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That subtitle may inspire in some readers waves of ethnic pride, and in others waves of ethnic revulsion, but the point of this book is that its claim of origin is quite literally true. And what makes it an interesting read for political types is the way it demonstrates that no matter how much the founding Hollywood moguls and their successors tried to peddle an idealized, escapist form of entertainment, bubbling up under and around their every project was ideology, racism, ethnic prejudice, class friction, domestic and international politics and all the other raw, seething stuff that distinguishes this country from all others. In Gabler's hands, the Industry draws a picture of American political history in spite of itself.
Book Description
Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Award for history, this "wonderful history of the golden age of the movie moguls" (Chicago Tribune ) is a provocative, original, and richly entertaining group biography of the Jewish immigrants who were the moving forces behind the creation of America's motion picture industry.
Customer Reviews:
Hollywood Jews.......2007-01-10
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.
A fascinating group biography of Hollywood's founding moguls.......2006-10-15
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.
The 400 pages could have been 41.......2006-07-13
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.
A Fascinating Portrait of Early Movie Moguls.......2006-05-31
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.
Not necessarily so, but an interesting treatise.......2004-05-25
Here's an absorbing history of the movie industry. Neal Gabler claims that Adolph Zukor (Paramount), the Warner brothers, Harry Cohn (Columbia Pictures) and the moguls of Fox Studios, MGM and Universal had a dream of what America was which they incorporated into movies and sold to the American public and the world.
Gabler claims that what these movies showed was not the real country at all. "Only this way," he writes, "could these immigrants satidsfy their hunger of assimilation into a country that had rejected them." In the end, he says, the fictive America created by these businessmen portrays an artificial "reality" that later generations of moviegoers took as truth.
I have two problems with the premise of this book: First, I know for a fact that the America portrayed in the movies of the '40s and '50s did exist and second, those moguls created their own social world, partly out of geographic necessity and partly because the work of filmmaking isolated them from the everyday work world.
I know the kind of family, community and lifestyle often portrayed in those "romantic" and "sentimental" movies (i.e. where family members and members of the community worked and lived together in mutual respect and affection) existed because I experienced it. The movies I saw as a child and as a young adult in the 1940s and 1950s mirrored the life I knew.
I understand that contemporary life is so different from life in those days that young people view what they call "sentimental romanticism" with disbelief. I pity them. The lives they seem to be living look shabby and disgusting to me!
It's an interesting premise but it's built on a false presumption!
The book will charm the moviephile. It's entertaining and well written and it gives a fascinating look at backstage Hollywood in a time when Hollywood enjoyed a great deal more respect than it does today.
Customer Reviews:
A manual for humanistic Judaism.......2005-10-02
A simple, straight forward presentation of Humanistic Judaism, with cultural and historical informtion about Jewish customs and holidays. It is especially useful in sorting out what's worth keeping, and what's not, for those who don't believe in god but want to stay Jewish.
Like I said before -- Jewshness is BOTH culture and religion.......2005-01-08
I'm giving this book five stars, NOT because I agree with its theology (I most certainly do NOT - I myself am a religious Jew) but because it is well-written and thought provoking in its own genre. Judith Seid is a "cultural Jew," that is, a Jew who relates to the history, music, art, customs and traditions of Judaism in a secular way, but who does not believe in God or "the religion." Her book explores non-theistic ways that cultural Jews can connect with their heritage. (Isaac Asimov would have loved this book -- he was just such a cultural Jew.)
Much of this book is way too secular for my own tastes, but the author does raise some challenging questions about Jewish history, liturgy, and traditions that made me stop and think. She has also clearly demonstrated what I have been saying for years, namely, that Jewishness is more than just a "religion." This book clearly explains that POV.
Although Judaism is commonly defined as a religion, the Hebrew language does not have a separate word for "religion." Neither does Yiddish -- the closest you can come is "Yiddishkeit," which simply means "Jewishness" and encompasses everything from liturgy to foods and music.
