4 comments about A Day of Pleasure: Stories of a Boy Growing Up in Warsaw.

1. To enjoy listening to stories told by grandfather, you don't necessarily have to be a child! As a matter of fact, it is a life virtue to enjoy these stories told by Isaac Bashevis Singer, regardless of age. They are set in the now vanished Hassidic community of pre-II World War, but their moral content transcends time and space, and although they are soaked in Jewishness they equally appeal to the open-minded reader. Beware that out of the seventeen tales in this editon, 14 are included in "My Father's Court," by the same author.



2. This book is a very good read for anyone and everyone that likes to read about foreign culture-- or even if you don't! I usually detest biographies and book reports, but reading this book made it FUN!



3. Singer just has it. These vignettes of his childhood do not have the emotional power of his greatest stories but they are rich with life, insight and humor. And somehow he tells stories even when he is making simple descriptions of his early life. This work too tells the pain and poverty of his childhood and the difficulty of his parents' lives. It is too a tribute to a world - gone .



4. I am Jewish, and I learned a lot from this book. I learned about life in Warsaw, and about the time period around World War I. It shows how that time compares to this, and how much more we have now than back then. Lots of people take electric lights for granted. This book shows what it was like to live through freezing weather, hunger, and stress about war.
   
   I don't exactly like autobiographies, but this one really, really hit the spot!

5 comments about I Am a Star: Child of the Holocaust (A Puffin Book).

1. This book is a neccesity if you would like to get background on the Holocaust while reading a young girl's journey through it.



2. Inge is just a child living in a small village in Germany when Hitler rises to power. Like so many other Jewish families, her family did not escape from Germany soon enough to be safe. By the time they think to get out, it is too late. They are sent from place to place until they are finally deported to Terezin, a concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. Conditions there are horrible, and people live in constant fear of being shipped off to Auschwitz, where the gas chambers are.
   
   Because Inge's father is a disabled war veteran, shot in the shoulder in World War I while fighting for Germany, the family has special priveleges in Terezin. Inge is able to stay with her mother and father, instead of being separated. However, the family is still fighting for survival, just like every other family in the camp.
   
   Miraculously, Inge and her parents survive the Holocaust in Terezin. They live to be liberated and to start a new life in the United States after the war. This is one of few stories about the Holocaust with a relatively happy ending.
   
   I liked that there was so much history included in this story. It isn't only Inge's story, but the story of the Holocaust in general. She tells of Hitler's rise to power and the other things that were going on right before she was sent to the concentration camp. I didn't like the inclusion of the poetry in the book. I felt like it broke up the flow of the story, because it often was in the middle of a page where the narrative was.



3. Inge Auerbacher was only three years old,in 1938, when the massive pogrom called Kristallnacht, or the Night of the Broken Glass took place.
   
   At the age of seven she was sent to Terezin concentration camp in Czechoslovakia.
   
   In this incredible little book, Auerbacher tells of her experiences of being a little girl in Terezin concentration camp, one of the few young children who survived the death camps.
   
   As she recounts:
   
   "Of fifteen thousand children imprisoned in the Terezin concentration camps in Czechoslovakia, between 1941 and 1945, about one hundred survived. I am one of them. At least one and a half children were killed in the Nazi Holocaust. The reason most of these children died is that they were Jewish".
   
   Auerbacher takes the horror of these years, and imparts a message of hope. She has created an account for young readers of her experiences, in a book filled with moving poetry and with the aid of haunting illustrations by Israel Bernbaum. There are also several photographs of her home town and of Inge as a child and her family life.
   
   Auerbacher explains that the silent voices of the innocent children who died in the holocaust must be heard, and that is why felt compelled to trace the historical events that made this great evil possible and to tell her own story.
   
   The author talks about her home town, Kippenheim, a village in southern Germany, where she was born in 1934.
   
   She recounts the iddylic existance of her family and community in Kippenheim, until the horrific events of Kristallnacht.
   
   She traces the roots of anti-Semitism for young readers, and summarizes the rise of Hitler, and the holocaust, before talking about her own story.
   
   "We still feel the pain and we weep.
   
   This nightmare will not let us sleep.
   
   A page in history; one must learn.
   
   Yesterday us, and tommorow your turn?"
   
   
   
   She talks of her experiences of being forced to wear the yellow star at the age of six years old, the harsh circumstances of deportation, and the horrific conditions for children in Terezin in crowded and filthy cells infested with rats, mice, fleas and bedbugs, and of the other children who she befriended in the camp, such as Ada, a German Jewish child who longed to go to the Land of Israel, as did so many hundreds of thousands of Jews trapped in the Nazi inferno.
   
   Ada taught her a song about the Holy Land, and promised Inge that they would soon go to there, "Just hold on a little longer" she used to say.
   
   Ada's dream never came true-she died at the age of nine in Auschwitz.
   
   Another friend was Ruth, a beautiful blond little girl of mixed Jewish and Gentile blood, who was brought up as a Christian, and who loved to draw. Ruth died in Terezin because her Jewish heritage, even though she never considered herself Jewish.
   
   The final two chapters are about Inge's liberation from Auschwitz, and her hopes and afterthoughts:
   
   She closes with a wonderful poem about the horrors and deaths and the hopes and dreams of those who survived and their descendants entitled NEVER AGAIN:
   
   "Minds were dulled by bombs of hate,
   
   Only the hero cared about our fate,
   
   We saw the truth, it began to unfold,
   
   You may kill the body but never the soul.
   
   
   
   Here we are with honour and pride,
   
   a new generation at our side,
   
   the silent voices join us today,
   
   Never, never again we hope and pray".



4. of the Holocaust. The poems in this short biography are so inspiring. I read this as part of a unit study for the Holocaust and we enjoyed the message the author brought through her life experience and poems.



5. "I Am a Star: Child of the Holocaust" is the story Inge Auerbacher and the three years she spent in the concentration camp at Terezin. Her memoir is concise, having been written especially for children, but is punctuated by her own haunting poetry that brings her struggle and emotions into more light than does her prose.
   
   Inge was seven when her family was shipped off to the concentration camp, where they survived for three years before being liberated. Auerbacher recounts familiar tales of hunger and desperation and death, but manages to do so in a manner that will resonate with children. Two of her early chapters about the rise of anti-Semitism and Hitler's rise to power are deftly concise history lessons for children.
   
   Yet there seems to be more of her story to be told, especially for a woman who was the only Jewish child from her town to survive the Holocaust, ano who seems to have led an intriguing and fulfilling life as a Holocaust survivor. She has written several lyrics to songs about the Jewish experience and was featured in two documentaries, but her story stops (at least in this book) with her liberation from the camp. "I Am A Star" is a compelling written account, seen through the eyes of a child, that will appeal to children eager to learn more about this time, and the poetry and sketches that complete the book are to be savored.

4 comments about Aaronsohn's Maps: The Untold Story of the Man Who Might Have Created Peace in the Middle East.

