5 comments about To Play With Fire: One Woman's Remarkable Odyssey.

1. Tonica aka Joy aka Tova has the misfortune to be born to a couple of warped religious fanatics. Her mother a Sephardic Jew is the daughter of an orthodox father and not so observant mother. Eventually, Tonica's mother and grandmother become Christians while her grandfather and two uncles remain orthodox. Sally, Tonica's mother meets and marries Jim Marlow, a born again Christian. They move to England where Jim is content to live in the shadow of his wartime buddy, Raymond who eventually becomes cult leader "Daddy Raymond."
   
   Tonica is 16 when Daddy Raymond gets the "revelation" that her father and mother are supposed to sell everything they own (including Tonica's beloved horse), donate it to the church/cult and quit their jobs and move into a one bedroom apartment and work for the cult for free. Her father the head of the household dutifully complies, even though he is only two years away from a full pension, and Tonica is left homeless. They dump her at Daddy Raymond's new Bible college for "training." Tonica is abused physically, verbally, and spiritually to the point that she stays with church/cult and severs all contact with her parents after Daddy Raymond excommunicates them.
   
   If you replace church with revolution, Jesus with Chairman Mao, and Daddy Raymond with one of Mao's lower henchmen you could be reading a memoir of the Cultural Revolution. The basic premises are the same; impressionable young people are beaten into submission physically and psychologically. Then they try to out do each other in their adoration of a so called deity who becomes their raison d'etre. In the process they spy and tattle on each other, turn in and or disown family members, in order to win favor and work their way up the hierarchy. They also devise petty backstabbing machinations that rival day time soaps. The final reward for all this effort is group acceptance and recognition from the cult leader.
   
   This book is just under 450 pages and the first 300 or so pages we are dragged through Tonica's thought processes during her nine years with the cult; I think I'm really Jewish, no I love Jesus, no I'm Jewish, no I love Jesus. The redundancy itself was agonizing, but what I found extremely frustrating was her inability to wake up and leave this cult of freaks. She is very capable of making a bonafide living, has had positive contact with the outside world, and even been offered a ticket to Israel by her estranged uncle. Instead she chooses to stay and continue to be abused and used as slave labor.
   
   This book would have been much more palatable if it had been kept under 150 pages and or written by a third party with some insightful commentary about cults and missionaries. Other than her thoughts on modesty for a woman's spiritual development versus modesty to prevent male temptation very little of this memoir was thought provoking. I found Tonica's husband's story impressive, but he doesn't' appear until page 413. He was born into a blueblood church family. He came to Judaism completely on his own after reading through the Bible and after a priest is unable to successfully answer his numerous questions. At age 18 he immigrated to Israel. I thought that was pretty gutsy. On the back of the book it says; "Tova also lectures throughout the world on being Jewish in a contemporary society." Given her and her husband's backgrounds I think they would be very well suited to do a Noahide outreach and or anti-missionary work.
   
   Turbulent Souls by Stephen Dubner is a similar, but much better book. Dubner's American WWII Era Jewish parents for some reason felt compelled to convert to Catholicism. Then they met and married. Dubner is more sophisticated, does his research, and asks thought provoking questions as he winds his way back to the religion of his grandparents.



2. If you are looking for a book which details the intellectual and rational search of a person for the soul's home in the Jewish faith, this is not the book to read. Coming from a cultic, dysfunctional Pentecostal family, the author is very emotional and seems to judge religious precepts purely on the basis of how they "feel". I don't doubt that she had a life-long feeling of inner-connectedness to Judiasm,but all one reads is how a woman exchanged a christian faith which controlled all her action for a jewish version of the same.



3. Tova Mordechai's story of her journey from a Pentecostal cult to Judaism reads like a Jewish _A Little Princess_: she lives in poverty surrounded by plenty, is forcibly separated from her family; she succeeeds at everything she tries and yet receives no recognition for her successes, but she is cheerful and good-hearted throughout. If this book were fiction, it would be remarkable for its excellent writing, suspenseful plot, and believable characters. The fact that the book actually happened is all the more amazing. _To Play with Fire_ compellingly tells a truly fascinating and inspirational story, giving the reader an insight behind closed doors of two little-understood religions.
   