I myself define Jews as a tribal culture in the anthropological sense: common language (Hebrew), common land of origin (Israel), common ancestor story (Abraham and Sarah), common foods and holidays, and common religion. (Seid does not use this exact breakdown in her book, but her ideas are compatible with the tribal model.) A secular Jew may reject "the religion," but still deeply connect with the other aspects of Jewish culture, in the same way that a Native tribal person might remain connected with their language, foods, dances and ceremonies, even if they do not believe in the tribe's mythology.
Much of this book focuses on how to re-define Jewish holidays and life-cycle events in non-theistic ways. There is a strong emphasis on connecting with the tradition through land and nature. The holidays themselves are labeled according to the seasons in the Contents, and the observances she suggests are centered around such activities as growing your own horseradish for the Passover Seder, feeding the homeless during Sukkot, seeking introspective solitude with nature on Yom Kippur, tasting fruits on Tu B'Shevat, etc. There are lots practical suggestions and resources, too, including recipes and websites that I found useful even though I'm not a secularist. (One site, for example, told me where to get pre-fab hardware for erecting a sukkah with 2 x 4s.)
This book is more than mere "lox and bagels Judaism." Seid has given a lot of serious thought to her presentation and, whether or not you can accept her point(s) of view, it is clear that she is fully committed to her Jewish identity. I recommend this book to anyone -- Jewish or not -- who would like to understand why being Jewish is so much more that a "faith" or "religion."
A fascinating perspective on secular Judaism.......2001-06-23
"God-Optional Judaism," by Judith Seid, is an intriguing book that offers an answer to the question: Do you have to believe in God to be a practicing Jew? Seid says "No."
Seid explores the notion of secular Judaism: a way of life, or a cultural and ethical path, that is liberated from traditional notions of deity. You can be an agnostic or an atheist and still practice a meaningful form of Judaism, according to Seid. She offers suggestions for those interested in starting a secular Jewish congregation, and includes an informative "question-and-answer" section in the book.
Seid's book is well-written and thought provoking. Although she is writing from a Jewish perspective, I believe that many of her ideas could be equally useful to people of other faith traditions (Christian, Muslim, etc.).
Rediscovering Judaism.......2001-06-21
God-optional Judaism by Judith Seid (isbn 0-80652190-2)
Judith Seid has the enormous gift of writing simply and clearly about complicated issues. In one slender volume she manages to summarize the history of Jewish belief systems down to present times, and discuss the various approaches of each system to traditional holiday celebrations and life cycle observances. Despite having had a lifetime of Jewish education hardly a page went by in which I did not discover a new insight. But for me, two other features of this book make it invaluable. First, it is fair minded and inclusive. Seid is not out to convert so much as to inform. Without getting bogged down with the myriad details of Jewish observance she succinctly clarifies the choices available to someone interested in modern Judaism. Equally important she elucidates the historical validity of these choices, demythologizing the claims of "authenticity" or superiority posed by some. You decide what fits you, within established, centuries-old alternatives. What brings all this home is her frequent use of anecdotes culled from her pastoral experience, poignant examples of the questions so many of us confront in examining our beliefs. My one criticism may seem like a quibble. She appears to be saying that secular spirituality is confined to social interaction, even though in other sections it is clear that she does not define spirituality in such narrow terms. This book is essential reading for those people who wonder about Judaism and/or its relevance for their own lives.
Average customer rating:
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Prophets Without Honour: Freud, Kafka, Einstein, and Their World (Kodansha Globe Series)
Frederic V. Grunfeld
Manufacturer: Kodansha America
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ASIN: 1568361076 |
Book Description
One woman learned on the eve of her Roman Catholic wedding. One man as he was studying for the priesthood. Madeleine Albright famously learned from the Washington Post when she was named Secretary of State.
"What is it like to find out you are not who you thought you were?" asks Barbara Kessel in this compelling volume, based on interviews with over 160 people who were raised as non-Jews only to learn at some point in their lives that they are of Jewish descent. With humor, candor, and deep emotion, Kessel's subjects discuss the emotional upheaval of refashioning their self-image and, for many, coming to terms with deliberate deception on the part of parents and family. Responses to the discovery of a Jewish heritage ranged from outright rejection to wholehearted embrace.
