The Story of the Jewish Bund. Here Where We Live is Our Country by Molly Crabapple

Inspired by the story of her great grandfather the artist Sam Rothbort and looking to connect worlds, Molly Crabapple spent around seven years researching The Story of the Jewish Bund. Worh to mention the word ´story´ and not ´history´ which shows already the limitations and the subjective point of view this book was researched and written. 

Don´t take me wrong: the book is very well researched and is sharing a lot of atmospheric and subjective episodes from the history of the Bund that are rarely remembered those days. The Bund belongs to a period of hardship in the European Jewish history, where they grew up alongide with other intellectual and ideological Jewish movements - like Hashomer Hashair, and various brands of Zionism. 

While the book is so focused in documenting lifes of Bundists, it misses several points when it comes to connecting the Bund with the general history of ideas at the time, and their eventual ideological motivations. However, it is doing the very ´faux pas´ when connects instead with currrent ongoing events trying to present the Bund - currently belonging to the history books, as an example of Jewish dissent. 

As a historian, I find largely dishonest to try such an intellectual juggling, as it does not add arguments, but diminishes the credibility of the approach. It may follow a Marxist flow of thought but nevertheless  completely irrelevant from the historical point of view.

I enjoyed discovering the troubled story of Bund and especially of some Bundists, but my interests ended within the given space. I don´t see any connection with the present and I see no future, and Bundism ended with the world it belonged. 

Also, if you hear the audio version of the book, just a warning: the pronunciation of some foreign - Yiddish or not - is horrendous, the worst music for the ears.

In the Memory of the Brave Women from Rosenstrasse

Tucked between Alexanderplatz and Hackescher Markt in Berlin, surrounded by modern communist blocks of houses, there is Rosenstrasse, a small square nowadays part of the oldest steets of Berlin. 

On Heidereutergasse it used to be Berlin's oldest and first synagogue, built in 1714 and destroyed during WWII. Since 1905, at Rosenstrasse 2-4 were also administrative buildings of the Jewish community. 

However, this street is remembered for a more dramatic story, outlined by a complex of statues called the 'Block of Women'.

Between February and March 1943, in this neighbourhood took place the biggest spontaneous protests in the Third Reich. The protesters were the women - wives, relatives, mothers - of around 2,000 Jews - mostly men - that were detained here at the end of February 1943 by the Gestapo. Until then, the Jews parteners in mixed marriages were tolerated by the Nazi regime and therefore saved from deportations and murder. 

For around a week, around 600 women protested daily for being allowed to get in touch and the liberation of their loved ones. The peaceful protests were not followed by arrests and most of the detainees were freed - except some that were already sent to concentration camps. There is a movie released in 2003 dedicated to the protests, an outstanding example of civil courage, directed by Margarethe von Trotta.

The impressive block of statues - comprising six elements - is the work of the late GDR artist Ingeborg Hunziger herself with a complex Jewish history. Carved in reddish sandstone, the complex is aimed to outline on one side the tremendous solidarity of the women that were ready to risk everything. The participants to the protests were probably afraid of the consequences but being united keep their going and helped to succeed despite all odds.

The violently broken blocks also mean the deep destruction brought to the Jewish life and culture by the Shoah. On a bench, a couple of meters away from the complex, there is a man sitting spread on a bench. During the War, the Jews were not allowed to sit on benches. 

I've personally find the sculpture sending a very powerful message, with a story in images which is pertaining and leaving strong impressions and memories. Probably one of the most pertinent I've seen in Germany.

Every time I am thinking about those protests and their outcome, I can't stop thinking in terms of 'what if...'. Obstinacy and love, and the acknowledgement of the injustice saved the life of 2,000 people condemned to death. What if...?

The 'Lone Wolf in Jerusalem'

Drama, adventure, romance and WWII traumatic memories. The popular novel in Israel, Lone Wolf in Jerusalem, by the decorated IDF colonel Ehud Diskin, wisely uses the troubled political and security landscape in Israel during the British Mandate to recreate vivid stories of the Jewish resistance in the Holy Land. 

