1 comments about Warsaw Diary of Adam Czerniakow: Prelude to Doom. Ed by Raul Hilberg. Tr by Stanislaw Staron and the Staff of Yad Vashem. Tr by Dziennik Getta Warszaw.

1. Adam Czerniakow's diary covers the period from the German attack on Poland (early September 1939) through late July 1942. At that time, faced with the prospect of turning over thousands of Jews for the first transports to the death camp at Treblinka, Czerniakow chose to commit suicide instead.
   
   While, of course, focusing on the sufferings of the Jews, Czerniakow never loses sight of the sufferings of the Poles. For instance, he includes an entry on the partial destruction of the Royal Castle and the Church (actually, Cathedral) of St. John, by German artillery (p. 75). He also mentions the massacre of Poles (and some Jews) by the Germans at Wawer (late December, 1939; p. 103). Czerniakow first mentions Treblinka while it had only been used as a forced-labor camp for mostly Poles (p. 316).
   
   The creation of the Warsaw Ghetto by the Germans uprooted a large number of Poles as well as Jews, as described in a report by Czerniakow: "The resettlement, encompassing 700 ethnic Germans, 113,000 Poles, and 138,000 Jews, was carried out at once; 11,567 non-Jewish apartments in the Jewish district and some 13,800 Jewish apartments in the rest of the city were surrendered." (p. 396). Clearly, at that stage of the German occupation, property acquisition was very much a two-way street.
   
   The Germans enclosed the Jews in the ghetto in order to starve them, but both Poles and Jews cooperated to thwart this German intention. In the introduction, Josef Kermisz elaborates on this: "If Warsaw's Jews had had to live on the official bread ration, they would all have died of starvation in the first year. Czerniakow tells stories of smugglers and underground trade...The German plan, to starve the Jews to death quickly, was foiled...Thousands, Jews and non-Jews, were occupied with smuggling." (p. 13).
   
   Czerniakow mentions some events whose potential significance was not realized until later. For example, in the July 1, 1940 entry in his diary, Czerniakow alludes to the German plan to resettle both German and Polish Jews in Madagascar (p. 169).
   
   Ironically, in the first two years of the German occupation, Poles were more likely to be killed by the Germans than Jews. At times, Poles actually disguised themselves as Jews! Czerniakow describes this in two entries; that of February 20, 1940 (p. 119) and of May 8, 1940 (p. 147). In the latter, he writes: "Some Poles are beginning to wear Jewish armbands [to avoid being impressed for labor in Germany]." The brackets had been inserted by the editors of this volume.
   
   Both Poles and Jews were corrupted by the brutalities of the German occupation. The Polish blackmailers (szmalcowniki) are well known, but it is seldom realized that they also had their Jewish counterparts. Josef Kermisz commented: "Czerniakow poured out his wrath on Jews who served the Germans, the informers, extortionists, and underworld figures who degraded and corrupted the ghetto." (p. 19). The looting of even the dead was not limited to Poles. In the entry for November 9, 1941, Czerniakow wrote: "A report of the Order Service about cases of graves being dug up by some gang to extract gold teeth from the dead." (p. 297).
   
   Czerniakow sheds light on the Polish Blue Police (Policja Granatowa). Some of their worst members were actually Volksdeutche (prewar Polish citizens of German extraction). In the entry for June 10, 1942, Czerniakow commented: "Today, Junacy [an informal designation of uniformed youth groups, mainly ethnic German] searched the cellars of the house at 20 Chlodna Street, allegedly looking for hidden leather." (p. 365). Again, the content in the brackets had been supplied by the editors of this volume.
   
   Finally, there is a place for humor in Czerniakow's diary. He speaks of "horizontal Aryans" and "vertical Aryans." (p. 192). The former refers to infant Jews who had been baptized, while the latter refers to Jews who had converted to Christianity as adults. (Of course, under Nazi racial laws, Jews who had converted to Christianity were not recognized as Aryans. They were still considered to be Jews, and treated accordingly).

No comments about Memories of Jewish Life: From Italy to Jerusalem, 1918-1960.

2 comments about Dear Lizzie : Memoir of a Jewish Immigrant Woman.