   Any autobiographical work about an author's religious "odyssey" sets off alarm bells in the mind of a demanding reader, yet this book avoids the clichees. Despite telling a very personal story about the evolution of the author's fundamental religious beliefs, it maintains a distance from them: much to her credit, the author does not attempt to persuade readers of the truth of her new belief system, and she does write a relatively honest assessment of her new life. Further, it is clear that Ms. Mordechai is writing for her audience, not herself: she tells her story because others have found it fascinating, not because she thinks herself a model of humanity, again quite unique of autobiographical works.
   
   Nevertheless, I do wish that she had written more about her current life. She mentions her reluctance to accept anything blindly, and indeed she argues extensively with the Lubavitch rabbis at her seminary, but she nonetheless stayed within Lubavitch during her struggles, rather than exploring other streams of Judaism, such as the Greek-Jewish and Egyptian-Jewish traditions of her ancestors.
   
   While the most important part of her exploration occurred in the transition from Christian to Jewish, I wish she had discussed her thoughts about the nature of religion itself: whether power in any religious group should ever be centralized in one figure whose opinion determines the policy of the religious group, or whether decentralized power (as in the classical Jewish model of multiple rival opinions) is safer.
   
   It is understandable that she cannot risk personal relationships by giving a complete discussion of her own life in her small community, but I was disappointed to watch her lush prose become sparse at the very end, and to see her incisive commentary become more muted.
   
   One warning to the reader: it is impossible to read only one chapter and it compelled me to stay up until 3 am to finish it.



4. This book is a very honest one. I especially loved the fact that Tova did not show Orthodox Judaism in rosy colors, but were describing her negative feelings and experience with Orthodox Judaism as well. And there were plenty of what to be upset about. However, she chooses Orthodox Judaism for the rest of her life.

   She made it clear that she despised Christianity not just because she was abused by so called "Christians" but also because she was rejecting the New Testament itself. She wrote openly inside her book that Jesus was a false prophet, and that Gospels were misquoting and distorting the Jewish Scriptures. She revealed herself as a very educated and knowledgeable minister quoting the verses from the Bible in order to explain us why according to her the entire Christian doctrine is wrong.

   I highly recommend this book to all people: both Jews and Christians. Written in a very sophisticated English it will certainly help them to understand it other.

   Also, this new edition "To Play with Fire" is much better than the old one "Playing with Fire". This new edition is longer on sixty pages and reveals more details about her experience and feelings. Even if you own the book "Playing with Fire", you certainly should get this uncut and unedited edition, too.




5. I read this back when it was called "Playing With Fire". I am not sure which branch of fundimentalist Christianity her family was with....perhaps the British group "Plymouth Brethren", they were really cultlike. Her background was extreme, but her issues with Christianity are thoughtful and not merely colored by her strange community.

   I recognized alot of things from my sojourn with fundimentalism, and I found her honesty refreshing. She is also very straightforward about the Jewish community she has joined. She doesn't paint an easy rosey picture of her transition. I still think of her and her husband, a convert from Episcopalianism. I think if you are interested in conversion stories and people affirming their Judaism you will love this book.

   I remember vividly her description of the heartrending time of her sister's death, and her parent's programmed reaction.

   Good Luck Tova! I am so glad to see this reissue of your book!

No comments about Communings of the Spirit: The Journals of Mordecai M. Kaplan, 1913-1934 (American Jewish Civilization Series).

5 comments about The Master Plan: Himmler's Scholars and the Holocaust.

1. Although I enjoyed the read, by the end I was left somewhat disappointed by the content. The details of the Nazi occult belief system are glazed over. I understand that this is a difficult topic to get to the bottom of, and many have tried before, but the author seems more at home dealing with the external logistics of Himmler's strategy rather than explaining the ideology that lay behind. When reading of the primeval blond-haired master race I couldn't help thinking of the "Nordic" aliens who feature so regularly in UFO abduction stories and in alien conspiracy books, and how Nazi scientists appeared in Speilberg's "Taken" series working hand in hand with the little grey aliens on the operating tables. No doubt a respected journalist, such as Ms Pringle, would be disinclined to follow that line of thought, but I wouldn't put it past Himmler. He was also inhuman. But more to the point, why would Himmler, or Hitler for that matter, be so obsessed with tall, blond hair blue-eyed types when they so obviously did not resemble them? Did the thought not occur to the author? It must have.



