4 comments about The Man Who Stopped the Trains to Auschwitz: George Mantello, El Salvador, and Switzerland's Finest Hour (Religion, Theology, and the Holocaust).

1. THis is a compelling story written almost in novel form. The history is documented meticulously and represents a herculean effort by the author. This story of rescue on a grand scale is largely unknown and Schindler's efforts pale b comparison. This is a must read for anyone interested in the Holocaust. The author deserves much praise-I would love to hear him speak!



2. After Hungary left WWII, Germans felt free to round up Hungarian Jews for extermination. The book, based on meticulously researched material, reads as an adventure-mystery novel yet is non-fiction. It shows that rescue was possible to an extent when people,with proper leadership, rose up and protested. Credit here goes to the Swiss people, journalists and major Swiss Theologians and Pastors.Under leadership of outstanding Swiss theologians such as Karl Barth, the Swiss people evinced an extraordinary moral leadership in efforts to halt mass murder of Hungarian Jews. The drive for rescue was spearheaded by a Rumanian Jew named Mantello who worked for the El Salvadoran embassy in Switzerland.The facts give the Swiss people the credit they deserve for helping in the rescue of Jews and show that where there was courage and a will, many were rescued. Anyone with the slightest interest in human courage and dignity, not just the holocaust, should read this book.



3. This question always fascinated me when watching westerns and their modern analogs: can one man take on overwhelming odds and win against indifference and bare evil? A common wisdom tells us that such a win is just a wishful fantasy. It is a bright ray of inspiration to find an unlikely cross of the “High Noon”, “Dirty Harry” and “A Frisco Kid” in a story of lonely and smart orthodox Jew winning against the huge murderous system beyond the worst nightmares of the heroes of Gary Cooper, Clint Eastwood and Harrison Ford. How big a “Gold Life Saving Medal” should be awarded to a person who saved 100,000 innocent lives from the gas chambers in 1944? Is there any monument that would give him his due? However, this man, George Mantello, was not only forgotten but maligned. The “delicate” reason for this lack of appreciation was that “all [organizations involved in the rescue effort] were of the opinion that any efforts they were not involved in were not valid” according to a witness testimony quoted in the book. The author provides mountains of testimony confirming Montello’s selfless dedication to the rescue work beyond a common comprehension. The book is thoroughly researched and documented but its subdued narrative reads really well. It is a rebuke to those who did little or nothing, an inspiration for lonely enthusiasts, and a glimpse of hope for the rest of us. Jews did have lonely heroes - Samson, David, before the spotlight shifted to leaders of large groups. Now, thanks to David Kranzler, we know one more such hero â€" George Mantello.



4. After read this book i must say ¡ I am proud to be a citizen from El Salvador ¡ ¿why? I didn't know that my country make such big contribution to save the live of thousand of Jews.
   GOD Bless and follow Blessing our country EL SALVADOR because that.

4 comments about Along the Tracks (Sandpiper Paperbacks).

1. This heartwarming story is about a Jewish boy who loses his family during an air raid on a train. His father is in the war, and he must learn to survive "along the tracks" by stealing and sleeping in coal piles (for warmth) until he finds his family. Setting: Poland



2. In my opinion, Along the Tracks is a good book. You find yourself on the edge of your seat numerous times, not to mention not being able to put the book down. Along the Tracks also has a very happy ending, which I happen to like.



3. I loved this book! It totally sucked me in from the moment I opened it. It's about a young boy's experiences being separated from his family during the Holocaust. His adventures are amazing! He has to overcome his friends dying, hunger, disease, poverty, separation, and even love. And I can't believe it all really happened to a real person!!!