The main character is David Gabinsky, a former member of the resistance against the Germans in Belarus, shortly landed in the 'home of the Jewish people' and faced with the harsh survival realities. The different ideological orientations and strategical mindsets of the many resistance groups and different approach of Zionism - explained sometimes but the author in a bit too school-like, pedagogical way - are a good indicator of the current political mainstreams in Israel. Diskin projects also a different image of the Jewish communities in Europe, with insights about the armed resistance against the Germans, a reality not enough approached either in purely historical or literary works placed in that period of time. 

Besides the historical contexts and constructions, the story flows beautifully and there is enough action and romantic touch to inspire and captivate the readership. The love between David and Shoshana is dramatic and moving, with a dynamic written on hearbreaking historical canvass. 

The historical research is well done, which allows the writer to play with the imagination and create unique stories, without diminishing the reality of facts. It is an easy-to-read novel, with a touch of mystery, thriller and historical - also military - dramatism, recommended to history novels readers, especially those passionate about the Middle East, particularly Jewish history.  

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

A Comprehensive Overview of Jewish History

If you are interested in more than a basic introduction to centuries of Jewish history all over the world and in the Land of Israel, this 'Historical Atlas of the Jewish People is the best recommendation. With contributions of noteworthy experts in Jewish history and the Middle East, such as Saul Friedländer, Raphael Vago, Pierre Vidal-Naquet or Yeshaiahu Leibowitz and Bernard Lewis, it covers extensively a range of historical aspects in a concise, comprehensive way.

You don't have to be an expert in Jewish history to understand many of the aspects featured, but a historical background might be useful though.  

The chronological overview is completed by historical portraits of specific episodes or event. Therefore, it both combines the evenemential history and the focus on specific trends in the history of mentalities. Achieving brevity when it comes to complicated histories is both a success but may have its inerent limitations, as it simply has to leave behind details not considered relevant for the economy of the text. Maps and pictures of various artifacts are adding more visual impact to the historical information and helps to contextualise. 

I personally felt that there are many information missing from the histories of various Jewish communities around the world, while other communities were completely omitted. A Historical Atlas of the Jewish People is not a book to read in a sitting and once. It is a reference that one can use regularly for aspects related to Jewish history. For historians in general, it offers a model of approaching centuries-long in a easy reading way while maintaining the essential academic chore. 

Political Memories of an Enfant Terrible of Israeli Politics

I cannot decide if Yair Lapid is a better journalist than politician or the other way round, but his father, Tommy was for sure a journalist first. Part of the first wave of journalists in Eretz Israel, Lapid brought into the country a Mitteleuropean tradition of unconventional debate and anti-iconoclastic fervor. Such people do rarely have followers unless one grew up in the daily ambiance and ambivalence of addressing politics in that part of the world. 

The Memories After My Death was written in 2009 in Hebrew, by Yair, and recently translated into English. Probably between translations and the writing of the son, original nuances were lost, but someone curious both about Tommy Lapid and his times can still receive satisfactory answers to a large array of questions. 

The story is told chronologically, from the childhood years in Novi Sad and Budapest to the first impressions upon landing to Israel and Lapid's adventures in the world of post-communist businesses mediating media purchases in Central and Eastern Europe on behalf of billionaire Robert Maxwell. Episodes of a life well spent taking wholeheartedly all the possible professional and personal challenges. 

My feeling was that the book was pending between a story based on life facts - which is a good approach, as maybe for many mostly of younger age, the interesting past of Tommy Lapid wasn't always obvious - or a story built around ideas and life philosophy - an approach requesting in-depth elaboration. From the last point of view, I think that many of the political controversies he created, especially in relation with the religious mainstream were diplomatically muzzled by the more experienced sabra politician of a son. 

All the observations being made, this book is worth reading it if interested in some historical insights into the recent genesis of Israeli politics and media history. There are echoed from a different time and moral age, a reminder that times are always changing and it is good that way too.

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Tutti's Promise: Jewish fate in The Netherlands

Trying to escape the horrors awaiting for Jews in Germany, a middle-class Jewish family run to Amsterdam shortly before The Netherlands are occupied by the Nazis. In this novel based on a personal story of the Lichtenstern family, the main voice belongs to Ruth Lichtenstern aka Tutti born in 1935 in Cologne, Germany, a little girl at the time of the war.