1. Aaronson's Maps" is a misleading and confusing book. It claims to be a biography of an unsung hero of the Zionist revolution in the Land of Israel - Aaron Aaronsohn. A brilliant and versatile man, he won worldwide fame as a discoverer of wild wheat. During WWI, convinced that the British victory over the Turkish army was vital for the Jewish future in Palestine, Aaronsohn organized the NILI group, a spy ring which provided the British army with important information facilitating British victory over the Turks. In 1919 Aaronson joined the Zionist delegation to the Paris Peace Conference where the case for Jewish independence in Palestine was presented to "The Big Four". He died in a plane crash on his way to Paris to present maps of the future Jewish state. His arguments, used by the Zionist delegation, convinced the world that Palestine had enough water resources to sustain large Jewish and Arabs communities. Unfortunately, "Aaronsohn's maps" fails the memory of Aaronsohn and lets down many in Israel who sincerely cooperated with Patricia Goldstone providing her with documents about Aaronsohn and the NILI group. The author, not being a professional historian, displays a cavalier attitude toward historical facts. She reshuffles them with dexterity of a gossip columnist ill-prepared to deal with complex historical situations. The heroic image of Aaronsohn is besmirched by unfounded conclusions. His dreams and ideas of the Jewish revival in the Land of Israel are corrupted by insinuations of Zionist intrigues which allegedly precipitated WWI in Europe and, later, the intervention of the USA in that war. Goldstone fails to present her main claim that Aaronsohn is "a man who might have created peace in the Middle East". Instead she is rehashing the current events in the Middle East trying to prove that the wars between Arabs and Jews are about sharing water resources, not about the attempts of Islam to eliminate the state of Israel. The reader who is interested in an intellectually honest book on Aaronsohn and his times should read "Lawrence and Aaronsohn" - a compelling account written by professional historian Ronald Florence.



2. Goldstone chronicles the life of Aaron Aaronsohn, who carved careers in science, diplomacy and espionage. Furthermore, Aaronsohn does not conform to the standard "Jewish molds" of his era. His numerous and disparate accomplishments and his unique world perspective make his biographer's task all the more challenging. Goldstone says that some of the information was denied to her as it is still classified - complicating her task.
   
   Goldstone's Aaronsohn was a refugee whose parents moved from Romania to Palestine (which was then under Ottoman rule) when he was six. While he was spiritual, he was not particularly religious. He was more liberal - and certainly more tolerant - than most of his fellow Jews. His vision of Palestine was a Jewish state in which Jews and Arabs co-existed. His Palestine would be a Jewish state with adequate civic and political spaces for other groups. Hence, citizens (Jewish or others) would strive for common secular goals. His vision of a state has striking similarities to the Ottoman model of governance.
   
   As a surveyor, agronomist, and hydrologist, he discovered a new variety of wheat, understood farming and compiled detailed maps of water sources in the Middle East. He then used his knowledge to map the boundaries of Palestine based on geographical realities and economic needs. However representatives of Britain and France, who ultimately drew political boundaries, had other considerations. His political career was less spectacular than his scientific one. His religious views fueled his nationalistic passion, and for this cause he sacrificed his life and more.
   
   One may question Goldstone's version of Aaronsohn's life, its historical importance, and its influence on Israeli-Palestinian politics today. However, Goldstone writes a compelling story and should be credited for writing about a less known (but important) figure like Aaronsohn. In the coming years more about Aaronsohn will enter the public domain as it becomes declassified. As additional historical evidence becomes available, and as other interpretations of Aaronsohn's life appear, a different Aaronsohn may emerge. As there is precious little about him outside the specialized literature, it is hoped that Goldstone's contribution will help spur additional work on Aaronshon and Middle Eastern history.
   
   Armchair Interviews says: Unique look at one important man.



3. Pearls don't live in shallow waters and this author really dove deep to get the historical story to the surface. It really is a necklace of creative and powerful events... a treasure trove of adventure and political manipulation. Goldstone smartly sets the fiery events up on page two, stating that Aaaronsohn was the product of big events and big changes. And...WHAM!...the adventure begins. "If we fail", Aaronsohn states "we alone shall suffer". And that's exactly what happens...and we are now living with the results. Of course we have the war which exposes all kinds of political foolishness as well as deft triumphs by the power players of the era. I especially enjoyed the fact that Aaronsohn really got Churchills guts in an uproar. I'm sure some of the basic truths are going to really upset a few...but...so what...the truth is often hard to swallow. I guess that's what I really enjoyed the most. See for yourself. When you're finished think about what the middle east might be now if only half of Aaronsohn's work and vision became reality. Adios. Enjoy.



4. It is rare to have the pleasure of reading a serious work of scholarship which excites the imagination as well as informing the intellect. Patricia Goldstone has done an enormous amount of work in digging out the facts about a little-known figure who in the early part of the 20th century set out to map the water resources of Palestine and neighboring territories. The subtitle of her book: "The untold story of the man who might have created peace in the Middle East" makes her thesis clear: if Aaron Aaronsohn's advice had been accepted the continuing Israeli/Palestinian conflict might have been averted.
   
   In documenting Aaronsohn's life and work Ms. Goldstone has dug deep in archives, which have also revealed the story of Aaronsohn's unbelievably brave sister Sarah, who before her early tragic death after torture at the hands of the Turks, may have been the lover of another much discussed player in the Middle East, T. E. Lawrence.
   
   Without ever over-pressing her case for her new interpretation of their intertwined lives and with scrupulous attention to the surviving documents, Ms Goldstone vividly transports us into a world of spies, betrayals, and heartfelt devotion to a cause that holds our attention, while raising new questions about a much-disputed series of events in Middle East history.

5 comments about The Man Who Shocked The World: The Life And Legacy Of Stanley Milgram.

1. Stanley Milgram is one of the most influential social psychologists of our time, who through his obedience studies, made some of the greatest and most enduring contributions to psychology. Through his controversial experiments, that "shocked the world" he enabled us to make some sense of the atrocities that occurred during the Holocaust. He made us look at our dark side, and began a world-discourse about why we blindly obey authority. That discourse continues today and can be found everywhere and in everything from academic journals to films, books, music, and even dog-training manuals. Not only is Milgram's work fascinating but the man himself was just as captivating.
   
   In this superbly written biography of Milgram, Thomas Blass gives us an intimate look at the man behind the brilliance. Blass has meticulously researched Milgram's life and presented the reader with an honest, and not always complimentary, view of Stanley Milgram. I applaud Blass for his candid approach, and his balanced view of an extraordinary man. By revealing Milgram's darker side, Blass has cleverly demonstrated that we all share the same human foibles and weaknesses, and that ultimately the experimenter is no better and no worse than the subjects he uses in his experiments. We are all just humans.
   
   With the current state of our world, I believe renewed discourse on the subject of blind obedience could not have come at a better time. Milgram's work is relevant to just about every aspect of our lives from workplace social dynamics to terrorism. Because of that, I recommend this book to everyone who shares a background in psychology and most certainly for those who do not. Blass's book is a marvelous introduction to Milgram's work and to the fascinating man himself.