4. Along the Tracks is a book about a boy named Yankele, and he also is called Yasha through the second half of the book. It starts out Yankele and his family living in Lodz, where the German army had invaded after conquering Poland. Yankele's family started moving on, trying to get to Russia. When they finally got to the border, the Nazis wouldn't let them in, so they had to stay outside for a while. Soon, all of the Jewish people there had flooded the Nazi guards, and Yankele's family got inside Russia. They lived there for a while, and Yankele's father joined the Red Army, and he fought in the war against the Germans. Soon Russia was taken over and Yankele's family was forced to leave, taking a train to Warsaw. After they got there they had to take yet another train out, and Yankele and his mother and sister got separated when someone bombed the train. A man helped Yankele for a while, until the next train station, then they left each other. Yankele was on his own for a very long time, staying with a group of thieves and stealing to live.
   After a while, Yankele was helping an old lady who couldn't get certain things, like coal from coal piles at the train tracks. Soon, the old lady told him of a lady who lost a boy - one that would be thirteen, which Yankele was. Yankele was thirteen years old, and he looked like he was seven. That was his mom in the black market, and he stayed with her for a while. Eventually, he would get tired of staying in one place and would wander, then come back and stay with his mother. This was a very good book, I liked it a lot and it went by very fast. It was by Tamar Bergman, and translated from the Hebrew by Michael Swirsky.
   Nick, Madison OH.

5 comments about God and the Philosophers: Reconciliation of Faith and Reason (Oxford Paperbacks).

1. Is it rational to believe in God? Do faith and reason go together? Can philosophers believe in God? This collection of autobiographical essays answers these questions in the affirmative. The main collective argument of this book is that it is rational to believe in God. Philosophers need not fear belief in God. Indeed this book shows in contemporary form how philosophers have historically believed in God.

   These essays are personal journeys as to how twenty modern philosophers have handled their religious beliefs in their field of study. There is a diversity of Evangelical, Catholic, Episcopalian, and Jewish philosophers. The essays are of varying degree in quality and content.

   Here are a few highlights: Peter van Inwagen's essay entitled "Quam Dilecta" is probably one of the best in this collection. He argues that in recent times the deck is stacked against religious belief in academic circles. It has been commonly accepted that religion and philosophy do not mix and that they must be compartmentalized. However he proves this to be a false disjunction. They cannot and should not be separated. In fact they should be wed together.

   Brian Leftow's "From Jerusalem to Athens" is probably the second best essay in the collection. He argues that he is a philosopher because he is first a Christian. Christian belief is a help to the intellectual life and it was Christianity, which brought him to philosophy. He shows that historically it has been commonplace for philosophers to base their philosophy on theistic belief. He seeks to return philosophy to its rightful place as being rooted in the Christian religion.

   Given the diversity of contributors it makes for a mixed bag of essays. I believe the worst one (biblically speaking) was that of Marilyn McCord Adams. This significantly highlights the biblical injunction to be careful of hollow and deceptive philosophy (Colossians 2:8). Adams' essay is a negative warning to not acquiesce one's theology for the sake of philosophy. All too often as evidenced in this volume one has to give up key elements of the faith to be seen as respectable in the eyes of the university philosophy department (cf. Garcia giving up justification by faith alone and the doctrine of Scripture alone). For Adams emotion and feeling is often placed over God's divine revelation as disclosed in the Bible. She has faulted to the worldly wisdom, which God has made foolish (1 Corinthians 1:20).

   One will be both encouraged and depressed as one reads through this volume. It is encouraging that many philosophers believe in God. Belief in God has become respectable and it is now seen as rational. Yet it is discouraging in that many are giving up central elements of the faith to make their beliefs respectable in the philosophy department. The God who is being believed in is not always the God of the Bible in his entire splendor and majesty. May we pray for more philosophers who are strongly committed to the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. And may God be glorified in our philosophy.




2. This collection of essays is a mixed bag of good and not so good. Several of the authors obviously cling to Christianity because they grew up in it, have had a favourable experience with it and enjoy the sense of community that it brings. But these kinds of reasons could apply to any number of social organizations created by man.
   I agree that one of the better essays is by Peter van Inwagen. I am troubled somewhat by his remark on p.37 "Nowadays I would say that I don't expect that the New Testament always gives an exact account of Jesus' words.......". (This comment was in reference to the Parousia (the second coming of Jesus)). So how exactly are we to know which words attributed to Jesus are authentic? If, on major points like this Sciprture is not demonstrably reliable then why believe any of it?



