2 comments about Bialystok to Birkenau: The Holocaust Journey of Michel Mielnicki.

1. This is an important, interesting, compelling, and well written testimony by Mr.Mielnicki. It is the kind of work that will take one beyond the well known general statistics and facts of the holocaust, and also into the realm of the heart. In particular it is highly informative regarding events in the Bialystok Region, from which hundreds of thousands of Jewish people were murdered. I read it in one sitting, and paused only when in it's pages I unexpectedly found Mr. Mielnicki's first hand account of the destruction of my families town of Zabludow Poland on June 26th, 1941. I highly recommend this book. In fact,it is a book that in an ideal world would be read by everyone. It contains a very good introduction by Sir Martin Gilbert, and is well illustrated with maps, and interesting and well chosen photos. This is a book to own



2. This is an important, interesting, compelling, and well written testimony by Mr.Mielnicki. It is the kind of work that will take one beyond the well known general statistics and facts of the holocaust, and also into the realm of the heart. In particular it is highly informative regarding events in the Bialystok Region, from which hundreds of thousands of Jewish people were murdered. I read it in one sitting, and paused only when in it's pages I unexpectedly found Mr. Mielnicki's first hand account of the destruction of my families town of Zabludow Poland on June 26th, 1941. I highly recommend this book. In fact,it is a book that in an ideal world would be read by everyone. It contains a very good introduction by Sir Martin Gilbert, and is well illustrated with maps, and interesting and well chosen photos. This is a book to own

1 comments about The Congressional Minyan: The Jews of Capitol Hill.

1. The Congressional Minyan is a fantastic book. It combines an insiders knowledge of Capitol Hill with a political junkie's love of people, places, campaigns and issues. Stone has accomplished a lot in writing this book. Besides the 179 people profiled, there are asides on everyone from Orson Welles and Edith Wharton to Charlie Chaplin and Sam Goldwyn. Stone has an encyclopedic knowledge of American history, Congress and the people who have helped make it. Highly recommended!

3 comments about A Taste of the Past: The Daily Life and Cooking of a Nineteenth-Century Hungarian-Jewish Homemaker.

1. This lovely book brings a slice of Hungarian Jewish culture to life in a uniquely three-dimensional way - the sights, the tastes, the details of everyday life. I found the recipes easy to follow and the pictures charming. The author's great-grandmother whom he profiles here is a refreshingly complex character - her views about such things as religion and national identity change over time, along with historical changes, and some of these shifts are even reflected in her food! For example, this is one Hungarian cookbook that is light on the paprika - apparently ginger was the spice of choice in the 19th century. Who knew?



2. This lovely book brings a slice of Hungarian Jewish culture to life in a uniquely three-dimensional way - the sights, the tastes, the details of everyday life. I found the recipes easy to follow and the pictures charming. The author's great-grandmother whom he profiles here is a refreshingly complex character - her views about such things as religion and national identity change over time, along with historical changes, and some of these shifts are even reflected in her food! For example, this is one Hungarian cookbook that is light on the paprika - apparently ginger was the spice of choice in the 19th century. Who knew?



3. The book really brings to life a community that was wiped out by the Holocaust. The description of life in the small city in Hungary is vivid and the amazing illustrations are a great complement. The easy-to-follow recipes round out the experience.

2 comments about Lodz Ghetto: A Community History Told in Diaries, Journals, and Documents.

1. This book and the accompanying video are important narratives on the holocaust in Lodz. An accurate and moving book about a subject that should not be forgotten.



2. This book is an anthology of 128 orders, proclamations, speeches, poems, and other ephemera that have survived from the wartime Lodz ghetto.

   I first came across the tragic history of the Ghetto in a sidebar in 'The Rough Guide' to Poland (the best Polish guide book). It is an extraordinary story: within 2 days of the 1939 occupation of Lodz (pronounced 'Wootch'), a large industrial city some 50 miles South-West of Warsaw, the Germans started a general and increasing anti-Semitic terror, and shortly afterwards herded the 230,000-odd Lodz Jews into a slum area. Chaim Rumkowski, a failed businessman (velvet manufacturer) with an interest in child welfare and Zionism, was appointed 'Elder of the Jews' by the Germans, and established himself as a dictator, supported by informers, sycophants, and the 'Kripo' police. Those opposing him were selected for the transports to Chelmno, which, unbeknownst but increasingly suspected, was a death camp. Rumkowski's strategy for survival was work: 'a gold currency of the highest calibre - the labour of Jewish hands'; `only work can save us from the worst calamity'; `work protects us from annihilation', and, in forcing the population to work for food, he fuelled the Nazi war effort. In 1944, with the advance of the Red Army from the East, the Ghetto was liquidated with the survivors being sent to Oswiecim - or, to give it its German name, Auschwitz. This book is a collection of some of the literary fragments that remain.

