5 comments about The Boys: The Story of 732 Young Concentration Camp Survivors.

1. Reading the boys' descriptions of the inhumanity that they had been through, it is a wonder that they could focus on their future without revenge in their hearts. After liberation and their welcome to Windermere, it is so remarkable that they are motivated to learn and get on with their lives. I now think that the Jews as a whole have gotten a bad press. Who else, could one say, would not be obsessed with violence and getting even? I am proud of the link I have with them.



2. I can't add much to the excellent published reviews. This is one of the most outstanding books I have read. Read it to learn what Jewish life was like before 1939 and to learn of the horrors of the camps and forced marches. Yet the book shows that there is hope as the "boys" remember the words of their fathers "In a place where there are no men, be a man". If you could get an older teen-ager to get through the beginning of this book (which is a little slow), they would get a tremendous amount from this book.



3. There were times I almost could not continue to read the book. I pictured myself as the mother watching in horror, the child, the sister, the brother, and it all seemed real and unbelievable.

   But as with all Holocaust stories, if these fortunate, brave and lucky souls, could have survived and lived to tell the horrors that still invade their minds, the least I owe them and especially those that perished, is that I should read the account.

   Inspiring, very well written, and everlasting impact.




4. Martin Gilbert is probably one of the most prodigious historians alive. This book required interviews with the 732 survivors it profiles ("Boys" includes both men and women) and those who knew them after the war. Some were as young as eight or nine when the war started. Many themes Gilbert covers are like those one can read in other personal Holocaust histories. But the experiences in each case are unique.

   Martin provides two statistics I find particularly haunting. While 6 million Jews died in the Holocaust--including victims of pre-war pogroms, ghettos, concentration and death camps and death marches--only 100,000 survived the camps. And while Britain agreed to take in 1,000 Jewish "children" under the age of 16 after the war, only 732 could be found alive.

   But for me, the most fascinating part of the book is the repeated confirmation that those who returned to their homes after the war found the same kind of murderous hatred among their former neighbors as Jan Tomasz Gross describes in Neighbors.

   In other words, Jedwabne was not unique. Gross has himself said as much and plans to write more on the subject. But Gilbert also confirms that murders of Jews by locals happened during the war all over Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, and to a lesser extent, in Hungary. It also happened after the war all over Europe--especially in the East. Returning Jews found neighbors who wished them dead, and in thousands of cases killed them. The "boys", obviously, survived. But many lost brothers, parents, friends, after the war, in Poland, Hungary, and elsewhere. Sir Martin Gilbert gives us the living proof. Alyssa A. Lappen




5. This remarkable book consists of the comprehensive results interviews with and letters by 732 concentration camp survivors from the holocaust.
   These young people-both boys and girls-where settled in Britain after World War II , some stayed and made lives in Britain , while others immigrated to the USA , Australia , Canada and Israel.
   Some of the boys made their mark in the Israel War of Independence defending the fledgling Jewish State after it was attacked by five Arab armies , aiming to anihilate all Jews in Israel (as the Arabs and anti-Zionists of the world aim for today i.e a second holocaust.)
   Part of the book consists of harrowing eyewitness accounts of the survivors , hence an important testament to holocaust remembrance. The accounts are often graphic and bring the grim reality of what happened to the Jewish people during world War II to bear on us.
   It is important to remember the holocaust again , at times when some , like Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and others , deny it's existance.
   
   It is important to remember the holocaust , at a time when the Islamic world and their far-left allies wish to destroy Israel , the phoenix that arose from the ashes of the Jewish people , and subject the Jews of Israel to a second holocaust.
   It is interesting to see how for most of the survivors Israel and Zionism where an important part of their consciousness.
   Anti-Zionist propaganda aims to prepare for genocide of Jews , in the same way as Nazi propaganda did , and therefore all Anti-Zionist and anti-Israel propaganda should be treated the same as Nazism-with no tolerance.
   Most holocaust survivors and their descendants today live in Israel.
   The future of the descendants of the survivors needs to be preserved , and therefore Israel must prevail.
   That is what we must fight for when we say 'Never Again!'

5 comments about Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk About Being Jewish.

1. Desmond Tutu can beg for peace all day, and he's lucky if he gets a squib in the press. Let George Clooney stand next to him, and the whole world perks up. And you can say all you like that American culture is shallow and that our cult of celebrity makes it impossible for serious ideas to get a hearing --- but even as you say it, surely you realize what a total bore you've become.
   