3. I suppose I expected more from this book. After reading the introduction by editor Thomas Morris, I was expecting what he termed biographical essays "from the heart". Indeed there were several insightful essays from this slant discussing people's life experiences as they mingled reason and faith. Most of this book, however, was extremely disappointing to me. I found many authors drudging on regarding points that strayed very far from the stated "thesis" of the book and many of the essays were rehashings of the other essays in the book.

   I really struggled to find the motivation to finish this book and that is quite a strong statement coming from me.




4. "Most of the philosophers in the history of Western Civilization have believed in God" editor Tom Morris writes in the introduction of this book, and so many of the American academic world's leading professional philosophers come forward to share their exciting journeys of faith and life in this exciting collection. Readers come to realize how many of these writers have not only clung to their faith in a very secular world, but have continued to examine and strengthen it after finding truth and reason in Christian theism. Many of the philosophers briefly describe how they find their positions of faith to be the most reasonable to the other alternatives(I say briefly because I know each one could turn their essay into an entire book). They also strongly examine the weaknesses associated with their beliefs(such as the problem of evil) by carefully examining those weaknesses and giving strong arguments towards those weaknesses. The philosophers also show how religious and spiritual faith is not simply based on reason(like demonstrating a mathematical formula's truth or demonstrating the strongest chemical reaction) but also a great life commitment. Each demonstrates how their faith challenges them to become a better person physically, ethically, spiritually, as well as intellectually. I recommend this book to all who want to better understand how religious faith and spirituality are not only compatible with intellectual endeavors, but also greatly enhance them.



5. This book is *not* a book of apologetics. It is, rather, an insightful look into the personal lives and thoughts of some of the worlds top philosophers who are also Christians. It is very successful in that task. The contributors list is a veritable Who's Who of philosophy:
   
   Thomas Morris
   William P. Alston
   Peter van Inwagen
   Michael J. Murray
   William J. Wainwritght
   Merold Westphal
   C. Stephen Layman
   Jerry Walls
   Robert C. Roberts
   Jeff Jordan
   Marilyn McCord Adams
   Brian Leftow
   George Mavrodes
   Eleonore Stump
   
   This book will challenge the discerning reader from both the rationalistic Christian perspective as well as the skeptic who is reading attentively. Very highly recommended.

5 comments about Schindler's Legacy: True Stories of the List Survivors.

1. I was really moved by this. It was almost as riveting as another book I read recently called Hitler's Silent Victims. I recomend this book highly.



2. I'm stressing this to all, that this book is one of the greatest books I've ever read. It's very intense and real. Because of the way these Holocaust survivors explain their experiences at the concentration camps, it makes you feel as if you could've been there. The way that these survivors have achieved great goals in there lives after the Holocaust, is amazing. I recommend this book for everyone to read to get a better understanding of the Holocaust. This book is truely amazing.



3. Oskar Schindler, one remarkable man who outwitted Adolf Hitler and the Nazis to save more Jews from the gas chambers than most of the heroic rescuers during WWII.

   Oskar Schindler was one of only a handful who surfaced from the chaos, and generations will remember him for what he did ...

   When asked, Schindler told that his metamorphosis during the war was sparked by the shocking immensity of the Final Solution. In his own words: "I hated the brutality, the sadism, and the insanity of Nazism. I just couldn't stand by and see people destroyed. I did what I could, what I had to do, what my conscience told me I must do. That's all there is to it. Really, nothing more."

   Oskar Schindler died in Frankfurt on the 9th of October, 1974, at an age of 66. From 1939 to the day he died he was such in love with his Jewish people, that he wanted to be buried in Jerusalem. His friend, a Schindler-Jew, Poldek Pfefferberg asked him shortly before he died, why he wanted to be buried here. He answered :"My children are here ....."