   The book follows the chronological progress of the Ghetto, from its establishment (1940); the deportation into the Ghetto of some 20,000 Jews from Hamburg, 3,000 Polish Jews, 5,000 Gypsies (Rumkowski: `I've explained that we cannot live together with them. Gypsies are the sort of people who can do anything. First they rob and then they set fire... .'), and Jews from Prague, Luxembourg, Berlin, Cologne, Vienna, Frankfurt... (1941); the `Nightmarish Days' when, in 1942, the Germans liquidated the hospitals and demanded the surrender to them of children (with the sickening speech by Rumkowski: `In my old age I must stretch out my hands and beg: Brothers and sisters, hand them over to me! Fathers and mothers, give me your children!'), until the final rounds of deportations and the liberation of the Ghetto in 1944: 10,000 survived; 60,000 died in the Ghetto (mostly, apparently, from hunger); 130,000 died at Chelmno or Oswiecim.

   There are German documents (`To: The Eldest of the Jews. July 16h., 1942. Re: Machines in the Ghetto. I request that you immediately investigate whether there is a Bone Grinder in the ghetto, either with a motor or hand-driven. The special command in Chelmno is interested in such a grinder. On behalf of F.W. Ribbe, Assistant Director, Ghetto Administration'), Yiddish poems, diaries, fragments of notes, transcripts of Rumkowski's speeches and proclamations. The shattered fragments of a surprisingly rich cultural life.

   The works selected for publication have been beautifully translated from the original Polish, Hebrew, Yiddish, and German. The translation is of the highest order. The book is also illustrated with photographs, including some in colour, which are also of high quality. The notations to the texts are also good.

   However, the book falls down badly in other areas. It should have a map, showing readers where Lodz, Chelmno, and Oswiecim are (there is a map of the Ghetto itself). It has a grossly inadequate contents page, and no index. However, the most serious failing is the woefully inadequate Foreword, which fails to put the Ghetto into an historical, Polish, or wider framework, or the texts into a literary context. The reader is, more or less, simply presented with the texts and left to get on with it.

   I suspect that much of this parsimony is the responsibility of the publishers, but the editors must be held responsible for the failure to help the reader place the texts in context, and I suspect that their reticence has much to do with the contentious problem of Polish-Jewish relations, and wider questions about Zionism, the lack of resistance to the Germans (indeed, the collaboration with the Germans), the dictatorship of Rumkowski, and so on.

   We learn, for example, from captions to photographs: 'A gypsy camp adjacent to the ghetto did not have any sanitation system and was quickly wiped out by typhus'; 'SS Reichsfuher Heinrich Himmler is greeted on his arrival in the ghetto by Rumkowski, June 7, 1941.' There is nothing else in the book about the Gypsy camp or Himmler's visit. Similarly, there are only minor references to the non-Jewish Polish population of Lodz (who also suffered hugely under Nazi occupation). There is one, minor, document about the dispute between Speer (Minister of Armaments), who wanted to preserve the Ghetto as a valuable contributor to the war effort, and Himmler, who eventually succeeded in enforcing the `Final Solution'. Poems are included within the anthology, translated from Yiddish, but there is no attempt to explain the literary merit behind them.

   The concentration on the Ghetto is both a strength and a weakness of the book; ultimately, however, it undermines the book. In particular, I should have liked to have heard more about the heroic Warsaw Ghetto uprising (1943) and the Warsaw uprising (1944), and how they impacted on the Lodz Ghetto. I think that it is wrong not to acknowledge, at least, the parallel suffering of the non-Jewish population; for the record, the Germans immediately rounded up the entire hierarchy of the Church, all Trade Unionists, Communists, and intellectuals (which appears to have been defined as anyone with a degree), and sent them to Oswiecim, and those remaining were considered `untermensch' (sub-human), suitable only for slave labour. Some 25% of Poland's population - which included, of course, a large and well-integrated Jewish population - were killed during the war: a higher proportion than any other country.

   In conclusion, the book never answers the question `what is it?' Is it a record of historical documents; a literary anthology; or a collection of ephemera organised chronologically? How can a reader respond to the documents, as they are presented without any editorial help?

No comments about Profiles in Diversity: Jews in a Changing Europe, 1750-1870.

3 comments about Bread, Butter, and Sugar: A Boy's Journey Through the Holocaust and Postwar Europe.

1. This powerful account of a boy's journey through hell, is in spite of all a life affirming hopeful story, which filled me not only with compassion but also with admiration and awe. Engaging and moving, this text also offers the reader a valuable observation of existential, philosophical and psychological nature. One of the best Holocaust memoirs I read.