As many of the kids growing up this time, she grew up faster, learning to cope with human cruelty, discrimination and the urge to find food and give comfort and support to the parents. They are children assuming from a very small age adults' responsibilities. For the parents the pain is even bigger, as they should see how powerless they are to save their children from the daily nightmare.

Through her, we are introduced to the daily life of Jews in the Netherlands during the war, many of them, similarly with Tutti's family, trying to run from the German horrors. Every day is a test of survival and an effort to trick with the destiny.  It is a terrible fight for survival taking place and once in a while, good people - although only a few - are appearing in the life of the characters, including from the top of the establishment. For few months, the Lichtenstern family is able to stay away from the death camps, together with other Jews, by working at the Westerbork camp, trying to sell and buy scrap metal. But this chance is short-lived and they will be transferred to Theresienstadt where they will be liberated. The family starts the journey back, but the scars of those times remain deeply inscribed in the story of everyone's life. But there is also a promise, Tutti's promise, to refuse to give up hope and aim at making the world a better place. It is a promise that the reader too could take it.

The story is well written, accompanied by a dictionary of words in German and Dutch and explaining various terms used in the book, with vivid dialogues and in an attractive way that may keep the reader interested. Documents are inserted in to the text, offering the proof of authenticity of various episodes told in the story. The book can be used in middle schools to teach about Shoah and it offers to the reader the chance to learn something about Jews in Amsterdam and Shoah in The Netherlands and Europe in general. The episodes of life at the Theresienstadt concentration camp are also relevant for documenting this period.

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Traces of Jewish life in Salzwedel, Germany

A colourful little town close to Hamburg, Salzwedel also used to have a small Jewish community. The first traces of such a life were remembered by a note on the wall of the building on Marktplatz no.27: Here it used to function a synagogue to be from 1867 until the infamous Kristallnacht. Nowadys it is a private residence.

Situated on the German Timber-Frame road, Salzwedel succeeded to have a continuous Jewish presence only in the 19th century. The highest number of residents was achieved in 1840: 103 Jews. The number decreased to 64 in 1933. If ones keeps an open eye, can spot possible Jewish traces in the buildings around the central area.

Curious to find out more official historical testimonies, we addressed the Tourist Information Center, from where we were guided to one of the two Jewish cemeteries. Luckily, the door was opened and I could snatch inside to have a look and take some pictures.

The cemetery is situated in a green area, quiet, close to the Christian cemetery. The stones - around 50 according to my counting - were dated until 1945. 

Covered by green bushes, the stones are silent testimonies of a life that it is no more. Attracted by the salt business opportunities, Jews settled around here in the 14th century, but never achieved a flourishing life.

The stones are written both in Hebrew and old German scripts, many of the persons buried here with local German names.

Although empty and apparently abandoned, the cemetery doesn't have signs of vandalism.

The history of Jews in Salzwedel is not too much discussed and as far as I know, there are not noteworthy religious or community personalities associated with this place. Most probably, many came and go, this place being just a stop on the way to other attractive places around, such as Hamburg or Lüneburg.

My camera is wandering over and over again near the quiet stones.

The place is empty, then streets are empty, only the rays of light and the mild wind is wrapping everything in a quiet bubble.

I would be curious to find out more about the lives and stories of the people buried here, but the current knowledge is relatively limited. Only some local archives could be helpful perhaps.

Most frequent mentions about Salzwedel are connected with the WWII tragedies. Nearby, in 1943, it was created the Neuengamme women concentration camp, with a capacity of 1,000 persons that hosted around 3,000 inmates.

The inmates were Jewish and non-Jewish both, mostly from Hungary, but also Greece or Poland.

The memory of the Salzwedel Jews is remembered by Stolpersteine placed in the front of the buildings were the Jewish residents lived once.

Nowadays, Jewish life in Salzwedel means a lot of silence and many memories, many of them waiting to be written.

Part of the traveller's task was to keep the current memory and share is further. Sometimes, this is all we can do and, as for now, it might be the beginning of a new story.