For many, Kessel reports, the discovery of Jewish roots confirmed long-held suspicions or even, more mysteriously, conformed to a long-felt attraction toward Judaism. For some crypto-Jews in the southwest United States (descendants of Jews who fled the Spanish Inquisition), the only clues to their heritage are certain practices and traditions handed down through the generations, whose significance may be long since lost. In Poland and other parts of eastern Europe, many Jews who were adopted as infants to save them from the Holocaust are now learning of their heritage through the deathbed confessions of their adoptive parents.
The varied responses of these disparate people to a similar experience, presented in their own words, offer compelling insights into the nature of self-knowledge. Whether they had always suspected or were taken by surprise, Kessel's respondents report that confirmation of their Jewish heritage affected their sense of self and of their place in the world in profound ways. Fascinating, poignant, and often very funny, Suddenly Jewish speaks to crucial issues of identity, selfhood, and spiritual community.
Customer Reviews:
Fascinating and enlightening book.......2007-07-03
I couldn't put this book down. I had no idea how many people's Jewish background was hidden, for the sake of survival. I am sure there is more to know and I have the greatest respect for Barbara Kessel's work. I hope she writes more books. It is especially touching for me as I am Jewish.
Discovering that you are Jewish .......2005-05-10
Barbara Kessel tells the story of one- hundred and sixty people she interviewed who ' discovered' their Jewishness. There are four categories, Crypto-Jews ( Sephardic Jews descendant from those driven from Spain during the Inquistion) hidden children( Children whose identity was disguised from them while they were hidden during the Holocaust) Survivors ( Children of Survivors of the Holocaust whose parents tried to hide their identity from them) and Adoptees.
As the Jewish people is a small people who has lost so many in history to persecution and assimilation there is a special sense of 'joy' at the return of those who could be conceived of as lost.
This is an important introductory work on an important subject.
One reader however wisely suggests another category of 'hidden Jews'. Those children of mixed marriages whose parents have raised them without any Jewish heritage or tradition. Certainly they present the largest number of those who might ' discover their identity' . Such discovery however in Jewish terms means more than saying 'Eureka' it involves a learning process by which the individual comes to understand Jewish teaching and law- and decides to practice it, and thus live Jewishly in a full way.
Judaism and Identity.......2003-10-12
Barbara Kessel has written an amazing book about individuals who are raised as Gentiles and discover their Jewish roots. She manages to weave many diverse interviews into her book, and manages to somehow connect all these smoothly. The result is a fascinating look at how individuals were told of their Jewish roots, and the wide range of reactions to this news.
The entire book revolves around questions of identity. What is it to be a Jew? Can you be "half-Jewish"? Is Judaism a religion, a race, a culture - or all of the above? What if you know you are Jewish but you lack the documentation to prove it - do you convert? Why do some latch on to the revelation that they're Jewish, while others shrug and say that it doesn't change anything for them? Can you ever really BE Jewish if you were raised with Christian theology - or will you always be playing "catch-up" with Jews who went to Hebrew school and have a lifetime of memories of holidays and bar/bat mitzvahs?
This book was such an enticing read, I could hardly put it down. However, the most fascinating chapter for me was the last, for in it the author discusses the possibility of "collective unconscious" - that a group-specific unconscious memory from the Jews present at Sinai is passed through generations as sort of a genetic memory. This phenomenon could be one possible explanation for why one who seems drawn to Judaism later learns he has Jewish roots. Or maybe there's another reason for these "coincidences."
Barbara Kessel has written a compelling book on Judaism and identity. I highly recommend this book for anyone - Jewish or not. I see that it would also be helpful for anyone undergoing a conversion to another religion or one who is grappling with questions of identity.
Suddenly Jewish.......2002-05-28
The author introduces you into the inner lives of the interviewees with mastery ease.They share with her and the reader their traumatic experiences,meanwhile you follow intensely their voyage to the discovery of their selves.I just couldn't stop reading it.These stories made me weep and smile.The book it's about self negation,self disconnection and justified and unjustifed fears on one side but also about self discovery,renewal and bravery on the other side.
The Writing Style Hampers The Effectiveness.......2002-02-27
I'll dare to be different with my opinion on Suddenly Jewish. I agree that its good that the accounts of these one hundred sixty cases were documented to show the effects of the long-term persecution of the Jews. Whether it was the Holocaust or the Spanish Inquision, the long terms effects on many Jews from a psychological point of view runs very deep. A few stories, particularly the one about the priest discovering his Jewish roots does stand out.
