5 comments about Hebrew-English Tanakh Student Edition.

1. In a recent move from Mt Vernon, NY to Seattle, WA, I realized while shelving the few books I had taken, I lacked a modern Tanakh. As a retired librarian, and as the niece of Max L. Margolis who was editor-in-chief of the famous 1917 translation, I was fully cognizant of its merits and would never discard it; however, I needed a contemporary Tanakh with both Hebrew-English translation in modern language that was easier to read than the now antiquated but still relevant older edition. I find the new JPS edition fully fits my needs.



2. I can't give a lower rating because my disappointment is probably at least partly my fault. When I bought a "student edition" of the Tanakh, I guess I was just expecting more. I think I was expecting something more like a study Bible. This one has no cross-references, few footnotes, no commentary, no introductory articles on the books, no maps, no charts, no tables, or anything. It has a preface explaining the translation and the history of transmission, but that's pretty much all it has. I thought I'd leave this review just in case anybody else, like me, mistakenly thinks this is a study Bible and is expecting a few extras.
   
   Otherwise, it's great. It has the Hebrew alongside the English, it's comfortable, and it stays open when you lay it down. You have to read it from back to front (it follows the Hebrew rather than the English) which is taking me a little getting used to, but I'm happy with it. It smells good, too, and that's always a plus.



3. I purchased this book from amazon about a year ago when I was feeling some doubt about my faith in Messiah, and I wanted to see how Jews approached scripture in regards to certain key verses and passages. I must say now that I have had some time to read the "Tanakh" had it not been for two factors i.e. the fact that the original Hebrew was intact and the fact that I could now use their corruption to refute their dead religion, I would have burned this book!
   
   What is contained in the English "translation" is not God's holy word, but is a forgery designed to steer the Jews and indeed all readers away from any truth regarding God's desire for a personal relationship with Him. One of the most damming bits of evidence against this translation is the fact that it almost universally translates the word salvation in Hebrew as "victory" and although in a sense salvation is God being victorious, it is the least likely translation of the word in all but three instances.
   
   The translators of this book ignored context to such a great extent that even a six year old child doing comparison studies between any "Christian" translation and this one would be able to see the blatant disregard for the context of the original. What one will get when one buys this book is a latter day Pharisaical attempt to squeeze God and His holy word into the mold of Talmudic Judaism so that He appears to support their dead empty and very incomplete religious system.



4. In this handsomely bound volume, you get Hebrew on the right, and a great English translation (the new JPS) on the left. For those studying Hebrew at any level, it's nice to be able to read the language without the fear of getting 'stuck', as one can get provisionally 'un-stuck' (in matters of syntax, vocab, etc.) by simply looking at the English.
   
   In case you don't know anything about Bibles: this volume is the Jewish Bible, a.k.a. the Hebrew Bible, a.k.a. the Tanakh, i.e., what Christians call the 'Old Testament', and comprises the first 2/3 of what Christians call 'the Bible'.
   
   The only thing separating the text here and the 'Old Testament' of Christian Bibles is the arrangement of some of the books. The Hebrew Bible follows the following order: Torah (Law), Nevi'im (Prophets), and Kethubim (Writings). The Torah (or Pentateuch) is the same in Jewish and Christian Bibles, but in the Prophets, the Jewish canon does not put the book of Ruth right after Judges (as in the Christian Old Testament, where Ruth is classified as an 'historical' book), and the book of Daniel, for example, is placed among the Writings, near the end of the Bible (instead of right after Ezekiel, among the Prophets, as in Christian Bibles). The Christian Bible ends with the prophet Malachi, whose oracles seemed to provide a nice bridge to the figure of John the Baptist in the Christian New Testament (i.e., the part with Jesus in it), whereas the Hebrew Bible ends with I-II Chronicles (which, in Christian Bibles, are placed right after I-II Kings). But the words and stories and material in the books themselves is basically identical (pending the translation, of course).
   
   From a scholarly perspective the two Prefaces are also quite nice, and give a simple history of the transmission of the Hebrew text throughout the millennia.
   
   Again, I would highly recommend this version for those who want to access the Hebrew of the Bible but do not want to get stuck with a Hebrew-only text.



