself from pain, to indeed take another way out. Courageous and wise, or cowardly and untrustworthy as a human being? He so presents himself to us for our judgement. He accurately points out how news media (persons) suffer the worst of narcissist sensitity at criticism, yet he stands up bravely, I think, lead on by his personal and professional vision while living in a fish bowl.

   How many of us as private people, or world renown persons could stand so tall? I thank Mr Frankel for forty years of helping to educate me, and the rest of us to boot.

   Irwin Moss, LA mooseman01@aol.com PS. Candor requires me to reveal playing tennis once with Mr. Frankel at Cape Cod many years ago. One learns and reveals much in a tennis game.




5. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. As an avid reader of the New York Times, it provided a fantastic behind-the-scenes look at how some of the major events of the 20th Century were captured and recorded in the "Newspaper of record." Not only was it a fabulous account of NYT, Max Frankel's personal account of his life read like a novel--I couldn't wait to find out what happened next. If you appreciate current events, the media, and history--you'll love this book.

1 comments about The Rebbe's Daughter.

1. This beautiful memoir opened a window into a world that I knew once existed, but that I had never actually seen before. We have all heard rebbe stories, have learned from the books left by these men, and have read of the lives of their followers. This, however, is a glimpse into the private lives of the aristocrats of European Hasidism. I do not use the word aristocracy lightly. The world of European Hasidism was highly stratified. The Rebbe's Daughter was top drawer. She lived in a large compound of servants, storerooms, and guest rooms for visitors to her father. There were coachmen, cooks, and governesses. There was no idle luxury. Every member of the rebbe's family lived a life of constant and devoted service. They served the Rebbe's followers, but also, and far more importantly, they served God.

   Devotion to Torah pervaded every aspect and every moment of life. There is a kind of awe-filled beauty to a life in which every action, every thought is examined and consecrated to divine service. Devotion to Torah was so complete that even in the icy Polish winter the family shunned clothing made of wool. Better to shiver in silk and cotton than to risk a chance linen fiber that may render a woolen coat forbidden shatnes.

   I cannot decide which aspect of the Rebbe's Daughter is more remarkable. The way it shows us a vivid picture of a vanished time and place, or the way it opens before us the way of thinking of a mind totally devoted to Torah.