1 comments about Nelson Glueck: Biblical Archaeologist And President of the Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion (Alumni Series of the Hebrew Union College Press).

1. This book, which is the result of at least fourteen years of effort, is really a successful amalgam of two treatises by two authors, thanks to the talented fusing of a third, unsung contributor: editor and sole representative of the Hebrew Union College Press, Barbara Selya. Professor Laurence Kutler composed the absorbing account of Nelson Glueck's archaeological excursions and discoveries, while Rabbi Jonathan M. Brown reconstructed the story of the protagonist's career as educator and college president. In other words, the co-authors respectively describe Dr. Glueck's passionate exploration of the earth of Biblical lands -- a lifelong labor which served to connect the burgeoning Israeli population with the history and traditions of its forbears -- as well as his relationships with prominent societal and familial figures at home and abroad. The portrait that emerges captures the nuances of the personality of a secular but devout man of great accomplishments who also sought with only partial success to extend his personal religious freedom as an American to the citizens of the orthodox theocracy of Israel.

3 comments about BONES OF BERDICHEV: The Life and Fate of Vasily Grossman.

1. Even having grown up in the USSR, and having some experience with my family and their stories of survival of WW2 and Stalin era, I still found the bok incredible and moving. so did my college-age kids! I would suggest it to more people who are interested in the topic 100%



2. I am greatly impressed with this book. I'm an emigrant from the former USSR, Jew myself, and I thought that I know everything about our life, about the war and the suffering of Soviet Jews from Nazi and from the Soviet Communists. But I discovered so many new facts that I never new. I am amazed how deep the authors understoon the reality of Soviet life. I lived in Belorus for years and didn't even hear anything about mass graves of Jews that are everywhere in this country. We were never told about it! I wish this book will be translated into Russian and Ukranian languages. I remember, that Soviet people can hardly knew who's is Vasily Grossman, one of the greatest writers of the century.



3. The book is a basic read for anyone interested in the Holocaust, WWII, Soviet life, and Soviet literature. The Garrard's reveal the quality of Grossman's writings and his personal sacrifices in seeing his opus, Life and Fate, published after being smuggled from the USSR. Accounts in the book of Stalingrad, Nazi crimes in Berdichev, and Grossman's slow literary descent into obscurity will be little read by a complacent Western public more interested in Star Wars than in the trauma that real wars have produced in this century. I was moved by the book and enlightened about the enduring spirit of mankind in the face of repression. Highly recommended!!

2 comments about A Conspiracy of Indifference: The Raoul Wallenberg Story.

1. The title of this book is unfortunately an accurate description of Raoul Walllenberg's fate. Why wouldn't (or couldn't) the United States step in to save a man they later named an honorary citizen from the Russian prisons? Or for that matter, why did Sweden abandon a countryman of family stature the likes of a Rockefeller in the United States? This book is part biography, part mystery novel as to what may have happened to Raoul Wallenberg. Gersten explores in depth each possible angle beyond the well-known factors of his life, yet allows the reader to make up his own version of the truth behind his tragic disappearance. One can only wonder how many heroes there would be in the world if they were all treated this way. I did not know who Raoul Wallenberg was before I read this book, and now I will never forget him.



2. Ronald J. Gold, a Chicago lawyer, said this about the book:

   I found the book very interesting. Why did the Russians grab him (Wallenberg)? What was so special about him that they would go to such extremes to keep things secret? Did they kill him or did he just waste away?

   The legal issues were interesting but basically showed that even well-respected lawyers allowed their vanity to get in the way of the objective. Did anyone ever honestly believe that you could successfully sue the Soviet Union in a federal court? The only reason they won initially was because Mother Russia had defaulted and the trial judge was compelled to rule in their favor.

   I think the above shows, however, the value of a book like this. Although I had heard of Wallenberg and saw his name listed on the path of martyrs in Israel, the real issue is that he saved Jews. The book must have taken countless hours of research and the author should be proud of his effort.

1 comments about Journeys & Arrivals: On Being Gay and Jewish.