However, as much as I applaud documentation that details the persecution and torment the Jews have faced, the manner in which the stories just shoot out at you is annoying and difficult to comprehend and follow. I guess I would rather prefer it if Barbara Kessel documented more clearly and sucinctly a few of the accounts of these Suddenly Jewish people rather than providing brief snipets of 160 cases. The stories practically run into one another and it is difficult to interpret where one starts and one ends.
After a while many of the cases sound identical as there is little that is unique. Three of the sections deal mostly with the Holocaust. Don't get me wrong, we should never forget the Holocaust, but it would have been nice to have a little more depth about some of these people. How about a section discussing some issues that involve the Middle East? With Israel being surrounded by so many Arab nations, you wonder if there are some Jews in those countries who were raised gentile or otherwise.
Also, how about a section that illustrates cases of intermarriage which have nothing to do with a political event whre the children are brought up in a gentile home but later are curious as to the Jewish side of their family tree. Kessel most definitely should have organized the chapters of this book better to outline more situations of Gentile children discovering their Jewish roots.
A few important reminders of the path the Jews have travelled. However, the organization and the documentary style of writing hurts this book's appeal.
Amazon.com
Martin Gilbert's Letters to Auntie Fori is a proud, 140-part epistolary history of the Jews as well as a parsing of the basic tenets of the faith and the meaning and form of its holy days and ritual observances. Beginning with the first chapter of Genesis, Gilbert follows his people through five millennia, concluding with the founding of Israel and, briefly, the political and religious Middle-Eastern turmoil of the present day. Especially interesting are his chapters on the Diaspora, as well as brief summaries of Jewish heroes in World War I, the dark horrors of World War II, and short recitals of Jewish luminaries in industry, politics, sports, and the arts and sciences. Though Gilbert is hardly a disinterested narrator, his erudite informality (the recipient of his letter-chapters is a well-educated and elderly friend effectively innocent of any knowledge of Judaism) serves his complex subject admirably. --H. O'Billovitch
Book Description
Sir Martin Gilbert, renowned author of many authoritative works of history and biography, speaks in a charming, personal voice in this fascinating volume, the saga of five thousand years of Jewish life laid out in a series of intimate, storytelling letters to a lifelong friend.
Sir Martin first met “Auntie Fori” in 1958,when he arrived in New Delhi with a letter of introduction from her son, a fellow Oxford student. Their friendship flourished for forty years through correspondence and visits to the capitals where her husband, the diplomat B. K. Nehru, was posted. Then, at her ninetieth birthday celebration in 1998, Auntie Fori told her “adopted nephew” that she was not of Indian birth but was actually Hungarian–and Jewish. She did not know what this Jewish identity involved–historically or spiritually–and she asked him to enlighten her.
In response, Sir Martin embarked on the series of letters that have been gathered to form this book, shaping each one as a concise, individually formed story. He presents Jewish history as the narrative expression–the timeline–of the Jewish faith, and the faith as it is informed by the history. Starting with Adam and Eve, he then brings us to Abraham and his descendants, who worshiped a God who repeatedly, and often dramatically, intervened in their lives. The stories of Genesis and Exodus lead seamlessly on to those of the eras when the land was ruled by the Israelite kings and then by Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greece, and Rome–the Biblical and post-Biblical periods. In Sir Martin’s hands, these stories are rich in incident and achievement. He then traces the long history of the Jews in the Diaspora, ending with an unexpected visit to an outpost of Jewry in Anchorage, Alaska. Ranging through almost every country in the world–including China and India–he maintains a chronological structure, weaving in the history of other peoples and faiths, to give Auntie Fori–and us–a sense of the larger stage on which Jewish history has played out.
The last fifty letters are devoted to an explanation of Jewish faith and worship, intertwined with the history and observance of holy days and festivals.
These letters are fascinating in their objectivity and at the same time infused with a deep personal warmth.
Written for one beloved friend, Letters to Auntie Fori brings to life the events and sequence of Jewish history with a special charm that will endear this volume to readers old and young.