2. Dear Martin:
   I read your book during the first days of Pesach. I would like to
   congratulate you on an important piece of work that will help the world
   know the horrors of the Holocaust and the unspeakable acts of the Nazi
   barbarians. Your book was very well written and organized and gave me a
   very clear picture of your unbelievable experience. You definitely have
   kept your promise to Jacob the learned. The experience of reading your
   book helped make my Pesach experience with all our freedom and richness
   more meaningful than usual. It also helped put things in perspective.
   By the way, my father's (may he rest in peace) polish name was Motek. I
   had never seen the name written before your book.
   Also the way you saved your mother and brother's life was probably the
   bravest thing a 10 year old has ever done.
   I wish you long life, happiness, peace, and continued nachas from your
   children and grandchildren. You deserve only goodness in your life.



3. This is an outstanding book, particularly for high school students. Teachers: I recommend it as a companion to "The Diary of Anne Frank." Mr. Schiller's book tells two critical stories. It describes a child's experience in concentration camps and it tells the touching story of reunification with remaining family at the end of the war. You can feel the child's fear. You see each scene through the child's eyes. Yet, the book omits just enough of the horrific detail so it's perfect reading for young adults.
   
   It also is a story of a boy quickly becomming a man, despite his age. The book lingers in your mind, long after it's been finished.

3 comments about I'm Not the BOSS, I Just Work Here.

1. I'm sure that some people will find inspiration in what Mr. Jonas writes. However, the sad reality is that the business practices of IDT leave much to be desired and in no way reflect Mr. Jonas' supposed commitment to a Torah way of life. His company is rife with nepotism, engages in borderline business practices with it's suppliers and customers and treats employees shabbily (if not outright illegaly). This can easily be verified by many former employees, customers and suppliers from the earliest days of IDT's founding up until the present. Maybe this book is type of attempt at assuaging a guilty conscience, but those in the know can read between the lines.



2. A succesful business tycoon with a penchant for philosophy reveals in entertaining and readable prose how the wisdom of the past can be harnessed to meet todays challenges. Bravo and five stars for a masterpiece.



3. Rich or not Mr. Jonas presents his life as a simple philosophy stressing that our true self is the supreme truth utilizing biblical priciples as a bedrock saving humanity from itself. Humanity can change by creating compassion and better human beings based on the ultmate goodness of God and Man.

   Self realization based on ones ideas and understanding of God as the supreme teacher who rules over the universe leads to a meaningful life whereby God loves us all..

   Keep on cleaning the mirror Mr. Jonas, your lucid down to earth style symbolizes the harmony with oneself and with others..your universal yearning based on good works and employing others can indeed only be actualized in a free society such as the USA a lesson to be learned in these murderous times..

3 comments about Fifty Key Jewish Thinkers.

1. This book is about evenly divided between profiles of premodern (mostly medieval) thinkers and modern (mostly Reform or Zionist) thinkers. The quality of the profiles varied; nonphilosophers (e.g. Zionists) were dealt with fairly well, and this book made me aware of some that I knew nothing or almost nothing about. However, Cohn-Sherbock struggles to make the deeper philosophers comprehensible. General rule of thumb: if you don't understand philosopher X's own work, you won't understand it any better after reading this book.



2. This work competently traces the lives and outlines the thought of major Jewish thinkers from Medieval times. But it seems to me to have what might be called an ' over-liberal bias' and includes at least two people who certainly are not ' major Jewish thinkers'. It also naturally excludes many others who might be said to truly deserve a place here.
   A good work which could be better.



3. Educated persons will know at least something about such Jewish philosophers as Philo, Maimonides, Spinoza, Martin Buber, and Elie Wiesel. All of them have found their way into most major Western encyclopedias. This book offers much more. Cohn-Sherbok, a well-known writer of things Jewish, is an ordained Reform rabbi, and he naturally, and properly, concentrates on the religious aspects of his subject. Cohn-Sherbook devotes a two-page essay to each of the fifty thinkers included in this mini-encyclopedia. There are no footnotes, but numerous crossreferences. The author's deep involvement in his subject helps the reader apprehend the book as a unified whole. This becomes all the more evident if the essays are read in chronological order, which is easy to do, since the author includes a neat 2000-year chronological table of the names included. We thus get a fascinating view of how the Jewish religious landscape changed under the impact of several catastrophic events, from the Babylonian exile, over the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, to the Nazi Holocaust. The endurance of the Jewish people under such calamities is striking. So is the ability of the thinkers presented here to steer their philosophical and religious reflection into fruitful channels. This implies neither an easy optimism, nor a resigned submission to fate. Rather, we witness here a deep rethinking of the foundations of religion, obviously relevant to Jews and non-Jews alike.

1 comments about Documentors of the Dream: Pioneer Jewish Photographers in the Land of Israel, 1890-1933.

1. This book tells all about jewish photographers in Palestine / Israel in the years 1890-1933. A fascinating book and a great gift!

No comments about First Encounter.