1. I enjoyed this book on many levels. First, because I recently met the author, Leona Tamarkin who is now 95 years old. Reading her book has given me a rare multidimensional view of her life and experiences. After working in the geriatric field for three decades I view this book as a reminder that older people are "living legends" and are the sum total of their life experiences. It also supplied the details of my own grandmother's life in Poland before WWII that were too painful for her to share. Finally, as a parent and Hebrew school educator, I feel that this book, which is simply written and written from the youthful recollections of the author, has the same universal appeal to a young student as The Diary of Ann Frank. While only alluding to war and the historical circumstances of the times, it chronicles the details and emotions of Leona's life in Poland and later as an immigrant to the United States as a young woman.



2. I enjoyed this book on many levels. First, because I recently met the author, Leona Tamarkin who is now 95 years old. Reading her book has given me a rare multi-demensional view of her life and experiences. After working in the geriatric field for three decades I view this book as a reminder that older people are "living legends" and are the sum total of their life experiences. It also supplied the details of my own grandmother's life in Poland before WWII that were too painful for her to share. Finally, as an parent and Hebrew school educator, I feel that this book, which is simply written and witten from the youthful recollections of the author, has the same universal appeal to a young student as The Diary of Ann Frank. While only alluding to war and the historical circumstances of the times, it chronicles the details and emotions of Leona's life in Poland and later as an immigrant to the United States as a young woman.

1 comments about Faraway Home.

1. Marilyn Taylor's FARAWAY HOME sensitively unfolds a touching story of the anguish suffered by Jewish refugee children sent by their parents from all over Europe to a farm in County Down, Northern Ireland during the Second World War. This is a story of pain and separation, of camaraderie and, finally, of hope. The beginnings of the Holocaust in Vienna are vividly portrayed through young Karl's eyes; the development of his character carries the reader from the oppression of Vienna to the friendly hardship of refugee life on the Ards peninsula. When Karl meets a spirited but rather spoilt volunteer from Dublin he is eventually persuaded to release some of his pain and anger. In the end, Judy teaches him to hope for the future. The pathos, suffering and bravery are overwhelming. But for me, it is Taylor's skill in building three-dimensional characters which makes this book so outstanding. None of the central characters are easily categorised. We are allowed inside the heads of Karl and Judy, thus getting to know their intimate thoughts; we hear how each regards the other and everyone else around them. Sometines their views are at odds and sometimes they coincide. The conflict between perception and reality in the book accurately mirrors real life. This is a story which stays with the reader, long after the final page has been turned.

5 comments about A Tzaddik in Our Time: The Life of Rabbi Aryeh Levin.

1. Incredible human being who lived during historic times in the land of Israel. Read it and you will marvel at the man, at his deeds, at his soul, at his quiet heroism. A Tzaddik in Our Time is a must read for anyone who values human kindness.



2. One can't imagine that such a kind and loving person really existed. I try to read a little bit each day as a role model to help ensure that I am kind to others.
   This book would make an excellent gift for anyone. I can assure you that they will cherish it.



3. This is a remarkable story of a remarkable person. Aryeh Levin was a very humble, and righteous person, one who dedicated his life to helping others. He was a legend in the Jerusalem of his time, a faithful student of the great first Chief Rabbi of Israel Rabbi Abraham Yitzhak Ha- Kohen Kook. He was also a legend for his help to the Jewish prisoners who the British held at the time of the Mandate. Above all he was known for his remarkable kindness to every person he met. He was truly a person who fulfilled the Biblical injunction of the prophet Micah, who ' loved justice, did mercy and walked humbly with his G-d"
   This book is filled with wonderful stories about him, and is recommended to anyone who wishes to be inspired and learn from this tsaddik ( righteous man) in our time.



4. Cover-to-cover anecdotes of events in the Rabbi's provide any reader with a long list of ways to make a difference in life.



5. A Tzaddik in Our Times is a biography of of a man that few people outside the Jewish world would know about. This is an absolute travesty, because this man's life should be an inspiration to everyone, regardless of religious affiliation. These days, heroes are hard to come by, and role models seem to have died off with the last generation. Reb Aryeh is that hero, that role model, and his life is not just an interesting story. It is a guide to anyone who would lead a meaningful life, a roadmap to the soul.