Customer Reviews:
A masterful introduction to Jewish history .......2004-12-08
Martin Gilbert's series of letters to Auntie Fori the Indian friend who at the age of ninety revealed to him her Jewishness is a masterful introduction to Jewish history and to the Jewish religion.
Details provide inspiration.......2002-08-08
Overall, Gilbert's comprehensive history is dense, yet readable, with the biggest rewards for me coming in the small details. He clearly proves that Jewish history takes place on a much larger stage and with a much grander scale than some might realize. His synopses of Biblical stories are masterfully interwoven with connections to Jewish traditions and practices, contemporary history and people, and even archeology, so that it is never a dry, ýfacts onlyý history. Indeed, one of the most fascinating elements of this book is Gilbertýs references to lesser-known Jewish communities, including Chinese Jews, Indian Jews, and my own personal favoriteýthe Alaskan Jews of Congregation Beth Shalom in Anchorage, who call themselves the Frozen Chosen. Also fascinating are references to Jewish individuals such as many Olympic medallists, other historical figures such as Mahatma Gandiýs secretary in South Africa, and his personal reflections on Jewish holidays and worship. These sorts of details are inspirational, fascinating, and compelling.
While comprehensive, this book does have a weakness in that it is not always forthright about the differences between Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and other branches of Judaism regarding faith and practice. Gilbert only occasionally points out those differences, and therein lies the biggest question that this book would raise for a reader who is unfamiliar with the various movements and their traditions. Sometimes, Gilbert simply says ýobservant Jews,ý but never quite explains what he really means by that, or what the different movementsýOrthodox vs. Reform, for exampleýwould mean by that. Other questions may arise because of Gilbertýs writing styleýsyntax is often awkward (perhaps due to this British historian writing in the Queenýs English rather than in the English we Americans are used to) to the point of some paragraphs seeming to contain what are surely unintended errors. Finally, one wishes Gilbert had included Auntie Fori's reaction to this history; that omission makes her quest to learn more of her people's history seem to be only half fulfilled.
A wonderful concise history.......2002-07-30
This book provides the missing link to the full 5000 years of history--- A kind of "Cliff notes" but wonderful in terms of the ground covered.
I recommend it highly to anyone wanting to get a good overview of 5000 years of Jewish history and traditions.
A CLIFF NOTES OF JEWISH HISTORY.......2002-05-25
This is a great book, a kind of Cliff Notes of Jewish history from bibical times through to the modern world. No tpoic takes over a few pages and as written by Gilbert it is a pleasure to read.
Book Description
"A refreshing and stimulating look at Jewish vaudeville, theater, and movies sure to revise our understanding of the Jazz Age."
--Deborah Dash Moore, author of GI Jews: How World War II Changed a Generation
"In this engaging and accessible book, Merwin describes a much more empowered generation of Jewish show business than is suggested by previous work. A fresh and provocative perspective on familiar material."
-Harley Erdman, author of Staging the Jew: The Performance of an American Ethnicity, 1860-1920
"Clearly written, carefully researched, and thoughtfully argued, In Their Own Image fills important gaps in existing scholarship. This book will appeal to anyone interested in American Jewish culture, American theater and film history, and American popular culture."
-Joel Berkowitz, author of Shakespeare on the American Yiddish Stage
The Jazz Age of the 1920s is an era remembered for illegal liquor, innovative music and dance styles, and burgeoning ideas of social equality. It was also the period during which second-generation Jews began to emerge as a significant demographic in New York City. In Their Own Image examines the growing cultural visibility of Jewish life amid this vibrant scene.
From the vaudeville routines of Fanny Brice, Eddie Cantor, George Jessel, and Sophie Tucker, to the slew of Broadway comedies about Jewish life and the silent films that showed immigrant families struggling to leave the ghetto, images and representations of Jews became staples of interwar popular culture. Through the performing arts, Jews expressed highly ambivalent feelings about their identification with Jewish and American cultures. Ted Merwin shows how they became American by producing and consuming not images of another group, but images of themselves. As a result, they humanized Jewish stereotypes, softened anti-Semitic attitudes, and laid the groundwork for today's Jewish comedians.
