Books for/about - jewish

Publisher: Hill and Wang
Authors: Elie Wiesel

ISBN: 0374500010
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Summary: Long Day's Journey Into the Dark of Night
The book was particularly poignant being told by someone who had to endure the pain of loss, and disregard for his family. Being separated from his mother and sister was exceedingly difficult. But, having to watch his father being brutalized and treated as less than human had to be even worse. At an age when we see our parents as being strong enough to take on the world for us, and keep us safe from those who might want to harm us, it is even more devastating when we see our father, of all people, emasculated before our eyes. The reality of being totally powerless strips away all our defenses.
Elie has to deal with seemingly losing the same feeling of protection from God. He has always trusted God implictly and thought his greatest desire would always be to serve and honor this God. He didn't realize in his youthful simplicity that circumstances of life could compromise this seemingly settled relatonship.
What ultimately strikes us is man's inhumanity to man. We must always be vigilant. Unfortunantly, we always want to think it will not happen again. If we just give in a little, if we can appease our adversaries perhaps they will leave us alone. No one really wants to cause us harm, do they? The stark reality, at any age, is that for whatever reason, there are those who simply have no regard for others and will have what is ours if we offer it to them as an offering of appeasement, or if they have to take it from us no matter the consequenses.
And what ultimately is worse? Loss of life, loss of dignity or loss of illusions? Each are equally devastating. Perhaps Elie was right, grabbing the electirc fence would be the easy way out. No one should ever be put in that position.
That Elie should win a Nobel Peace Prize is the ultimate vindication. Wouldn't it be wonderful if his story could help
eradicate the perverse behavior he, his family, and millions have endured, and continue to endure? Would to God it would even make a substantial impact.
Regardless, the stories must be told, and heard. I loved this book, and the forward by Francois Mauriac. Along with the "Diary of Anne Frank" and Corrie ten Boom's "The Hiding Place" we do hear the stories we don't want to, but must, hear.

Summary: Night by Elie Weisel
This book is a page turner in that this mans journey through hell and back is just unfathomable. God bless him! This gentle soul, is just an amazing writer in which he can take his readers along a virtual life path in order to relive his life from when he was a young boy until the end of World War II. The deception that hid in plain sight was what really took me back. Who could ever have even imagined that mankind be so evil. Hell on earth doesn't come close to describing what this yound boy went through. It makes one think. Mr. Elie Weisel has that special gift and quality as a writer in describing his inner most thoughts and feelings as he somehow some way survives it all. What an amazing book. Thank you.

Summary: 'It's over. God is no longer with us.'
These tragically pitiful words summon the inordinate power of this small book NIGHT by Elie Wiesel. Everyone knows the story of the Nazi concentration camps: No one knows the story of the Nazi concentration camps. Novels, films, photographs, poems, speeches, tours of sites all try to give some idea of the gripping tragedy of the genocide and the deplorable conditions that befell the victims of the camps, but nothing does it as well as this deeply moving account by Wiesel.

The reasons are many. Not only does Wiesel tell his story in the simplest of language without cluttering the facts with gory details: the facts themselves are atrocious enough and when told through the words of a 16-year old boy who entered the camps from his life as a spiritually devout Jew in Sighet, Transylvania that gradually metamorphosed into a challenged believer who felt God and mankind had deserted both his ailing father and him, the impact is overwhelming.

Wiesel's writing is at once eloquent and harrowing and his descriptions of survival through the camps at Auschwitz, Buna, Birkenau, and Buchenwald searingly become imprinted on our minds. Every reader may think these facts are redundant but they can never be retold often enough. Even as we read this book there are occurrences in various places throughout the globe TODAY that resurrect the atrocities herein described. And in reading the Nobel Peace Prize statement by Elie Wiesel that closes this book we are bound to fight against the hate that allows such exploding carbuncles.

This is a book that should be read by everyone, globally. In it lies our only hope that history will not continue repeating itself. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Grady Harp, July 06

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Man's Search For Meaning

Publisher: Pocket
Authors: Viktor E. Frankl

ISBN: 0671023373
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Summary: Interesting
This book is more than a simple retelling of what happened in the concentration camps. It examines our behavior in times of extreme stress.