5. I'm taking an adult Bar/Bat Mitzvah course, and purchased this as part of the syllabus. Although I already have both the Hertz (O'dox) and Plaut/UAHC (Reform) H.umashim [5 Books of Moses/Torah] with commentaries, it's nice to have the JPS version of same, as well as all the rest of the books in the normative Jewish canon - Prophets and Ketuvim (Writings, i.e., Psalms, Proverbs, Ruth, Lamentations, minor prophets, Chronicles, etc.) all under one roof.
   
   My one critique is that it would've been nice to have some of the traditional (e.g., Rashi) or even Conservative Movement commentary included in the Torah part. Otherwise, a nice addition to a Jewish library (or to the library of someone studying Jewish texts).

5 comments about The Essential Kabbalah: Heart of Jewish Mysticism, The.

1. The book Essential Kabbalah, compiled by Daniel Matt, is a wonderful basic introduction to a very mysterious and often overlooked mystical practice. So often in popular (and even educated) opinion, Judaism of old was considered legalistic and pedantic; however, the Kabbalistic practices introduced here helped to keep alive a true tradition of spirituality through Judaism (more heavily influencing Sephardic Judaism than others).
   
   According to Prof. Lawrence Fine (one of my professors when he and I were at Indiana University): 'Kabbalah is a mystical tradition filled with radiance, vitality, and spiritual depth. [In Matt's book] we catch a glimpse of the sparks of diving life about which the kabbalists speak.'
   
   'Those who persevere in this wisdom find that when they ponder these teachings many times, knowledge grows within them--an increase of essence. The search always leads to something new.'
   
   Kabbalah has often been a secret, or restricted, knowledge. Some have likened it to a gnostic framework. Some kabbalists would not teach, or indeed even discuss, kabbalistic knowledge and practice with anyone under forty years of age.
   
   'Other requirements included high moral standards, prior rabbinic learning, being married, and mental and emotional stability. The point is not to keep people away from Kabbalah, but to protect them.'
   
   The tendency for people to get lost in spirituality, essentially to get lost in the vastness of God to be found deep within themselves, has been noted in almost every spirituality of maturity throughout history. And many has been the false prophet who entices the unwary and uninitiated into mystical territory only to abandon them there.
   
   The similarity of some practice of Kabbalah and other mystical traditions can be seen in this passage on mental attachment:
   
   'In meditation, everything depends on thought. If your thought becomes attached to any created thing--even something unseen or spiritual, higher than any earthly creature, it is as if you were bowing down to an idol on your hands and knees.'
   
   Kabbalistic practices have not been restricted to Jewish practitioners, either (and I'm not talking about Madonna's recent excursion into the territory). Italian humanist Mirandola found great love for the Latin translation of Kabbalah during the Renaissance, and laid a foundation for a 'Christian' kabbalistic literature, expanded by Johannes Reuchlin and Knorr von Rosenroth (who in turn influenced the likes of Leibniz, Lessing, Swedenborg, and Blake).
   
   Kabbalah, translated from Hebrew, means 'receiving' or 'that which is received'. Kabbalah combines philosophical principles and divine instructions, heavily influenced by Talmud and Torah, infused with a heavy dose of feminine-God imagery, to explore the mysteries of human relationship with God as both father and mother, Lord and lover. There is the tradition that 'Kabbalah conveys our original nature: the unbounded awareness of Adam and Eve.'
   
   Around 1280, Moses de Leon of Spain began circulating literature, based on earlier uncompiled teachings, that merged with other materials into the Zohar, the book of radiance, now considered the canonical text of kabbalistic literature. The Zohar concentrates on the aspects of God in personal naming and attribute (a God-with-us) and the Ein Sof, the endless or infinite (a transcendent God). The Ein Sof incorporates the negative theology of Maimonides:
   
   'The description of God by means of negations is the correct description--a description that is not affected by an indulgence in facile language....With every increase in the negations regarding God, you come nearer to the apprehensions of God.'
   
   Kabbalah heavily influenced Hasidism, an eighteenth century Jewish revivalist movement. Imagery of sparks and fire are prominent in Hasidic teaching and lore; this comes often from kabbalistic texts.
   