4. One of the most popular films of 1993 was Steven Spielburg�s Schindler�s List, the story of
   one man�s fight against the Nazi killing machine that we know today as the Holocaust. As the
   film closed, the audience saw many of the survivors and their families as they gathered at
   Oskar Schindler�s grave to pay homage to this �Righteous Gentile.�

   Like many others in the audience, I wondered what had happened to those men and women
   after the war and the experiences that had not made the movie. Now I know. In Schindler�s
   Legacy, Elinor Brecher has shared the fascinating�and horrible�stories of over 40 of those
   who eventually came to live in America.

   They tell, for example, of the almost random nature of their survival. Several tell of times
   when the German guards lined up their work detail and shot every fifth person. Many were
   away from home on some kind of errand when the Gestapo came and took away the rest of
   their family. We read of Celena Karp who was selected by the notorious Josef Menegle for the
   line heading to the gas chambers. For some reason, he decided to remove some from the
   doomed line. When Celena reached him the second time, she begged him, �Let me go,� and
   for some inexplicable reason, he did!

   In these accounts, we learn again of the horror of the concentration camps. Remember the boy
   who survived several searches by hiding in the filth of the latrine? This was no product of the
   writer�s imagination; Roman Ferber tells his own story in his own words. Others relate the
   beatings they survived, the rides in unheated and unventilated cattle cars, of the friends they
   carried to the ovens. That they survived is nothing less than a miracle.

   These aren�t just the stories of the camps, however. We learn more about the people and the
   lives they lived before the war�the young couple who married only days before their arrest,
   the woman who had to give her new-born son to a Catholic family in order to survive herself,
   and the men and women who watched in horror as their parents and their brothers and sister
   were dragged away or shot before their eyes.

   After these experiences, what kinds of people did they turn out to be? Some have never
   forgiven the German people for what happened, while others have miraculously put the past
   behind them. And some are so traumatized that they have never been able to watch the film
   based on their experiences.

   This is a book that needs to be read!




5. This book of course takes off where the movie left off. It tracks down and interviews a select group of the survivors on Shindler's famous list. Many of whom of course refused to be interviewed, others would consent to do so only anonymously, and still others only after intense prodding. All led interesting, but as one would expect, unusually tormented lives. Most were successful; were in the twilight of their lives; and somehow had managed to put the experience behind them, that is as much as that could be done - meaning most of them buried the experiences deep in their subconscious, not to be disturbed except in their dreams or under extreme stress or duress.
   
   Alex Rosen's story resonated the most with me and was the most interesting of the lot. Alex is my age, and was the youngest among the survivors, and was the one depicted in the movie as the young Jewish ghetto denizen. Age-wise I can empathize with him and imagine, vicariously, what it must have been like to go through that experience at his age. His story is interesting for several other reasons as well: First he is the one in this book who tried to make sense out of the holocaust experience as an existential, if not as a theological problem -- not at all unlike the way that Elie Wiesel and Victor Frankl did in their books, but Alex takes an entirely different approach. He believes there are knowable answers too the questions many Jews posed in the aftermath of the holocaust experience: Why me? Why the Jews? And why was it so horrible? His belief, that he can find the answers to these questions is expressed best on page 23:
   
   "If we take the premise that there is a God, then everything that happens is just, because it's His game not mine. There has to be a legitimate reason by His way of looking at it, not by mine. There has to be a legitimate explanation - that we can understand through reason - why it happened the way it happened, why all those people died and I am still alive. But I don't know those answers right now. I can't tell you. It's knowable; it's not one of the mysteries of life. It's an answer that will eventually dawn on me."
   