   America is what it is. Celebrities rule.
   
   So Abigail Pogrebin set out to interview Jews whose names you know to discuss their religious beliefs and practices. Very clever. A theologian talks, we snore. But 62 Jews from Hollywood (Dustin Hoffman, Steven Spielberg, Kyra Sedgwick), the Supreme Court (Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer), television (Sarah Jessica Parker, William Shatner), journalism (Mike Wallace), fashion (Diane Von Furstenberg, Kenneth Cole), and sports (Mark Spitz, Shawn Green)? Tell us more.
   
   For those who know celebrities, the punch line should not be surprising: The famous are very much like regular people. That is, it's all about them. On other topics, like their religion, they're a lot of talk and not a lot of action --- there are a great many "cultural Jews" in the celebrity class and very few who can be found in shul with any regularity.
   
   But there is, of course, one thing that celebrities do better than others. Talk. Smart celebs are fun to listen to, no matter the topic. They're provocative. Funny. Sometimes even wise. And because we feel we know them, we relate.
   
   Some snippets from the book will tell you all you need:
   
   Steven Spielberg: "I'd ask my dad, `Why can't we put lights up? We're the only house on the block that doesn't have lights.' And my dad would say, `We have a porch light.' I said, `Dad, you know what I mean.'"
   
   Natalie Portman: "My dad always makes this stupid joke with my new boyfriend, who is not Jewish. He says, 'It's just a simple operation.' "
   
   Mike Nichols: "I once said to Jerry Robbins, `I'm worried that all the great monsters of narcissism in show business are Jewish.' And I named some names. And there was a long silence, and he said, `Yes, well: Mickey Rooney.'"
   
   Jason Alexander: "It specifically says in the Torah that you can eat shrimp and bacon in a Chinese restaurant."
   
   Dustin Hoffman (on demanding a revision in the script of "Marathon Man"): "I won't play a Jew who cold-bloodedly kills another human being. I won't become a Nazi to kill a Nazi. I won't demean myself. I don't care what he did. Even though he tortured me, I won't do it.'
   
   Joan Rivers: "The Jews take care of everything, and everyone hates the Jews. The blacks hate the Jews. You fools. Who marched with you? Not the WASPS. Trust me; not the WASPS."
   
   Sarah Jessica Parker: "If I had straight hair and a perfect nose, my whole career would be different."
   
   Nora Ephron: "I am probably the only young woman who worked in the Kennedy White House whom the president did not make a pass at. Perhaps it's because I'm Jewish. Don't laugh, think about it --- think about that long, long list of women JFK slept with. Were any Jewish? I don't think so."
   
   It's not all amusing. There are overtly serious responses. And there is one that comes with fire and brimstone. It's from Leon Wieseltier, the literary editor of The New Republic. He walked away from Judaism; in his return, he's devout. And hypercritical of American Jews who aren't: "I can respect heresy, I can respect alienation, I can respect Karamazovian rebellion, even Oedipal rebellion. I don't mind renegades or apostates... My point is that American Jews aren't renegades; they are slackers."
   
   All those voices --- funny, profane, holy --- resonate with Pogrebin. "Being Jewish is powerful and, in a sense, unavoidable --- whether one embraces it or leaves it on the shelf, whether one lives a visible life or an anonymous one," she concludes. "And that, in the process of writing this book, it's become more vital to me than I ever expected."
   
   Indeed: At 40, Abigail Pogrebin was bat mitzvahed.



2. It was very enlightening to see that "famous" people struggle with the same issues of faith that the rest of us do. While most don't hold on to traditional Jewish customs, most are fiercly loyal to their heritage.
   
   A very interesting read.



3. I do feel alot of prominent Jews were left out & some of the people interviewed weren't really Jewish (ie: Sarah Jessica Parker). I can only assume that the author was able to get the people she got. As a Jew it made me want to be more Jewish. I also identified with many of the problems that other Jews felt was the reason that they didn't stay in touch with much of the religious customs but do cling & relish the traditions!