   Most of the passages in Matt's book are from the Zohar, translated anew by Matt.



2. 
   In the book of Jeremiah the prophet said that his experience of God was just like Fire Shut up in his bones. Author Daniel Matt, nails some interesting Jewish content that reveals how the Kabbalists were touched by Fire and moved by exuberance. Their love for deep spiritual experience is unlike anything I've ever seen or read about before.
   
   "The Essential Kabbalah" is wonderfully written with great foundational principles and some strong historical references pointing to the Torah. The section of the book I really enjoyed was at the beginning under Ein Sof where it talks in depth about the qualities of God. The symbolisim is quite amazing as it talks in depth about the Shekinah Glory of God. The kabbalist were very radical, motivated by a passion that touches the soul deep with in. If you're interested in learning about some of the hidden secrets of ancient Rabbis then let Daniel Matt show you how to unfold that history and the complex symbols that are present. I really enjoyed the book and it was very well written too.
   
   Your Servant, Deremiah, *CPE



3. Daniel Matt did an excellent job in writing The Essential Kabbalah. The book opened many doors of my imagination and also many other doors of my rational mind. I will definately read it many more times in an attempt to grasp it's concepts.



4. I'm interested in the nondual expression contained in this book. Nonduality is the teaching that there is no separation from God, Self, or Truth. Nonduality is most openly revealed within the traditions of Buddhism and Hinduism (Advaita Vedanta). However, nondual teachings are found in all major religious traditions.
   
   In Judaism, nonduality is expressed explicitly in the Kabbalah. Daniel C. Matt's treatment of nonduality is uncompromising: "Do not say, 'This is a stone and not God.' God forbid! Rather, all existence is God, and the stone is a thing pervaded by divinity."
   
   The book hands the reader instruction in nondual practice: "Think of yourself as Ayin (nothingness) and forget yourself totally."
   
   This book is an important contribution to a popular nondual Judaism. For a present day view of nondual Judaism for the people, the works of Jay Michaelson and Rabbi Rami Shapiro could be consulted. Michael Laitman expresses the nondual truth of Kabbalah very clearly; he has videos on YouTube.
   
   Jerry Katz
   One: Essential Writings on Nonduality



5. This small book is a wonderful cross-section of some of Kabbalah's most important writings. Containing sections of the cornerstones of mystical Judaism, including those giants: the Zohar, the Sefer Yetzirah, the Sefer Bahir, the Orot ha-Qodesh, and others, it spans more than 700 years of oral tradition and contemplation. With words from the pens of illustrious seers such as Moses de Leon, Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, Rev. Kook, Azriel of Gerona, Maimonides, Isaac of Akko, Hayyim Vital, Abraham Abulafia, among others, this book renders in English key selections of so many worthy texts, the authors of which bristle with that knowledge that only Union with the Divine engenders. While not necessarily an introductory text, the book is accessible to anyone wishing to learn about Kabbalah.
   
   Daniel Matt has done English speakers a great service by presenting these morsels in a comprehensive form, providing a stunning bibliography and notes on the text in the rear of the book. Scholarly, yet humble, Matt keeps his comments separate (although easily perused) so as not to corrupt the presentation with cumbersome footnotes. Presented in a thoughtful series that compounds and expounds as it progresses, the reader is skimmed across the surface of this great ocean, peering into the depths, scintillating, all filled with light.

No comments about The Last Jews of Kerala: The Two Thousand Year History of India's Forgotten Jewish Community.

5 comments about Wiesel's Night (Cliffs Notes).

1. Just read the book. Its a wonderful book and you can read it over a weekend. You don't need cliff notes.



2. Forget this Cliff Notes crap! Just read Night. It's a great book and it won't even take you long to read. I wish I could give this Cliff Note book zero stars.



3. Glad I didn't have to read the book. I hate having to think. I mean, on the topic of "night", imagine looking at the stars and having to imagine all those shapes for yourself? But then you can just get a book of the constellations and all the dots are connected. That's good. But who cares anyway? I'd rather stay inside. And the same with books. But then you have to pass your courses. So this was worth the money.
   And I could read it on my computer. It'll be even more convenient when I can get it on my Blackberry. I mean, big fat monitors are as passe as email. But I don't want to be a whiner.