   Second, his story is interesting because he eventually divorced his Jewish wife and married a black one, with which together they raised three children from split families, doing so in Queens New York. His primary family, of Jewish holocaust survivors, incredibly, and incongruously, never quite forgave him for committing this violation of the America's racist (and apparently Jewish) protocol? But finally, he gives an account of his experience that adds a poignant depth and meaning that again parallels that given by Frankl in his book, one that makes an outsider almost understand what the holocaust was like.
   
   As he puts it on page 26:
   
   "When the war ended, the trauma set in, because you are now among a different species of human being. You think: "So if this is life now, what the hell was that? What the hell was that all about? It's difficult for people to understand, up until that time, I was perfectly well-adjusted in all that misery. I never had a sleepless night [in the camps]. Yes, I was beaten. Yes, there was trouble. Yes, I was scared. But this was life, and you were scared when you lived. It was dangerous. It was hard. You saw ugliness. You saw women beat up. You saw people shot, killed, hanged. You saw dead bodies carried in wheelbarrows. You saw horrible things. But this was normal life."
   
   The subtext of course is that: When there appear to be no easy way out, human beings simply adjust; they adapt and find ways to live with even the worse kinds of dehumanization. They do so simply because they have been socialized to do so; and simply because it then becomes a normalized way of life for them.
   
   In this one poignant statement, Alex reveals the secret of, and the template for, repetition of the holocaust: According to this statement, it means simply that we don't really need the Nazis and their concentration camps for the holocaust to recur. It can occur almost anywhere and in any society, and at any time. It is simply a process of colonizing the mind of those targeted through tyranny, and back it up with force, and an ideology of racism or other forms of intolerance, and the world of humanity simply shuts down altogether, period.
   
   Five Stars.

3 comments about Jew Boy.

1. Like the author, I am also a child of Holocaust Survivors. There are many excellent things about this book. This book clearly demonstrates that suffering did not always end with the Survivors themselves; sometimes we, as their children, also suffered. I put this book at the "extreme" end of 2nd generation stories; Kaufman's mother was very disturbed, and physically abused him. In addition, his father, even though he wasn't a Survivor, did nothing to protect his son from his mother's wrath. If this alone did not make for a miserable childhood, his father squandered his income, and Kaufman's parents provided little of the author's needs, both physical and emotional; one horrific scene was how they cruelly tricked him, and refused to give him the Bar Mitzvah they had promised. One excellent part of the book, is when the author describes very well the unique experiences of children of Survivors. One fine example is when he writes about a favorite teacher, an American Jew from Michigan, who lauds his writing abilities, but at the same time pities him for having a Survivor mother. He writes about how deeply inferior he felt in that moment; that the gulf between him and his teacher was "immense", as she was "truly American", and no matter what he did, he could never be. I have felt this so many times myself, but only in this book have I seen it described so perfectly. He goes on to write about his great isolation, how it lead to alcoholism, but how, in the end, it was writing poetry which lead him to sobriety, and to regaining his soul. ...This book is a very honest portrayal of the most difficult childhood of a 2nd generation person I have ever read.



2. I grew up in Brooklyn in the same period that Kaufman grew up in the Bronx--the 50's and 60's. His portrayal of his parents represent very common types of the period--a mildly psychotic mother and an uneducated robotic mope of a father. These types were by no means typical of Holocaust survivors in the neighborhood who were generally quiet and dignified. Alan Kaufman had a very bad childhood but I wonder how much was due to madness and stupidity and how much was the result of the Holocaust.



3. I can't remember the last time I was moved so emotionally by a memoir. Although first published in 2000, I think the chaos and violence of February 2003 make it an even more important book, a must read for everyone concerned about the "approaching clouds of war" and the current world-wide epidemic of racism, nationalism, religious intolerance, and fear of the "other." Kaufman is a great writer and poet. "Who Are We?", the poem that ends the book, is worthy of serious study in our schools; and his observations of places and people are beautifully written, whether describing the bleakness of a Nebraska landscape or the changes in the mien of an Israeli soldier on a bus: "... in time of war you can tell when a soldier is thinking about the war. ... she woke, looked up into his eyes, saw it there, struggled to sit upright, her hand going to his face, but he pushed it away. His shoulder shrank up against the cold glass window filled with the world that he had defied to touch him and it had touched him in that strange way that war touches people and makes them prefer cold glass to a warm hand." Read it, please.