4. I grew up in a neighborhood completely devoid of Jews. It was even more confusing because my mom is Catholic, but it was my Jewish father that regularly attended services, and he would often take me along. I've always felt Jewish, but wasn't sure how or why my feelings about it were so strong. I never knew any other Jews when I was young except for my father, as all of his family had died before I was born (his parents having immigrated from Russia in the 1930s). My mom knew how strange I felt at times, and would point out to me celebrities she knew were Jewish. The idea that some of the people I admired so much were also part of this community that I so desperately wanted to know better somehow encouraged me, especially since some of the ones in this book are also half-Jewish. The stories retold in this book answered so many questions I'd had for Jewish celebrities, and were so interesting to read. The things these people tell would be interesting whether they were famous or not. I love it because we get to see a different, more personal side to them. We finally get to know their Jewishness! I couldn't put this book down. It was so well-done; the interviews are long enough to give you a good feeling for the interviewee, but short enough to make you want to keep reading. This is an entertaining book for everyone, but I think Jews will be the most interested in it; and with reason.



5. I purchased 10 of the books to be used in a short story study group. The women of the group love the book as it invites interesting and thoughtful discussion. We started with the prologue and will continue through each story. Everyone feels a connection to celebrities and each story will result in much conversation which is the object of the group.

4 comments about The Hidden Children.

1. This story is quite a good one. It's not one of my favorites but i've read it a couple times. It has lots of different people who contributed to it and it's sad and happy.



2. I bought this book for my son, Jefferson, who is 9 years old. When I looked through it, I started reading it, and just couldn't put it down. It is a wonderful book, of hardships like we have never known before, and survival of a wonderful religion and people. We are not Jewish, but I enjoyed this book immensely, and will be reading other books by this author. This book is great for adults, really makes one appreciate all that we have in this country; freedom first and foremost. For children, it is a great book to teach about hardships and compassion for others, as well as understanding history and the second world war. A DEFINITE 5 stars from me.



3. 
   I just finished another book about the Holocaust that mentioned children being smuggled out of the Warsaw ghetto in backpacks and I wanted to hear more stories about how children survived the Holocaust.
   
   This book is considered juvenile non-fiction but the information is the same regardless of the reader's age. Howard Greenfeld does a very good job organizing the stories of children who were hidden during the Holocaust. He includes their stories in their own words as well as photographs of the survivors.
   
   A moving collection regardless of the reader's age.



4. This is a must read for anyone who likes history and stories of the holocaust. Plan not to put it down until you are finished.

1 comments about New York Jew (New York Classics).

1. What a life! It's hard to begrudge Kazin for dropping names like a Hollywood hopeful, because the people in his life, and this book, are some of the most interesting and influential Americans of this century. With a fair mix of Manhattanite pretension and honest intellect, Kazin traces the trajectory of his life, or lives, as a New York Jew. In doing so, he gestures towards everthing from turn of the century midwest American hardship to provinciality to the changing face of the American Left and the various outposts of American Intellectualism: New York, Chicago, Philadelphia. In an appropriate irony, his intimate, personal story is almost consumed by the focus on public discourse and history. Kazin's story is the story of a mood, a climate; it is a history, primarily, and one told by an admirable intellectual whose personal life is occassionally shared with as much honesty and effect as is necessary to maintain the grand, sweeping vision of the story. An excellent look at 20th Century American intellectual history from a distinctly American viewpoint.

5 comments about Schlepping Through the Alps: My Search for Austria's Jewish Past with Its Last Wandering Shepherd.

1. Sam Apple, author of Schlepping Through The Alps: My Search For Austria's Jewish Past With Its Last Wandering Shepherd, first encounters Yiddish folk-singer Hans Breuer at a concert and slide show in New York. Breuer, as Apple points out, is not just your ordinary run-of-the mill Yiddish folk-singer, rather he is truly a wandering Jew and as he reveals in his book, "If you ever happen to be hiking the Alps and you see a man singing Yiddish songs as he watches a dog chasing a sheep in a raincoat, no need for concern."
   
   Apple, who grew up in Houston and now makes his home in Brooklyn, was quite intrigued by this forty-five year old Austrian shepherd. The result was a one thousand word article that eventually has being turned into a witty yet insightful book, wherein much of Apple's research was accumulated while traveling in Austria as an apprentice to Breuer.
   
   During their first encounter in New York, Breuer mentioned to Apple that he wanted to bring Yiddish to the uninitiated in the Austrian Alps. When asked if he wanted these individuals to remember their Yiddish neighbors, his reply was: "I want to make them confront for the first time in their lives this culture that their uncles and fathers destroyed." With this in mind Apple decided to voyage to Austria and find out for himself what it was like to be a shepherd in the twenty-first century and to make sense of Han's Jewish identity or as he states, what it really meant for him to sing in Yiddish. He also wanted to learn about sheep, Yiddish music and anti-Semitism.
   
