5 comments about A Hero of Our Own: The Story of Varian Fry.

1. Varian Fry was an American hero, risking his life to save others, unrecognized during his lifetime, but, fortunately, with Isenberg's new biography, now about to become a well-known figure. Called the artists' Schindler, Fry saved about 1,500 artists, writers, teachers, labor leaders, activists, and others from Hitler -- Max Ernst, Marc Chagall, and Hannah Arendt among the group. A Hero of Our Own tells Fry's story in a lively, compelling style. One can't wait to turn the page to find out what happens in Nazi-ridden, Vichy-controlled Marseille 1940. Who will be saved? Who will be turned over to the Gestapo? Why did Fry risk his life? This book answers all these questions in a fascinating story that is well worth reading -- as Fry is well worth remembering and honoring.



2. For someone like myself, who enjoys a really exciting story, preferably about a real person,one need go no further than to read "A Hero of Our Own" by Sheila Isenberg. Varian Frye, a not-so-ordinary American, feels impelled to leave his comfortable life as a writer and editor and go to France as a member of the Emergency Rescue Committe (ERC) and risk his life to save as many refugees (mostly Jews) as he can from the Nazis. Frye is the only American to be honored at Yad Vashem (Israel's Holocaust Memorial) because of his work in saving thousands of Jews. If I didn't know it was a true story, I'd think it was fiction because his adventures read like a fast-paced thriller, a veritable realization of the classic "film noir" of the forties. In fact, I feelthe book cries out to be made into a movie which I would be happy to see. Of course some of the book's revealed facts about our own State Department trying to keep refugee Jews from entering the United States when they knew it mean certain death was quite shocking and disturbing. However, all in all, I'd recommend the book to anyone who enjoys reading a fast-paced book about real heros and history.



3. I read Sheila Isenberg's marvelous book, A Hero Of Our Own, in one sitting. What made it compelling was the author's logical, step-by-step approach to the stunning chaos of her hero's dilemma.
   Varian Fry's defining year in Marseilles came alive line by line, stroke by inspiring stroke in clear logical matter of fact tones. The work is poignant and powerful, mythic documentary proof of a bona fide hero and his heroic friends confronting the petty viciousness of evil with clear-eyed will.

   A beautiful important book. This is History as it ought to be written. Should be required reading in high schools and colleges round the globe.




4. this story, of a true 'hero,' makes a compelling read. how amazing that fry managed to save so many important artists of the last century and was little known until isenberg's book. a good read while learning an important bit of our history. i will definitely recommend this to my book club.



5. This is a must book for book clubs and reading groups! Isenberg's writing is engaging as she tells of Varian Fry's dramatic actions that saved so many people from harm. But, more thrillingly, through skillful use of private documents, she shows her readers how a man who showed little previous signs of special distinction, not content to stay a bystander, was willing to put himself at risk to help strangers whose lives were in danger. The book will spark discussions, not only of the holocaust, but of our continuing search to lead ethical lives today in the face of widespread violence, famine and continuing human rights abuses.

2 comments about Abraham Joshua Heschel: Prophetic Witness.

1. Among the American intellectual community, Abraham Joshua Heschel is probably the best known Jewish spiritual leader. of the 20th century. This resulting from his activist stance on the issue of Civil Rights in the early 1960's and his active and vocal opposition to the Vietnam War a bit later. Yet as time goes by ,few Americans,Jewish and gentiles alike are aware of Heschel, the scholar, Heschel the particularistic Jewish activist, and Heschel, the spiritual seeker. This biography throws light on the youth and education of this prophetic figure. We learn about Heschel's Chasidic background, his "royal" lineage, his sojurn in Vilna among secular Jews, his education and activities in Germany as well as his foray into the world of Yiddish poetry, and his scholarly publications.The book is well researched and finely written, with many illustrations. I only feel that those parts dealing with Heschel the Chasidic Jew and Yiddish poet lack some authenticity. The authors seem to go overboard to stress Heschel's ritual observance in Vilna and Berlin, such as strict adherence to the Kosher code ,to the laws of Shaatnez and the like.Its ironic that at the same time that a number of books and articles have recently appeared about the Lubavitcher rebbe's stay in Berlin, subtly questioning his Jewish committment,this book about a future leader of the Conservative Jewish movement maintains Heschel's strict ritual observance in Berlin.All in all this volume is a fascinating portrayal of the life of an East European Jew seeking new horizons and an education in the West, yet never forgetting his roots. It is an important contribution to the study of European Jewish life and thought in the 20th century.