1. 
   This collection of essays by the author of Dancing on Tisha B'av, Winter Eyes, not to mention the Nick Hoffman mystery series, focuses on his twin comings-out, as a Jew and as a gay man. The child of Holocaust survivors, Raphael was raised in a secular Jewish household, and it was not until he was an adult that he began to explore and embrace his religion. In the process, he met Gersh, whom he would also explore and embrace ;-)) (sorry, irresistable!).
   
   In an excellent essay, "Empty Memory? Gays in Holocaust Literature", Raphael addresses the question of gays in Nazi Germany, and has it right, I think, when he says that it is wrong to ignore or belittle the persecution of gays, but that it is also wrong, and historically inaccurate, to not understand the difference between the treatment of gays and the treatment of Jews, and the policy differences between them.
   He does not allow himself, however, to separate his Jewishness and his gayness. He mentions speaking at a Jewish community center, along with a lesbian who is also the child of survivors, and being asked by other children of survivors why they "had to be gay" that evening! They could not understand his and Beck's "multiple identities as Jews, children of survivors, and homosexuals".
   
   Here he says something important for all communities of faith, who ground their hatred of gays in the phrase, "It's religion". "Lies are lies. Hatred is hatred. As Jews we know what it sounds and feels and smells and tastes like. " When, at Yad Vashem's Hall of Remembrance, a ceremony to remember the gay and lesbian Jews who died in the Holocaust is interrupted by right-wing demonstrators calling the group "evil" and accusing them of blasphemy, this is no less hatred than the the demonization of Jews as Christ-killers, and the anti-Semitism of the Pat Buchanans of the world.
   
   Not everything is this book is so intense, though. "Okemos, Michigan" is a heart-warming essay, describing how he and Gersh bought a house together, and how the house became a home. A humorous essay, "Selling Was Never My Line", will be appreciated by any author who has ever done a book tour.

1 comments about Fighting For Survival.

1. The author's account of his own escape from Nazi run Vienna and his years in hiding in Holland create a suspenseful narrative that provides us with an insight into the personal struggle for existance during the World War II era. The reader will feel the tension of living beneath the noses of the SS as each day brings with it the chance of being revealed by a neighbor, collaborator or simply someone out to earn a few guilders. Yet Dan Kampelmacher remianed defiant, refusing to wear the yellow star under penalty of death. This is both a page-turner and a resource for scholars of the period. Not to be missed!

No comments about Slow Fire.

3 comments about Saving the Lost Tribe: The Rescue and Redemption of the Ethiopian Jews.

1. I just finished reading Mr. Naim's book, "Saving the Lost Tribe: The Rescue and Redemption of the Ethiopian Jews," and I was astounded at the lengths that this diplomat took to save his people in Ethiopia. Mr. Naim could have had a much easier life for himself working in the foreign service, which he had done elsehwhere for a number of years before being assigned to Ethiopia. However, in the midst of his other duties, he took the time and mustered the courage to do what he had to do to, literally, save a lost remnant of Jews from a country where they experienced extreme prejudice.
   
   Since the time of Solomon, the Black Jews of Ethioipia have adhered to their faith in spite of cultural prejudices against them. Finally, after generations of stigmatization there, they were transported home to Israel due to the heroic measures of Mr. Naim and his embassy. Their adaptation, as he candidly states in the postlude to the book, was not an easy one from Ethiopia to Israel but, as with any immigrant group in transition, given time, they will experience the dignity of citizenship and make their contributions in the homeland of their forefather, King Solomon.
   
   In 2005, my husband and I traveled to Ethiopia with Dr. Etphriam Isaac for the First World Conference on Africa and the Bible. Ethiopia, mentioned just a few times in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles, is an amazing country, very poor, but extremely rich in history. Since our visit, I have read extensively on the situation with the Jews there. Mr. Naim's book fills a void in the literature about the plight, the prejudices, and the triumph of his people in Ethiopia.



2. What on earth is the point of inventing Jewish roots concerning these deceptive Ethiopians when everybody knows too well why they became Jews: only because it was the only possibility for them to immigrate to Israel only for economic reasons (to flee their undescribable poverty).
   