   Apple's engaging narrative is what Yiddish speaking readers would probably classify as a good "meinsa," something akin to an old wife's tale only this story is actually true. Apple beckons us to follow his meandering through the Alps following a herd of sheep, a shepherd, his mistress and young lamb herders, while picking up along the way various shepherding tips from his mentor and learning about Austria's past and present political landscape.
   
   During the course of his apprentice with Breuer, Apple learns about Austria's post-war anti-Nazi legislation that led to the sentencing to death of several Nazis and the conviction and incarceration of thousands of low-ranking Nazis. However, a few years after the enactment of this legislation, a general amnesty came into effect and all but a handful of the worst offenders were free to live happily every after. In fact, the government's constant line about complaints about Austria's behavior during the Holocaust was that if you have one take it to Germany.
   
   Quite telling of Breuer's psyche is that he associates the Austrian countryside with fascism and anti-Semitism. When he encounters people along his shepherding path, he believes that they are all staring at him with cold eyes, aware that he is not one of them. Apple notes that Breuer enjoys being a living part of a dying tradition, where Yiddish and shepherding are relics of another time- nonetheless he takes great pride in both. Moreover, he is not quite sure how much of his own romanticizing of wandering and Jewishness has drawn him to Breuer. However, what he observes about Breuer's shepherding is "the rejection of modern society in the aftermath of the Holocaust. In his Yiddish songs I inevitably listened for the millions of missing Yiddish voices that should have been singing along."
   
   Apple does an excellent job of capturing the flavor of the Austrian Alps with its little villages and inhabitants who seem to either have collective amnesia pertaining to their past or consider themselves blameless. Although he never does find as many anti-Semites as he originally feared, Apple does provide his readers with some serious insights, spiced up with enough lively and sometimes humorous commentary that will unquestionably keep readers turning the pages all the way to the end.
   
   Norm Goldman, Editor Bookpleasures



2. To paraphrase comic Jeff Foxworthy, if you find this engaging travelogue entirely humorless... you might be an Anti-Semite. (Reading it might be a good self-test.) Although Jewishness and Anti-Jewishness are portrayed throughout, Mr. Apple's writing is so genuine and fluid that anyone with an appreciation for English will enjoy its exceptional quality. While comparisons have been made to Woody Allen, author Sam Apple might better be described as the Hunter S. Thompson of Generation X. Perhaps "Rolling Stone" would do well to engage him to cover the upcoming Presidential election--and those uncomfortable with Jewishness (Jews and non-Jews alike)--would find it less frightening to enjoy a bright new literary light. Meanwhile, try this one: reading through it is no schlep.



3. I read this enchanting book when it first came out and could not put it down. Reading it for the second time, I can't help but wonder, "why isn't this a movie?" This rare, heartwarming story told with such humor and wit could easily translate into another media form. It's definitely time to replace "The Sound of Music" with a new travel guide through the Alps. After all, a shepherd, a nice Jewish boy, and a beautiful girl could make the hills come alive again. Hollywood, where are you?



4. There are two stories here. Which one dominates your reading will depend in part on your tendency to optimism or pessimism at the moment that you read. The grim story that hangs over everything is the fate of the Jews in Austria. There were a quarter million Jews and people of Jewish parentage in Austria in the 1930's. After the Austrians decided to kill or expel their Jewish neighbors, there were almost none. Today, the Jews of Austria number about 10,000-most of them in Vienna.
   The comedy is the story of Hans Breuer, a folk-singing grand-child of the radical sixties. In the middle of the world's most developed economy, he makes a living as a shepherd: a Jewish shepherd.Sam Apple, the author of this book, plays with the nature of the shepherd's life, the mercurial personality of Hans Breuer and the odd business of being Jewish in a country where killing Jews was a bit of a national sport.
   Having spent a great deal of time in Vienna, I can tell you that Apple gets a great deal of this right. He certainly gets all of it funny, or at least wry. He concentrates on lingering old-fashioned anti-semetism and ignores both the small philo-semetic counter-trend and the more genteel neo-jew-hating of the left.
   Apple spends a great deal of his time talking about himself and so the book is also partly a memoir. The self that he reveals is game for the adventure of being a shepard for a while, but also comically neurotic and thereby a bit unattractive.
   On one of my last trips to Austria, I went to a Hans Breuer recital. It was at a bar in the countryside. Half the audience was out from Vienna, the other half local people having dinner. Breuer seemed to think he was in a concert hall and between songs went back in the kitchen to silence the cooks. It was an awkward moment, but one that seemed to fit.
   