4 comments about Night, Dawn, and Day (B'Nai B'Rith Judaica Library).

1. I read this book when going through a particularly difficult loss. While I share very little in common with the author, I found all three stories to be profound and touching. While I cannot be thankful for the suffering and tragedy that Elie Wiesel experienced, I will always appreciate that he wrote about it.



2. This was one bound volume of Wiesel's first three books, which concern the Holocaust, survival, and humanity. Night is Wiesel's personal memoir, which relates his personal story before and during World War II, as he and his father are separated from his mother and sister and interned in a series of concentration camps. Dawn is the story of a member of the movement to free Palestine from British occupation and Day concerns how one could move from a past that consumes one's every thought (or even if one should).
   
   Quote: "Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never."
   
   I read Night in high school, and always think of it as being a particularly long book, which it is not. Wiesel manages to pack more than I would think possible into a little over a hundred pages, which relates the story of himself and his family during the Holocaust. It is a beautifully written work that relates a terrible story. I found the story of Wiesel's loss of faith and the relationship he had with his father particularly memorable. If you somehow missed this in high school, pick it up, if you didn't, find it again. It's worth it. Dawn and Day are not as catching as the first work, but are still interesting in their own way.



3. The cries of a madwoman on an Auschwitz-bound cattle car are just one of many portents shepherding doomed souls on their way to Nazi furnaces. In "Night", the first of three books in this collection, Elie Wiesel recounts his deportation to the death camps where the rest of his family perished. The tragic weight of his witness to this obscene cruelty burdens the reader with the fates of the inmates and his reflections on the meaning of evil. Wiesel questions his god and his faith. He sees sons kill fathers: "Meir. Meir, my boy! Don't you recognize me? I'm your father... you're hurting me... you're killing your father! I've got some bread... for you too... for you too..." (p.106), and becomes intimate with death.

   In "Dawn", Wiesel has migrated to Palestine and faces the duty to execute a captured prisoner. His long night of contemplation and uncertainty exposes his preoccupation with killing and killers and again with death: "Death," Kalman, the grizzled master, told me, "is a being without arms or legs or mouth or head; it is all eyes. If ever you meet a creature with eyes everywhere, you can be sure that it is death." (p.140). It is a preoccupation to be squeezed only from one who has not fully lost his faith or his humanity. A beggar explains the face of the night: "Listen," he said, digging his fingers into my arm. "I'm going to teach you the art of distinguishing between day and night. Always look at a window, and failing that look into the eyes of a man. If you see a face, any face, then you can be sure that night has succeeded day. For, believe me, night has a face." (p.126) Fear, night, suffering, and evil are his companions, and he explores them constantly. "Being afraid is nothing. Fear is only a color, a backdrop, a landscape." (p.174).

   Until, in "Day", he survives a terrible accident and is faced with his own complacent acceptance of mortality. He struggles with the urge to explain to his talented young doctor the futility of fighting against death, and reaches an epiphany when he understands the tragedy of splashing others with his suffering. "Suffering brings out the lowest, the most cowardly in man. There is a phase of suffering you reach beyond which you become a brute: beyond it you sell your soul - and worse, the souls of your friends - for a piece of bread, for some warmth, for a moment of oblivion, of sleep." (p.247).

   These stories are powerful and frightening,. Death is an implacable enemy, but also a partner for life who never goes away and will always win in the end. Wiesel has stared at evil, his stories are wrenching.




4. This book should simply be read by everyone interested in Judiasm or the Holocaust. Just read it!

1 comments about A Jew in America: My Life and A People's Struggle for Identity.

1. A Jew In America:
   My Life and a People's Struggle for Identity
   By Arthur Hertzberg
   San Francisco: Harper (October, 2002)

   Review by Elliot Fein

   The late Howard Cosell, the great radio and television broadcaster at ABC Sports, used to pride himself on "telling it like it is," on saying in public on the air the absolute truth about individuals and events in the world of sports. For over six decades, Arthur Hertzberg has been "telling it like it is" about people and events in the world of contemporary Jewish life in North America, in Israel, and throughout the world.

   Without the distinct Brooklyn nasal tone accent that made Cosell famous, but in a distinct voice all his own, Hertzberg has been saying and writing the absolute truth in his long and distinguished career as a rabbi, as a university professor and scholar, and as a CEO leader of various national and international Jewish communal organizations.