An entertaining look at the role popular culture plays in promoting the acculturation of an ethnic group, In Their Own Image enhances our understanding of American Jewish history and provides a model for the study of other groups and their integration into mainstream society.
Book Description
Children can try their hand at re-creating ancient Israelite culture—along with the cultures of their neighbors, the Philistines and Phoenicians—in a way that will provide perspective on current events. The book covers a key period from the Israelites’ settlement in Canaan in 1200 B.C.E. to their return from exile in Babylonia in 538 B.C.E. This part of the Middle East—no larger than modern-day Michigan—was the birthplace of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. More than 35 projects include stomping grapes into juice, building a model Phoenician trading ship, making a Philistine headdress, and writing on a broken clay pot. Israelites', Phoenicians', and Philistines' writing and languages, the way they built their homes, the food they ate, the clothes they wore, and the work they did, and of course, their many interesting stories, are all explored.
Customer Reviews:
Worthy Activities.......2007-07-12
I have found this book to be informative and useful. It is written from a "non-religious" perspective. The content information is more suitable for upper elementary (complex sentences and higher vocabulary), but the pictures and activities would interest those in the lower grades. We have not yet done any of the activities, but I've been impressed as I read through them. Most of them are practical, easy, and seem worth the time to do.
Why the Bible is not cited in the bibliography.......2005-01-25
I find it laughable that a reviewer complains that the Bible is not cited in the bibliography of this book. It is assumed that the Bible is used in such a work, and anyone familiar with the Bible knows exactly what comes from the Bible and what doesn't. It is a sine qua non that the author of such a book is completely familiar with the Bible, as well as the readers. I suppose next the reviewers will complain if there is not at least one English dictionary cited in the bibliography.
Outstanding resource!.......2004-05-03
What a pleasant surprise! This book could be used for religious OR public school. It not only gives insights as to how people lived in ancient times, but helps students recreate aspects of it so that they can relate it to their lives of today. The book explains how life was, and then allows students to create food, clothing and housing models so that they can see how those ancient cultures influenced our culture today.
Book Description
Long considered a classic for its rich portrait of the diversity and depth of Jewish observance, this account of the orgins and development of the Jewish holidays also provides a fascinating and useful guide to the rituals, customs, and ceremonies practiced by Jews throughout history in all parts of the world.
Book Description
"You can't let people be treated in an inhuman way around you. . . . Otherwise you start to become inhuman."
So speaks rescuer Hetty Voûte in The Heart Has Reasons, a remarkable book that provides both a fresh look at the "righteous gentiles," and a meditation on what they might have to teach us more than half a century after they defied Hitler.
In 1996, Mark Klempner sought out some of the last surviving Dutch rescuers of Jewish children to better understand how and why they made their courageous choices. Inspired by their willingness to risk everything to help others during the war, the author became deeply interested in what the rescuers have done with their lives since, and where their moral compasses point today.
What emerges is both a window to the past and a vision for the future. If the rescuers could remain committed to making a difference while under the boot of the Nazi regime, we surely have something to learn from them about taking a stand against injustices, about maintaining an open heart, and about not giving in or giving up. Framed by Klempner's quest for meaning, their words resonate across generations, providing insightful guidance as to how people of conscience can navigate ethically in an increasingly complex world.
From the Foreward:
"I have spent much of my professional career trying to put a human face on the ordinary men who committed asks of unspeakable evil. Like no other work I have read, The Heart Has Reasons puts a human face on those who committed acts of inestimable goodness."—Christopher R. Browning.
Customer Reviews:
The heart of the matter.......2007-04-29
As those who celebrated the construction of the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. worked hard to make clear, we are reaching an important point in the history of the world - there will soon be no survivors of the World War II period left alive. The commentary on the presidential elections in France mentioned that this is the first set of candidates for the high office with no experience of the war. This same situation is true for those who experienced the Holocaust, in its various dimensions - there will soon be no one left alive to tell the story directly. In a world where Holocaust denial ebbs and flows, this becomes a problem. Projects such as Mark Klempner's `The Heart Has Reasons' are truly important, in helping to keep alive the memory of those who had direct experience.