2. Milgram seemed to share the showmanship of P.T. Barnum and ingenuity of reality show creator Mark Burnett. If Milgram were alive, he might have been a top reality show creator.
   
   Milgram seems most notable not for the results of his experiments but for their conception and content. He hardly modified the approach used by Asch in his conformity experiments, which relied on deception, but he changed the subject to something considerably more striking. The result may have been significant, but think about it: any result would have attracted attention. Comparing the experimental situation with concentration camp situation is what first made the experiment newsworthy. If the result had been that no one or very few shocked, then news could have been generated of how much better behaved Americans are. Or if Germans also didn't shock much, it could have been claimed people nowadays are much better behaved than folks back in World War II. Given the catchy experiment, the results hardly mattered in the sense that the very description of what the experiment was doing would catch people's attention.
   
   Which isn't necessarily bad. Milgram brought social psychology out of relative obscurity. To a good extent, he bailed out psychology in general, whose reputation had been damaged by decades of speculations without much support.
   
   As a situationist, Milgram recognized that our social lives are quite complex. Rather than spend much time theorizing, he experimented. Don't know? Don't invent a reason, go gather facts. It's a measure of just how complex we are socially that even having gathered results, as with the "obedience" experiments, Milgram seemed at a lost to explain what was happening. Blass notes about Milgram's "Obedience to Authority book" that "Milgram's theorizing is the weakest part of the book". Milgram's feeble appeal to cybernetics contrasts sharply with his description of the experiment. Blass also notes that the kind of "obedience" Milgram studied doesn't seem at all sufficient to explain what happened during the Holocaust.
   
   Milgram shouldn't be faulted for the problems with his theorizing. How many psychologists can theorize well? There's still an enormous amount we don't know about ourselves and the way we interact. Milgram's gift seems to have been sensing that and instead finding novel ways to help us to learn about ourselves. Even if the content and results of his experiments are someday forgotten, the spirit of bold experimentation that Milgram brought to social psychology will be of great value. Blass communicates that. So I don't know if Blass is the "undisputed expert" but the book seems well-researched and quite readable.



3. Great book, couldn't put it down. It is an excellent book to get the whole story about Milgram and his famous experiment. What great insight Milgram found out about man, but was man ready to look in the mirror? If you teach psychology, or you are just interested in psychology, and want a more in depth look at Milgram, you won't go wrong with this one. My students are enjoying this as well.



4. I admire those who ask the hard questions. I admire those who don't fall into line with easy answers. I'm glad Stanley Milgram existed and did his groundbreaking work. I'm sorry he's not still alive to be doing more of it. I'd love to see his take on the current state of affairs in our country. I first learned of Milgram as a college student who was one of a group duplicating his experiment. I didn't shock anybody and argued with the "experimenter" as the task was being explained to me. And having read this book I still proudly wear my "Question Authority" button in honor of Milgram. The Blass book is an excellent read if you're willing to entertain some uncomfortable thoughts.



5. In July of 1961, just three months after the beginning of the trial of Adolph Eichmann, Yale Psychologist Stanley Milgram began a series of experiments destined to change the world's view of human behavior. The essential elements included a `teacher' and a `learner'. In reality only the `teacher' was part of the experiment. His job or rather his orders were to test the `learner' and for each question the learner answered incorrectly he would receive an electric shock up to the point at which he might die from it. Milgram showed that many of the randomly selected `teachers' would inflict the maximum punishment without disobeying their `orders'.
   
   This brilliant book tells the story of the man behind the experiment and the legacy at has left in the world today. A brilliantly written, well constructed, fast flowing narratives takes the reader from Milgram's early days through his family and professional life and discusses the legacy of this amazing experiment.
   
   Seth J. Frantzman

5 comments about Shanghai Diary: A Young Girl's Journey from Hitler's Hate to War-Torn China.

1. Several months ago I saw the author, Ursula Bacon, on BookTv (C-Span 2). I was very impressed with her; her lecture was excellent; and the true story of her life from the age of 10 to 18 was compelling. So, I immediately ordered her book. But the book sat on my desk for weeks making me feel guilty about not reading it. I too am a writer. So, finally after completing one book and revising another one, I took a break. And what a break that was--when I was transported to the CHINA of 1938-1946! Ms. Bacon, an only child of a Jewish family, left Germany with her parents as Hitler and his cohorts were rounding up Jews and transporting them to Death Camps.
   
   By the time Vati, Dad, and Mutti, Mom, were looking for countries to immigrate to, every country had closed its doors to German Jews except Shanghai, China. And Shanghai was a total mess, worse than anything most Americans would ever see. But Ursula's family lived in the filthy disease-ridden slums and survived by bartering their few possessions for food. Ursula, up until then a very sheltered child, attended a Catholic school where most classes were taught in French. And most of the time she remained optimistic, made many European and Chinese friends of all ages, learned to speak Mandarin Chinese, encouraged her Mutti, and helped Vati with his business endeavors.
   
   Ursula became an adult before becoming a teen! And she encountered many bizarre situations which she handled better than most adults. The worst was when she was 12 or 13 and killed a drunken Japanese soldier with her bare hands when he attacked her as she walked home from a friend's house late at night. She didn't tell her parents, though, because she didn't want to burden them with additional worries.
   
   This intriguing and inspiring survival tale is about Jewish refuges in China during WW II, though it depicts the color of Shanghai and the many nationalities struggling to survive their wartorn world. I didn't want SHANGHAI DIARY to end! However, I couldn't wait to finish it, so I could pass it on to an friend whose daughter adopted the most delightful Chinese girl who I predict will someday be an important leader in some capacity.
   
   The world has grown so small today that every American should go out of his or her way to become acquainted with other cultures and religions. And every American teenager should be given the opportunity to live in a foreign country to learn new languages and cultures. I give this wonderful book MORE than FIVE STARS! And I hope parents will share it with their teens and high school teachers will use it in their classes. Thanks, Ursula! K.J. McWilliams, book reviewer as well as author of Pirates, The Journal of Leroy Jeremiah Jones, a Fugitive Slave, The Diary of a Slave Girl, Ruby Jo, and The Journal of Darien Dexter Duff, an Emancipated Slave, winner of the Young Adult Fiction 2003 Royal Palm Literary Award.