   Were these Ethiopians Jews in Ethiopia? NO! NEVER EVER!! They were Christians! A significant number of them in Israel returned to their Christian faith even though most of them decided to keep being Jew because they felt it was safer for them to do so in Israel (despite the fact that there is freedom of faith for Christians and Muslims)!!
   
   In the history of the Jewish people, there has never ever been members of the Jewish people who were black. Never! Blacks can become Jews today through conversion if they convert without inventing false stories but there is not a group of Jews in the history of the Jewish people who were black Jews! NEVER!
   I already hear some people reading my comments who might be tempted to say that I am racist but I am telling these people that I am fine accepting blacks who convert to Judaism without inventing false stories in order to convert. To invent false stories in order to convert renders the conversion process completely invalid!!
   
   To have converted Jewish Orthodox these Ethiopians do not make them Jews in any way simply because they used deception to convert to Judaism with the goal of immigrating to Israel ONLY FOR ECONOMIC REASONS. They converted only to flee their awful poverty that they were suffering in Ethiopia where they were living in mud huts and nearly all of them, except their leaders, were completely illiterate (they could not read nor write and they did not have access to the simplest books or writing items!!). Later on, these American Jews who have pushed them to convert gave them books, taught them how to read, and more.
   
   Why did they become Jews? American Jews who did not want to move to Israel felt guilty by their lack of willingness to move to Israel. They were working on outreach projects in Ethiopia and saw that these people were potentially ready to convert in order to move to Israel with the only goal of fleeing their poverty. They made them Jews by teaching them Judaism, giving their leaders Old Testament books to read and so on. Worse, they invented for them Jewish roots, telling the Jewish world that these Ethiopians were Jews!!! What a shame!!
   Then, they showed movies of them with Jewish items and praying and they told the viewers of these movies that they have kept Jewish traditions for centuries!! What an awful deception!
   
   All these books on the so-called Ethiopian Jews and the movies about them, they are all completely invented stories where these Ethiopian are given completely invented Jewish roots!
   
   This book deserves a zero because it is based on pure lies!! That is as simple as that!!



3. Over the course of three years in the early 1980s and just over a day in 1991 the Israeli government conducted two efforts unprecedented in human history, Operation Moses and Operation Solomon, respectively, that together rescued well over 20,000 Ethiopian Jews from a country ravaged by famine and civil war. Asher Naim was the Israeli ambassador to Ethiopia who negotiated with the regime's warlords and bureaucrats for their cooperation during the 1991 operation. He opens the book with a brief synopsis of the West's discovery of the Beta Israel ("house of Israel," as the Ethiopian Jews call themselves), an expedition so recent as the nineteenth century in which British missionaries found a mysterious tribe of black-skinned Africans with Semitic features who practiced a pre-Talmudic Judaism, dreamed of returning to Jerusalem, and thought they were the only Jews remaining in the world!

   Readers, however, should regard this book not as a work of history but as Naim's memoirs chronicling his role in the months preceding May 25, 1991, when a fleet of 35 planes completed Operation Solomon after just 25 hours. His first-person perspective limns the personalities of the major players with an articulation difficult to achieve in a work with more historical depth, but this approach has serious limitations. Naim provides little historical background to the 1991 operation -- Operation Moses is nearly elided from his account altogether, as is the history of the Ethiopian Jews themselves, which is a shame, so fascinating is their story. Moreover, Naim's substantial ego pervades the narrative as he liberally seasons the text with self-congratulatory tributes to his own compassion and clout (going so far as to include an entire non-sequitur chapter claiming credit, perhaps justly, for the United Nations' rescission of its vile resolution equating Zionism with racism). At the same time, he manages to distract the reader's focus from the breathtaking acts of righteousness and grace at the heart of Operation Solomon as he effectively converts a tale of human kindness into a tale of diplomacy. I suspect more readers would have been interested to learn about the Beta Israel and their deliverers than about the internal machinations of ambassadorial politics. Example: the Ethiopian regime demanded a ransom of $35 million for the release of the Jews. Naim dedicates more words to the precise means by which Israel wired these funds to the relevant bureaucrats than to the captivating story of how the ransom was raised in no time at all from just a few dozen American philanthropists. They are not even named.