2. The power of Heschel's influence on the philosophy of Jewish America cannot possibly be underestimated. Dr. Kaplan's valient attempt to analyze and research the life os this great thinker is to be commended. His descriptions of the piety of the man he calls a Prophet, may be distasteful to some of his more liberal admirers, but remains the unadulterated proud truth. For the great liberal thinker and activist never swayed from his religous beleifs. Though considered a leader in the Conservative movement, he remained an Orthodox Jew. Though Kaplan's descriptions of Heschel's father, who was a Chassidic Grand Rabbi and miracle worker are lacking understanding in Spirituality and therefore rather inacurate, which is troublesome to his more knowledgeble Chassidic readers, I eagerly await Volume II, on Heschel's years in America.

No comments about In Their Own Image: New York Jews in Jazz Age Popular Culture.

3 comments about How Dark the Heavens: 1400 Days in the Grip of Nazi Terror.

1. Perhaps you, like I, at times wonder of what stuff you are made. In a truly horrible situation, would you do what it right at all cost? Would you have the inner fortitude to persistently march forward, to place your life at risk for the good of others? Often, and sadly, I suspect I would not; but, my ego hopes I would. Lithuania might be an unfamiliar name to you. But, this true story invites you to join the author in his nightmarish run from the Nazis during World War II. You'll know what it is like to be suddenly wrenched from your home, country and family by the pursuit of others out to exterminate you, simply because you happen to be in the way. In his flight, the author chooses paths of moral and physical courage, in order to preserve meaning for his life. Would I have joined him? Or would I have given up? What about you? Here's a chance to "test your stuff," at least in the safe pages of a good read.



2. How Dark the Heavens is a valuable resource of historical information on the Holocaust, and an authentic recollection by a survivor. It is unique, in that this book pulls the reader into the story as would a novel.



3. the author writes in a "detached" style.I guess that is the only way he could recount these horrible experiences inposed upon him by subhumans. It is a superb diary.

5 comments about An Eye for an Eye: The Untold Story of Jewish Revenge Against Germans in 1945.

1. Great book...what I want to know is why can't the facist-loser whiners writing reviews on this site realize that anti-German atrocities were a direct result of GERMAN-PERPETRATED ATROCITIES? Do they think this happened in some kind of vacuum?Place responsibility where responsibility lies. One caused the other. Also, German atrocities were perpetrated by Germans wearing the uniform of Germany, these Jews who worked the Soviets weren't representing the Jewish people...they were only representing their individual grudges (i.e. seeing their whole family murdered). The Commies knew to use individual Jews because they knew Holocaust survivors would make great anti-Germans--duh!



2. Horrifying account of atrocities committed against German civilians by Jews in the aftermath of World War II. Long-suppressed story -- by a fearless Jewish author and noted journalist -- of how Jews of the Polish Communist "Office of State Security" killed and brutally mistreated many tens of thousands of German men, women and children in concentration camps and prisons in conquered German territories. This story was featured on a "60 Minutes" broadcast segment. Antony Polonsky, Prof. of E. European Jewish History at Brandeis University, comments on An Eye for An Eye: "... Extremely gripping and compelling account of the appalling events which accompanied the end of the war and the expulsion of the Germans ... impossible to put down ... a major contribution to our understanding



