Editorial Review

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Reviews (8)

A Letter To My Children
I am about to be 60 and am reading a book that fills me with regret, THE LOST, by Daniel Mendelsohn, the story of how he tracked down the final days of his grandfather's brother and that man's four beautiful daughters. I have finished the first fifth of the book and am convinced that it is the greatest literary work that I have read since my youthful exposure to Proust and the early novels of Saul Bellow. Mendelsohn combines a personal memoir of growing up in a "modern" Jewish family in America with historical detective work based on old photographs, recovered letters, interviews, trips, internet sites devoted to the little towns of Eastern Europe and Jewish genealogy, and couches it in the most beautiful and evocative and thoughtful sentences, often based on the style of Proust (to whom he has given the opening epigraph of the book), organizing his discussion around an analysis of the first book of the Torah (even mentioning my Haftorah passage, Lech lecha) and Homer's Iliad. He brings to life long lost people, places, philosophical issues, with drama and mystery. He has assembled a complete genealogy of his family and has testified to the power of memory, language (Yiddish, Hebrew, German), family love, pride and humor. He is unfailingly generous in his descriptions and conclusions. The book is illustrated with photographs taken by his younger brother. The parallels with our own family history, our life in New York and in Florida, the impact of parents on the intellectual growth of their children, the impact of religious stories and scholarship, the diaspora to America and Israel, are incredibly resonant and moving, and all this in the first 70 pages. I am writing to urge each of you to read this great book and learn how you came to be, how your own grandfather and I came to be, the people that we are. I am sorry that I never accomplished a similar work on the history of our own family. I can only hope that one or all of you will take on this important task and assemble a similarly amazing chronicle before the people who can help you are gone, the Magdas and Pop Pops, the grandma Lillys and "Uncles" from all the remaining branches of our living candelabra. On page 41 he lists the major sources by which he accomplished the feat and by which you, like Proust, can recapture the past and recapture Time.I will never have the time to do it, my life wrapped up in other kinds of scholarly pursuits and my nature so bent to the seductions of poetry. But you have a chance to do it, to accomplish something of great value for yourselves and for others. In the meantime you will have the consolation of reading sentences sculpted by a master and it will fill your hearts with unimaginable pleasure.
Wide-Ranging Journey, Brilliant Synthesis
Mendelsohn has brought together the disparate elements of his five year worldwide search for the fate of six family members in the Holocaust in a masterful act of synthesis and distillation. This book combines a detective's doggedness, a Biblical scholar's critical exegesis and a Yiddishist's love of an Eastern European shtetl whose remaining Jewish inhabitants are scattered over the globe, a "remainder of those who fled". That Mendelsohn pulls this off, combines his disparate goals into a moment of Biblical clarity and discovery, leaves me frankly, amazed. Because close to the end of the book, I had doubted he would be able to learn anything that could be counted on, and he would be forced to resort to a book about his search rather than real conclusions. But at that penultimate moment, Daniel found an ancient survivor who brought him to the very spot, the terrible moment, he had been searching for. The author obviously has a wonderful rapport with elderly people which made his many interviews possible. He is meticulous and brings order to a mass of material. An insistent humanity pervades his writing. While not a Biblical scholar himself, he has perception, essential insight into human nature, so his Biblical research finds fertile ground. While his realization that many people will present many different versions of the same story is not exactly news, the manner of his telling of the story beguiles and ultimately, inspires.

I couldn't put it down
An amazing journey into the past of Daniel Mendelsohn's perished family members - the family of Shmiel Jager, Mr. Mendelsohn's great-uncle.Mr. Jager's siblings (one of whom is Daniel's grandfather), fled Poland before the Holocaust and had no clear idea of how Shmiel's family died, only that they did die. All that they have are tiny, often conflicting, pieces of the story about what happend to the Shmiel Jagers. Daniel begins a 5+ year journey to talk to the few Jewish survivors who lived in the same small Polish town in which the Jagers lived and died. The survivors were now living all over the world, and Daniel travels extensively to meet and interview them, to try to find out, not only how the Jagers died, but how they *lived* and who they were. As the years continue in the search, you feel Daniel's angst at having so little time to track down and speak to the few survivors from that town. They are all in their 80s and 90s and some of them would prefer to not think about that time at all. And yet, an amazing story emerges, a story of strength and sorrow. A story of wanting to know "what happened?". ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Anecdotes    2. Biography    3. Bolekhiv    4. General    5. History    6. History - General History    7. History: World    8. Holocaust    9. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)    10. Jewish Holocaust Personal Narratives    11. Jews    12. Personal Memoirs    13. Ukraine    14. United States    15. History / General   