2. I loved reading this memoir. It was an easy read that was character driven and suspenseful. The language was not unnecessarily pretentious, and getting into the story was easy. Further, I knew nothing before reading this book about the European Jews who found a haven of sorts in Shanghai during WWII. While they suffered many indignities, shortages of food, medicine, shelter, and clothing, they were much better off than the European Jews who went to their deaths in the camps. Ironically, they also fared better than non-Jewish citizens of countries allied against Hitler and Japan during the Japanese occupation. Non Jewish civilians of the allied countries or captured POWS participated in tragedies like the Bataan death march. They were interred in Japanese prison camps and subjected to grueling forced labor. There they starved, froze, and died of injury and disease probably in greater number than the Shanghai Jews. The Shanghai Jews were subjected to some but not a great deal of forced labor. They were required to police their own ghetto and dig the occassional ditch. Jews did die because of a lack of medicine, sanitation and adequate nutrition. However, many Chinese civilians suffered the same losses even before the war. Still this does not excuse the ghettoization of the Jews into terribly crowded conditions, rules that precluded most of them from earning a living even though they had skills or precluded them from owning property. Luckily aid from Jews in the U.S., Canada, Australia and South Africa could reach them. For some this was their only means of support and they lived wretched lives. However, the narrator and her family arrived a little better off than most, and her father was a well liked industrious and optimistic businessman. Her mother took in mending and used her excellent seamstress skills to earn money. She tolerated her reduced circumstances without complaint and focused on the sunnier future she was sure would follow the war's end. When the author's father could not work much after the Japanese occupation, their circumstances were reduced. Because the ghetto was seriously overcrowded most occupants could afford little more space than 100 sq. ft. for every three people. Sanitation was completely lacking, and the description of the "honeypots" was truly odoriferous. Imagine several people suffering from amebic dysyntary using the same water closet outfitted with a rustic chamber pot. The author could have let her story fall into the trap of excessive sentimentality, but she did not. For this and her family's optimism I give her Kudos. I gave this four stars instead of five, because I don't think it rises to the literary level of a five star book. Still I highly recommend it. It is a great novel to take on an airplane, a vacation, or to read on an inclement afternoon. It can be read in a few hours.



3. Between 1938 and 1941, approximately 18,000 to 20,000 Jews found a safe haven from Hitler's havoc in the one city that did not require visas, police certificates, or proof of financial independence: Shanghai.
   
   In the past decade, a number of these refugees have decided to pen their memoirs. One highly readable account of the era between Jewish immigration and expulsion, is Ursula Bacon's Shanghai Diary. She offers an interesting account of her efforts to adjust to her challenging and strange new life and to make sense of the past, present, and future, while living in Shanghai between 1938 and 1946.
   
   At age 11, Bacon, the only child of a Jewish family, arrived from Germany in 1938 to start a new life. Mr. Bacon had been a successful businessman in Germany, but now he eeks out a living in his Shanghai wallpapering business. Mrs. Bacon finds odd jobs using her sewing skills. Despite earning a meager living, Bacon describes the many hardships her family still faces: suffering numerous indignities, food shortages, living in fear of the many rampant diseases and the lack of medicine, difficulties in finding living quarters and their inadequate size, and other daily struggles. Undeniably, young Miss Bacon was learning enough for a lifetime in only a short time. She attends a Catholic school, where most classes were taught in French. At home and on the streets, she learns to speak Mandarin Chinese and befriends a Buddhist monk. Ursula also learns English in school and on the streets. Eventually she too finds a job, as a governess and tutor to three concubines. While they learn from her, she also learns from them: Chinese views of sex, marriage, and women. It is a tender age to be learning why healthy baby girls are left in local trash bins!
   
   Although these difficult years in Shanghai far surpassed what they had imagined, the Bacon family had no idea much worse life in Germany had become in their absence. Ironically, the Bacons also had no way of knowing that life in Shanghai was about to take a turn for the worse and that they would end up in a ghetto even though they were 8,000 miles away from Hitler! The approximately 18,000 to 20,000 Shanghai Jews were forced in a Hong Kew slum in an area that totaled less then one square mile. As with many families, the Bacons lived in a single room, which they divided with a bed sheet and rented the "second room" to a young couple. There is no longer any such thing as privacy, which was difficult for a young lady Ursula's age.
   
   Ghettoization and its new "rules" made it difficult for many men to continue their work, further reducing family incomes. Many Jews died from malnutrition, the horrendous sanitation situation, lack of medicine, shootings, and bombings. The economic pressures and health concerns required people to live by their wits now, more than anything else.
   
   Through all these challenges, the Bacons try to remain optimistic and to view their time in Shanghai as temporary, until they receive their American visas. While her youth is an asset in that regard, the author also receives excellent advice from some wise adult friends. Some of my favorite quotes include: "If you let the past live your life, the present will have no meaning, and the future is impossible." And "after this time comes another." These words will serve expats -or anyone-- well.
   
   While some readers and critics have suggested that there are a number of inaccuracies in Bacon's story--for example, one Shanghai historican claims that Bacon never swam through the filthy Huang Pu river in the dark and actually rescued American airmen-- the book is still a highly readable memoir of an interesting time in a fascinating city. Bacon provides us with an insider's view of WWII-era Jewish Shanghai that makes enjoyable airplane, vacation, or rainy day reading.



4. I am not a reader of novels, mostly technical material. Recently I was engaged to direct a video interview with Ursula Bacon. Not familiar with her I went to Powell's Books in Portland and found a copy of her book Shanghai Diary. I had only planned to pick out a few facts to give me an idea of how to shoot the interview. Once I started reading I had to buy it. This is a book I read from cover to cover. But not a book for the weak of heart.
   
   On May 23, 2008 I had the pleasure of meeting and talking with Ursula. She is as "sharp as a tack." During the videoing the moderator introduced her and from then on it was all Ursula. She related numerous stories that were almost word for work from the book. What a memory.
   
   After we finished with the video she talked with all the crew and signed a copy of Shanghai Diary for the studio library. Of course I had her sign my copy too. What a gracious lady. I'm looking forward to reading her other works and our next studio session.



5. Being impacted by Hitler's regime about the same age as Ursula Bacon, I can easily empathize with her tribulations. I had not been familiar with the events reflected in "The Shanghai Diaries." Ergo, I am grateful to the author for sharing her life story. She is a keen observant; her insight and hindsight are remarkable.
   
   Ursula Bacon's last sentence is "All in all, I have been one lucky girl-child." This conclusive statement is indicative of Ursula's soundness of judgment. Ursula and her parents managed to get out from Germany, In May 1939. As refugees, sheltered in Hongkew, a restricted area in Shanghai, China, Ursula and her parents were living under most primitive conditions. The family was very cognizant of their predicament, but was more concerned and was lamenting the fate of those who were left behind in Germany. Her father said: "This is not a paradise, but we don't have to worry about the Gestapo, the SS. Compared to Hitler's death camps, his butchers, his ovens, his gas chambers - we had merely been inconvenienced!" Ursula's mother believed that complaining: "Dig us deeper into the black hole of despair." Ursula deemed life to be a gift and meaningful, even in times of adversity. She manifested appreciation for the beauty of nature. She often reminisce the creative aura of her childhood. She values greatly any act of human kindness in her new surroundings, in a strange land. Plato (427-347) said "A grateful mind is a great mind; it eventually attracts to itself great things" As the only Holocaust survivor of my immediate family, Ursula's assertion that she is lucky is most appropriate. She and her beloved parents survived the war; they survived Hitler.
   