3. Jews have said that God chose them to be the "light to the nations." Thus, they must act in an exemplary manner as God's emissaries. Their actual behavior, however, suggests that most Jews do not take this role to heart. In fact, by and large, when Jews have proclaimed themselves as "lights," they have forced their pronouncements onto peoples other than themselves. The Christian concept of mercy plays an important role in the western judicial system. By contrast, the modern day Jewish concept of justice is "targeted assassination" and get-them-before-they-get-us. The title of John Sack's book neatly summarizes the Jewish concept of justice: "An Eye for an Eye." Towards the end of World War II, German civilians and military alike caught in "liberated" areas of Poland were rounded up into concentration camps. Many believed that they would gain their freedom after the surrender. They were sadly mistaken, for millions of German, the hell continued for several long years after the surrender. Sack describes the Polish hell, which was run by Jews under the auspices of the Office of State Security. It is not entirely clear if there was an official policy to specifically hire Jews as camp commandants, interrogators and police, but the numbers Sack cites speak for themselves - the overwhelming majority of Office employees were Jews. The official Polish attitude towards Germans was to exact revenge, which was significantly magnified in the Jewish-run death camps. It may be difficult for the average person, versed in turn-the-other-cheek style justice to comprehend the behavior of the Jews towards their former captor. However, Jewish thinking is clearly illustrated in the beginning of chapter nine, in an exchange between a Jewish commandant and his prisoner, a German Catholic priest, which can be summarized as "there is a set of rules for us (Jews) and there is a separate set of rules for goyim (non-Jews)." It is the feeling of racial separateness and solidarity, among both religious and non-religious Jews, that define Jewish behavior towards the non-Jewish world. If one remembers this concept when reading "An Eye for an Eye," then the atrocious behaviors exhibited by the Jews make perfect sense. If, however, one clings to the democratic-egalitarian concepts of justice, then nothing in the book -- the torture, the purposeful negligence of prisoner welfare, the executions -- will make sense. Understanding the Jewish sense of uniqueness will explain their actions in the modern non-Jewish world as well.



4. I found "An Eye for an Eye" well researched & highly credible. Unfortunately, humans are imperfect. They are capable of horrific evil. Every nation, ethnic group, religious group etc. has its victims & its villains...without exception.
   
   Anyone who is familiar with Soviet History, should be aware of the Ukrainian Famine Genocide of 1932-1933. Stalin's right hand henchman & architect of this genocide was Lazar Moiseyevich Kaganovich. The bolsheviks eliminated up to 10 million innocent men, women & children, yet, one of the most evil tyrants of the 20th century, Kaganovich, remains unknown.
   
   In 1929, when the Soviet "concentration camps" became "corrective labor camps", the names most associated with establishing a regime of torture, murder & exploitation of slave labor are Henrikh Yagoda, Stanislaw Messing, Lazar Kogan, Matvei Berman, Iakov Rappaport & Naftaly Frenkel.
   Read Anne Applebaum's "Gulag" and Donald Rayfields "Stalin and his Hangmen - The Tyrant and Those Who Killed for Him".
   
   Solomon Milshtein, Lavrenti Beria's railways boss, arranged transportation (by rail & by truck) for all the Polish officers, civil servants & intelligentsia who were executed in the Katyn forest...over 20,000. The bolsheviks blamed it on the Nazis. A Nazi in his position & with his "deeds" would have been prosecuted. There was no Nueremberg for Milshtein, Kaganovich, Mendel Khatayevich, Lev Aronovich Shvartsman, Boris Rodos, Aleksandr Langfang and thousands like them.
   
   People who live in glass houses should not lob "collective guilt" stones at Germans, Latvians, Lithuanians, Estonians, Ukrainians...



5. I am Jewish, and we do not blame Germans for the holocaust. We blame the leadership of Protestantism and the Catholic church since the killers were all baptized Christians. Blaming all Germans is as racist as Hitler blaming all Jews. As for those Jewish guards, I am sure most were void of any Jewish education since Lenin ended all formal religous education in 1918. But with idiot Nazi's calling you a Jew because of your last name, and all the ugly controversy, we forget that Stalin caused 'the holocaust and forced migration' of the Germans, just as he did of the Ukrainians!

No comments about The Sword of Moses, an Ancient Book of Magic: From an Unique Manuscript.

3 comments about Budapest Diary: In Search of the Motherbook (Texts and Contexts).

1. This is a book exploring the author's search for a childhood identity forged in Hungary in the shadow of the Holocaust and her family's subsequent emigration to the USA. For many complex reasons, childhood issues had not been addressed for much of the author's adult life. The book is a wonderfully evocative memoir of childhood, a search for a national identity and an accurate and sensitive portrayal of the sense of alienation felt by those with the immigrant experience. It is set in the background of the diary written by the author while she lived and worked in Budapest in an academic capacity. As she explores the issues around Hungary's newly found freedoms in the 1990s, she examines them in the context of the uglier aspects of Hungarian and European nationalism which had decimated Hungarian Jewry. Although told from the Jewish viewpoint, it has broad appeal and addresses many important aspects of the human condition.

