1 comments about Shayndl and Salomea: From Lemberg to Berlin (Jewish Lives).

1. In 1999, while living in Berlin and planning a trip to Lemberg (Lviv), I met the author and bought this memoir. I had hoped to learn a bit about Jewish life in pre-1939 Berlin and Lemberg. I was sorely disappointed.

   The depiction of life in Lemberg and Berlin is superficial, but one should keep in mind how old the author was at the time of the story. The author has chosen to use her memoir as a form of cathartic therapy. She goes to lengths to portray her family negatively, and she gratuitously dwells on her psychosexual development as a child. Her psychological difficulties as an adult in Australia do not really have much relevance to the story of central European Jewry living under the shadow of doom.

   Is there anything redeeming about this book? Some of the descriptions of her family's difficulties in Berlin are interesting, and the accompanying essay is not bad. This memoir is the sort of work that merits only the barest of mentions in a scholarly bibliographic essay or the bibliography of an academic work on prewar Berlin Jewry. The casual reader will likely find that he has wasted his time and money.

No comments about Inheriting the Holocaust: A Second-generation Memoir.

No comments about A Virgin in the Galilee: Memories of Israel's War of Independence & the Subsequent Years.

No comments about Fight for Survival in Ww II: Ten-Year Saga of Emigration.

No comments about The King of Israel (n/a).

No comments about Jewish Heroes of America.

5 comments about Heart of a Wife: The Diary of a Southern Jewish Woman.

1. This book was boring. It basically told of a rich woman who was bored all the time, so therefore kept up extrmarital dalliances to amuse herself. How stupid! What a waste. What really infuriated me was the constant complaint of how she could have been a writer, yet lacked the education! What a cop out! With all the money she had, she really had NO excuse. She had no excuse, with or without money! She certainly read enough, a book a day! Wouldn't we all love to be able to say we have that kind of time on our hands! there were plenty of women writers during her lifetime to emulate. If her role in society was to raise a child and her own daughter was so independent and she wasn't able to have more.........GEEZ, there's plenty of kids, without parents, who could have benefited from her lack of children! I believe the Jewish faith practices benevelonce, leaving the world a better place than you found it, SHEEEEES, somebody should have slapped her silly, and told her to WAKE UP, quit thinking about YOURSELF.....poor YOOOOOOU! I was sorely disappointed to say the least!



2. Helen Jacobus Apte was a remarkable woman. Readers gain an intimate view of a pre-feminist world by reading her very private diary. A Southern Jewess who valued her Southern and Jewish origins equally, Apte lived a comfortable life and served as an articulate witness to vital events in early 20th Century American life. Apte's writing is beautiful and she makes even the most mundane subjects poignant with the quality of her insights and prose. A clear talent,she apparently failed to recognize her ability or chose - for one reason or another - to share it only with her diary. Fortunately for us, her grandson, who discovered the diary long after Apte's death, brought it to publication complete with a series of highly-informative supportive essays which help readers appreciate the times in which his grandmother lived. Apte was a true romantic and may have been one of the last Victorians. In many ways her values are so remote from ours today, that it's a stretch to appreciate her; which makes reading Heart of a Wife a satisfying exploration into real-life history.



3. Heart of a Wife: The diary of a Southern Jewish Woman opened up a window to a world that was completely foreign to me despite a common European Jewish heritage. Helen Jacobus Apte was born in 1886 Georgia and was first generation American but did not have any of the immigrant characteristics and values that I would have expected. She derived her set of values and standards from the dominant Victorian culture rather than from Jewish Tradition, yet she did have an important place in her heart for Judaism.

   She spoke of her intention as a new bride to light shabbat candles every week and we know that she was active in her temple and in Jewish Charities, but it is unclear if she did observe Jewish Rituals throughout her life. There is no mention of a seder and Rosh Hashana was referred to as "The New Year" with little elaboration. Marcus D Rosenberg, her grandson,acknowleges that " Readers may find it curious that so little in it is identifiably "Jewish". In some ways of course, everything in it is Jewish. Judaism was behind Helen's clearly liberal social conscience. Her Religion not only guided her views of life and death but also shaped her views of duty and responsibility."