4. OK, 72 pages of cliff notes for a 144 page book? That is absurd! Night is a classic work, filled with vivid metaphor and intensely emotional characters. You could get a third of the way through it in the time it would take to BUY the cliff notes.



5. The book is only like 120 small pages -- read it! Having cliff notes to something like this is stupid -- a) because it is so short to begin with and b) from a practical point of view, anything that you are going to be asked to write based on this book is going to be rather emotional, or at least intense, as the subject is, and getting the facts and dates without FEELING it is not going to help you write a decent essay anyway. You would be lucky to get a D on an essay on this book written on the basis of these notes!

5 comments about Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany (Studies in Jewish History).

1. Between Dignity and Despair is haunting and painful. The statistics of the Holocaust and "sadistics" of its perpetrators can never capture the true cost in Human terms. History is more than a chronicle and analysis of events. It is also an understanding of the experiences of the people who lived through those events. These experiences do not lend themselves to quantitative assessment and validation. None-the-less, the stories and letters of the people who lived during that time are essential to our interpretation of the geopolitical, military and social events that have shaped our world.

   The great question facing us today involves the "collective guilt" of the German people for the persecution and genocide of their Jewish neighbors. The frightening and logical extension of this question is: if such horrors can arise from the children "of the enlightenment," could it not also come from "the sons and daughters of liberty?" It is clear from these accounts that the society as a whole, actively and passively, participated in this process. When studied in Human terms, it is inconceivable that it could have happened any other way.

   Cain, after murdering Able, asked of God "Am I my brother's keeper?" The response of the German people to the obvious disenfranchisement, persecution and suffering of the Jews seemed to be: "It depends on your definition of `brother.'" It teaches us that our high and noble beliefs such as equality, liberty, freedom, and brotherly love, are empty words if not applied universally. This lesson was painfully learned in 19th century America when the statement "all Men are created equal" was understood as only applying to those of White, Northern European ancestry.

   Between Dignity and Despair is haunting and painful because within its pages we see our own demons and feel the fragility of our own Humanity. We also see to what extreme our quiet personal prejudices can lead us when they go unchecked by the better angels of our nature.

   Ms Kaplan has contributed to our understanding of the horrors of systematic psychological terrorism practiced by the Nazis. No revisionist, seeking to absolve German society, can deny the conclusions drawn from the experiences she has documented. Her work is essential to an understanding of the Holocaust.




2. In Between Dignity and Despair, Kaplan sought to examine the everyday lives of Jewish people under the Nazi Regime. Many Holocaust historians tend to approach the Jewish history from the male perspective (as men were involved in politics). Kaplan sought to explain the importance of women's roles in the Jewish society and how Jewish women urged their husbands to leave Germany when the Nazi gained power and influence.

   Kaplan also sought to explain what it felt like to be a Jew living under the Nazi regime and how they became isolated from the rest of the society. She also explained how by and large Germans participated in this persecution and by this she did not mean physical persecution but social persecution.

   She gave special attention to the Jewish women and how the women tried to adapt to their new roles and the new situation. The women were able to provide mental and emotional support to their families when their husbands lost their jobs. It was indeed insightful to see how the women were able to cope and how they were the first group to realize the isolation that took place, mainly because of their interaction with neighbors, store owners, public officials, etc.

   I would recommend this book for anyone who wants to learn more about the Jewish life under Nazi Germany and the focus here is not those who suffered under the concentration camps but the "ordinary people" who had to cope with their new situation.