No comments about The Koran.

5 comments about Judah P. Benjamin: The Jewish Confederate.

1. Judah P. Benjamin is little remembered for his service to the United States of America, the Confederate States of America, and the United Kingdom. Born in the West Indies, he ended his life as Queen's Counsel in Great Britain. In between, he came to Charleston, South Carolina, studied law in New Orleans, became the first Jewish Senator--from antebellum Louisiana. Surprised? I was. Then, service as Attorney General, Secretary of War, and Secretary of State of the Confederate States of America. Almost universally well-liked and respected, the "smiling lion" whose face adorns every Confederate $2 bill (you can check your collection); this was a most remarkable Victorian American, in all respects.

   Frequently the brunt of castigation in newspapers for problems with military supply and ordnance, probably trailing close behind Jefferson Davis (also a former U.S. Senator) himself, this book is a very intriguing and documented biography. Sadly now out of print, I still highly recommend it to any student of the Civil War, the Confederacy, the history of Jews in America, jurisprudence (he wrote a book on Contracts that is still important in the United Kingdom)...he should not be forgotten. Judah P. Benjamin was a spirited man who made the most of his talents (even marrying into Catholic New Orleans aristocracy) and yet is known by few, and probably understood by even fewer.
   He is as much a part of American history and identity as Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Sam Houston. However, don't look for a film about him to come out from Hollywood anytime soon. You'll have to read the book!




2. Most every student of the Civil War has heard of Judah P. Benjamin but very few people know anything about him except that he served in three positions in the Confederate Cabinet. Most of these same people are also aware that Benjamin was Jewish and from Louisiana, but that is about it. This lack of knowledge about Benjamin may come from the fact that its generals often overshadow the Confederate government or it may come from Benjamin's own desire to sink into anonymity following the war. This desire on Benjamin's part has in great part made a study of him very difficult for he destroyed almost every document with his name on it, including personal correspondence. Eli Evans has taken on the difficult task though, and has turned out a fantastic biography of the elusive Benjamin.

   Benjamin's early life is dealt with in some detail, especially after he arrives in New Orleans looking for a fresh start. Through skill and hard work Judah became one of the most successful lawyers in New Orleans. He married into the Creole ruling class and gained in stature but also gained a wife who would be an embarrassment to him for the rest of his life. During this time he built a plantation and became an agricultural innovator and was remembered by his former slaves long after the war for his kindness. Benjamin was very much a progressive and this would show up later in his plans for a Confederate Emancipation Proclamation.

   Benjamin moved into politics and was in his second term in the U.S. Senate when Louisiana left the Union. He and Jefferson Davis had not gotten along very well in the Senate and Benjamin had once come to the point of challenging his Mississippi colleague to a duel. As the new Confederate President looked for a Cabinet however he wanted someone from each Confederate State and Benjamin was the obvious choice for Louisiana. From that point on a friendship blossomed that would end up making Benjamin Davis' closest advisor and confidant. This is the story Evans tells so well.

   Benjamin, for his country and his President was willing to serve as a scapegoat on several occasions for unpopular decisions Davis had to make. He also took the blame a few times for not sending needed supplies to certain points rather than hurt Confederate moral by admitting that they simply didn't have the supplies in question. Evans does a superb job of relating Benjamin's hard work and also the never-ending venom that was directed at him, especially by opponents of President Davis.