   Lynn Hoffman, Author of The New Short Course in Wine



5. A chochem is, in Yiddish, a wise person. Sam Apple, the writer, is a lot wiser than Sam Apple, the character he creates, a woody allen-ish hypochondriac awkwardly trying to write a book about a wandering Jewish Austrian shepherd. Apple also scores a literary triumph in his portrait of the one-of-a-kind Hans Breuer, the shepherd.
   
   Post-modern in its best sense, the book makes wonderful and surprising connections between the search for justice and reconciliation in post-war Austria, the history of domesticated animals, Yiddish song, sexuality and the fine points of herding 675 sheep through mountains, forests and small towns.
   
   I sat down to read for a few minutes and stayed in the chair for most of the day, following the hapless Sam as he tries to live the life of an alpine shepherd with Hans, Hans' estranged wife and devoted girlfriend, his sons and various eccentric friends like Austria's giant champion scythe-wielding grass-cutter. More is revealed when Sam spends time in Vienna meeting politicians, survivors of the Shoah and anti-racist activists, including the beguiling Irene, a welcome romantic interest whose fling with Sam forms a revealing counterpoint to Hans' tangled love life.
   
   Through these varied landscapes, Apple's voice is funny, knowing and refreshingly humble. He gracefully mixes and blends the
   Jewish, picaresque, storytelling tradition of Sholem Aleichem and S.Y. Agnon with the irreverence of Phillip Roth and the eye for quirky detail of Bruce Chatwin He's a young writer whose first book jump starts what I imagine will be a surprising and exciting career.

5 comments about Edith's Story: The True Story of a Young Girl's Courage and Survival During World War II.

1. I've read a number of accounts by Jews who were hidden by heroic friends and strangers during the Holocaust. But Edith Velmans' story stands out. I found myself totally drawn into her idyllic teenage life in the Hague as war slowly began to overshadow the sunshine of her youthful pusuits. She lovingly paints a warm but realistic picture of her community and family. I was especially touched by the letters she shares from her parents. Velmans also relates her psychological adjustment of going into hiding and taking on another identity, something other accounts have rarely mentioned. Yet through it all, Velmans captures the fact that despite the agony of going through such a painful experience, she emerged with her courage intact. I highly recommend this book, especially for teachers in search of good reading material for high school students studying the Holocaust. But anyone would enjoy this book. I read it one evening, unable to stop.



2. This book may not have the deep poignancy of Anne Frank's diary, as its author tells her story from an adult vantage point. But it does offer a vivid picture of day-to-day life as a jew in hiding in Nazi-occupied Holland. I readily felt Edith's anxiety, as she attempted to pass for a gentile, far from friends and family, and not knowing what had become of those she loved. The story also has a deep honesty -- it is clear, for example, that she often found the family who saved her difficult, and that she felt resentments as well as gratitude. I'm sure that this is, in fact, how it felt, and am grateful to Edith Velmans for the straightforward telling of her story.



3. This book is an absolute treasure. It is a very moving account of an adolescent Jewish girl's life in Holland as the Nazi regime moved in and took over. The book contains some of her actual diary entries written as a teenager along with her present-day adult comments to help put the entries into perspective. I would highly recommend this book to everyone, but most especially to young people. It's a gripping story of a girl from the past with great courage and love of life.



4. Edith's Story written by Edith Velmans is a true story about courage, love, and survival during WWII. Edith's family is Jewish living in Holland during WWII. Her eldest brother Guss moves to America before the start of the war. The rest of the family does not want to leave. They don't believe Hitler will actually start rounding up Jews. They soon find out they were wrong. They first have to sew the yellow stars of David on all of their clothing. Then they are not allowed to go to the same school with non-Jews. Things keep getting worse and worse. Especially when Edith's mother has to go to the hospital and get her hip operated on. Her family soon decides to find places where Edith and her older brother, Jules, can go into hiding. Jules goes to live with a farmer up north and Edith goes to live with a family were she plays the part of Netti. A friend whose parent's have fallen ill and cannot take care of her. The rest of the story is about how Edith takes all of her courage and love to survive the war and worse the braking apart of her loving family.
   I loved the book Edith's Story. It is the most loving heartwarming book I have ever read. For someone to have that much strength in such an awful part of history like Edith is amazing. This was a very good book. I normally do not like to read Holocaust books but I enjoyed this one a lot. This is a truly moving book with so much great hope in it. I recommend this book to any one because it is a wonderful story.