3. Missing in many Holocaust works are the experiences of common German Jews and what daily life for them became like after Hitler's rise to power in the early 1930s. One can read about the Nuremberg Laws or the November Pogrom but one can't get a real feel for how those laws impacted daily life except through memoirs and the testimony of common people. Marion Kaplan's book wonderfully fills the gap between history from the "top down" and history from the "bottom up."
   This book makes you realize that stories of hiding and rescue weren't just an occasional thing that's celebrated by Hollywood in such things as Schindler's List, but they happend every day. Kaplan also makes it clear the incredible courage involved in hiding and also the courage of others who hid Jews during Hitler's reign of terror. One bone of contention among historians many times is also how popular were the anti-Semitic measures, with many historians asserting that the population at large really wasn't that bad. Kaplan's book destroys any myths that the German popluation didn't overwhelmingly approve of Hitler's anti-Semitic measures, even if they perhaps didn't see the conclusion of them coming in the "Final Solution." If a German didn't know about the anti-Semitic measures it's only because they willingly didn't pay attention or tried to delude themselves.
   One interesting part that Kaplan writes about are the Jews who collaborated with the Nazis in cities as "Jew Hunters," including one Jewish woman who led the Gestapo to over 60 hidden Jews in a single day. Reading stories such as this, perhaps Hannah Arendt's frightening conclusion wasn't so far off in that without the help of the Jews many more could have been saved.
   The one drawback to this book is that Kaplan focuses on memoirs and testimony exclusively from women and assumes much about the male Jewish population. This could have been a much better book if she had included memoirs from a wider selection of men rather than constantly referring to Klemperer's book.



4. Marion Kaplan's, Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998) is an in-depth study into the lives of Jewish people in Nazi Germany beginning with the takeover by Adolf Hitler in 1933. She concludes that not only were the physical lives of the Jewish people tormented and taken from them, the pervasiveness of the German government into everyday life led to emotional and physiological death of the Jews.
   In developing the reader's mind to comprehend the lives of the Jews, Kaplan gives attention to little known details of Nazi Germany. As spoken about in chapter one, by establishing the Jews as social outcasts, they were removed from the rest of Germany. The new position of Jews in the public sphere affected their private lives as well. Focusing primarily on the role of women in the Jewish household, the challenges of dealing with new laws makes apparent the death beyond that of the physical means. Perhaps most intrusive to the emotional downfall of the Jews was the hostile environment they were forced to live in everyday. Faced with the torturous nature of school, Jewish children became aware of the plight of their families even as their parents tried to hide it from them. The November Pogrom of 1938 stifled the Jews politically, economically, and socially more intensely and more violently that ever before. By the official outbreak of World War II, Hitler had succeeded in massacring the Jews psychologically.
   Throughout the book Marion Kaplan makes it very apparent that the destruction of Jews did not begin when war was declared in 1939 but instead in 1933. The affliction against the Jewish people deteriorated them emotionally and psychologically as well as physically. There is concrete evidence proposed in the book such as the staggering number of suicides, and the indifference to death among the Jews. The deceased were not criticized or blamed for their actions, but they were admired and envied signifying the loss of Jewish will to live.
   Overall, Marion Kaplan's Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany is extremely well written. Through her frequent use of primary sources, the pain and distress of the Jews is more easily comprehended as the expressions of the suffering Jews appeal to the reader's emotions. Its exploration of little known details of Jewish life in Germany is useful not only to those studying the Holocaust, but also to all people. Kaplan makes it evident that acts of discrimination or the invasiveness into one's private life can profoundly destroy a person's pride. Ultimately, the destruction of the emotional and physiological conditions of people can occur as it did to the Jews in Nazi Germany.



5. This book does a marvelous job of helping us to understand how such a thing as the Holocaust could occur in a supposedly "civil" society such as Germany in the mid-20th century. Kaplan shows us how the deprivations increased so incrementally that by the time people became aware of what was truly taking place, it was too late for many of them to rescue themselves. This book also reveals how the people of Germany came to accept what was happening to the Jewish people among them; even rejoicing in it, and it lifts the veil over our eyes of the day-to-day tribulations endured before the exterminations. Well done.

5 comments about The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts.

1. Book was promptly delivered in excellent condition, just as I have learned to expect from Amazon.



2. This is one of the books by Finklestein and Silberman. Based on verified archaeological finds, they reconstruct the history of the early Bible and show it did not happen in the time period or in the way claimed by the Bible. The conservative Christian will not like this book, because it contradicts much of hat many consider to be the history of the Bible. I found the book to be scholarly and very well documented. If Abrah, Isaac and Jacob did not exist, or did not exist in the appropriate Biblical history, if David and Solomon are historically questionable and the Biblical claims are fairy tales, where does this leave Christianity, initially based on the early Jewish texts?