   The weak points of the book come when Evans leaves his subject and starts to write about things that he knows little about. He very quickly dispenses with battles but still often makes errors and naturally repeats the old fable about shoes at Gettysburg. He also has problems accepting that Tennessee did in fact leave the Union and while there were Tennessee men in the Union army there were many, many more in Confederate service. Tennessee was left out of Lincoln's proclamation simply because most of the state was under occupation and Andrew Johnson intervened for the rest of the state. Still, if one just sort of ignores some of his statements that do not involve Benjamin, Evans has written an excellent book.

   The final chapters trace Benjamin as he escapes to England and rebuilds his life to become one of the top lawyers in London. He remains deeply concerned about his imprisoned President but is also afraid that if the anti-Semitic Andrew Johnson can catch him he will again be the scapegoat and face a rope. Fortunately, cooler heads finally prevail and Benjamin is left alone to wow the English legal world.

   Benjamin obviously deserves more credit than he gets from Confederate historians but his destruction of most of his papers have made studying him a difficult task. Eli Evans has taken on this task and has done a masterful job. This book is an even more spectacular achievement when one considers that Benjamin took deliberate steps to avoid having his biography written. Any student of the Confederacy needs a copy of this book in their library. Also, anyone interested in Jewish-American history will find this book a must read despite Benjamin's tendency to not practice his religion by among other things, having a smokehouse full of delicious hams.




3. Judah Phillip Benjamin was born in 1812; on the Virgin Island of St. John; whose jewish parents came to South Carolina when he was still a child. His mother was a costermonger and his father a 'neer-do-well' (or in reality do nothing well). But he had a thirst for knowledge that could not be surpressed even by the anti-semitism of southern nineteenth century america.
   
   Being a remarkable student he earns a scholarship to Yale at sixteen. But he leaves school after two years under a cloud of accusations that are never delineated. But Benjamin is determined to be some one and sets off for a new start in New Orleans where he trains as a lawyer. After becoming successful enough to marry into one of the upper-crust Creole (c atholic) families, he embarks on a career as a mercantile lawyer. He does well enough to build himself a plantation with 140 slaves. But after a finacial misstep looses everything and goes back to the practice of law.
   
   Making the 'right' connections he first enters the Louisiana legislature and then is elected a US Senator. (All this time he is away from his wife who is known to be unfaithful.) When he tries to bring his wife and daughter to Washington, it turns into a fiasco, and she goes off to Paris never to return. He develops into one of the finest orators in the Senate but cannot escape the anti-semitism of his day.
   
   When his home state secedes from the Union he leaves the Senate and goes to Montgomery (Confederacy's first capital) where because of his well known knowledge of Law, Jefferson Davis makes him his Attorney General.
   
   As part of Davis' cabinet he excells in administrative logistics, which leads to his being named Secretary of War. What! A Jew as SofW for the Confederacy? He becomes the whipping boy of every anti-semite both North and South. Undetered, Davis then makes him Secretary of State (because of his knowledge of international law and French) which he remains for the last three years of the War. During the War he does his best to entice both France (under Napoleon III) and Britain to recognize the South but to no avail. At the end of the war he makes a harrowing escape through the Bahamas and Havana to England.
   
   He arrives in England without the ability to practice law and with the US government on his tail (he is tangentially and circumstantially tied to the plot to kill Lincoln) as a Confederate Cabinet Minister. But the luck of his birth on an English possession, and his naturalization through his father, allow him to claim English citizenship and protection. After a short time (and with the help of sympathizers to the southern cause) he is admitted to the English Bar.
   
   He develops a mastery of english mercantile law, and with his background of French and American law from practicing in Louisiana, he develops one of the premier practices in his field in England. His book on mercantile law- Benjamin on Sales- becomes the standard in the field. In the end he passes his last few years in Paris with his wife and married daughter and is buried in Pere Lechaise.
   
   Evans does a masterful job of using the two other detailed biographies of Benjamin (written in 1905 and 1943) which included interviews with people who knew him in Louisiana, during the Civil War and in England. Benjamin though remains an enigma in that he burned all of his papers before he left Richmond at the end of the war; and kept few if any not related to business in London. Much of the detail for the Civil War comes from his correspondence afterwards with Varina Davis and others. It would seem that his only hold on 'being' jewish was one of 'culture' and a thirst for knowledge (but not necessarily accolades).