   The author's considerable literary ability (she is professor of Romance Languages at Harvard) is evident in the exquisitely sensitive descriptions of events and emotions from both a child's and adult's viewpoint. She seems to have learnt well from the authors on whom she has based her distinguished career. Emotions leap at the reader from every page, often rapidly traversing the spectrum of joy, sadness, longing, confusion and humor. At all times there is a strong prevailing sense of the author's awareness of how her uniquely Hungarian Jewish background profoundly influenced every important outcome of her life and her world outlook.

   The dilemma of being an outsider, yet identifying culturally and nationally with a sovereign state is well known to many Jews and constitutes the fundamental European Jewish experience. Many of those (myself included) who underwent this in repressive political systems fled to the western world and became very successful and yet experienced a sense of national and cultural alienation in their adopted societies.

   Despite addressing emotionally charged, controversial and sometimes uncomfortable subjects, there is always a sense of lightness and what is almost playfulness. Not all issues are serious and there is one hilarious description of Hungarian toilets, which every Westerner must have felt (if not voiced) upon their initial experience with these dreadfully designed pieces of porcelainware.

   Although an emotionally charged book, it never descends into unrealistic sentimentalism - the message seems to be that no matter what we do with our lives, where we come from has a profound effect on who we are and how we see the events around us. Acknowledging this can be liberating.




2. It's in no way clear what any of this has to do with scholarship, either on the level of literature, history, or autobiography. Suleiman is clearly her own biggest fan, and the book does nothing but detail her personal celebration of herself. It is, for example, in no way clear what her name-dropping accounts of dinner parties and non-attended talks is supposed to signify within the context of serious, reflective scholarship. If you're sitting a qualfiying exam anytime soon for a degree in Susan Suleimanism, by all means read this book, but it is a waste of time for anyone else. Let's hope this volume sounds a death knell for academic self-aggrandizement: come back to earth Ms. Suleiman.



3. Further up "A reader from Cambridge" proved that he did not understand nothing at all. It's just for this guy that I do have to explain, that this book has nothing got to do with scholarships or so. It's hard to belive that he did not find out while reading the book to its end. He or she however seemed to have noticed in the end that he or she might blame himself or herself and therefore missed to leave the full name.

   For the rest of the world I would like to say that this is not big literature, but an important book. Once individuals stop to be interested to investigate in their history and to try to understand what was happening when and why, we will loose a chance to prevent dark parts of human history from coming back. This is why this book has a right to exist and this is what we can learn from it. It gives us an example for ourselves. And Suleiman does not celebrate herself, as her critic says, but gives us an unproctected view into her feelings. This makes her vulnerable and the "reader from Cambridge" takes his freedom to eagerly touch her wounds.

   I say it very clearly: Books like Suleiman's help to make sure that "readers from Cambridge MA" buy a book about the Iraque war the other day and complain that it is not really on the oil business.

1 comments about The Mysterious Visitor: Stories of the Prophet Elijah.

1. The Mysterious Visitor is an entertaining anthology by the team that won the 1993 Sydney Taylor Award. Eight varied legends about the prophet Elijah brim with adventure, romance and humor. Lovely full page paintings enrich this universally appealing volume. For elementary school age children.

No comments about The Civil War Diary of Clara Solomon: Growing Up in New Orleans, 1861-1862.

1 comments about The Strassmanns: Science, Politics and Migration in Turbulent Times (1793-1993).

1. I bought this because I am a Strassmann by birth, but alas not this family. These Strassmans are a family of Berlin medical doctors, ethnically Jewish, often Christianized, that pretty much got out of Germany during the Nazi era. It is a vanity publication, written for the family, and could use better editing. The author admits it's a series of separately written vignettes and it shows. However, if you are interested in expanding your library of modern European history, Berlin history, Jewish history in the Nazi era, or women's medicine or public health history, it's a worth-while purchase.
   
   Of most general interest was the chapter on anti-Nazi resistance within Germany during WWII by Ernst Strassmann. There's also some information on the part the Mayos of the Mayo Clinic played in geting the family out of Germany.
   
   What was astounding to me and my family is that our branch of Strassmanns in Wisconsin are also closely involved with branches of the Gutwillers and Huebners, just as this family was in Germany. History repeats itself!