Editorial Review

In Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel's memoir Read more

Reviews (461)

A powerful read !! A personal saga of survival against all odds
Elie Wiesel's book, "Night" was one of the first books I had read on the Holocaust when I was in high school back in the mid 1970s. His painful and searing account of the unspeakable horror, known as the Holocaust is the single most defining event of the 20th century.
Never again
'Night' is the heart-wrenching true story of a young Jewish boy who is rounded up by the Nazis and sent to Auschwitz. The young boy is none other than the author, Eliezer Wiesel. He recounts his horrific experiences as an inmate of the Nazi concentration camp system and his struggle for survival. Amid the death and desperation, young Elie struggles only to remain near his father, without which, he would have no will to live. 'Night' is also a story about lost faith, as the once devout, young Elie defiantly rebukes the God that did nothing to stop these indescribable horrors. I found myself thinking that I would have never submitted to this inhuman treatment. That I would have preferred to die on my feet than to live on my knees, and would have somehow fought back. But this is all too easy to say in hindsight, from the comfort of my warm, safe home. I put this book down with a heavy heart. I was angered and saddened, and I can honestly say that this is one of the most moving books that I have ever read.

storm of storms
Though the word 'Holocaust' has become the most common cipher for one of mankind's greatest crimes, many Jews and other rememberers of 1939-1945 object to the borrowing of this biblical term to name Hitler's mass murder.
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Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography & Autobiography - Historical    4. Historical - Holocaust    5. Holocaust    6. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)    7. Personal narratives   

Editorial Review

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Reviews (252)

One of the best you will ever read
This is an easy to read book, which managed to make profound points about life, pain, and fate.I enjoyed reading the first part of the book and learning about what it was like to be in such a hellish place (a concentration camp), and yet still being able to be positive about life.What more can I say than its an excellent book?

I learned: All the Auschwitz survivors, including the author, had something significant yet to do with their lives!
MAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANING
fascinating!
this is simply a must read for those interested in the human experience.Some of the positions concluded in this book may not be the only way to think on the issues involved, but still, this book is a great psychological workout with deep insights. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Austria    2. Biography    3. General    4. Holocaust    5. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)    6. Personal narratives    7. Psychological aspects    8. Psychologists    9. Psychology    10. Psychology of Religion    11. Philosophy    12. Philosophy / General    13. Psychoanalysis & psychoanalytical theory   

Editorial Review

In 1988, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin undertook amission to heal "Jewish ignorance," an affliction whose symptoms include the ability to name the three components of the Trinity, coupled with an inability to explain Read more

Reviews (62)

converting to judaism
Having purchased this remarkable book and thinking that I knew quite alot about Judaism was quite an eye-opener for me. I was astonished at the wealth of information this work has to offer anyone who is interested in learning the basics of the jewish faith. The articles which are divided between the Bible, the holidays, the history of the jewish people, the holocaust and other subjects provide the reader with an excellent source of material and a basic knowledge of all things jewish. I recommend it highly.

No Jewish home library is complete without it.
I find myself returning to this book again and again to answer questions that come to mind and many discussions I have been part of have been started by a single sentence in this book, as Telushkin is wonderful at examining various perspectives on any given subject. And, Telushkin also has a knack for reporting a lot of information in a very concise, clear manner-- no long, drawn out rambles at all.

5* Brilliant Read - All Jewish households should own a copy
I bought a copy today, and although I have not (quite) finished reading it, it is already clear to me that R' Telushkin has written an excellent book, ranging from history to topical issues and much more. The quality of this book is very high, and although it does occasionally not go into quite enough detail, at least this means that, unlike other similar books I have seen, it flows very well, and is well suited to its target audience.
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Subjects:  1. Customs and practices    2. History    3. Jews    4. Judaism    5. Judaism - General    6. Judaism - Rituals & Practice    7. Reference    8. Religion    9. Religion - Judaism    10. Jewish studies    11. Religion / General    12. Yiddish   