2. Heather Pringle's "The Master Plan" gives an excellent history of the Ahnenerbe, the special branch of the Nazi SS made up of some of Germany's leading scientists and scholars whose purpose it was to document the history and prehistory of Germany and the Aryan race. These scientists, often hand-picked by Heinrich Himmler himself, were intended to provide the historical and scientific justification for the Nazi's ideology and conquests. Much of this story has remained largely unknown and Pringle's work is the first book that provides a comprehensive account of this fascinating subject.
   
   Himmler was obsessed with the idea that he could validate the superiority of the Aryan peoples and the supremacy of the German "volk" by providing clear scientific evidence supporting these claims. Where such evidence was lacking, it could be invented. Thus was born the SS Ahnenerbe, a organization that operated under the guise of unbiased scientific inquiry by some of the leading German scholars of the day. The findings of the Ahnenerbe were used to justify the Final Solution and the sinister deeds of the Nazis as the German war machine steamrolled across the world. Pringle's book explores the lives of the many scientists who served the Ahnenerbe and the various expeditions that were undertaken in the service of the Reich. It was these very archaeological undertakings that partly served as the inspiration for the film "Raiders of the Lost Ark".
   
   Pringle's book also makes clear Himmler's agenda to alter the very fabric of German society, especially religion. Himmler was a passionate anti-Christian who believed that Germany should be returned to the pagan religion of their ancestors. To that end, he used the SS as a prototype for a future society that would embrace the beliefs and practices of their Aryan forbearers.
   
   Himmler understood that if you can control what people know and understand about their past and their ancestors then you can control the future of that society. History is written, or often RE-written, by the victors for a reason. The Ahnenerbe was created for this very purpose. It is an important piece in the complex puzzle of understanding the motivations of the Nazis and why they did the things they did. Pringle's book is an excellent addition to that understanding.



3. This is not the first book about the mysterious branch of the SS called "Ahnenerbe". But it is the most well-written one and also the first book to present all the amazing Ahnenerbe expeditions abroad. These expeditions bring Indiana Jones to mind but are far more interesting than the "Indy" movies, as they took place in real life.
   
   As Ahnenerbe was to a great extent about motivating the pagan faith of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler and many early SS-officers the book is also about the relationship of the SS to the major religions. Both to buddhism (therefore the fascination with Tibet), hinduism (with its "Aryan" side), Islam (two SS divisions were largely Muslim) and Christianity (incompatible with true SS spirit according to Himmler).
   
   Had Nazi Germany been victorious the SS would have dropped its wartime acceptance of Christianity and would have worked hard on replacing Christianity with its brand of pagan faith. "The Master Plan" gives a really fascinating insight into what was actually done in the SS to promote the new/ancient faith, and what the SS planned to do about religion, had the SS won.



4. I've been a fan of Heather Pringle ever since I picked up The Mummy Congress and spent an entire day in Acapulco in my room reading it in preference to splashing about in the Pacific. This book is, of course, entirely different and concerns the efforts of Heinrich Himmler to establish a anthropologic/historical "school" called the Ahnenerbe to indoctrinate young Nazis by advancing the theory of the "master race" and tracking the history of advanced civilizations back to thier presumed Aryan ancestors.
   
   While Himmler's efforts were in themselves crackpot and gathered quite a few kooks along the way such as his assistant, former mental patient named Karl-Marial Wilgigut who traced his family back to the Norse god Thor, more interestingly is that many of the reputable German scientists of the day followed along either through fear of political censorship or quite possibley through shared beliefs.
   
   Throughout, Ms. Pringle pops up with interesting facts such as Hugo Boss' supplying of the Nazi uniforms and Ludwig Roselius' invention of decaffeinated coffee (sufficient reason in itself to dislike the Nazis.)
   
   This book is well worth the price particularly as it presents the acceptance of craziness and promulgation of insanity in modern civilization and deals with an area of the Third Reich which would otherwise be unfamiliar to most readers. Highly recommended.