   His book, A Jew in America: My Life and a People's Struggle for Identity, an autobiography on the famous people that he has met (usually on a first name basis) and the events that he has experienced (often as a first hand participant) is a good read because history has often proved his predictions right.

   Soon after the 1967 Six Day War, Hertzberg was one of the first voices (perhaps the first American Jewish voice) that warned of the danger Israel would face if it did not return immediately most of the territories it obtained to its Arab neighbors. Hertzberg prophesized that it would rip the moral, democratic, and Jewish soul of the country if Israel attempted to keep the West Bank and Gaza and subsequently put itself in the position of occupying a growing and hostile Palestinian Arab refugee population.

   Hertzberg was one of the first to fulminate against the theology that has developed among many Orthodox Jews since 1967 that the outcome of the Six Day War sets the stage for the onslaught of the world's messianic redemption. For a small country that is struggling to live among, not against, the nations of the world, Hertzberg saw from its inception how this nationalistic and fundamentalist interpretation of contemporary events could (still) easily alienate Israel among the nations of the world and lead the contemporary state on a future suicidal path.

   In the early 1970's, Hertzberg was part of a contingent of American Jewish leaders who met in Israel with the then Prime Minister, Golda Meir. Golda, from a recent visit with President Nixon in the United States, wanted to talk with members of this contingent about race relations in America. She wanted to express her concern about militant African American leaders publicly articulating separatist, nationalistic, and anti-Semitic attitudes after the assassination of Martin Luther King and the decline of the Civil Rights Movement.

   Hertzberg responded in this public discussion to her concern by expressing his own about Israel. He warned the Prime Minister that a `Black Panther' problem of their own was developing in Israel, that a growing number of non-Ashkenazi Jewish citizens, recent immigrants from North African and Asian countries, were feeling estranged from mainstream Israeli life.

   Hertzberg predicted that the present Labor led government coalition would pay a heavy price in future elections if it did not start to listen and formally address some of the complaints and concerns of these Edot Ha Mizrachi Jews who perceived their citizenship status as second class.

   Golda and her Labor party did not seem to heed the advice. In 1977, Menachem Begin and his Likud Party, with the overwhelming support of this ethnic constituency, dethroned the Labor establishment for the first time in Israel's history and formed its own coalition to lead the Knesset, Israel's parliament.

   Being able to read the present and make educated predictions about the future is a gift that Hertzberg possess. It is a gift, though, that does not always translate into effective leadership. It is questionable, when reading the book, whether Hertzberg, as a pulpit rabbi or as the head of a Jewish communal organization, looks beyond the realm of symbolism in the various leadership roles he has assumed throughout his career.

   Hertzberg demonstrates an uncanny ability to look at the big picture, to see the forest through trees. He is able to articulate goals and a direction that the institution or organization that he leads ought to travel. He never seems to follow through on the dreams and direction that he envisions and proposes.

   Perhaps he does not feel it worthy in his latest book to write about the day-to-day work he did with other professional staff members and volunteer lay leaders trying to put his dreams into practice. Or, during his long leadership career, he perhaps felt it was beneath his dignity to engage in the mundane work after he articulates the grand vision.

   Many rabbis of Hertzberg's generation have been known to take a patriarchal attitude towards their career and calling, where they look at themselves as separate from and not simultaneously as a part of the people that they lead. Hertzberg, in this regard, does not hesitate to assert without conflict his independence.

   Since this patriarchal attitude usually does not succeed in the often corporate and collaborative world of contemporary Jewish life today, it is not surprising that Hertzberg has chosen in his later years to abandon the pulpit and the Jewish communal world for a university professor position where he can focus his individual energies exclusively on teaching, research, and writing.

   I worked for fifteen years as a Jewish Educator in a synagogue. I had a hard time getting excited reading about the study and outside activities that Hertzberg engaged in throughout his distinguished career. It took effort for me to stop asking the question of who was tending to the store of his synagogue or Jewish communal agency while he was involved in so many endeavors that went beyond the realm of his leadership position.