   I was profoundly impressed by Ursula's husband, Wolf, saying: "I shall never hate anybody ever! Not a group, not an individual!" To hear such a positive statement from a person who was compelled, by Hitler's racist policy, to leave the country of his birth - and had been subjected to unjustifiable hardship - is highly commendable. This is indicative of Wolf's character and prudence. Despite my being dehumanized and tortured under the Nazi yoke, I shall not hate either!
   
   The Shanghai Diaries widens my horizon' it fortifies my adherence to. the values my murdered dear father had instilled in me:"Hate Hatred and shun violence."
   
   Alter Wiener, author "From A Name to A Number"

5 comments about Around Sarah's Table: Ten Hasidic Women Share Their Stories of Life, Faith, and Tradition.

1. Around Sarah's Table (2001) is a set of 10 vignettes about Lubavitcher Hasidic women in modern American society. The ten women featured in this book are participants in a shiur (Torah class) held at lunchtime on Tuesdays in Sarah's home within Borough Park in Brooklyn. These women read a weekly parsha (portion), containing one or more quotations from the Torah and some commentary, and then discuss the lesson.
   
   Shaina is a convert to Hasidic Judaism from a Reformed family and has not had much contact with other Hasidic women. She and her husband have adopted two Down's Syndrome children and Shaina is running herself into the ground trying to do everything for her children. Shaina is a writer of children's stories and Reva, her publisher, strongly suggests that she spend some time away from her children, so Shaina arranges for a sitter so that she can attend the shiur.
   
   Reva started a small publishing house to provide stories suitable for instructing her own children in Hasidic values and has since expanded to an international operation. Her husband has always encouraged her efforts, but lately he has been much troubled by his diabetes. His condition is serious enough to require shots and other medical assistance and the burden of his care has fallen mainly on Reva. She is feeling overwhelmed by her responsibilities.
   
   Tamar is a mother and homemaker who is concerned about a husband for her daughter Abigail. Her older children have been successfully married to compatible mates, but Abigail has not yet met a man that suits her. Moreover, a suitable mate for her younger son Ephraim has been found, but it is not appropriate for a young man to be married before his older sister.
   
   Rachel is a resident of Williamsburg, the oldest Jewish community in Brooklyn. Her husband is a world-renowned authority on mikvahs (pools for ritual immersion). Rachel travels with him and teaches simple matters to young women who know little about mitzvahs (commandments). After years of performing such teaching, she suddenly realizes that there is much more that she can do to educate these young women.
   
   Glika was born and raised in the only Torah home in Milan, Italy. Hasidic Jews from all over the world stayed with their family when visiting Milan. Due to this exposure, Glika's name and character were known to many people in many places. When it came time for her to marry, her family chose a man from Toronto, Canada, and she went to live with him in that city. They were happy and had many children, but one day the family business failed and they had to move to New York. Glika feels helpless and wonders what she can do to help her family.
   
   Levana is a good wife to her husband, mother to her children, and daughter to her mother. Lately she is being overwhelmed by the demands put on her by her family, but she feels that she should try to do as much a possible for them. Her friends tell her that she should let them do more for themselves and she wonders if she should take this advice.
   
   Klara is an exile from her homeland, Russia, having gotten out well before the first wave of immigrants arrived. She becomes a lawyer and eventually starts her own practice. Although she can usually set her own hours, sometimes circumstances cause scheduling conflicts. She wishes that she had more time with the grandchildren, but she has responsibilities.
   
   Erica was widowed with a young daughter. She marries again to a divorced man and becomes the step-mother to two boys. She is moving from their old house in Borough Park to a larger one in Lawrence, Long Island, where the boys will have a large yard in which to play. She is pleased with the new house, but she feels uncertain as to her role in the new community.
   
   Ora had a life-threatening illness in her twenties and she has since been determined to make the best of her opportunities. She has been teaching young Russian women their heritage as Jews and looks upon them as her own spiritual children. She also writes poems, not very great poetry yet uplifting, and sends them to friends that she thinks could use some brightness in their lives. She believes that she is a lamplighter, but doesn't believe that she is a courageous woman.
   
   Sarah is the leader. Unlike other Hasidic women, she accidentally meets her future husband on an airliner, they fall in love, and the Lubavitcher Rebbe gives special permission for them to marry. Her husband becomes the principal of Beth Jacob Schools for Girls in Brooklyn. At first Sarah is caught up in a whirlwind of activity, but then she begins to lose energy and can't do anything right. She and her husband take some time away from work and children to discuss her problem and, after this discussion, she resolves to start a shiur for women.
   
   These ten vignettes are beautifully written and depict a wide variety of events and circumstances in the lives of Hasidic women, including death, divorce, and illness. Since these stories are written as extensions of the Torah lessons, they always end with an answer or resolution. Thus, these are not stories of tragedy and major crises, but the everyday problems of normal human beings.
   
   This book contains many Hebrew and Yiddish terms, but most are immediately explained, are understandable from context, or can be ignored. A glossary is provided at the back for other terms, but it is probably better to ignore this appendix the first time through so as to maintain the flow. However, it is handy for perusal when re-reading the book.
   
   Since I am not Jewish, this book answered some questions, but also opened up many more. It does seem to be a good starting point for study of Hasidic Judaism and contains a bibliography of more scholarly works.
   
   Recommended for anyone who is curious about the role of women in Lubavitcher Hasidic Judaism.
   
   -Bill Jordin



2. This book is written on around a 4th grade reading level, so if you are a person who is irritated by this type of writing (and you know who you are!) you might not want to waste your money on this book. I did not think the book was an especially enjoyable read, or containing anything that other Jewish women's books, many of which are much more interesting, do not already have.



3. I had hoped for an unbiased and dispassionate look at the lives of observant Chasidic women, but found this book to be little more than a rah-rah shout out for the Lubavictch way of life.



4. (4.5 stars)
   
   This book, with its stories about ten different women, paints a vibrant picture of what it's really like to be a modern Hassidic woman. Too often the Hassidic and Hareidi communities (particularly the women) are horribly stereotyped, with people believing such things as how they're all unhappy, oppressed, seen as little more than brood mares, and denied an education. And while obviously the way of life for women in this world isn't exactly the same as it is for a woman in one of the non-Orthodox denominations, as we learn through these stories, these women are anything but unhappy, ignorant, and oppressed. Their whole lives revolve around the Torah and the various commentaries (such as Midrash, Gemara, and Rashi), but they're not letting their husbands and other men in their lives do all of the learning for them. They come to Sarah's table every Tuesday to learn Torah insights and wisdom by themselves. Being able to learn and interpret these sacred texts, as opposed to a hundred years ago when the vast majority of Hassidic women really weren't given a thorough education (but neither were women in the non-Jewish world), is very important for them. Not only do they need to be well-versed in these texts to teach their children, they also need this knowledge so they can empower themselves. This really is a very empowering book for women, what with seeing the possibilities for being an educated involved self-aware empowered woman in the frum world.
   