   Helen's parents immigrated to the United States from Germany and I am amazed that her connections to her European past could have been so cleanly severed. I could not imagine a woman of her intelligence and supposed social consciousness would not be more aware of the the plight of European Jewry during the thirties and forties and not feel some connection to it. (If she did, she never mentioned it.) Rosenberg explains in his essay that Helen identified as a Southern American who happened to be Jewish" and that was common in that time and Place.

   Marcus Rosenberg does a wonderful job of setting the historical context and establishing identities of family members. His essays offer great insight into the times and the events which influence her. I do think he has a more romantic image of his grandmother than she deserves. I was very disappointed by Helen Jacobus Apte. I thought that she had great talent and potential but was too self absorbed to have any positive effect on those around her, and certainly not on the world.

   Was Helen Apte truly a typical Southern Jewish Woman? I hope that she was not. She was the stereo-typical Southern Belle, spoiled , self-centered, with a constant case of the "vapors". Although she alludes to world events, none of them seemed to touch her. Only "The 1910 Cigar Strike," which affected her directly and financially, seemed to really matter. She was the center of her world, and she seemed to use her ill health to her best advantage.




4. I enjoy reading diaries, especially from the past, and gaining more insight into people's thoughts and feelings. While I didn't dislike Helen Jacobus Apte as much as some other reviewers did, I did think that her diary was a trifle boring. I found myself skimming through parts of it, although it did give a fairly good picture of Southern life in that time period. Overall, I'd say this book was a mild disappointment.



5. this book showed great research and the editor, Marcus Rosenbaum, obviously spent long hours working on it.

No comments about The Story of My Life.

No comments about Mordecai Sheftall: Jewish revolutionary patriot.

2 comments about They Are Still Alive.

1. When the German army invaded Belgium in May 1940 Philip Pressel and his parents, a Jewish family, fled to France. They survived with false identification papers, but were subjected to many frightening moments, escapes from being arrested, bombings and secret round-ups. Philip underwent forced separation from his parents in 1944. He was sheltered by a kind Catholic family in a small village in central France. Neither he nor his parents knew whether they would ever see each other again. Here, he saw, up close, many frightening and dangerous episodes.
   
   "From a childhood in Nazi-occupied France to retirement in San Diego - Phil Pressel is a man who has survived, and lived fully a life of the 20th century. A life worth telling about. In this wonderful readable memoir with its touching letters from wartime Europe, Pressel takes us along on his life's journey." Roald Hoffman, Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry
   
   "A terrifyingly true story of the triumph of the human spirit, set against the atrocities of Nazi Germany. This book stunningly illustrates how one family's human kindness can overcome a nation filled with fear and hatred. They Are Still Alive is a compelling read from the early days of WWII to the overwhelming reunion of 2003." Larry Himmel, Reporter Local 8 News, a CBS affiliate in San Diego



2. Firstly, I want to thank you so much for writing this book. I cannot begin to imagine how painful it was to bring back the memories of the war to recount them so powerfully for the benefit of others. Each and every word not only helps me to understand so much more about who is Phil, who is Miriam and of course who is your father Joseph, but it helps me to understand who I am too; where I 'fit in'.
   
   As you rightly point out, there has been the odd story here and the odd story there, but never a thorough explanation of the events that helped shaped our family history. As so many future generations will surely be, I am sincerely grateful that you have taken the time and effort to put down with such incredible attention to detail the events that unfolded around you. Just how you were able to recall so much of your childhood so vividly are among the questions I shall pose to you in person some time!
   
   Just as your children, I too did not grow up with both grandparents, but as a 'character' in your book my grandma Suzi is very much alive, whether it be on the beach in Blankenberg, exchanging letters with your parents or sending over packages with necessities.
   
   I will recommend this book to anyone as a story written by someone who led a truly incredible life and be proud to say "he is my uncle."