When Harlem was Jewish by Jeffery Gurock

This history of Harlem is a fascinating study of the Jewish migration out of the ghetto of the Lower East side of Manhattan by more upwardly mobile people.  Although originally of German Jewish descent, the community grew with the newly fabricated train lines that connected the community with the needle trade, garment district in Midtown and the influx of more and more Eastern European immigrants until it too became overcrowded. What Prof. Gurock makes clear is that the Jewish people of Harlem did not flee as African Americans settled in the neighborhood, but rather shows that the community was well ethnically defined with Irish, Italian, German, African American and Jewish settlement blocks early on in the beginning of the 20th century.

Harlem represented an escape from the Jewish ghetto, it meant that assimilating to American ways was such a priority that it shook up Jewish leadership.  Assimilation evoked new programs to keep Jewish people affiliated with the Jewish community.  Such dynamic rabbis as Bernard Drachman, Herbert Goldstein and Mordechai Kaplan all ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary of the America, instituted new outreach programs that attempted to synthesize Jewish traditions and American culture.  

This was an era when the Jewish Theological Seminary produced so called "orthodox" rabbis.  The Seminary's mandate was to produce American rabbis who could inspire Jewish youth to observe Judaism without sacrificing one's American identity. Clearly, Mordechai Kaplan, later the founder of Reconstructionist Judaism veered off to found a new strand, however in the beginning he served Orthodox congregations in Harlem. 

Of the three, Herbert Goldstein was truly Orthodox having received a traditional ordination from a sage in the Lower East side before entering the Jewish Theological Seminary.  He founded the (Orthodox) Institutional Synagogue which is now situated on the West Side with extensive programing reaching out to young Jewish people.

Ultimately, by the 1930's, the Jewish settlement of Harlem emptied to other emerging neighborhoods in Brooklyn and the Bronx because of its overcrowding and its own Jewish 'ghettoization'.  The pestering problem of assimilation, the demand to Americanize could well define the American Jewish community throughout its history.

Pressburg Under Siege by Rabbi Moshe Sofer

This slight (only 93 pages) autobiographical memoir of the French invasion of Pressburg during the Napoleonic wars describes the shelling of Pressburg (present day Bratislava, 40 miles from Vienna) and how the Jewish community and Austrian troops responded to the carnage.

The Chasam Sofer, (synonymous with his Halachic Work) tells his reader about the miraculous saving of the Jewish community and how no one was killed except for one individual cut down by a bullet to his thigh that the doctors kept trimming away muscle until he succumbed to his wound but not before confessing his sins. His confession is a fascinating glimpse into the politics of community and the role of the chief rabbi.  Rabbi Sofer reports that the young man was under the influence of a very manipulative woman.  She swayed the man to raise rents preventing the poor from gaining residence thus creating a housing shortage.  As a result, the chief rabbi had to campaign against such inequality.  The young man in response to the rabbi's campaign hurled false charges against the rabbi!  Knowing his time was up, the young man confesses and dies a penitent.

One can not help but wonder about the miraculous saving of the Jewish community.  Although the Jewish quarter was utterly ravaged by fire with home after home destroyed, no sefer Torah was destroyed and no member of the Jewish community lost his life.  As a matter of fact, the rabbi tells of heroic behavior by some carrying others to safety.

I could not help but wonder about this account.  It reminded me of the 9/11 attacks destroying the World Trade Center.  Scores of Hatzalah first responders were on the scene furiously working hard to save lives and incredulously not one lost.  The Fire Chief when asked how many rescuers were lost and heard that none were lost, replied,"your community is obviously blessed!"  To have such a great personage as the Chasam Sofer who at every opportunity interpreted the goings on prudently and accurately creates an obvious blessed community and makes for a fascinating read.

History of the Jews of Russia and Poland: from the earliest times until the present day Volume I by Simon Dubnow

This classic history outlines the vicissitudes of the great Jewish community of Eastern Europe and how the authorities abused the Jewish people with hatred and suspicion.  It is a story of Medievalism and its independent corporate structure of the Kahal, the Jewish community.  Anti-Semitism is an obvious trend, with a story of the desire to ameliorate a 'strange' people.  Volume one goes through Tzar Alexander I's reign.