   Each of the women has her own personal issues, many of them shattering the myth that women in this community are nothing but housewives and baby-makers. Klara, for example, is a high-profile lawyer, Reva started her own publishing house for religious children's books, and Sarah met her husband in real time, on an aeroplane, instead of through a shidduch. The dilemmas they deal with could also be related to by any woman; for example, Erica is dealing with being a stepmother, Glicka and her family are struggling with a much-reduced station in life after their business went sour, Ora almost died in her twenties due to nephritis, and Reva is dealing with her diabetic husband's health condition. There were times that my sense of cultural and moral relativism seemed strained (such as the idea that wearing a wig instead of covering your hair with just a hat or scarf is a guarantor of future blessings, and, especially, the Orthodox belief that the Oral Law was Divinely revealed at Sinai, and thus even Midrashim that seem quite preposterous, even disturbing and offensive, to many a modern person, are to be taken literally and inerrantly).
   
   However, I had to remind myself that these women's sensibilities, beliefs, and choices are radically different from mine. It doesn't make them inferior or bad, just radically different. Tolerance does run both ways, even when I couldn't help but feel uncomfortable at phrases like "Torah values" and "Torah Judaism" (the subtle implication being, to many of us who aren't Orthodox, that our own Jewish experiences aren't true to the Torah just becaue we're not extremely Orthodox). There's also a bit on page 157, in which, according to Hebrew letters, America means "nation empty of God" (I for one am deeply thankful we have separation of church and state, and can't fathom why people, such as these women, who aren't of the nation's majority religion don't feel the same), and Russia means "evil" (just because the USSR was officially atheist, as though atheism is so wrong and evil). That kind of triumphalism does make me dock the book half a star, no matter how inspiring it otherwise was. Being Hareidi or Hassidic is A way to be observant and have a meaningful beautiful Jewish life. It is not THE way. For example, just like they couldn't imagine not having met their husbands through a matchmaker or their relatives, I would be horrified and creeped out if my own parents got so intimately involved in finding me a husband. The story of Levana also really depressed me. The nine other women seemed empowered and doing things for themselves, but it was so obvious that she and Aaron needed some serious marriage counseling (not necessarily a divorce). It sends such a horrible message to women in similar situations that they need to continue praying, being a buffer zone, putting their own needs and wants last for the sake of everyone else, and absorbing a partner's insults and shabby treatment in the belief that it's making them stronger people, that with enough patience and time he'll change when you're the only one making the effort to be a better person. I'm sure they could have found some counselor in their ultra-frum community whom Aaron could have felt comfortable with.
   
   In spite of the occasional triumphalism and the depressing frustrating story of Levana, this is a very good book. (I also could have done without the Ashkenazic transliterations, and mentally translated them into the proper Sephardic ones in my head as I read. Apart from a couple of really common ones, like Shabbos or tallis, they just look so shtetl, ugly, and backwoods, not to mention just plain incorrect.) Too many people are misinformed about what the lives of Hassidic women are really like, and this book shows them in all their multi-faceted glory. It is possible to be an educated empowered woman in this world, even if their way of being feminist and empowered is radically different from mine.



5. This book was interesting with various different stories about different women in the ultra-Othordox faith. However, many of the stories were too short for my liking, and often, they were not that interesting. It's a shame since it was a good idea just not written out that well. It's still a good read, and good for those who enjoy short stories and prefer short books.

3 comments about Who Was Anne Frank? (Who Was...?).

1. Great subject for a children book. I got this series of books for my daughter and she really enjoyes reading them. Great read and educational too.



2. I highly recommend this series as a wonderful way of introducing your 3rd or 4th grade child to the world of biographies. There are many personal elements shared that go beyond what the person is primarily remembered for. A must for any upper elementary teacher's classroom library!



3. Anyone who is familiar with the Who Was Series would sincerely appreciate this text. This series provides biographies on dozens of famous people, but it is written for children ages 9-12. The pages include a short amount of text and usually a sketch to accompany it. This is a quick read and provides accurate information; however, it is appropriate for the age group. The author definitely took into account the maturity level of the reader, which is appreciated. The character of Anne Frank is written so that the reader feels as though they would know her and can easily relate to some of her life's struggles. I am anxious for the next addition to this phenomenal series. A must for any classroom teacher!

5 comments about The Rabbi's Daughter.

1. My feelings toward Reva ran the gamut as I read her book. I would have given it three stars but I read it during a succession of visits to the bookstore coffee shop and found myself thinking about it in between visits. This book is pretty much a memoir of growing up with low self-esteem and its aftermath. What makes this one unique is that much of it takes place in an insulated Hassidic community. I couldn't help thinking of another very similar memoir called Beautiful Stranger by Hope Donahue. Hope also grew up with a distant father and narcissistic mother. In order to fill her chronic void Hope, who is very pretty, becomes a plastic surgery addict. Same story different setting and coping mechanism.
   
   Reva had one thing Hope didn't, a mentally handicapped older sister. Eventually their mother gets tired of taking care of the sister and puts her in an institution far away. This devastates Reva and haunts her throughout the book, even though she doesn't seem to make much effort to visit her sister. Reva seems to feel that her anxiety and loneliness problems are somehow tied to her sister's trauma. It is my personal belief that her mother's narcissistic unavailability and preoccupation with appearances (such as bullying Reva into a nose job at 16) had a lot more to do with it.
   
   First Reva tries to fill the void with drugs and promiscuity. Later she joins a Hassidic sect in an effort to atone and straighten herself out. After a series of introductions by the community's matchmaker Reva marries Simcha. They meet in hotel lobbies and take long walks because physical contact is forbidden. A lot of the young people in this book seem to feel that religious observance will conquer all of their problems and hang ups. Reva is over sexed and feeling guilty about it and looking forward to marriage. Simcha has some hang ups about sex and is trying to avoid it. They both feel that religion will provide them this outlet. She expresses her disappointment on their wedding night. The two become intimate strangers and eventually the marriage falls apart. Reva is left feeling even worse since she feels that her community blames her for her marriage's failure.
   
   I don't want to spoil the ending but Reva's mother who made such an impression on me insists on committing one last selfish act. I would recommend this book along with Beautiful Stranger to young women suffering from low self-esteem, poor family relations and interpersonal skills. They should be read as cautionary tales about quick fixes, especially external ones.



2. Reva puts everything on the line and does not white wash anything. This book was unbelievably cathartic for me. The descriptions of her feelings and locations were incredibly vivid. It brought me back to my years attending a seminary in Jerusalem. I understood her hunger for spirituality, her desire to suppress her blemished past, and her fantasy about wanting to live a pious life. Although I never got married, I have many friends who did and now live in the ultra-orthodox world in Jerusalem. I am still not quite sure how I escaped the grip of marriage. I wish there was a bit more resolution at the end but it is a memoir, she is still living. I wish her luck and thank you.