Subjects:  1. Jainism    2. Jewish - General    3. Judaism - History    4. Reference    5. Religion    6. Religion - Judaism    7. Jewish studies    8. Judaism    9. Reference works   

Reviews (95)

Captivating and Proficient Historical Account ...
David Fromkin's "A Peace to End All Peace" is a wondefully researched and well-written account that covers the political creation of the modern Middle East from the period starting during World War I and the years immediately subsequent to it.Although Fromkin tackles the project in a somewhat predictable, chronological manner, his book is supremely researched and engaging thanks in part to the book's prescient subject matter.
Just the facts
This book is actual history.There is little agenda or argument that does not rise directly out of the facts presented.Only the introduction and the conclusion put forth speculation as to cause and effect.Given that, this book is likely too detailed for many, but the personalities of Churchill, Lloyd George, Ener, Talaat, Kitchener, Sykes, T.E. Lawrence are drawn through their documented action, and the history really moves.It's a fascinating story and essential as the details of WWI are not as clearly understood as are those of WWII.However, this book seems to suggest the opposite of its stated case.It turns out that the Middle East lands were largely ignored prior to WWI, and without the knowledge of or appetite for oil, it is easy to understand why.
wrong-headed
This is not a book for the general reader.It'stoo long, too detailed, and it requires too much knowledge of history, geography and politics.I give it two stars because Fromkin has labored mightily to produce an argument about the most volatile,yet from the West's perspective, strategic region in the world.
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Subjects:  1. 1914-1945    2. Foreign relations    3. General    4. Great Britain    5. History    6. History - General History    7. History: World    8. International Relations - General    9. Jewish - General    10. Middle East    11. Middle East - General    12. Politics and government   

Reviews (164)

Heart-Warming, Moving Account of the Holocaust
The story of Corrie ten Boom and her family and their work in the Dutch underground during World War II has been around 35 years but this is the first time I've sat down to read this amazing story.I am so glad I did!Built on the premise that love will conquer all, the story shows what relatively normal people can accomplish in extraordinary times.
A Tale Of Love, Courage, And Compassion
In Corrie Ten Boom's book "The Hiding Place", she gives an exciting account of how during the terrifying years of the Holocaust and World War 11 her entire family strove to hide as many Jews as they could from Nazi forces.
A Moving Tale
This is a beautiful, beautiful book. I could read it over and over, and feel touched, inspired, and renewed again. I first tried to read it when I was about twelve years old, but it was two heavy for me. Then I read it a few months ago, and it came alive. This is one book I would definately want to add to my library soon. I love the Ten Boom family - especially Betsy. I am looking forward to meeting them all in heaven someday. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography / Autobiography    2. Biography/Autobiography    3. Historical - Holocaust    4. Personal narratives, Dutch    5. Ravensbruck (Germany : concentration camp)    6. Religious    7. Ten Boom, Corrie    8. Women    9. World War, 1939-1945    10. Biography: general    11. History / Holocaust   

Features

• Box set

Reviews (151)

vgmani
I dont know how to rate this!! The book... I am yet to read! But I received collectorS edition within a collector edition! The book is printed upside down while the cover page is printed straight!

The Life of Vladek
The combination of volume one and volume two of Maus instills emotion, unfelt by any Holocaust story.Spiegelman (hey that's me; so of coarse it's a must read) implements humor, details, and characters that allow for a stunning plot of the life of his father Vladek. The relationship between Mala and Vladek, is humorous and tragic at the same time. I don't want to reveal too much plot, but would like to end writing the animals characterizations of personalities is ingenious.

Excellent Book
I am ordinarily very uninterested in graphic novels. Just seems like a stupid format to me. BUT, this was a great book. It is just the right story and right presentation for someone like me to enjoy. I highly recommend it and will probably give other graphic novels a chance ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Children of Holocaust survivors    6. Comic books, strips, etc    7. General    8. Historical - General    9. Holocaust    10. Holocaust survivors    11. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)    12. Poland    13. United States    14. Biography & Autobiography / Literary    15. Biography: general    16. Jewish studies    17. The Holocaust   