5. I read this book in one sitting! I have read many books on the Holocaust and this is one of my favorites! Edith gives a detailed look into the life of a young girl who survives WWII, this book made me very emotional, which I think all great books should do. Enjoy!

5 comments about Suddenly Jewish: Jews Raised as Gentiles Discover Their Jewish Roots (Brandeis Series in American Jewish History, Culture and Life).

1. I'll dare to be different with my opinion on Suddenly Jewish. I agree that its good that the accounts of these one hundred sixty cases were documented to show the effects of the long-term persecution of the Jews. Whether it was the Holocaust or the Spanish Inquision, the long terms effects on many Jews from a psychological point of view runs very deep. A few stories, particularly the one about the priest discovering his Jewish roots does stand out.

   However, as much as I applaud documentation that details the persecution and torment the Jews have faced, the manner in which the stories just shoot out at you is annoying and difficult to comprehend and follow. I guess I would rather prefer it if Barbara Kessel documented more clearly and sucinctly a few of the accounts of these Suddenly Jewish people rather than providing brief snipets of 160 cases. The stories practically run into one another and it is difficult to interpret where one starts and one ends.

   After a while many of the cases sound identical as there is little that is unique. Three of the sections deal mostly with the Holocaust. Don't get me wrong, we should never forget the Holocaust, but it would have been nice to have a little more depth about some of these people. How about a section discussing some issues that involve the Middle East? With Israel being surrounded by so many Arab nations, you wonder if there are some Jews in those countries who were raised gentile or otherwise.

   Also, how about a section that illustrates cases of intermarriage which have nothing to do with a political event whre the children are brought up in a gentile home but later are curious as to the Jewish side of their family tree. Kessel most definitely should have organized the chapters of this book better to outline more situations of Gentile children discovering their Jewish roots.

   A few important reminders of the path the Jews have travelled. However, the organization and the documentary style of writing hurts this book's appeal.




2. The author introduces you into the inner lives of the interviewees with mastery ease.They share with her and the reader their traumatic experiences,meanwhile you follow intensely their voyage to the discovery of their selves.I just couldn't stop reading it.These stories made me weep and smile.The book it's about self negation,self disconnection and justified and unjustifed fears on one side but also about self discovery,renewal and bravery on the other side.



3. Barbara Kessel has written an amazing book about individuals who are raised as Gentiles and discover their Jewish roots. She manages to weave many diverse interviews into her book, and manages to somehow connect all these smoothly. The result is a fascinating look at how individuals were told of their Jewish roots, and the wide range of reactions to this news.
   
   The entire book revolves around questions of identity. What is it to be a Jew? Can you be "half-Jewish"? Is Judaism a religion, a race, a culture - or all of the above? What if you know you are Jewish but you lack the documentation to prove it - do you convert? Why do some latch on to the revelation that they're Jewish, while others shrug and say that it doesn't change anything for them? Can you ever really BE Jewish if you were raised with Christian theology - or will you always be playing "catch-up" with Jews who went to Hebrew school and have a lifetime of memories of holidays and bar/bat mitzvahs?
   
   This book was such an enticing read, I could hardly put it down. However, the most fascinating chapter for me was the last, for in it the author discusses the possibility of "collective unconscious" - that a group-specific unconscious memory from the Jews present at Sinai is passed through generations as sort of a genetic memory. This phenomenon could be one possible explanation for why one who seems drawn to Judaism later learns he has Jewish roots. Or maybe there's another reason for these "coincidences."
   
   Barbara Kessel has written a compelling book on Judaism and identity. I highly recommend this book for anyone - Jewish or not. I see that it would also be helpful for anyone undergoing a conversion to another religion or one who is grappling with questions of identity.