   I am glad I did make the effort. From reading A Jew In America, I gained a more profound understanding of where we as Jews have come from in America and a strong sense (as Hertzberg would confidently argue) where we as Jews ought to travel.

   Elliot Fein teaches Jewish Studies at the Tarbut V'Torah High School in Irvine.

5 comments about The Jewish 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Jews of All Time (100).

1. We live in a world in which there are two billion Christians and around thirteen million Jews. We live in a world after the Holocaust where more than one- third of the Jewish people were murdered. We also live in a world in which the Jewish people are presently under attack from a radical Islamic fundamentalism aimed at destroying the Jewish state of Israel. We live in a world in which thousands of Christian missionaries feel that it is more important to convert the thirteen million Jews than it is to work either on themselves, or on the other four billion people of the planet who are neither Christians or Jews.All this being the case it seems to me that the author had a duty to write a work that would strengthen Jewish identity and peoplehood, and not make it more questionable. Thus it seems to me completely insensitive of the author to put so many founders of Christianity as 'most influential Jews' I think that they belong rather in a book called ' Most Influential Christians'.
   Secondly, does it really make much sense to put the creators of Superman in a book with Biblical figures?
   Jewish history ( a third point)is filled with remarkable figures who make some of the American pop figures the author chooses small and insignificant.
   The author, it seems to me, might better have done a book on the them ( Jews who have done the most good for their own people.)



2. Unlike one reviewer on this site, I found this book to be a delightful read, and especially appropriate for teenage Jewish readers. This is not heavy reading, rather this is bedtime reading that is both informative ("Did you know so-and-so was Jewish?") and on occasion thought-provoking. Far from being anti-Jewish, as has been implied, I found the book to provoke pride in one's Judaism. And the lighter touches (about the Jewish origins of the inventors of Superman, for example) are much appreciated.



3. Shapiro's broad sweeping work contains rankings of those whom he considers the top 100 Jewish thinkers and movers of western civilization. His book is not designed to be a detailed analysis of these lives but instead, a snap shot commentary on how each individual impacted their area of expertise that influenced their Jewish community and the world. The rankings of course are subjective and arbitrary and are not that helpful as to why one person's contributions is ranked higher than another.

   One must remember that this work is not an intellectual tome but a nice easy to read book to see who's who in the Jewish world. This work contains many flaws and arouses some serious questions.

   1. Very few women are contained in the book. Are we to assume that Jewish women on the whole had very little impact in the western world?

   2. Shapiro is a great apologist for Christianity as he glosses over the negative impact of that religion upon Judism. Granted Jesus, Mary, Saul and Judas were Jews but the religion that was spawned from them resulted in a negative impact on Jews world wide. Christians baited Jews as Christ killers, forced conversions upon Jews (inquisition) and through their silence allowed the extermination of 6 million Jews.

   3. One of the most important questions is how does one determine who is a Jew? Although many of the names are famous, some were of mixed marriages ( Proust, Bohr, etc.) where Judism was absent in their lives and they converted to Christianity. Also included were those who denied their heritage or were non-practicing. Should they have been included regardless of their Jewish background?

   In any case this book is a good resource book for young teenagers, young adults and other people who wasnt a broad survey of Jews who impacted upon western civilization




4. From the title of the book you think the book is about Jews, however the author puts the Jews he is referencing to down, or he compares them to Jesus. I thought I was getting a book on great Jews. For example the author would talk about Moses, then make comments about Jesus totally for no reason unless he is a "Jew for Jesus". I really do not understand the author's motive, but I learned that you can not judge a book by its cover.



5. Well, objectively speaking, I must say I think Jesus had quite a greater impact on history than Moses, but we won't quibble: they're both awesome figures by anyone's measure. I recommend this book to all Jews & Gentiles who need to think through the tremendous contributions of the Hebrew race to all areas of human civilization. I can easily conclude, after going through this remarkable list, that some "special blessing" rests upon the children of Israel. May their tribe increase forever.

   Len Hummel (a Gentile Judeo-Christian)

No comments about The Silence: How Tragedy Shapes Talk.

2 comments about The Warriors: My Life As A Jewish Soviet Partisan (Religion, Theology, and the Holocaust).

1. There is a wealth of information in this book, notably a detailed map of relevant locations. I primarily focus on matters not elaborated by other reviewers.
   
