Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Jewish
History and Culture Benjamin Blech
The "Complete Idiot's Guide" contains easy-to-follow coverage of all of Jewish history, including profiles of Biblical, religious, and political leaders, such as Abraham, Moses, King David, and Golda Meir. 416 pages. Softcover, $28.95
Thomas Cahill turns his attention to how the Jews' concept of one God changes world culture forever. Setting the scene, he offers an extended tour of the Torah looking at the stories & characters found there with a keen & often-amusing eye. He begins with Avraham, who heard a voice & was willing to follow it, & explores how that voice made Avraham's descendents think & believe in ways that were so radically different as to change even the concept of time. Hardcover, $32.95; Softcover, $22.00
History of the Jews Paul Johnson
Paul Johnson delves deep into the history of the Jews. He maps out the lives of the Jews from their early ancestor in the House of David, through great periods of creativity and enterprise, alienation in the ghettos, Adolf Hitler's obsession, right up until the present day (written in 1987). Softcover, $24.95
Ransomed of God Harold Troper
This an amazing true story of how one Canadian woman, Judy Feld Carr, Woman's Role in the Rescue of Syrian Jews entered the shadowy world of international intrigue & breached the walls of a totalitarian regime in Syria to help its Jewish population escape from tyranny. This book contains the gripping accounts of the people that she rescued. Hardcover, $32.95
The Secret War Against the Jews John Loftus
A hugely controversial work that exposes a series of scandals from Oliver North to the British royal family, The Secret War Against the Jews reveals as much about political corruption inside Western intelligence as it does about Israel. Using thousands of previously top-secret documents & interviews with hundreds of current & former spies, the authors, both veteran investigators, Nazi-hunters, and authors present a compelling narrative. Softcover, $25.99
Equal parts history & memoir - the author survived the Holocaust in Eishyshok as a child - the book focuses on the rich lives built by the Jews in the community, which, depending on the year, was under Polish, Lithuanian, Russian or germany control. After detailing the central role that the synagogue & religion played in shtetl life. Eliach uses oral history, written documents & numerous photos to describe how Eishsyhok's Jews went about their daily affairs. She deftly demonstrates how the Jewish population reacted to forces outside the shtetl. Some of these forces were political, while others were intellectual. What results is a case study that sheds light on the entire Eastern European Jewish experience. While Eliach goes to great lengths to focus on the world that the Jews created, the book's most moving moments come i its final chapters, as some of Eishyshok's residents, including the author herself, struggle for survival in the face of genocide. As in her "Tower of Life" exhibit on Eishyshok at the U.S. Holocaust Museum in D.C. Eliach revives a people and a place that seemed irrevocable lost. Hardcover, $34.00; Softcover, $16.99
Yiddishland Gerard Silvain & Henri Minczeles
This book is the moving result of Gerard Silvain's "journey" into the heart of Yiddishland. His collection brings to life the rhythm of the shtetl with its busy streets & markets, professional marriage brokers, itinerant water carriers, bright-eyed yeshivot students, porters, politicians, & celebrated intellectuals. A whole chapter is devoted to synagogues, the majority of which were razed by the Nazis as they advanced into the Soviet Union and throughout the book the humble trades that kept entire populations from starving to death are shown in compelling detail. Hardcover, $69.95