The mysteries around Birkat HaRofeh

Source: chazin.com

On the desk of my children physician stays a glass support with the words of the Birkat HaRofeh, the doctor's prayer. Having many doctors in the family myself, I know how important is the role of the physician in one's life. For centuries, we relied on science not on superstition, developping permanently the methods aimed to cure and save lives.

Praising Gd for creating the human body, this blessing replaced the Hippocrat Oath in some medical schools in Israel. For a successful doctor, this is an usual gift from a healthy ex-patient. When someone finishes the medical school, a piece of art with harofeh is a common gift. 

The origin of this birkat harofeh is not very clear somehow. Traditionally, it is attributed to Rambam (Maimonides). However, recent researches assumed a much more recent date, attributing the birkat to Dr. Markus Herz, a German pupil of Kant and a friend of Moses Mendelssohn. Before him, there were other authors of the physicians's prayer, such as Asaph Harofeh (in the 6th century). Rabbi Judah Halevi, Jacob Zahalon or Abraham Zacutus. However, the current version appeared in print in a German version from 1783, with the first Hebrew version available only in 1790. The English version was published only in 1841. 

Understanding the history is always important for understanding ourselves. More information about this mysterious bracha can eventually shed more light on the history of Jewish medicine as well. 

Israel stories: Cinema Esther in Tel Aviv

Inaugurated at the end of the 1930s, the former Cinema Esther on Dizengoff square was changed into a booutique hotel following financial troubles in the 1990s. Its main structure - part of a Bauhaus complex in the area - was maintained as the material memories of the place, including movie posters, old chairs and original projectors.

The cinema was owned by Esther and Moses Nathaniel that made aliyah to Eretz Yisroel in 1924. The idea of opening this cultural institution was presented as follows by Moses Nathaniel: "Whilst the best of our young are holding on to their "ploughshares and swords" to defend against a wanton enemy, I decided to be amongst the builders and add a building in our country, so that our enemy will know, that we will surely build...and also that our people may know that this is imperative to encourage and to be encouraged in deeds of creativity...Therefore, this building will also be used as a place for skilled and cultured inspiration and will be visited by the citizens of our beloved city, who persist in the building of our country".

Jewish memories: Uhlfelder Department Store in Munich

While walking the streets of Munich late in one of the last evenings, I discovered this stone inscription, on one of the walls of the buildings close to Marienplatz. It reminds about the Kaufhaus/Department store Uhlfelder, the first of this kind open in Munich in 1878. Owned by the Jewish businessman Heinrich Uhlfelder, it was a success and rapidly expanded with new stores, especially due to the low prices targeting the low income shoppers and the variety of merchandise.

The success did not suit well the local anti-Semitic establishment, and in April 1933, a demonstration took place in the front of the shop. Five years after, on Kristallnacht, the shops were vandalized and burnt, an event reminded by the stone inscription. Heinrich Uhlfelder and his son, as well as other 1,000 Jews are interned to Dachau, where many will die. Somehow, Uhlfelder is able to go out and get for him and his family a visa to India, not before being forced to give up his properties and even to pay for the damage made during the 1938 destruction. 

After the war, in 1953, he returns to Munich trying to get back his properties through more than 100 judicial files. He will be able to recover only part of it. 

The Long Hand of the Mossad: The Revival of Russian Jewry

An interesting lecture on YUTorah Online - an investigation into the turmoil of the Russian Jews during communism.

We have so much to learn from them. While listening the lecture I was thinking a couple of times, how in our history every tragic moment can be turned into an opportunity to increase and develop. And this is part of our miracle. 

Who are the Jews from Mexico

A good reminder of the traces of our history. Driven far away from our land, leaving refuge after refuge in the quest for the way to return home. This time, it is about the Jews from Mexico, who, as I saw recently, are starting to return to Israel, together with the other Jewish communities from Latin America.

We are ready to go back home. 

The Farhood - History of Iraqi Jews

For Jerusalem - Elie Wiesel

It was inevitable: Jerusalem once again is at the center of political debates and international storms. New and old tensions surface at a disturbing pace. Seventeen times destroyed and seventeen times rebuilt, it is still in the middle of diplomatic confrontations that could lead to armed conflict. Neither Athens nor Rome has aroused that many passions.