The Kahal, the corporate structure of the community remains isolated from the gentile community and operates with autonomy.  The gentiles view the Jews with suspicion and hatred categorizing them as Christ Killers keeping their distance.  The economic necessities of commerce bring the respective communities tenuously together.

Both the Russian Orthodox Church and the Polish Catholic Church remain hostile to the Jewish settlement.  The Polish and Russian dynasties never appreciate the talents of the Jewish people and are either condemning, isolating, restricting or massacring the Jews.

With the onslaught of the Napoleonic armies there seems to be a glimmer of hope that perhaps the liberalism of the West will penetrate the heart of the Tzar who was educated in the West.  His fanaticism, however, toward his church, his hatred and suspicion of the Jews prevent him from ever making any serious reforms in favor of the Jewish people.

Within the Jewish community one witnesses the conversion toward Hasidism away from Rabbinism. Lithuania seems to be the only strong hold of Rabbinism.  The strong leadership of the Vilna Gaon keep the Hasidic advance in check.  The intrigues between the two sides never seem to stop.

The famous attitude of Shneur Zalman of Liadi that Napoleon was a greater threat to Judaism was highlighted.  He held that the liberal values would sweep the simple Jew away from his father in Heaven. In contrast however, being loyal, the Tzar would only be a physical harm and not a spiritual one.  When the Jewish people showed loyalty, the Tzar was actually shocked and almost moved to actually alleviate some of the Jewish suffering.  That motion passed, however, with the passing of the threat of Napoleon.

What is absolutely clear from this history is that the Jewish people are viewed as an alien people.  The authorities are motivated to somehow change them by trying to convert them, conscript them or at least modernize them.  Their efforts fail repeatedly.

The Jews of Eastern Europe really don't experience emancipation until the great migration out of Eastern Europe from the 1880's onward.

Islamic Imperialism: a history by Efraim Karsh

The conventional predominant understanding from progressive circles about the Modern Middle East is that Western countries encroached, and then invaded the area unjustly.  "Muslim Rage" is a term that expresses the outrage of the West's meddling in the Middle East.  Much of today's foreign policies of dissociation stem from this kind of thinking.  Efraim Karsh sets out to explain, however that this predominant understanding is seriously flawed and does not reflect the truth of events in the region.  He claims the fall of the Ottoman empire was not due to Western tampering but rather the intrinsic fault lines and weakness of that empire; the Ottomans required support from the West.  He shows very forcefully that the West was invited to the region; that one need not bleed for what has happened in the Modern Middle East due to the West because Islam always regroups by nature of its imperial force. Islam has always behaved in traditional imperial fashion from its inception with Muhammad and the initial Arab conquests.

Mr. Karsh shows, for example, that the famed Egyptian leader, Muhammad Ali had his own imperial ideas and was only nominally attached to the Ottomans because of the politics of the day.  He was strong enough and the Ottomans weak enough to assert some independence.  Although some claim that he was a vassal for the Ottomans, Mr. Karsh maintains that Ali was more than just a vassal and as a result of his own imperial demands his rule lasts a long time and does not come to end until 1952 with the rise of Nasser, another imperialist.

Nasser asserts a "pan Arab" policy to unify the Arab world.  Mr. Karsh explains that such a policy is a stratagem of imperialism.  The Arab / Israeli conflict becomes a rallying point to unify the Islamic world against the State of Israel and win back the territory lost during the 1948 war of Independence and more! "We are going to drive the Jews into the Sea!" said Nasser in hope of conquering all of Israel; a classic call of imperialism.  His complete failure during the 6 day War came as such a shock that he dies three years later of a broken heart.

Mr. Karsh sees Osama Bin Laden and his Al Qaeda terror network in traditional imperialistic terms. The way the prophet is always invoked gives reason to this understanding since Muhammad himself continued conquering lands until he was neutralized, and his successors continued to conquer.  The terror attacks are all thematically linked with a deafening screed against the West giving more reason to believe that Al Qaeda is not just ejecting the West from the Middle East, but rather attacking the West in imperialistic fashion.