4. I cannot think of a single book that is more difficult to assess than "Judah P. Benjamin: The Jewish Confederate". On the one hand, it paints a vivid portrait of life in the antebellum South, as well as a grim chronicle of affairs in that region (political, military, and socioeconomic) during the Civil War. This is all a backdrop, however, to its intimate exploration into the life of one of the Confederacy's most complicated and fascinating subjects - Judah P. Benjamin, brilliant orator, United States Senator from Louisiana, Secretary of War and later of State for the CSA, oft-proclaimed "Brains of the Confederacy", and Jew. The primary events in Benjamin's life are of course covered, but more fascinatingly plumbed is the depths of his mind - Eli Evans seems concerned not merely with what Benjamin did, but with who he was, and what made him tick. All of this makes for fascinating reading, and even if one were to disagree with Evans's conclusions, it cannot be disputed that they are thought-provoking.
   The problem I have with this book, however, is the short shrift that it gives to the plight of African-Americans during this period. Evans does of course pay necessary homage to the slaves' condition, but one gets the sense that his interpretation of Southern history has several pounds of Margaret Mitchell and a teaspoon of Alex Haley. I am not accusing Evans of being a racist, mind you; I am merely saying that, in order to make his central figure more sympathetic, he glosses over the fact that both he and his compatriots were fighting for an inherently wicked cause. One can easily respect Judah Benjamin's achievements without downplaying the cause for which has talents served - he was, afterall, the first non-self hating Jew to serve in the United States Senate (the only Jew to serve before him, David Levy Yulee, was also a virulent anti-Semite), a spellbinding master of rhetoric, a brilliant wartime strategist, later guru of English law, and the only Confederate cabinet official with the chutzpah to propose a Confederate Emancipation Proclamation (as a means of giving them the moral high-ground in the war, and thus receive the support of either Britain or France). Evans doesn't do either Benjamin or himself any justice by not placing sufficient emphasis on the horrors of slavery; afterall, one could have given this book a great amount of depth by pointing out that Benjamin was (as Congressman Benjamin F. Wade once said to him) "an Israelite with Egyptian principles". Instead Evans chooses the safe approach - point out Benjamin's genius while de-emphasizing the great shortcoming of how that genius was used.
   Would I recommend this book? Yes. Do I think readers should then peruse a tome about the history of slavery in the pre-war South? Absolutely.



5. One of the previous reviews of this book begins with the statement that anyone familiar with the Civil War will know the name Judah Benjamin. Frankly, I doubt it. I'll wager that very few Northerners recognize the name. The eight reviews of this book are fascinating to read, and far shorter than the book itself. Note where the reviewers live; it's significant.
   
   Judah P. Benjamin had a fascinating "teflon" life - as a wealthy lawyer and a "macher" in very early Reformed Judaism, as a social climber in Louisiana creole circles, as a Senator and then as Jefferson Davis's one efficient and effective cabinet member, as a fugitive from the righteous victory of the North, and last as a supremely successful banker in England.
   
   Eli Evans has written a solid old-fashioned sympathetic biography of this brilliant man, whose contibution to the cause of secession was more significant than that of most Southron generals. It's not a deep biography, however, neither in its analysis of Benjamin's character nor its account of the Civil War. It will have, I think, great interest for two kinds of readers: serious Civil War buffs and serious students of the history of Jewish Americans.

No comments about King David (Lion Story Bible).

No comments about The King of Children: A Biography of Janusz Korczak.

1 comments about Karl Kraus: Apocalyptic Satirist, Volume 2: The Postwar Crisis and the Rise of the Swastika.

1. It was a pleasure to receive Timms' second volume on Karl Kraus. It came new and in mint condition. Thank you Amazon.