5. There are two recent books that touch on this subject. Ms. Pringle's and Christpher Hale's "Himmler's Crusade". Hale's book is about the expedition to Tibet, which also occupies a large part of this book. Even so, go with this one. Ms. Pringle is an excellent researcher and writes very well. She avoids veering off and making mistakes about military affairs, a major weakness in Hale's book. In addition, this book goes beyond the Tibet expedition (a fascinating subject) and takes up additional matters regarding the group set up by the SS to examine racial-biological-political issues. If you have an interest in Himmler or the SS, you won't be sorry you read this book.

1 comments about In the Eye of the Storm: Growing Up Jewish in Germany, 1918-1943, A Memoir.

1. Herbert Strauss' In The Eye Of The Storm also provides a memoirof growing up Jewish in Germany, covering 1918-43 and the author'sescape to Switzerland. The two provide fine insights on childhood, politics, and struggles for survival.

2 comments about Yoni Netanyahu (Jps Young Biography Series.).

1. Yoni Netanhayu, an israeli hero, was related to former israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.



2. Could anyone write me and tell me if this guy is related to Bibi. Just wanted to know. I havent read the book so give it 5 stars as benefit of the doubt

No comments about The Importance of One.

4 comments about Bamboo Cradle.

1. 
   A childless, not particularly religious, Jewish couple is living in Taiwan working as professors and studying Chinese. One day Avraham, the husband, takes the subway to work as usual. He stumbles across an abandoned (Chinese) baby and their lives are irrevocably changed. As new parents their priorities begin to change. They start becoming more religious and return to the US. After they become orthodox Barbara, the wife, gives birth to several sons and they move to Israel.
   
   It was at this point that I became concerned about Devorah, their Chinese daughter. This was back before adopting Chinese daughters became commonplace. In spite of being sheltered by a strong loving family, Devorah experiences prejudice and bullying for the first time. I wondered if Devorah, who was completely estranged from her native culture, would find acceptance and an eventual husband in this orthodox Jewish setting. Bearing in mind that Devorah's father had publicly spoken out against Jews marrying non-Jews I felt this placed Devorah in a very precarious position. None of these issues is addressed.
   
   I read this book more than a decade ago when it first came out. I would recommend that Avraham Schwartzbaum write an updated version. Tell us how Devorah is doing now; address the issues of mixed families and non-Caucasian converts to Judaism. So many Westerners have adopted Chinese daughters that if Schwartzbaum were to reflect on the situation and offer some advice he would probably find a broad audience.
   
   By the way, I heard from a reliable source that Devorah did marry and start a family.



2. This autobiography of Jewish parents and an adoptive chinese baby was fascinating. I would have liked to hear more about the life of this young Asian girl and her new Jewish life. It really is a great story about the Jewish faith, life and customs. Any BTs can appreciate the struggles and joy that comes with this faith.



3. This is a story that really speaks to the heart and soul. It is a personal story that we are privileged to share. I highly recommend it! Enjoy!



4. If you have adopted or are adopting (I am in the process myself) this is the book for you. It is a most fascinating tale, and will make you realize that the miraculous does happen - in the most unusual ways. A fairly irreligious Jewish couple, who are having trouble conceiving, live in China because the husband has a Fulbright scholarship. One day he is in a train station and hears a baby cry - she was left abandoned under his seat, in a bamboo cradle. The couple adopt her, and when they return to the U.S. a Rabbi informs them that he will not convert the child to Judaism unless she is raised Orthodox. The couple tries to become Orthodox, and eventually take to it like a duck to water. (And there are more wonderful surprises!) The story is unbelievable, and their love for their beautiful Asian daughter is invincible. The only problem I had with the book is that eventually the husband (who is the author) throws in religious language all the time - "God willing", "It is up to Hashem" (God) etc., until I wanted to throw the book out. But still, the story is so unique and loving that it overcomes the book's flaws. Shows you how love for a child absolutely knows no geographic, national, or ethnic boundaries. And, by the way, the daughter herself writes a chapter at the end which is a wonderful touch.

2 comments about Arrogant Beggar.

1. Anzia Yezierska published her one great novel, Bread Givers, in 1925. It's a seemingly autobiographical account of the struggle for assimilation and for independence from a reactionary father of a Jewish immigrant girl in New York City, and it's quite a piece of work, innovative, fiery, and at times funny, the most powerful novel of urban immigration ever written. This novel, Arrogant Beggar, published in 1927, is also a first-person narrative, but the narrator is an American-born orphan, and the story begins when she is already "formed" and seeking a career.
   
