No comments about Kindler of Souls: Rabbi Henry Cohen of Texas (Focus on American History Series,Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin).

No comments about The Frank Family That Survived.

1 comments about Delusion: Growing Up in an Amish Jewish Cult (Growing Up in An Amish-Jewish Cult) (Growing Up in An Amish-Jewish Cult).

1. No one plans to join a cult, reminds Author Patricia Hochstetler, who tells us her story in "Growing Up in an Amish-Jewish Cult: Book One: Delusion". People seek to be closer to God, and to bring their family with them as to protect them from damnation. And all too often, power hungry manipulators take advantage of this - and that is how cults are formed. Told from a child's perspective, the story of "Growing Up in an Amish-Jewish Cult: Book One: Delusion" is especially heart-wrenching as the simplest questions with the simplest answers such as "Why Can't I play with a doll?" goes unanswered. "Growing Up in an Amish-Jewish Cult: Book One: Delusion" is highly recommended to any who want to learn about the phenomenon of cults and for autobiographical community library collections everywhere.

2 comments about Voices from Vilna.

1. Ms. Greenberg's assembly of these letters and her brief and pointed comments communicate a love affair in a distant time across the world and the love of Ms. Greenberg of her antecedents. All of this in the context of one of the many times of horrific turmoil in the 20th Century. A worthy companion to Anne Frank's Diary and other personal accounts by victims of tyrants, who, notwithstanding their suffering, look to the future with optimism.



2. Jack Bershad's review is right on the button. It is everything he said it was, and more. Dr. Greenberg's Voices From Vilna is poignant, and priceless. It brings you to tears, while revealing the courage of everyday heroes. It is a book everyone should read.

1 comments about Surviving in Silence: A Deaf Boy in the Holocaust, The Harry I. Dunai Story.

1. I'm sorry, but this book just was not what I expected it to be. Though Harry Dunai did experience the Holocaust as a Jew, his deafness barely entered into it, except to maybe save his life. His typical experience of being sent away to residential schooling in Budapest probably saved his life, since his parents and brothers were collected and sent to the gas chambers.

   Dunai's life was not easy by any measure, but he had many protectors and many people who cared for him and did so much for him in the way of providing homes and jobs. I don't know if it is the translating of Dunai's own words through his daughter and ghostwriter, but Dunai comes across as a very self-centered human being, who often does not show either the gratefulness for his blessings and for those who do things for him, nor does he express much concern for others.

   Since I've read so many histories and biographies about those who did care on all sides, this one was very disappointing. The section on the war is short...mainly about how hungry he was. A lot of people starved to death...a lot of other people never had the people caring for them nor the opportunities for escaping a horrific existence that Dunai had.

   If you are looking for a good book on the Medical Holocaust as it affected the Deaf, read 'Crying Hands' about the Deaf in Germany who were targeted before and during WWII. This book is okay as a demonstration of deaf life during the war and afterwards in Europe, I guess. (...)

1 comments about Witness to Annihilation: Surviving the Holocaust.

1. Samuel Drix was a physician in Lvov, was one of the great Jewish communities of pre-war Poland, whose fate under the Nazis was one of the worst and yet gets little attention from historians. Drix was caught in a roundup and sent to the Janowska camp on the outskirts of the city. This camp left few survivors. Run by some of the most vicious commandants, Janowska had hardly an equal in the brutal treatment of its prisoners. Drix's memoir is unusual for several other reasons. It is one of the few accounts of a professional; it gives a vivid glimpse into the conditions in the Lvov ghetto as well as in the camp and it tells of Drix's remarkable escape from certain death and his subsequent , quite startling, experiences among Polish and Ukranian peasants in the countryside where he survived in hiding until the end of the war.

2 comments about Masters of the Word: Traditional Jewish Bible Commentary from the First Through Tenth Centuries (Vol. 1).

1. Written by Rabbi Yonatan Kolatch, Masters of the World: Traditional Jewish Bible Commentary from the First Through Tenth Centuries, Volume 1 is an extensive exploration of traditional Jewish Bible commentary. Devoting each weekly Torah portion to the exclusive commentary of a different individual scholar, Masters of the World allows the reader to become familiar with a wide variety of commentators through presenting a significant portion of each one's work. This first volume presents the work of commentators Chazal, Targumim, Zohar, R. Saadia Gaon, the Spanish linguists and the Ba'alei Masorah in chronological order, with forthcoming volumes to represent others. Extensive notes and an index round out this rigorous and scholarly compendium of Judaic theological discussion, especially recommended for religious, Judaic, and Biblical studies shelves.



2. The author Rabbi Yonatan Kolatch has produced a scholarly work that offers insight into the unique style and thought of the greatest of Jewish commentators.
   
   I thoroughly enjoy studying and reviewing this masterpiece.
   
   Highly recommended.

No comments about Haim Nahum: A Sephardic Chief Rabbi in Politics, 1892-1923 (Judaic Studies Series).

No comments about Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller: Portrait of a Seventeenth-Century Rabbi.

5 comments about Jazz Age Jews..

1. Eye-opening and thoroughly researched, this book weaves together a romantic age of the most romantic American cities. Sports, gambling, law, and entertainment are merely the backdrop for the real subject: psychology and the inner mind of the outsider. This was the rares of rare: a history book and a page turner, too.



2. Dr. Alexander's storytelling, research and wit combine to form a deeply persuasive and delightfully entertaining book. Novels such as this coax us to reevaluate not only our shared public history, but to revisit the modern psychology of celebrity and faith as well. Yet this book is neither about religion nor history, but rather is a straightforward and balanced account of the explosion which results from genius hearing in one ear the call of contemporary greatness, and in the other the call of an ancient people.
   Immensely readable, this book deserves a place in every bookcase (and, incidently, would make a fine bar mitzvah gift).
   SS



3. Jazz Age Jews -> a catchy title for an insightful, informative and, above all, interesting book on the Jewish relationship to organized crime, law and entertainment in the United States. This book grips you from the "get go" and is extremely difficult to put down. I plan on buying additional copies as Hanukkah gifts for my friends and family (and anyone else who just likes a good story).



4. This is one of those books that's virtually impossible to put down once you've started. With an anecdotally proven thesis (that I happen to agree with strongly) whether you agree with it or not, it definitely gets you thinking... not so much about why the three individuals chosen identified with the subcultures they did, but why they received such strong support in the community. One might wonder though whether is was what they stood for, or really, simply "colorful" characters simply "making it" by becoming celebrities - - even if some of some of what they did was a "shande". Still, it is part of the Jewish conscience to integrate into American society yet "feel" if not be somewhat of an outsider, so perhaps they were the ultimate symbol of this - - Jews living the American dream... yet living on the fringes of it as well.

   Written like an E.L. Doctoreau novel, Alexander tells the stories with ease and insight, painting great portraits of the men and the era... This is one of those books you lend out to all your friends, and buy new new copies when they're not returned when you get that inevitable urge to read it again !




5. Dr. Alexander has provided us with an indispensable book. He manages to combine deftly different fields of scholarship, and his book is admirably lucid and short. Historians of modern religion, modern Jewry, ethnic identity, and plain old American history should read this book. In fact, they are professionally derelict if they don't. As for the rest of us, those just interested in a page-turner, this book has sex, violence, gambling, and, if not quite rock and roll, at least a precursor of it.