4. Barbara Kessel tells the story of one- hundred and sixty people she interviewed who ' discovered' their Jewishness. There are four categories, Crypto-Jews ( Sephardic Jews descendant from those driven from Spain during the Inquistion) hidden children( Children whose identity was disguised from them while they were hidden during the Holocaust) Survivors ( Children of Survivors of the Holocaust whose parents tried to hide their identity from them) and Adoptees.
   As the Jewish people is a small people who has lost so many in history to persecution and assimilation there is a special sense of 'joy' at the return of those who could be conceived of as lost.
   This is an important introductory work on an important subject.
   One reader however wisely suggests another category of 'hidden Jews'. Those children of mixed marriages whose parents have raised them without any Jewish heritage or tradition. Certainly they present the largest number of those who might ' discover their identity' . Such discovery however in Jewish terms means more than saying 'Eureka' it involves a learning process by which the individual comes to understand Jewish teaching and law- and decides to practice it, and thus live Jewishly in a full way.



5. I couldn't put this book down. I had no idea how many people's Jewish background was hidden, for the sake of survival. I am sure there is more to know and I have the greatest respect for Barbara Kessel's work. I hope she writes more books. It is especially touching for me as I am Jewish.

1 comments about Oskar Schindler and His List: The Man, the Book, the Film, the Holocaust and Its Survivors.

1. The book kept me interested but it wasnt edge of the seat action but i would definately recommend it

1 comments about If I Am Not For Myself: Journey of an Anti-Zionist Jew.

1. As any anti-Zionist knows, raising opposition to Israel and Zionism immediately draws accusations of anti-Semitism, or if the dissenter is Jewish, accusations of self-hatred.
   
   It is precisely these attempts by Zionism to squash all criticism of Israel -- especially criticism by Jews -- that Mike Marqusee takes head on in his latest book, If I Am Not For Myself: Journey of an Anti-Zionist Jew. Starting with the papers of his late grandfather and Marqusee's own personal experiences being raised as a Jew in post-war America, the book beautifully weaves together a broad, yet intimately personal, history of anti-Zionism and radicalism in Judaism. Equal parts biography, autobiography, history, and commentary, Marqusee powerfully strips Zionism of its fundamental claim to represent and speak for all of world Jewry.
   
   Central to Marqusee's task is the re-appropriation of Jewish, anti-Zionist, and leftist history -- a history that is consciously buried by the Zionist establishment. In this process, he shows the strong connections between history, how we understand the present, and the frameworks we can utilize in determining the future.
   
   Marqusee weighs in on an impressively diverse and rich array of subjects including (but far from limited to) the Jewish workers' Bund, Jewish Enlightenment philosophy, political struggles within the New Deal coalition, the parallels between Zionism and right-wing Hindu nationalism, "left-wing anti-Semitism," discussions with Muslims about Zionism, Jews in the Middle East, and the parallels between anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.
   
   These discussions and explorations all radiate out from Marqusee's narrative center: the life of his maternal grandfather -- Edward V. Morand (aka EVM) -- a Jewish leftist active in New York politics in the 1930s and 1940s.
   
   Despite being involved in virtually every left-wing cause of his time, EVM increasingly became an ardent Zionist -- forcing him to unconsciously sacrifice many of his radical principles. Marqusee is particularly horrified by EVM's political positions in 1948 -- the year of Israeli "independence", or al-Nakba (the catastrophe), as it's known to Palestinians. Marqusee writes: "In the midst of [Israel's] one-way process of destruction, displacement and plunder, EVM's constant cry is 'no retreat.' He seems to have entirely lost his former distaste for war and militarism...In this war, there seems to be only one kind of victim, Jewish."
   
   Marqusee attributes EVM's political twists and turns, in part, to "[a] failure to imagine the people on the receiving end of your dreams. It's a failure rooted in Western and white supremacy, a network of unexamined assumptions that has proved much more ineradicable and insidious than anti-semitism. EVM's writings of 1948 resound with it, and offer inadvertent testimony to the racist character of the Nakba and Nakba denial."
   
   These political contradictions and hypocrisies are exactly what led Marqusee himself out of the Zionist trap.
   