3. The thesis set forth in this book is not new for those who have been following modern research on the Tanach (Hebrew Bible), and the bibliography is not the kind one would expect in a serious scholarly treatise.
   However, the book was not written with the intention of being an original contribution to the scholarly discourse - ecen so, in some ways it is - but to provide the educated reader with the latest theorization about the origins of the Tanch, in particular its historiographical literature, and this it does with great success.
   The writing is lucid and readable, the ideas clearly presented. The bibliography at the end of the book is basic, but it includes some of the most important biblical research literature.
   I recommend this book to all my Bible students (in its Hebrew translation), and in one of my courses, several chapters are required reading.
   Dr. Jonathan D. Safren
   Dept. of Biblical Studies
   Beit Berl College
   Beit Berl, Israel



4. Ancient Israel was not an empire of great cities but was a tiny kingdom. The spell-binding saga of the Exodus was not a historic epic but was a moving product of human imagination. Many of the stories happened in a different era than portrayed in the Bible; many were exaggerated and misrepresented; some didn't happen at all.
   
   Here's just one example of how we know this:
   
   The stories of the patriarchs are loaded with camels but archeology clearly tells us camels were not domesticated and widely used until centuries later. The camel caravan in the Joseph story carried gum, balm, & myrhh, products of 7th & 8th century BCE trade during the Assyrian empire, but not before. Likewise, numerous cities, significant in the 7th & 8th centuries BCE, were mentioned in Genesis, but were either non-existent or were merely insignificant villages at the time.
   
   This is just a tiny part of the voluminous evidence that tells a story much more mundane than does the Bible. The stories of the patriarchs reflect concerns of a seventh century Israel - projected onto the lives of legendary figures from a mythical past. The first archeologists studied the holy land with a "Bible in one hand and a shovel in the other." William Albright provided us with the first book representing more modern archeological methods in 1945. F&S have provided us with the first comprehensive update to that book - well worth the time of anyone interested in this subject.



5. What if there was no evidence for most of the major stories of the Hebrew Scriptures? What if the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are fictional characters? What if Moses is also fiction? What would you think if there was no record in Egyptian annals of any massive group of people being held as slaves, or that there was a miraculous emancipation of such people, though we have records of times before and after the time of the supposed events? What if the Israelites appear to have been just one of the native peoples to the land now known as Palestine? What if there was no evidence of a major united kingdom in Judah preceding that of Israel, and what if the stature of Judah never came close to that of Israel? If Solomon's kingdom stretched from the Mesopotamian kingdoms to the Egyptian one, why are there no records to be found of him in those kingdoms? It is as if he either did not exist, or the stories about him were exaggerated.
   
   If you are interested in the questions and possible answers, this book is a must read.

No comments about The Jewish Calendar 5769: 2008-2009 Engagement Calendar.

5 comments about The Dream: A Memoir.

1. This tender memoir showcases Mr. Bernstein's gifted ability to thoroughly connect with his readers. In The Invisible Wall - an equally fabulous book - we begin to follow Harry (the author), his parents, brothers, and sisters through the ups and downs of their hardscrabble existence in England. Now in The Dream, we connect all the more with them as they cope with incredibly difficult situations during the 1920's and 1930's in Chicago and New York. It's not a pretty existence, but it's one that exemplifies perseverance, resilience, love, forgiveness, and hope - some of which are undoubtedly scarce in this 21st century.
   
   Keep in mind that this is a two-volume treasure. Read The Invisible Wall first to become acquainted with Harry's family, including his amazing mother and her dream. Then treat yourself to The Dream to find out the incredible things that happen in America, including Harry's romance with Ruby, who becomes Harry's wife. And, if by book's end, you experience a very special closeness to Mr. Bernstein and his life story, you won't be the only one.