   Naim does bring a refreshing objectivity to the story, declining to whitewash the difficult integration of the Ethiopians into Israeli society and duly noting some religious hardliners' long resistance to the acceptance of the Beta Israel as bona fide Jews. Among the most moving passages is Naim's lamentation for the priceless traditions the Ethiopians forgot as they assimilated into both mainstream Judaism and a secular Western society that brooks no cultural stasis. Given that a decade has elapsed between Operation Solomon and the publication of Naim's book, however, one would have expected more than three short chapters depicting the Beta Israel's communities after the aliyah. This deficiency would be less bothersome if Naim's account of Operation Solomon were more captivating and thorough, but the rescue operation itself does not begin until page 215 and fills only ten pages. I am compelled to conclude that Naim's book is destined to accomplish little more than provide some trivia for a better chronicle of the Exodus from Ethiopia that has yet to be authored.

4 comments about The Silents.

1. When I heard Charlotte Abrams wrote the silents, I had to get it immediately. I doubt she would remember me, but we went to Tuley High School at the same time. Reading the book for me was like a travel trough the past. The memories of the school. the park, the neighborhood, and the simpler times were wonderful. But I recommend the book for the story of love and affection it tells. A beautiful tale of the struggles of deaf parents attempting to raise their children in what was for them a silent world. And while they felt like outsiders their children lovingly guided them through the speaking world. As you read this well written book be prepared to be spellbound and also to shed a few tears.



2. This book tells me that deaf and mute people live lives that are very similar to hearing and speaking parents. The children of parents with handicaps have more responsibility. This book tells about the love and care the parents give to their children and the love and care the children return to their mother and father.



3. The author, Charlotte, takes us through her childhood in depression era Chicago to living in Los Angeles with children of her own. What makes her story unique is that her parents were deaf. And we are graciously allowed into a world which is foreign to most. A world where there are no dogs barking, no music and no voices. It's a touching, inspiring, story full of rich memorable characters that stay with you long after you've turned the last page. After finishing "The Silents," I thought to myself, what a lucky woman Ms. Abrams must be to have had parents that were so utterly and indisputably in love. I look forward to reading more from this author and I hope "The Silents" receives the recognition it so greatly deserves.



4. Althoug I am a little biased about this book (the author is my mother) I felt it was a heart warming story of growing up the hearing child of deaf parents. The warmth and humanity of the family described is one that will touch the hearts of all people. If you are deaf or in any other way disabled, or you know someone who is, you should read this book. It is amazing to read about a family in the 20's and 30's of this century facing the hardships of deafness, raising two children and still being able to have a "normal" life. My grandparents, the topic of this book, were two of the most wonderful people you could ever meet and I would like to invite everyone out there to meet them in this book. Thanks.

1 comments about Oskar Schindler (Importance of).

1. After seeing "Schindler's List," I was curious to know the real Oskar Schindler. I wanted enough history to place Schindler in the context of his times, but it was the man himself who intrigued me. This book did not disappoint me. Schindler was a flawed man who showed great nobility when he found other people's lives in his hands. A carouser and a womanizer who failed in his marriage, and a less-than-successful businessman, he was nevertheless one of the most courageous men of the twentieth century, risking the most fearful reprisals to save his Jewish employees from murder by Nazis. The beauty of this book is that it is not inaccessibly deep--most children grades 6 and up can read and comprehend it. Because movies sometimes seem unreal to children, this book is a fine way to show them that Schindler was not a superhero, but a superior human being in ways they can admire. As an Assistant Librarian, I am happy to report that Mr. Roberts' version of the life of Oskar Schindler is an outstanding item in the biography section of our children's room, but that it circulates widely among our adult patrons as well.

1 comments about Home Is Somewhere Else: Autobiography in Two Voices (S U N Y Series, Margins of Literature).

1. A unique approach to the genre of "escapee" literature. Accounts of wartime experiences of the Furst family vascillate between now late father, Desider, and daughter, Lilian, and are centered around the cities which represent the changing fortunes of the family. This is a personal family drama that floats along the borders of history and draws the reader into a subdued and melancholic vision of the post-war Jewish family.