Editorial Review

A beloved classic since its initial publication in 1947, this vivid, insightful journal is a fitting memorial to the gifted Jewish teenager who died at Bergen-Belsen, Germany, in 1945. Born in 1929, Anne Frank received a blank diary on her 13th birthday, just weeks before she and her family went into hiding in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. Her marvelously detailed, engagingly personal entries chronicle 25 trying months of claustrophobic, quarrelsome intimacy with her parents, sister, a second family, and a middle-aged dentist who has little tolerance for Anne's vivacity. The diary's universal appeal stems from its riveting blend of the grubby particulars of life during wartime (scant, bad food; shabby, outgrown clothes that can't be replaced; constant fear of discovery) and candid discussion of emotions familiar to every adolescent (everyone criticizes me, no one sees my real nature, when will I be loved?). Yet Frank was no ordinary teen: the later entries reveal a sense of compassion and a spiritual depth remarkable in a girl barely 15. Her death epitomizes the madness of the Holocaust, but for the millions who meet Anne through her diary, it is also a very individual loss. Read more

Reviews (560)

'Anne Frank, better than ever'
'The Diary Of A Young Girl: The Definitive edition' is more or less the un-cut version of the book that was originally published in the late 1940's. it contains approx. 30% more material, and in my opinion makes Anne more relatable than ever, particularly to adolescents.
Diary of Anne Frank
Anne Frank "The Diary of Anne Frank"
Unbelivable story
I have just finished the Diary Of a Young Girl and i have the strong feeling that i was moved back in time, as if it was 1944.
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Subjects:  1. Biography & Autobiography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. Historical - General    5. Historical - Holocaust    6. Holocaust    7. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)    8. Jews    9. Women    10. World War, 1939-1945    11. History / Holocaust   

Reviews (3)

Zealotry With A Cause
David Mamet here displays the pugnaciousness of a Norman Mailer without the self-embellishing promotionalism.Speaking for myself, I do not need the names and behaviors of those Jews who fit the ideal type self-abnegator constructed by Mamet.They are to be found everywhere, including parts of my extended family and even in my own house.But, unlike Mamet, I don't think Jewish self-hatred is only repulsive.The true victims of Jewish ambivalence are the descendents of those Jews who internalize the self-mocking, Woody Allenesque gibes of their "wicked son" parents.They have squandered their own birthright and are too ignorant about its content and value to understand what they've lost. If anything, though he pulls no punches, Mamet does not make the case strongly enough.But for a solid opening salvo, I'd recommend this book to any disaffected Jew who doesn't at present understand the benefit of "showing up" to lead an obligated Judaic life and helping to make community.

did I agree with it all?No, but it forced me to think....
As a gay Jew of Color, I often think about self-hatred.This society has taught me to not like myself for a number of reasons.Mamet forces me as Jew to look at how I have internalized these messages.Did I agree with his analysis all the time?No but I had to think....

Reactionary ethnocentric nationalism from a "progressive"
Mamet is both a celebrated playwright and one of the most chauvinist and ethnocentric nationalists extant. If a traditional Catholic were to say about the pope and the Church what Mamet says about rabbis and the Synagogue in this book, he would be denounced as a reactionary bigot and hardly taken seriously. Instead, by some sleight of hand he may have picked up from his stage-magician pal Ricky Jay, Mamet's Judaic jingoism is transformed into a progressive appeal. To what? Blind faith in dogma and ideology as a path to salvation? Did anyone ever hear of the Enlightenment? Thank God for Pfefferkorn, Spinoza, Shahak, Chomsky, Kaye, Finkelstein and all the other "apostates" who had the courage and integrity to break free. Read this book as a case study in megalomania and paranoia from one of the grandees directing contemporary culture in America. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Antisemitism    2. Discrimination & Racism    3. History    4. History - General History    5. History: World    6. Identity    7. Jewish - General    8. Jewish Sociology    9. Jewish Studies    10. Jews    11. Judaism - History    12. Self-hate (Psychology)    13. History / Jewish   

Reviews (1)

National-socialism
I always wanted to know what Hitler tells to masses. I have big interest in his speeches, in his style of talking. It is a great book for me because it unclude the most important Adolf's public speeches. I enjoied reading it! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1933-1945    2. Europe - Germany    3. Germany    4. History - General History    5. History: World    6. Holocaust    7. Politics and government    8. Sources    9. European history: Second World War    10. Fascism & Nazism    11. Second World War, 1939-1945   

Reviews (2)