For me, the Jew that I am, Jerusalem is above politics. It is mentioned more than six hundred times in Scripture-and not a single time in the Koran. Its presence in Jewish history is overwhelming. There is no more moving prayer in Jewish history than the one expressing our yearning to return to Jerusalem. To many theologians, it IS Jewish history, to many poets, a source of inspiration. It belongs to the Jewish people and is much more than a city, it is what binds one Jew to another in a way that remains hard to explain. When a Jew visits Jerusalem for the first time, it is not the first time; it is a homecoming. The first song I heard was my mother's lullaby about and for Jerusalem. Its sadness and its joy are part of our collective memory.

Since King David took Jerusalem as his capital, Jews have dwelled inside its walls with only two interruptions; when Roman invaders forbade them access to the city and again, when under Jordanian occupation. Jews, regardless of nationality, were refused entry into the old Jewish quarter to meditate and pray at the Wall, the last vestige of Solomon's temple. It is important to remember: had Jordan not joined Egypt and Syria in the 1967 war against Israel, the old city of Jerusalem would still be Arab. Clearly, while Jews were ready to die for Jerusalem they would not kill for Jerusalem.

Today, for the first time in history, Jews, Christians and Muslims all may freely worship at their shrines. And, contrary to certain media reports, Jews, Christians and Muslims ARE allowed to build their homes anywhere in the city. The anguish over Jerusalem is not about real estate but about memory.

What is the solution? Pressure will not produce a solution. Is there a solution? There must be, there will be. Why tackle the most complex and sensitive problem prematurely? Why not first take steps which will allow the Israeli and Palestinian communities to find ways to live together in an atmosphere of security. Why not leave the most difficult, the most sensitive issue, for such a time?

Jerusalem must remain the world's Jewish spiritual capital, not a symbol of anguish and bitterness, but a symbol of trust and hope. As the Hasidic master Rebbe Nahman of Bratslav said, "Everything in this world has a heart; the heart itself has its own heart."

Jerusalem is the heart of our heart, the soul of our soul.

For Jerusalem was published April 16, as a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal, in the form an open letter to President Obama.

Saving Jewish Children, but at What Cost?