   In a very candid section, Marqusee relates an experience that is no doubt familiar to many Jewish anti-Zionists: the first time he was accused of self-hatred. He describes hearing an Israeli soldier speak to his Sunday school class just after the 1967 Israeli war that began the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. The soldier was going on about how "the Arabs are better off now, under Israeli rule. You have to understand these are ignorant people. They go to the toilet in the street." Marqusee responds: "Now something akin to this I had heard before. I had heard it from the white Southerners I'd been taught to look down upon. I had heard it from people my parents and my teachers described as prejudiced and bigoted. So I raised my hand and when called upon I expressed my opinion, as I'd been taught to do. It seemed to me that what our visitor had said was, well, racist." The young Marqusee was immediately denounced. Angrily, he went home to share this experience with his normally supportive parents. At the dinner table, he added to the story, putting forward his opinion, heavily influenced by the anti-Vietnam War movement, that, "'It was wrong for one country to take over another, or part of another, by military force'...Suddenly [my dad] barked, 'Enough already!'...Like my Sunday school teacher, he made me feel that I'd said something obscene...'I think you need to look at why you're saying what you're saying,' he said...'There's some Jewish self-hatred there.'"
   
   In the end, Marqusee answers the question set out by the title, "'If I am not for myself...', then others will claim to be 'for me'...[I]n defining myself as an anti-Zionist Jew, I am for myself, and at the same time and without contradiction for others...I find in anti-Zionism emancipation both as a Jew and as a human being...Jews today can no more escape the question of Zionism than they could the question of anti-semitism in earlier eras. The problem today isn't that Jews are in denial of their Jewishness or of the threat of anti-semitism, but that Jews are in denial about Israel, Zionism, the Nakba, the occupation, the wall...The people who call us self-haters want to steal our selves from us -- appropriate our selves for their cause -- and speaking as a self, I'm damned if I'm going to let them get away with it."
   
   The task of anti-Zionists is to explain the role that Zionism serves in the US imperial project while also breaking the notion that Zionism has anything to do with Jewishness. As Marqusee puts it: "[T]he Zionist dominance of the diaspora, and especially the diaspora in America, is a mutable, historical phenomenon -- not the inevitable expression of 'Jewish self-interest' -- and the continuation of that dominance is by no means guaranteed."
   
   Easier said than done, right? In addition to reclaiming history, we have to understand that Israeli war crimes and the logic of Zionism itself can shake even the most veteran of Zionists. Just look at Marqusee's dad's own development -- the same dad that first called him a self-hater: "[I]n the end, the Zionists tested his humanity beyond endurance. After the news broke about the Sabra and Shatila massacre in 1982, he phoned me from New York. 'Ok,' he said, 'you were right. They're bastards.' He started to make contributions to Palestinian causes and to raise the issue among his friends."
   
   The struggle against Zionism's dominance over Jews and Palestinians won't be easy, but Marqusee has made an important and captivating contribution to that fight. If you've ever had trouble arguing that anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism or if you just want to get a sense of the rich diversity of Jewish history and its relationship to radicalism, then you should pick up this book. I just bought a copy for my dad -- the first person to call me a self-hater. If Marqusee can convince his dad, then I guess I'll hold out hope for mine as well.

2 comments about The Field Men: The Ss Officers Who Led the Einsatzkommandos - The Nazi Mobile Killing Units (Schiffer Military History).

1. I'm a little surprised that a review of this excellent book has not been written sooner. French McLean has once again proven his ability to conduct archival research and translate it into a creative and effective reference tool for serious historians. I highly recommend this book--it is a jolt to the senses to see how mainly ordinary bureaucrats could be lured by the "system" into committing the massive-scale murders that they did. This is probably the first book of its kind to present that depth of insight into Heydrich's SD. Well done, French.



2. Consisting of a long section presenting (very abridged) cv's, and a photo section, the photos are what makes the tome valuable. These pictures aren't to be found elsewhere, and for those who are fond of reading facial features, they make for a very interesting journey into the heinous world of everyday neighbors turned mass murderers. The leaders of the Einsatzgruppen in particular were a crowd of often accomplished lawyers conversant in several languages, so their voyage into the abyss is all the more disturbing.
   
   Not a few of the likenesses shown in this volume might have blended in at any Ivy League law school. Also, note a faint resemblance of one of the most bloodthirsty Einsatzgruppen leaders standing trial in Nuremberg, Paul Blobel, to the Unabomber. (Blobel having been the person who, driving with Albert Speer to Blobel's quarters near Kiev one night in 1941, passed through the Babiy Yar valley. According to Speer, the car headlights illuminated the earth erupting with eerie fog plumes the way the Yellowstone Park earth erupts. Blobel turned to Speer and remarked: "Here, my 30.000 Jews are resting.")
   
   As more information related to the persons shown is to be found on the internet at a mouse's stroke, the cv section is basically just a starter, and could well have been done away with.