Vive La Marthe
On October 7 and 8, 2006, C-SPAN 2 featured this book and author on Book TV. The author, now in her mid 90s, spoke in impeccable English for about one hour without notes. Because she used the active voice, her adventures were easy to follow. It was a tour de force.
A tale of courage and hope
This is a story of great personal courage in the midst of horrible tragedy. It is the story of Marthe Cohn who was born in the city of Metz, raised in a devout German- speaking Jewish religious household. Circumstances including the loss of her fiance led her to become a fighter in the French Resistance. Courageously she worked behind enemy lines to provide vital intelligence for the Allies.
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Subjects:  1. Biography & Autobiography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. Holocaust    5. Political    6. Biography & Autobiography / Political   

Reviews (1)

BOOK REVIEW:`Bad Faith' Reminds Us How Anti-Semitic Many French Were in 1930s, WW II; Catholic Hierarchy Force Behind Jew Hatr
By David M. Kinchen
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Subjects:  1. Antisemitism    2. Biography    3. Biography & Autobiography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Biography And Autobiography    6. Biography/Autobiography    7. Europe - France    8. France    9. France - History    10. Historical - General    11. Historical - Holocaust    12. Holocaust    13. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)    14. Public officers    15. Vichy    16. Biography & Autobiography / Historical   

Reviews (15)

Quite intriguing
This book is another in a recent spate of very well written books that explain (and translate into modern terms) key aspects of Spinoza.This book is unique in its seamless style of inserting these concepts as rewordings and quotes.The single most amazing aspect of this book is its ability to humanize and personalize what seem to be necessary aspects of Spinoza's lifestyle and personality.I liked this.

A wonderful book
A wonderful book indeed. Ms. Goldsteinreveals Spinoza's philosophy, but never all at once. No "sound bytes," no "catch phrases," but a gentle and progressive exegesis, slowly building to a denouement, one idea or part of an idea at a time. She claims to be very moved when her college students begin to 'see' Spinoza, begin to understand this remarkable man's philosophy and approach to life - and she wants us, her anonymous readers, to share in this excitment as well...and I, for one, got very excited (knowing very little of Spinoza beforehand, the author has stimulated me to want to go out and learn everything I canabout Spinoza.) It's a wonderfully personal book - I don't know Professor Goldstein, but I suspect she is the only person who could have written this particular book in this particular way. It is a wonderfully quirky book--and I mean that in a very positive way. Sometimes I had to go over a paragraph 5 or 10 times to "get it," and even then I'm sure Imissed a lot-- but, stimulated by Prof. Goldstein, I've bought a copy of Spinoza's Ethics , and hope to correct at least some of my deficits.
The iconoclast behind the icon
As with her biography of Kurt Godel, Rebecca Goldstein has a way of intuiting the flames that fired a crucible of genuis.
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Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Heretics, Jewish    6. Jewish Sociology    7. Jewish Studies    8. Jewish philosophers    9. Netherlands    10. Philosophers    11. Biography & Autobiography / Philosophers    12. Biography: general   

Features

• Box set

Reviews (4)

Excellent delivery
The time of the delivery was very good, in less than 3 weeks I had my books with me.

Wonderful gift and accesory
These wonderful books deal with tradtional judaism and more controversial issues like conversion and marriage.The first volume is essentially detailed with accounts of 'who is a Jew' 'What is a Jew''What are Jewish holidays''What is the Jewish service and its structure''What are essential Jewish rituals''How do Jews interpret the Torah'.These chapters detail almost any question one might have about what it means to be a Jew, how to live a Jewish life and how to interpret the essential Torah.This volume is wonderful for non-Jews, return Jews, Secualt Jews and normal Jews intreested in exploring their religion deeper.Wonderful excerts explain the origins of such simple items like the Kipa(Yarmluke) and essential questions about Jewish dietary laws. Well written and simple
Best, I think, for children, Jews by Choice, and non-Jews with questions.It is written on a very basic level.Wonderful reference source for when those occasional "trivia question" moments come up, and you simply "have to know." ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Jewish - General    2. Judaism - Rituals & Practice    3. Religion    4. Religion - Judaism    5. Judaism   

Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. Arab countries    3. History    4. History - General History    5. History: World    6. Holocaust    7. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)    8. Jewish Studies    9. Jews    10. Middle East - General    11. Middle East - History    12. Persecutions    13. World War II    14. ASIA    15. Arabian peninsula    16. Ethnic studies    17. International relations    18. Second World War, 1939-1945