Summary: A Highly Accessible Work
I had been meaning for several years to read this seminal work but had two reservations in doing so: first, with images of the Holocaust already seared in my mind from films and documentaries, I was hesitant to read what I assumed would be even more graphic descriptions of life in a concentration camp; second, even accepting that Frankl's first-person narrative of life in the camps is important both in historical and moral terms, I had planned to read Part I and dispense with the section describing Logotherapy, believing it would be too inaccessible to the lay person.

I was absolutely wrong on both counts.

As one trained in probing the psyche, it is understandable that Frankl's account of Auschwitz and Dachau would focus on prisoners' mindsets and reactions to the extreme multiple pressures that they faced. It was surprising, however, to see the degree to which he refrained from employing more vivid descriptions of the state of human anatomy, rank brutality, personal weakness, etc. This is especially interesting given the fact that Frankl set down his thoughts not in hindsight, but initially while still impounded. By emphasizing the actions and reactions of the camps' internees while describing the despicable acts of their captors in the most basic terms, Frankl actually produces an even more gripping and insightful narrative.

Having completed Part I, I moved immediately to Part II on Logotherapy, anxious to see how Frankl would construct a new framework of professional analysis based on the numbing, near-shattering environment that he had survived. Eventually I found that I had been informally using some aspects of Logotherapy in reviewing the course of my own life from time to time and that his three-part framework for living - discerning meaning in productivity, meaning in relations with others and striving for a consistent sense of dignity when experiencing unavoidable suffering - resonated loudly in me. Frankl connects the dots between his camp experiences and observations and the development and implementation of Logotherapy quite well, with very limited jargon, and with a stark conclusion.

I hesitated before embracing this work. Don't.

Summary: An incredible testament to the human spirit!
This book is divided into two parts. The first part is a moving description of Frankl's time in Nazi concentration, work and death camps. Related in simple language, this stark depiction of the evil of which man is capable and the strength of the human mind and spirit should be required reading in every school in America.
The second part of the book describes the psychological theories that Frankl developed as a result of his expereince. The language is more academic, as is the subject matter, but, it remains interesting and instructive to the end. This book demands to be read in a single sitting and to be considered throughout one's life.

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	Everything Is Illuminated: A Novel Publisher: Harper Perennial Authors: Jonathan Safran Foer
ISBN: 0060529709 List Price: $13.95 Amazon Price: $10.74 Usually ships in 24 hours Buy this book from amazon.com or from amazon.co.uk	Avg Cusomer Rating: 5 Reviews: Summary: Quite possibly one of the finest books I've ever read In addition to telling a gripping story, Foer is blessed by the ability to bring the reader to either laughter or tears with a few chosen words. He has woven historic truth with the truth of spirit to show that human beings create both the glorious and the horrific, sometimes at the same time. And more powerful than redemption or forgiveness is the actual journey toward this end. I marvelled with the turning of each page that such a young person was posessed of such wisdom and such literary craft. Summary: Everything is Obfuscated The book started off well enough. I laughed at the translator's bad English. Unfortunately the plot never quite took form, and was interrupted by pointless tales from the shtetl that lacked any coherence or relevance to the "main" story. I kept reading hoping the loose ends would come together, but they didn't. Summary: Too bad I missed the movie with Elijah Wood-- fun book-- zany A bizarre look at searching for your heritage...great first novel by Jonathan Safran. Too bad I missed the movie-- must rent the DVD. Okay I'm Eastern European by discent but some people may find it a bit weird to read a novel written in broken English-- at times it may be a bit too much -- like a Saturday Night Live schtick but for anyone raised in a multilingual household-- where at least the grandparents talked part of the time in their native tongue...it will be a blast....Jonathan Safran Foer (even though it is a really a novel) is the main character in this narrative-- he sets out to find the woman who may or may not have saved his grandfather from the Nazis. An old Slavic man and a dog named Sammy Davis and of course Alex, the Ukranian translator lead to a journey that is hard to forget....Black comedy-- comedy and tragedy intertwine ....there's a story within the story and to be honest I kind of skipped over some of that that got tedious to me -- but others may love it. Just look at the picture of the novelist -- a little scrawney guy with wire rims...I can see him now sitting in the back of the broken down 'cab' heading out into the Ukranian countryside with a dog humping his leg -- and his allergies streaming tears....okay so I thought it was hilarious-- if you've ever been to Eastern Europe -- you realize how primitive some of the roads and experiences are. Naive might be a better word....and you feel for them because after all -- if that's where your stock comes from-- you could have been them and vice versa.....you're probably related to the waitress who brings you the wrong desert or the dude trying to buy your hubby's designer jeans...or the old goat trying to be a moneychanger in the side alley...everyone is an entrepreneur in Eastern Europe-- before the Berlin Wall fall they were just black marketeers...now it seems more hopeful than hopeless...but it's still a trip to another land...someday I'll follow my heritage and meet the ancestors in Prague...or at least the people with my same family name ...and I hope my journey is half as fun as and have as bright as Everything is Illuminated....an enjoyable read....especially if you're traveling or are an armchair traveler who has been searching for your own ancestry. Summary:

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Night

Publisher: Bantam
Authors: Elie Wiesel Stella Rodway Francois Mauriac

ISBN: 0553272535
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Summary: A book which raises many questions.......
What more can be said which already hasn't of this extraordinary book written by an extraordinary man of courage? With 900+ reviews, I will not make this an overly elaborate review, as the book simply does not require it. Elie Wiesel's story is one of one man's courage, will and fortitude to push on when all around him was lost; friends, family, belongings, even basic human dignity.

What struck me more than anything else from his personal story was the retelling of the hanging of the three men (well, two men and one boy) while he was in one of the concentration camps. Millions perished, but the way the boy who suffered during the hanging stayed with me. His story is the story of millions who perished and who never got to tell their tale, and one of the few books I would call a must read.

Different instances in the book I am quite sure will strike readers differently. One of the things which struck me and stayed with me was how he kept on looking for God, even amidst the enormity man sometimes will carry out on his fellow man. What also struck me was the woman on the train who was saw the flames at the camps even before they arrived. And the times he scolded and questioned himself and his ethics for even thinking selfish thoughts even though he was dying. I still think would I (could I?) do the same if I was in his terrible position?

This book shows the worst of mankind, and sadly this terrible event known as the holocaust is not entirely unique in man's history since the freeing of Elie Wiesel. We have witnessed Rwanda firsthand in the 1990's, and have been told by world authorities that "this will never happen again." Yet in modern day Sudan(and North Korea, and Tibet.....), we see much of the same.....the world turning its back on millions of people. There may not be furnaces involved, but the crime of complicity through inaction is little different than a world which allowed human beings to be fed into furnaces. I guess the final question I come away asking from his book is "Will mankind ever learn?"

Summary: Night
Night is Wiesel's personal memoir, which relates his personal story before and during World War II, as he and his father are separated from his mother and sister and interned in a series of concentration camps.

"Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never."

I read Night in high school, and always think of it as being a particularly long book, which it is not. Wiesel manages to pack more than I would think possible into a little over a hundred pages, which relates the story of himself and his family during the Holocaust. It is a beautifully written work that relates a terrible story. I found the story of Wiesel's loss of faith and the relationship he had with his father particularly memorable. If you somehow missed this in high school, pick it up, if you didn't, find it again. It's worth it.

Summary: sign of a great writer
I always wonder what makes a book a good story to nominate for a Pulitzer prize? Even though I knew NIGHT was about the holocaust I still wondered what would make this book a winner.
My son had a copy of the book and loaned it to me. I read it in one sitting and not because it is only about 100 pages long, but because I was able to get under the skin of a man who endured unspeakable experiences and survived and found some humanity in all the horror. I love the last line of the book...priceless.

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From Beirut to Jerusalem (Updated with a New Chapter)

Publisher: Anchor
Authors: Thomas L. Friedman

ISBN: 0385413726
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Summary: Never-ending conflict
Good analysis of situation, but lacking the passion of the various point of view.