Most people in the Western world are familiar with the Diary of Anne Frank, but fewer are aware that there were many stories of heroism among the Dutch during the war. However, the overall survival rate of Jews in Holland was among the lowest in occupied Western Europe. There were people who helped hide and shelter Jewish people, at tremendous risk to their own lives. `Those who decided to help Jews in Holland had to be willing to disobey the Nazi measures and resist the Nazi machinations to relegate Jews to subhuman status. They had to cross the line from being law-abiding citizens to enemies of the state. They had to act from the heart, come what may.' This book is about ten different people who took it upon themselves to come between the Nazi efforts and those who would be victims.
Mark Klempner is listed in the credits as a folklorist and oral historian. Given that narrative theology is a particular interest of mine, his background and method of development fits with my own ideas of how to develop history into a memorable and lasting element of culture. It was also an important development for Klempner. The final paragraph of his introductory piece speaks to this: `Spending time with the rescuers was, for me, a transforming experience. They welcomed me into their homes as though I were someone special - a characteristic inversion - and showered me with hospitality and kindness. I soon was looking at them not only as people who had made history, but also as people who could teach me a different way to live. I've come to think of them as radiant specks around the black hole of the Holocaust, and they've become a radiant presence in my own life as well.'
Klempner presents, after his personal introduction, a chapter on the background of the history, which includes both general history of the development of the Holocaust as well as specifically Dutch history - the NSB (Dutch Fascists), the piece-by-piece encroachment on Dutch rights and Jewish rights during the occupation, and overall development of a resistance to the oppression. The heart of the book, however, is in the ten stories of those who put security, family and life on the line to help those in need.
The names are important, for the Holocaust gets lost in the abstraction of numbers. But all stories are personal. Heiltje Kooistra found inspiration for her actions in her own religious faith - `If you love Jesus, how can you not love the people and tradition out of which Jesus came forth?' Rut Matthijsen was a behind-the-scenes operator in the resistance, who looked past the discrimination: `Years later, when I went to Israel to receive the Yad Vashem award, I was asked, "Why did you help the Jewish people?" The emphasis being on the word Jewish. But that was Adolf Hitler's emphasis. I helped them because they were people.' Hetty Voute spent years in prison for her efforts, as did her friend Gisela Sohnlein. Clara Dijkstra ended up being the second mother to a girl she rescued, a relationship that continues to this day. Some, like Kees Veenstra, are very private about their actions, preferring to consider himself an ordinary person. Janet Kalff tapped into her Quaker background for strength, whereas Mieke Vermeer drew from a Calvinist background. Pieter Meerburg's actions came out of a humanism not borne of religious conviction, but out of respect for life. Theo Leender's relationship with God can sometimes be stormy, but his faith in doing what is right did not falter.
These are not people who looked for personal reward - in fact, just the opposite is the case for several of them. Many remained generous beyond their wartime efforts; Klempner mentions one man who had a stack of fund-raising letters from charities, who always found time to help even the smaller causes with a little bit, saying, `Even a small donation can give a lot of encouragement to people doing good work.'
This book was a gift to me, both spiritually and literally. I was offered the chance to read it months ago, and it took a long time. The stories could not be rushed through as if it were one more text to read; I found myself with tears of anger, frustration, and occasional joy throughout many of the stories (and it is hard to read through tears). Klempner has given rare insight into a side of the Holocaust little known but very important, and very powerful witnesses who give hope to the future.
Hope and Lessons for Living.......2007-03-30
The dark cloud of disaster can't hide the brilliant light of joy and altruism in the human spirit. Somedays I don't turn on the news; it's too depressing to bear. But in this book, author Mark Klempner gazes unflinchingly at one of the blackest episodes in human history . . . and finds there hope and lessons for living.
Klempner interviewed ten of the "Righteous Gentiles": people who risked all to save Jewish children from the Nazis. A folklorist and oral historian, Klempner lets his subjects take center stage and tell their stories in their own words. This is precious documentation of the experiences of a generation that is passing on.
As counterpoint, Klempner relates the autobiographical saga of his own search for an ethical compass. This journey led him from the amoral canyons of the Los Angeles music scene to explore his Jewish immigrant roots in Europe. Klempner also includes historical and political essays that place the individual stories in the context of world events. The narratives are not homogenized into a smooth package. Think of these gems as displayed in their natural state, not cut and mounted so as to preserve the authenticity of the historical record.