3. "The Rabbi's Daughter" is a fascinating journey from one woman's perspective. I was interested to see how many peole were completely turned off by this book. I believe that those who were disappointed may have been looking for 'answers' from a Jewish perspective. If the novel is read in that way, I can see why there would be confusion.
   
   However, this well crafted memoir, by a flawed, caring, idealistic woman, is far more in line with Elizabeth Gilbert's "Eat, Pray, Love" than a work of Jewish philosophy or theology. This isn't a theological work to bring enlightenment. It's a very raw and real story of one woman's search for inner peace. She looked for it in drugs and sex and being a part of the modern world. She looked for it in the most restrictive forms of Hassidic Judaism. What she finds along the way is knowledge and her own sense of self and balance.
   
   I applaud Ms. Mann's bravery for telling her story.



4. I finished this book in a day and found it very hard to put down.
   It reads as the memoir of a woman who grew up in a religious Jewish household, left the fray to lead a lifestyle of sex and "liberation" and returned to join the ultra-religious Hasidic community. The book promised to highlight the struggles a woman faced in choosing between a religious lifestyle and a non-religious one. And that is my biggest issue with the book. The religious lifestyle she describes consists of a joyless virtually loveless existence full of empty rules, stringencies, and empty relationships. The "non-religious" lifestyle she chooses consists of adultery, promiscuous sex, drug use, lesbianism, more drug use, and more promiscuous sex.
   I had truly wanted to relate to the author, as I am a (mostly happy) Orthodox woman myself, but I do question what "life on the other side of the fence" might be like from time to time. I found it impossible to do so for two reasons. First the author's experience of Judaism was skewed, extreme, and not an accurate glimpse of mainstream Orthodoxy. Second, her non-religious lifestyle disgusted me and I have a hard time believing most secular people engage in half the things the author happily did in her pursuit of a "non-religious" way of life.
   Like some other reviewers I found some of the incidents related strained belief. A woman who repeatedly professes to love G-d so much she joins the most extreme and ascetic Orthodox branch happily recounts how she lost her virginity in a synagogue of all places.
   Her emotions just did not ring true to me. Nor did I really get a sense of genuine spirituality coming from the author.
   I hope anyone reading this book realizes the views of this author are extreme and her experiences are not shared by the majority of Orthodox Jewish women. Some of us do live balanced, fulfilling and happy lives, and interact with genuinely caring and loving people.



5. If one is familiar with the religious Jewish life the book grabs you until the last page. A few small points are interesting however. If she comes from a orthodox family why does her father as a rabbi use a loudspeaker on sabbath and kiss other woman? sounds a bit strange.... in addition the very specific language describing in full detail the sexual experiences where not needed to make the book a fantastic book. All in all very well written! Looking forward to her next book.

5 comments about An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood.

1. Film scholar and critic Neal Gabler offers a surprisingly well-researched, academically sound, and insightful study of the scions of early Hollywood and their vision for America. Ironically, and somewhat paradoxically, he finds that the early movie industry was largely founded by Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. As outsiders in WASPish America, they nonetheless excelled at creating a vision of the United States that incorporated some of its most cherished principles and desires. Such studio executives as Louis B. Mayer, Harry Cohn, and the Warner brothers ensconced a vision of America at its best that stood far removed from the reality of their lives.
   
   As Gabler wrote of these industry leaders: "What united them in deep spiritual kinship was their utter and absolute rejection of their pasts and their equally absolute devotion to their new country....something drove the young Hollywood Jews to a ferocious, even pathological, embrace of America. Something drove them to deny whatever they had been before settling here" (p. 4). Gabler believes that these Jewish leaders "colonized the American imagination" (p. 7). Over time, their films embodied American values; the irony is that they were made by people alienated from that culture. As Gabler concludes, "the Jews reinvented the country in the image of their fiction" (p. 7).
   
   This is a very interesting and useful study of the role of film in defining the American character in the early twentieth century.



2. The 400 pages could have been 41, this longest prologue to a story does not start before it is well concluded...can take months of originally enjoyable casual reading to come to no real end...finished.
   
   With it read myself I might suggest don't read it alone, don't waste it, take it as a box of chocolates (yep!) and do not leave yourself alone on stage. This is narrative, spiceful, and just a script. This is not standalone monologue. This is not a work that works by itself. Your bedmate should set down her or his own book to share this when you peep out intrigued. Ah, the best of you can bring Gabler's work to a useful point as you together add your pages.
   
   Or get out of bed. This is weak as a book, fantastic as a subject, great as a discussion. This is, for the first part, brilliant writing - but nothing is worth buying if not on sale.
   
   You must know Hollywood history before, above and beyond this incisive intake. Or, even more daunting, when you have read the book start right over and read it again.
   
   That I did not do.
   
   Who reviewing has read this whole, entire thing? Oh, come on! This is a classic skip the pageser. Yes I read all but the last two pages, finally crowning the author with the good ole good intentions star. I read it whole, crowwed in pride for fortisimilitude, I did, until the last I suppose 100 pages, maybe 200, but I can't tell you the beginning as I got to the end.
   
   Plus, I smell a rat. A pitch with no production. Read the script; again, all 400 pages. Listen to the Firesign Theater: this book becomes the story of the little guy to finish the mural.
   
   Like the history of a town, or a building, much less a man or a group of men, the construction of "Empire" is half the story, the lives in it not even the other half; the decay, decline, rot and remembrance are the full story, the lesson, the book. That's not here. Gabler gives, finally, a cruelly brief conclusion to the men and their properties he takes up hours of our lives founding. If he even does that well. And he don't: get the manuscript off to the printers. That hurts.
   
   This book just gets started. That is no compliment. And by golly no insult. Like many great writers, this work is more an invite to sit with Gabler and talk than to read.
   
   I seek a complimentary review, not to undo my admiration, nor my own perfidiification, but to add to it. Do undo my frustration in digesting this huge volume and my Philistine assumption on it's conclusion that it's intention was to make 400 pages printed.
   
   Can we suspect this is just a touch of the brilliant Neal Gabler, and this book reveals how damned hard it is to write a complete story of an incomplete mission.



3. Neal Gabler explores the fascinating question of how Hollywood was created primarily by a remarkable group of men who fit into a remarkably small demographic: European Jewish immigrants, most of them poor, most of them from Manhattan's lower east side, none of them practicing Jews, most of them from families with weak father figures. But together they moved to an almost completely protestant city and created the most successful form of popular entertainment in America, presenting an idealized version of American life for a nation in a constant for new national myths. The most fascinating thing about the book is the gap between the mythical world that they were presenting and their own backgrounds. For Louis B. Mayer, Andy Hardy's America was for him the real America, an America where there were strong nuclear families headed by strong fathers, doting neo-Victorian mothers, and obedient, respectful children. Economically most people were Middle Class, the tenor distinctively Middle American, and almost always Christian. Gabler argues that for most of these men, what they provided was not America as it existed, but the America that they wanted to be a part of.
   