   Let's caution everyone posthaste that Arrogant Beggar is not a literary masterpiece. The writing is modest at best, awkward at times, and awful toward the end. The story is effectively ruined by clumsy inprobabilities and coincidences. The chief male character, Arthur Hellman, is implausible and artificial. There's no suspense and little enough humor. Nevertheless, I recommend it highly for its historical and sociological interest. Adele Lindner, the heroine, makes up for the implausibility of all the other characters by her intensely believable presence. Whether "Adele" is a characterological self-portrait of Anzia Yezierska doesn't much matter. Adele is a stunning revelation of lower-class consciousness in America in the early 20th Century, a spokesperson for the pride of the poor in the face of social condescension. The book was received by contemporaries as a devastating work of social criticism, specifically of Progressive and Social Gospel inspired charities such as the "boardinghouse for poor girls who might aspire to be young ladies but had better recognize their destiny as domestics" where Adele resides for the first half of the narrative. Obviously the reception was hostile.
   
   To quote the book jacket, "the second half of the novel takes Adele back to her ghetto origins as she explores an alternate model of philanthropy by opening a restaurant that combines the communitarian traditions of Old World shetl traditions with the contingencies of New World capitalism." Close enough, but the second half is largely utopian fantasy and lacks the biting pertinence of the first half, with Adele's painful thin-skinned love/hate tussle with gentility.
   
   Was class consciousness, in a European sense, ever part of American society? Was class warfare really a likelihood before the New Deal? This book can be considered a primary source for historians, academic or armchair, who want to taste and smell poverty as the poor tasted and smelled it.



2. This book arrived in about a week and was in BETTER condition than advertised. Overall, I was satisfied with the transaction and would purchase from this seller again.

No comments about Commitment to the Dead: One Woman's Journey Toward Understanding.

2 comments about Rue Ordener, Rue Labat (Stages).

1. I am aware of many authors who died voluntarily. The hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Nietzsche's birth on October 15, 1994, will have special significance for me as being the date of Sarah Kofman's death. Rue Ordener, Rue Labat, an autobiographical account of her childhood, was written shortly before Sarah Kofman was sixty years old. It is easy for me to be impressed by Sarah Kofman because she was a woman who seemed to be interested in the same kind of gag reflex humor that appeals to me.
   
   Certain social situations demand silence about certain things. When the Republicans were coming to Saint Paul (an attempt to put lipstick on a pig's eye) for their convention, I realized that the police in Saint Paul would not want them to hear me shouting my opinions about tax cuts, war, and a ten trillion dollar national debt which is rolling in money in the wrong direction. I split, left town, and tried to crack myself up from a distance. Now that I'm back, and Sarah Palin has become the ideal joke vehicle for the things that Republicans enjoy mocking (like WHY IS THIS MAN LAUGHING? Nixon running for Vice President with Ike in 1952), it is easier for me to be open about Sarah Kofman being the hot white chick philosophy expert in Freud and Nietzsche for France during my lifetime, because she had the kind of familiarity with ultimate issues that World War II made an impression on Jews in Europe that will never quit.
   
   The gag reflex is the ultimate contrast to the kind of piffle that praise for an old goat with America first policies is standing for as the national debt jumps from ten trillion dollars to twelve trillion dollars in the immediate future. Sarah Kofman could be nasty by telling how Rabbi Bereck Kofman was beaten to death in Aushwitz because, instead of working, he wanted to spend the Sabboth praying for everyone on all sides. Religion is a hell of a context in that kind of world, and old goats don't make it much better.



2. This is a slim volume from a French philosopher writing of her childhood as a Jew in France during World War II. She writes from the perspective of an adult who clearly still is ill-at-ease with her history, specifically her choosing of a Christian woman who help hide her over her mother; her violation of Jewish law taught her by her rabbi father. This volume does not speak to common experience, not even French Jewish experience; rather it is the experience of Sarah Kofman as seen in retrospect. What is most evident is the lack of resolution regarding her past - the reader appreciates the difficulty with which she apparently tells her story.