Elaine Sciolino and Jason Horowitz

NY Times

January 9, 2005

In October 1946, just a year after the defeat of the Nazis, the Vatican weighed in on one of the most painful episodes of the postwar era: the refusal to allow Jewish children who had been sheltered by Catholics during the war to return to their own families and communities.
A newly disclosed directive on the this subject provides written confirmation of well-known church policy and practices at the time, particularly toward Jewish children who had been baptized, often to save them from perishing at the hands of the Nazis. Its tone is cold and impersonal, and it makes no mention of the horrors of the Holocaust.
Its disclosure has reopened a raw debate on the World War II role of the Catholic Church and of Pope Pius XII, a candidate for sainthood who has been excoriated by his critics as a heartless anti-Semite who maintained a public silence on the Nazi death camps and praised by his supporters as a savior of Jewish lives.
The one-page, typewritten directive, dated Oct. 23, 1946, was discovered in a French church archive outside Paris and made available to The New York Times on the condition that the source would not be disclosed. It is a list of instructions for French authorities on how to deal with demands from Jewish officials who want to reclaim Jewish children.
"Children who have been baptized must not be entrusted to institutions that would not be in a position to guarantee their Christian upbringing," the directive says.
It also contains an order not to allow Jewish children who had been baptized Catholic to go home to their own parents. "If the children have been turned over by their parents, and if the parents reclaim them now, providing that the children have not received baptism, they can be given back," it says.
Even Jewish orphans who had not been baptized Catholic were not to be turned over automatically to Jewish authorities. "For children who no longer have their parents, given the fact that the church has responsibility for them, it is not acceptable for them to be abandoned by the church or entrusted to any persons who have no rights over them, at least until they are in a position to choose themselves," the document says. "This, obviously, is for children who would not have been baptized."
The document, written in French and first disclosed last week by the Italian daily newspaper Corriere della Sera, is unsigned but says, "It should be noted that this decision taken by the Holy Congregation of the Holy Office has been approved by the Holy Father."
The publication of the document is likely to embolden those who do not think Pius XII is worthy of becoming a saint. Some prominent Jews and historians have attacked the document for its insensitivity to the Holocaust.
The Rev. Peter Gumpel, a Rome-based Jesuit priest and a leading proponent for the beatification of Pius XII, the first step toward sainthood, said he was convinced that the document did not come from the Vatican. He pointed out that it is not on official Vatican stationery, that it is not signed and that it is written in French, not Italian. "There is something fishy here," he said.
But Étienne Fouilloux, a French historian who is compiling Pope John XXIII's diaries during his years in France, said that the document had been discovered recently in church archives outside of Paris by a serious researcher and that it is genuine. John has been beatified, the last formal step toward sainthood.
At the time, Pope John XXIII was Monsignor Angelo Roncalli, Pope Pius XII'S representative to France. During the war, Monsignor Roncalli was credited with saving tens of thousands of Jews from Nazi persecution by using diplomatic couriers, papal representatives and nuns to issue and deliver baptismal certificates, immigration certificates and visas, many of them forged, to Jews. He also helped gain asylum for Jews in neutral countries.
"This document is indicative of a mind-set at the Vatican that dealt with problems in a legal framework without worrying that there were human beings involved," Mr. Fouilloux said. "It shows that the massacre of Jews was not seen by the Holy See as something of importance."
He said he would include the document in the next volume of the diaries.
The document underscores the sanctity with which the Vatican treated the sacrament of baptism at the time - no matter how or why it was administered.
The church's stance that a baptized child is irrevocably Christian was established nearly a century before the Holocaust, when, in 1858, papal guards took Edgardo Mortara, 6, from his family in Bologna when word spread that he had been clandestinely baptized by a Catholic maid. It was relaxed only in the 1960's.
More important, the directive captures the church's failure to grasp the enormous implications of the Nazi extermination of the Jews. "It shows the very bureaucratic and very icy attitude of the Catholic Church in these types of things." said Alberto Melloni, an Italian historian with the John XXIII Foundation for Religious Studies in Bologna, who is working with Mr. Fouilloux to publish the diaries of Pope John XXIII. He called the tone of the directive "horrifyingly normal."
A second document that was also discovered by the French researcher is a letter in July 1946 to Monsignor Roncalli that noted his pledge to intervene to return Jewish-born children to their community and asked for his help to return 30 Jewish-born children living in a Catholic charity.
"Almost two years after the liberation of France, some Israelite children are still in non-Jewish institutions that refuse to give them back to Jewish charities," said the letter, which was signed by the Grand Rabbi of France and the head of the Jewish Central Consistory. It added, "We are in advance, grateful for your help."
It is not known whether there was a reply.
No reliable figures exist on how many French Jewish children were saved by the church from the Nazis, or affected by its decision to prevent them from rejoining their families and communities after the war. The French Jewish population had limited success in recovering Jewish children who had been adopted by non-Jews.
In the most well-documented case in France, two Jewish boys, Robert and Gerald Finaly, were sent in 1944 by their parents to a Catholic nursery in Grenoble. The parents perished at Auschwitz. Family members tried to get the boys back in 1945, but in part because they had been baptized, it took an additional eight years and a long legal battle to prevail over the church.
"Look, I know that for the church, baptism means the child belongs to the church, you can't undo it," said Amos Luzzatto, the president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities. "But given the circumstances they could have made a human decision."
Mr. Luzzatto described himself as "speechless" that the Vatican directive on the children does not mention the Holocaust and questioned the worthiness of Pius XII to be made a saint.
"If they beatify him, don't ask us to applaud," he said.
Some corners of the Catholic Church are suspicious that the document, and the ensuing debate that has played out in Italian newspapers, was produced to create obstacles in Pius XII's march toward sainthood.
But Pope John Paul II strongly supports the campaign to make Pius XII a saint, and in February 2003, the Vatican announced the opening of some secret archives to help clear Pius XII's name, although the papers do not deal with his activities as pope.
Elaine Sciolino reported from Paris for this article, and Jason Horowitz from Rome.

Shalom Auslander

Foreskin's Lament.(a NY Times excerpt)

A past

still denied by many, not enough considered in the whole implications, including from the point of view of understanding human nature.