   Almost all of the major studios were founded by men who more or less fit Gabler's description. There are a number of major and minor characters in Gabler's story, the most prominent being Adolph Zukor, who was instrumental in creating Paramount; Carl Laemmle, founder of Universal; William Fox of Fox Pictures, which later merged with Twentieth Century; Louis B. Mayer, who built MGM into Hollywood's largest studio; Harry and Jack Warner of Warner Brothers; and the belligerent Harry Cohn of Columbia. There are in addition a number of crucial supporting characters, none more important than the legendary Irving Thalberg (I knew very slightly Thalberg's son, also Irving, an academic philosopher who spent his career in Chicago and who quietly funded liberal political causes--he paid for the Chicago Seven's legal bills at their trial--while quietly pursuing his university career), the inspiration for F. Scott Fitzgerald's last novel THE LAST TYCOON. We also meet the Schenck brothers, Nicholas and Joseph, the Rabbi of Hollywood Edgar F. Magnin, theater chain owner Marcus Loew, and an uncountable number of smaller figures.
   
   One of the most striking aspects of the biography is how utterly these men suppressed their Jewish backgrounds in their films. Although THE JAZZ SINGER is the story of the son of a Jewish son rejecting the culture of his cantor father (Gabler points out that the son's story was also the story of the moguls), the vast majority of movies produced by Hollywood in the twenties, thirties, and forties contained no identifiably Jewish characters. Although an astonishing number of the people producing the movies were Jewish, it was as if they felt compelled to completely erase Jews from their idealization of American life. The was more than mere assimilationist aspirations; it was as if they were trying to expunge the weak fathers of their youths, the poverty they knew growing up, and become a part of a nation that largely rejected them. For two or three decades, at least, they could maintain this myth, but in the forties and the HUAC committee of the U.S. House of Representatives they found their fiefdom increasingly under attack for the industry's supposed inculcation of un-American (i.e., Communist) values. Many of their attackers persisted in the fascist depiction of Communism as an essentially Jewish cast of thought (in Hitler's writings there is no clear distinction between Jews and Communists, and at least one part of his motivation in attacking Russia was to attack what he weirdly considered a Jewish nation).
   
   This is not a perfect book. For one thing, the scope is simply too large for any one book to undertake. And inevitably there are either serious omissions or details that don't quite tell the whole story. For instance, Gabler attempts to characterize the more plebian tendencies at Warner's by mentioning that one of their stars was Rin Tin Tin, which seems to hint at how far down the ladder they were in the Hollywood pecking order, but failing to note that for most of his life Rin Tin Tin was the number one box office star in Hollywood. Also, there is amazingly little discussion of the many Jewish performers in Hollywood. Some are mentioned in passing (such as Groucho Marx, noting his famous reply to the attempt by the Jewish country club Hillcrest to recruit new members following the stock market crash, that he wouldn't want to be a member of a club that would accept someone like him as a member), and Edward G. Robinson gets a few mentions, but for the most part actors are ignored. This is overwhelmingly a book about the top brass. And one can take issue with some minor depictions, such as the long discussion of the nature of Universal in the thirties, but no mention of the man who is most responsible for the visual look of those films and the director of all their major achievements, James Whale. The implication is that the distinctive look of Universal films was not determined by the former art director Whale. But this is all nitpicking.
   
   I do have to take strong issue with one of the current featured reviews that criticizes the book because he believes that the American depicted in the movies was very much the America he knew in the forties and fifties. First, the book deals mainly with America in the twenties and thirties, a bit less with the forties, and the fifties almost not at all, so the time framework of his criticism is off. Second, how can anyone argue that the movies were not an idealization if one knows any American history at all? Certainly the poverty that my parents and grandparents knew growing up in Arkansas during those decades was almost completely ignored, THE GRAPES OF WRATH aside (and the subject of that film were very much my people). Any informed demographic study of the period will show that the depiction of women in the films was wildly out of kilter with the actual lives of women, many of whom had to take jobs even in the thirties, forties, and fifties to enable families to make it financially (the fifties is the only decade in American history of which the so-called traditional American family is even somewhat true). And Hollywood films of the period are notorious today for their depiction of race relations. Anyone stating that the Hollywood film in any conceivable sense depicted America as it really existed beggars credulity.
   
   I strongly recommend this book to anyone either interested in the history of the movie industry or how immigrants sought to integrate themselves in their new nation. The book contains a wealth of information and I can't imagine anyone know coming away from it not merely entertained but better informed.



4. Not that it was bad but I was disappointed in this book. The subjects that interested me the most, the majority of movies made then portraying characters that represented how the Jews viewed themselves in American society, the schisms between the more established Jews who had immigrated from Germany and the ones from eastern European countries, the muscling in and manipulation of Hollywood by Jewish political groups like the ADL and AJC, and the gradual evolution of Hollywood into a tool of global social engineering, were barely touched on. If you are more interested in personality profiles of the early Hollywood movie moguls then this book is right up your alley though.



5. I was shocked to have someone point out that there's 300 million people in the US population of which 79% are Christian. The law of averages does not support that 2.5% of the US population that are Jewish being so prevalent in the media. Or does it? This book suggest a reason for the Jewish at the forefront. Also there are equally talented Christian actors who would like leading roles over and over again too. So ask yourself where are the Christians???
   
   Now if you look at who's who at the box office right now it gives credence to this book.
   
   Who's who in movies? IRONMAN: Starring Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow (both Jewish). THE INCREDIBLE HULK cameo Robert Downey Jr. SEX IN THE CITY (movie): Starring Sarah Jessica Parker (Jewish). She is the wife of Mathew Broderick (he is Jewish). INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL: Harrison Ford (Jewish). YOU DON'T MESS WITH ZOHAN: Adam Sandler (Jewish). TROPIC THUNDER: Starring Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr. (again, all Jewish). Amazing, take a bow!
   
   Further, what do Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and Robert Downey Jr. ALL HAVE IN COMMON?
   
   Hint: They are blood brothers with Adam Sandler, Larry King, Jerry Seinfeld & Jon Stewart for example.
   
   Give up? They ARE ALL JEWISH... Who knew? I didn't. Simply AMAZING...
   
   [..]

1 comments about Remember Us: From My Shtetl Through the Holocaust.

1. This is a magnificent account of the horrors of the Holocaust as lived by Martin Small. Author Vic Shayne has been able to give the reader the feeling of presence during these horrific events. Mr. Small's recollection is vivid and tragic at the same time. Having lost 34 members of his family to the murderous Nazi's and their collaborators he has dedicated his life to memorialize these unspeakable events in his art and poetry. Now his book 'Remember Us: From My Shtetl Through the Holocaust' brings his message to new heights with the chant of 'Never Again' and 'We Shall Never Forget'. This Herculean effort should be obligatory reading for everyone so that the horrors of the Holocaust as told by survivor Martin Small to Vic Shayne are understood and remembered forever.