2. After reading his moving and evocative first memoir, The Invisible Wall, about his life till age 12 living in Manchester as a child of Polish Jewish immigrants, I had eagerly awaited the possible sequel. This new book is as good as the first. Mr. Bernstein, now 98 years old, continues his story, covering the time of the family move to the USA, their experiences in Chicago and New York, their life during good times and then the depression. This book fits into several genera: 1. It is an autobiography, 2. It is a case study in parental abuse and general dysfunctional family members, and 3. It is a pesonal memoir of how this boy, and then man, responded to the various situations. To be honest, while I loved the writing and the story, something I cannot forget is the beautiful picture of Mr. Bernstein's wife, in her later years, looking up at him. The love is just so clear in her face.
   
   Read this book, after reading the Invisible Wall, and be swept into this remarkable family history.



3. As soon as I heard that Harry Bernstein had written a second memoir dealing with his early life America, I ordered it at once and devoured it. God bless this writer! He is 98 years old and hopes to give us a third memoir of his life with his beloved wife Ruby. I will buy it the day it is printed.
   
   Young Harry and his brothers and sisters, devoted mother and rather despicable, drunken and despotic father, leave their Liverpool poverty and travel to America in the early twentieth century. As Harry grows, the first of his family to complete high school (his mother cannot read or write), he takes on the role of the man in the house, eventually managing to work even during the Depression (though nearly killed by a band of thugs), trying to get his mother away from his father who has always made their life miserable. The strength, charm and humor of young Harry is wonderful and when he at last falls in love with a girl he meets in a dance hall, he begins a romance and marriage which will last him almost three quarters of a century.
   
   So many people are lovingly and fascinatingly portrayed, none less than his grandfather who in a strange, lonely, almost unbelievable profession, supports them all.
   
   Please write the next book quickly, Mr. Bernstein!
   
   Stephanie Cowell (author of the novel MARRYING MOZART)



4. Harry Bernstein is an incredible story teller, a natural born author. I admire that he waited until his later years to write his autobiograhy/memoir. My husband bought me the first book, The Invisible Wall, which I would highly recommend. His recollection of his growing up in a poor neighborhood with his absent alcoholic father and the love he had for his mother who did the best she could, is touching. I am now into The Dream and it doesn't disappoint. You can feel Harry's disappointments and small moments of joy as he unfolds them for you with candor. If you like a story that you can almost see the people involved because the author is that honest, this book is for you. I can't say enough about it, when I received my book (The Dream) in the mail from Amazon, it put a smile on my face and made my day. What a gift Harry has to give that to a perfect stranger.



5. I can't wait to read what Harry Bernstein has to offer next. His stories are so fascinating, the hurdles he and his family members had to overcome, the complex relationships, and how he manages to still find joy and happiness for himself while doing all he can to help out everyone else. It's a classic story of struggling for a better future against all the odds, and this nice, humble, talented man has given such a gift to those who read his stories. I just wish we had more and more wonderful books like this one.

5 comments about Survivors: True Stories of Children in the Holocaust.

1. I didn't realize this was a children's book until it arrived. I'm glad I didn't or I might have missed out on this fine collection of experiences. Because it is a children's book, it gently glosses over some of the horrors these holocaust survivors saw. Those scenes are not removed from the story, but, the specifics are left to your own mind.
   
   Each chapter tells the story of a different child's experience.
   Two children were part of the kindertransport, but didn't go all the way to England. Another was on the ill-fated ship the St. Louis. A shocking reminder of how some survived and some didn't by the smallest of decisions.
   
   I have already read it many times. I intend to share it with my nieces when they next visit. The next generation must know that the Holocaust did exist. That over six million people died not for 'who' they were but for 'what' they were (Jewish, Gypsy, Gay, etc.). Unfortunately, nothing seems to unite people like having 'someone' to blame all your problems on. The Nazis and countless others both before and since have made that very clear.



2. This book should be read by everyone that is emtionally mature enough to handle it. I am writing this review as a warning to parents that might purchase this book for a younger child based on the "Reading Level: 9 - 12" rating and the fact that it is a Scholastic book. My 4th grader's teacher recommended this book but I am glad I took a look at it first. Here's an excerpt from the book taking place as one of the children is being smuggled out of a ghetto by her father hiding her under his coat. The following exchange takes place between the guard and the man ahead of them at the gate:
   "Hurry up!" shouted the impatient German guard.
   "It's here somewhere. I know it is."
   "You don't have a pass, do you?" snarled the guard. "You're trying to sneak out of the ghetto, trying to fool me."
   "No really, I have - " The man never finished his sentence. The guard shot him.
   Hearing the loud bang, Luncia jerked. Her father wrapped his arms tight around his coat to keep her still, but her whole body trembled uncontrollably. He's going to shoot us all, I know it.
   