Summary: A Big Shot in Beirut, Just Another Zhlub in Jeruselem, His Biases Show Through...
First of all, let me say that I find Thomas Friedman to be an excellent writer of prose - what he writes is always compelling and easy to read. That's the good news.

The bad news, for this book at least, is that it's way off-kilter, totally unbalanced against the Israeli side.

And here's the root of the problem, in my opinion: Living in Beirut, Mr. Friedman had it really, really good. He lived like an Ottoman-period pasha in a nice villa with servants and a cook, a nanny, quite a high life for a nice, middle-class Jewish boy from Minneaplois. It didn't hurt that in his daily life there, he was treated with respect, deference, and hospitality that are often hallmarks of polite Arab society.

Once Mr. Friedman got to Israel, boy did things change. Now he was treated as just another schmuck on the street - a little apartment in Jerusalem, no nanny, cook, servants, and rude, pushy Israelis wherever he went.

Don't take my word for it - it's all right in this book.

The point is, this very smart and capable guy was taken in by the graciousness of life in Beirut (outside of when your life was in danger) and turned off by his less-than-haimish everyday relationship with Israelis. By the way, I understand that Yassir Arafat was a very gracious host when he wasn't intent of killing you (ditto for Saddam Hussein, Hafez al-Assad, Quadaffi - see a pattern here?).

Add to all this the fact that Mr. Friedman's conclusions in FBTJ have now been overtaken by events, it's not clear to me that this book provides any real value for a reader interested in understanding the Arab-Israeli conflict.

For a much better understanding of the region during this time (early to mid-1980's), I by far recommend "Double Vision: How America's Press Distorts Our View of the Middle East" by Ze'ev Chafetz, if you can still find it.

Otherwise, if you are a fan of Mr. Friedman's writing *style* (and I am,) you might want to read FBTJ just for the heck of it - but take his "facts" and conclusions with a big grain of salt.

Summary: a lebanese
That ignore buffoon of a writer what can I say he said it himself he lived in west Beirut and worked with a group of pro Palestinian pro-arab people that buffoon blames every thing on the big bad Christians I fought in the war what that says is all wrong he doesn't even know the difference between the phalangist and the Lebanese forces... he spend half a chapter blabbing about the sabra and shatila massacre but oh so innocently forgets the mountain massacre committed by his friends for stupid ignorant who want to write about the war let him get his facts straight the phalangist lost the mountain war because the Israeli army cut of its supply because they where pissed of at the Christians because they did not full implement the 17 of may accord for people who want to know what happened in the war I advise u to ignore this and the other idiot Robert fisk

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	Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl Publisher: Bantam Authors: Anne Frank Eleanor Roosevelt B.M. Mooyaart
ISBN: 0553296981 List Price: $5.99 Amazon Price: $5.99 Usually ships in 24 hours Buy this book from amazon.com or from amazon.co.uk	Avg Cusomer Rating: 4 Reviews: Summary: So young and so grown!! A beutiful diary of the last days in Anne Frank's life. She was very grown for her young age. Anne Frank was jew so she came with 13 in a concentration camp. In her diary she wrote about her last years there. She died in the age of 16 in the concentration camp. After that they release her diary! Summary: Remarkable What is remarkable about Anne Frank's diary, more than that it has survived for an audience of readers, is Anne Frank's mature outlook on life and the world. It is often hard to believe that this is the writing of a 14 year old girl. Thousands of books are available that view World War II through the eyes of an adult. Yet this book is one of the few that gives us a view of a Jewish child in Europe during World War II. "The Diary of Anne Frank" is written largely as a series of letters to an imaginary friend named Kitty. All of Anne's frustrations, fears, and musings are confessed in her diary. She is an adolescent female undergoing the same feelings of most adolescent females in unusual circumstances. Not only is Anne worried about Hitler and the Jewish concentration camps, but she is trying to break from her parents at a time when leaving her home is a risk to her life. Co-habiting with another family, she also has the privilage of finding love as a teenager. This creates some peculiar scenarios for Anne. The great misfortune of this book is that the book ends when it seems Anne is on the verge of a major epiphany. She seems to be on the cusp of making a major self discovery, only to be hauled away from her family to her death. This is only one of the reasons that this book is so heartbreaking. Yet this is one of the elements that makes it one of the most important books written in the 20th Century. Summary: Innocence Lost I'll admit that this book was slow to begin with and hard to get into but I really enjoyed it towards the end. The thing that struck me the most about this book is Anne's innocence. She is aware of the situation that she is in but her passion for life and her faith in people displays her innocence and the fact that she is so young. I was fascinated by the way she obviously matured through the years that she was hiding and completely horrified by some of the topics that she was dealing with in her diary. A very good book. Summary:

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A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East

Publisher: Owl Books
Authors: David Fromkin

ISBN: 0805068848
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Summary: Very Academic
This book provides a very in-depth analysis of the British perspective on the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the modern Middle East. It begins in the days leading up to the opening of the First World War and continues through the 1922 treaties with Turkey. It includes a set of black-and-white photographic plates. Sources are cited with end notes, and there is an extensive index.

Fromkin's account of British politics concerning the Middle East is exceedingly detailed. He discusses the day-to-day motivations of every actor, minor and major, in the region. I was particularly interested in learning more about the Balfour Declaration, and it is certainly covered in detail here. However, the details are so thick that it's hard to come away from reading this book with any idea of the big picture. Nevertheless, the information contained within the book is certainly necessary to be informed about, lest we are doomed to repeat it...."In a leading article on 7 August 1920, The Times demanded to know `how much longer are valuable lives to be sacrificed in the vain endeavour to impose upon the Arab population an elaborate and expensive administration which they never asked for and do not want?'."

Summary: Oops!
When Wilsonian ideals met European Realpolitik in the wake of the First World War, it was already late. The soon-to-be victorious European powers were already well down the road to carving up the remains of the fallen Ottoman Empire.

Without exaggeration, it is impossible to understand 'the modern Middle East' without at least a cursory knowledge of how that region was named and claimed in the first two decades of the twentieth century.

George W. Bush's America and Tony Blair's Britain are not the first to find themselves enmeshed in complex strategies for taming, reigning, or owning in the Levant and on the shores of the Tigris and Euphrates. It is a colonial and imperial habit, an observation I make with some sympathy for those who excecise the burden of power in a world where power is welcomed only selectively.

Fromkin is at his best on the Balfour Declaration and its genesis of expectations and facts on the ground that were inherently irreconcilable, to the grief of too many Arabs - not all of them Palestinians - and Israelis to this day.

A Peace to End All Peace would make good reading beside T.E. Lawrence's (Lawrence of Arabia's) The Seven Pillars of Wisdom and - for the more daring reader, E. Said's Orientalism.

It's also savory and nutritious on its own.

Summary: A Peace to End All Peace : The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East
A thoroughly researched and well written book. Explaining to all how the French "Kopeks" and British divvied up the Ottoman Empire and how their actions has and will affect this region
for centuries to come.

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Jewish Literacy: The Most Important Things to Know About the Jewish Religion, Its People and Its History

Publisher: William Morrow
Authors: Joseph Telushkin

ISBN: 0688085067
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Summary: 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.

Summary: 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.

Along with R' Hayyim Halevy Donin's "To Be a Jew", I would recommend this for all Jewish households, and is suited both for being a Bar Mitzvah (/Bat Mitzvah/Bat Chayil) present and for personal reading. Its readability and absorbing nature make it the perfect read for both the "Jewishly illiterate" and those who consider themselves "literate". All will learn something, and therefore I would suggest that this is a must-have book for all Jewish households (regardless of affiliation) and perhaps also for gentiles.

Summary: great book
As a ten year convert to Judaism, I always feel like I'm catching up. I've read about 200 Jewish books, but I must say that this one is the best of the non-fiction I've seen. It's very readable and is informative as well. Although I'm Reform and Telushkin is Orthodox, I didn't feel any particular superiority come through. I'm always having to get rid of books because of limited shelf space in my apartment, but this book is a keeper. This book is a must for anyone wanting to learn about Judaism.

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