   Zissman describes a time a prewar Poland during which he had a rosy view of Communism. He does not explain how he could have thought this in view of such things as the ruthless totalitarianism and the removal of Jews from top positions in the Soviet Union by Stalin in the mid-1930's. Or how could he be ignorant of these facts?
   
   In 1939, the Soviets occupied then-eastern Poland, a territory with a mixed Polish-Byelorussian-Jewish population. Zissman essentially confirms some historians (e. g., Jerzy Robert Nowak) as to the major cause of Jews being sent to Siberia: Jews manifesting their intent of going to the German-occupied zone (p. 29).
   
   Zissman describes the existence of a Polish militia which briefly served the Germans after their 1941 invasion: "Then they began arresting those who had worked for the Soviets." (pp. 41-42). Later, the Germans shot the Poles along with the Jews (p. 47). Poles who continued to serve the Germans clearly did it under duress: "If he [the Polish guard] dared show any mercy to the Jews, they [the Germans] would shoot him or send him to a concentration camp." (p. 53)
   
   In common with some other Jewish sources (e. g.,Deliverance: The Diary of Michael Maik, a True Story), Zissman confirms the fact that Germans, not Poles, were the main killers of Jedwabne's Jews: "Later on, some Jews who had fled Jedwabno for Derechin told us that when the Germans first entered their town, they had herded all the Jews into a barn and set it ablaze. Anyone who tried to get out was cut down by machine-gun fire." (p. 42). [The discovery of WWI-vintage bullet casings at the site doesn't disprove their connection with the Jedwabne massacre. The Germans probably relegated obsolete weaponry to the shootings of unarmed civilians.]
   
   Bor Komorowski gave an order for the AK to liquidate bandits who were preying on Polish farmers. Apropos to this, Zissman mentions bandit bands of Soviet soldiers who had been trapped behind German lines after the 1941 invasion (p. 78). Later, Zissman was a member of one of the "pozorny" groups that masqueraded as the AK: "When carrying out `bombings' [bandit raids], we impersonated Polish Underground fighters, the point being to discredit the White Poles with the farmers. From the farms, besides food and clothing, we took naphtha, saws, and axes--the farmers would miss these things most of all." (p. 149). How many crimes attributed to the AK (including the killings of fugitive Jews) were actually the deeds of the "pozornys"?
   
   After the Soviet "liberation" of Poland in 1944, Zissman was approached by a Jewish NKVD officer and invited to join (pp. 161-162). He did.
   
   Zissman comments on the reaction to Jewish owners returning for their properties: "Besides not wanting to give up their loot, they [current owners] feared being sent to Siberia as collaborators. Many were ready to kill any returning Jews." (p. 161). Could the fear of being accused of Nazi collaboration, ipso facto for possessing Jewish property, been itself, in many other such instances, a significant motivator for killing returning Jewish owners?



2. Too often have I read memoirs from Jewish partisans who served either with the Poles, Ukrainians or in this case Russians and Byelorussia and the sad fact that they had to face anti-semitism within these partisan groups and detachments. Again and again they would prove themselves to be resilient fighters, brave soldiers, and heroic warriors when the time came in the heat of battle. Some lived through it all but many more would die and their stories need to be heard, understood and remembered. Not only suffering from the Germans and their local collaborators but also at the hands of the same people whom they sought out for help and protecting and more so to simply join to seek vengeance. This book is a small glimpse into that world, a world where the enemy might be a man you called a friend not too long ago and someone whom you entrusted your life to in a split second decision when had yet to lose faith in humanity and the generous spirit you know people must have deep down inside. Yet the end result more often than not was betrayal, death, starvation, torture, and torment. Stories abound of the dozens of actions undertaken by these partisans and the huge amount of damage they were able to do to the Germans and locals who were helping them. At the same time we are also told about the German responses to these actions, local people who might have had nothing to do with it were robbed, beaten, and killed for simply being at the wrong place and at the wrong time. War is war, I only wish that the author had included everything in this book, sadly he himself says that he left out stories of 'cruelty, inhumanity, and atrocity.' I think that was a mistake on his part, the more we know the better informed we'll be and hopefully we might avert something like this from ever happening again.