   I know that my 4th grader is not ready to read this kind of material but this is an excellent book to be read by everyone that is ready for this type of material. Very well written information that we all should know and never forget.



3. I purchased a class set for my 6th grade class. I feel this book was very appropriately written for this age. Of course there are parts to the stories that are "unbelievable" and sad to read, espcially for me as an adult. However, children these days are exposed to much more by media and often with less sensorship and thought. These are wonderful stories that teach history, empathy, and human strength.



4. an excellent collection of true stories of children of the holocaust. each story captivates your heart and keeps you reading to end. It will inspire you to do more to keep horrific things like the Holocaust from ever happening again.



5. This book is awesome it is very sad but it allows students today see the horror of the Holocaust

5 comments about A Tale of Love and Darkness.

1. Pearls of wisdom, interspersed with lovingly told family stories, including the horrors of loss and ongoing pain, and the history of a nation and people. Regretfully, these trite phrases don't do justice to what Oz has created in this memoir. This book is multi-layered in a way that seems to replicate the very act of memory itself, as past events show and return to told memory, through the scrim of the story at hand. It's a book to read and live with and it is an honor to be able to spend some time with this book and writer.



2. This memoir by the Israeli novelist Amoz Oz is a fascinating depiction of both European and Israeli Jews. Although the author was born in Israel, his parents and relatives were all European Jews displaced by the events leading up to World War II.The graphic depiction of what anti-semitism does to an individual explains the need for a Jewish state more fully than any essay could, and the history of the first war against the Jews by the Arabs, aided openly by the British army which then controlled Palestine, and which started the very evening in November, 1947 of the U.N. vote to establish a Jewish homeland, not, as I previously thought, in May, 1948, when the state of Israel was officially declared, lends credence to the unfortunate belief that the Arabs will never accept the state of Israel. This makes the book sound incredibly sad, and of course it is in one sense. But in another, by creating the milieu of these early settlers in Jerusalem and their intellectual strengths and interests, and also the new Jew of the kibbutz, to which Oz went after the death of his mother and his father's remarriage, and where he lived and wrote for 30 years, the book turns out to be the best one I have read about this frantic period of Jewish history.



3. This mixture of biography with the history of the birth and growth of Israel is a wonderful, warm , and poignant tale--well worth one's time.



4. This is a beautiful and moving memoir from a sensitive and humanistic writer of great skill and style. The reader will feel that he or she is personally experiencing growing up with the author in the most modest and simple circumstances, in the young State of Israel, from before statehood and into its early years, getting to know as friends and neighbors some of its intellectual leaders who were the writer's family members and friends. The book is a sheer delight, and highly recommended.



5. Amos Oz's A Tale of Love and Darkness is a memoir of his life and the life of his family up until the time of his mother's suicide at the age of 38 in the early 1950s. Oz's mother's suicide, never treated fictionally in his other work (as far as I can recall) is treated here with great care and thoroughness: there is anger, guilt, shame, sadness, loss, a sense of regret, and penetrating understanding. Without a doubt the book is strongest when Oz discusses his mother and her family. His mother, brought up on a romantic, Hebrew education in Rovno, was not ready for the tawdriness of life in Palestine, "the rough terrain of everyday life, diapers, husbands, migraines, queues, smells of moth balls and kitchen sinks." The story of his mother's mental decline and suicide is also the story of the convergence and divergences of Jewish life in the 20th century; the outline of the gap between the real and the ideal of the Zionist dream. That said, A Tale of Love and Darkness is generally overwritten. There is much useless repetition here which drags down the trajectory of the memoir. I do not recommend this work as the first work of Amos Oz to be read, but the last. It makes for an instructive book end with Where the Jackal's Howl and Other Stories on the other side.