To sum up, this book contains:
* Fascinating true stories, very accessible to the casual reader.
* Primary source historical material, lovingly preserved.
* Troubling questions about ethics, psychology and the meaning of life; pat answers not included.
* Inspiration, and proof that in the face of the most horrifying threats imaginable, some people will step forth and risk all to do the right thing.
inspiring.......2006-12-06
Mark Klempner is a masterful storyteller. Although 'storyteller' may make you think of fiction, this story is not fiction. Mark has poignantly shared interviews with Dutch resisters and rescuers in a way that won't let you stop thinking about them. He asks big questions and gives important answers about learning from the righteous and from history.
Vividly recounts deeply terrifying efforts of ten gallantly individual experiences.......2006-07-10
Enhanced with an informative foreword by Christopher R. Browning, The Heart Has Reasons: Holocaust Rescuers And Their Stories Of Courage by folklorist and oral historian Mark Klempner is the account of how many valiant people worked at great personal peril through the Holocaust and Hitler's Reign to save Jewish children and others from being murdered in the Nazi death camps. Guiding readers through the epic and heroic tales of these Dutch rescuers, The Heart Has Reasons vividly recounts deeply terrifying efforts of ten gallantly individual experiences. Superbly presented and an important addition to the growing library of holocaust literature, The Heart Has Reasons is very highly recommended reading, especially for all historians and students of the Dutch involvement in World War II.
Acting from Your Heart.......2006-06-20
WOW! After reading the last word of, "The Heart has Reasons," I slowly closed the book, gazed searchingly at the cover, and clutched it to my chest. In that moment, I was hoping to burn into my being the founts of wisdom, courage, sacrifice, compassion, and tenacity that were exhibited by the Holocaust Dutch rescuers.
It was refreshing to read about everyday unselfish people who "chose" to act from their heart. It brings hope to mankind to realize that such depths of sacrifice existed in that dark time of history and even today, with God's help, may we also "act from the heart" as the need arises.
Mark Klempner does a great job of refocusing what is truly important in our fast-paced everyday living. I think anybody who reads this book will come away grateful for life and grateful to be shown what true living is really about.
Book Description
"A herd of independent minds," Harold Rosenberg once labelled his fellow intellectuals. They were, and are, as this book shows, a special and fascinating group, including literary critics Lionel Trilling, Alfred Kazin, Irving Howe, Leslie Fiedler, Philip Rahv and William Phillips; social scientists Daniel Bell, Seymour Martin Lipset, and Nathan Glazer,; art critics and historians Clement Greenberg, Harold Rosenberg, and Meyer Schapiro; novelist Saul Bellow; and political journalists Irving Kristol and Norman Podhoretz. Their story winds through nearly all of the crucial intellectual and political events of the last decades, as well as through the major academic institutions of the nation and the editorial boards of such important journals as Partisan Review, Commentary, Dissent, The Public Interest, and The New York Review of Books. So deeply entrenched in our intellectual establishment are these people that it is easy to forget that most grew up on the edge of American society--poor, Jewish, the children of immigrants. Prodigal Sons retraces their common past, from their New York City ghetto upbringing and education through their radicalization in the '30s to their preeminence in the postwar literary and academic world. As Bloom points out, there is no single typical New York intellectual; nor did they share all their ideas. This book is concerned with how the community came to be formed, that it thought important, how and why it moved and changed, and why it ultimately came undone.
Books:
- Annals of the World: James Ussher's Classic Survey of World History
- Bazaar to Piazza: Islamic Trade and Italian Art, 1300-1600
- Black Seraph
- Blood in the Sand: A Shocking True Story of Murder, Revenge, and Greed in Las Vegas (St. Martin's True Crime Library)
- Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero
- Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
- CVJ: Nicknames of Maitre D's and Other Excerpts from Life
- Dora Bruder
- Empires at War [Three Volumes]: A Chronological Encyclopedia
- Employment, Labor Unions and Wages (Economists of the Twentieth Century)
Books Index
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