The Islamic Republic of Iran manifests an imperial outlook since the leadership is constantly asserting hegemonic superiority.  Moreover, The quest for nuclear power in an oil rich country can only fuel the notion that Iran is looking in imperialistic directions.

Mr. Karsh concludes that one need not feel guilty that the West entered the Middle East and somehow encroached on the lands of Islam.  Mr. Karsh is of the opinion that the politics of a weakened Islamic imperialism encouraged the West's entrance. One should not make, however the mistake that somehow the different factions of Islam will emerge without hegemonic intentions that go beyond the Middle East.

The End of the Holocaust by Alvin Rosenfeld

There are some writers that clearly stand out beyond the pale because their clarity of thought is so vivid.  The organized flow of ideas make reading such writers easy.  Alvin Rosenfeld, Professor of English at Indiana University is such a writer.  His style, organization and clarity make this contribution to Holocaust studies a very worthwhile read.

Although Mr. Rosenfeld's style and clarity make the reading easy, its subject is very disturbing.  Mr. Rosenfeld shows that as time elapses, the Holocaust is reduced, dismissed and ultimately denied as a meaningful lesson from the past.  He shows through the analysis of each aspect of the Holocaust: perpetrator, victim, redeemer, and survivor that the most horrific crime against humanity has lost its truth, reduced to a mere metaphor.

Germany had always difficulty coming to terms with its crime against the Jewish people and the Reagan administration helped bury the past by visiting an S.S. cemetery seeking forgiveness and absolution for past sins.  To put the past behind and move on, Mr Reagan pleaded.  The president, however, did not seem to understand that he or anyone else does not have the authority to grant such absolution.  He enabled the blurring of the crime, a complete reduction of the horror.

Mr Rosenfeld shows how the famous victim Ann Frank is reduced by comparing her diary to a teenager's experience in the war of Kosovo.  He points out that the teen, although talented in writing, did not experience hiding nor even experience the immediate shelling but nevertheless, was heralded as the "next Ann Frank" as she was interviewed on CNN!  One loses perspective because the comparison is not fair: Ann was a victim that succumbed in Auschwitz, the other became famous on TV. Somehow a sectarian war is compared to the Holocaust.  One loses perspective: Ann Frank died needlessly, only because she was Jewish.  She never made it to CNN.

Mr. Rosenfeld notes that the crime is so heinous that there is a desire to search for those that saved Jews during the Holocaust.  People like Schindler, Sugihara and Wallenberg are sought out as heros, however, one never seems to understand that their contribution, however praiseworthy, is puny in comparison to what was perpetrated and as a result, one tends to lose sight of the actual losses created by the Nazis criminals.  Steven Spielberg's Schindler's list is a great example of the unintended distortion of really what happened during the Holocaust.  Even though all of the aspects of the Shoah may be included in this epic film, it is essentially a rescue film and as such distorts and hence reduces the fact of the Holocaust which had no rescue and no redeemer for millions of people.

Even being a survivor is not immune to criticism today, but rather the survivor is assaulted for exploiting the memory of the Holocaust.  Elie Wiesel, probably the most famous and most prolific survivor is constantly accused of exploiting the memory of the Holocaust.  The troubling fact is that there are those who hate Jews and those who are self-hating Jews that attempt to drown out the cry to remember; they can not come to terms with the truth of the Holocaust - it is too shameful to admit. Or alternatively, people are tired of hearing about the slaughter!

As the last survivors succumb to old age, the reality of the Holocaust will be retired to the dust accumulated to the history books and will never regain its rightful true meaning but rather will be reduced to any other heinous crime to be used as a literary metaphor.  For example, it is now acceptable for one going through a divorce to compare one's inconvenient discord with one's spouse to a "personal holocaust"!

The Shaping of the Modern Middle East by Bernard Lewis

The Shaping of the Modern Middle East by Bernard Lewis is probably the best brief history of the most volatile region in the world today.  Mr. Lewis incorporates most if not all of the political fault lines that have erupted in the last 100 years.  His thesis is that Western imperialism crashed and imposed itself on an Islamic world forcing a position of subservience to Muslims that proved an anathema.   Creating a Muslim rage through the end of the Cold War, that Islamic civilization took back its dignity by freeing itself from Imperial domination.  Written in 1964 and reworked in 1994 this book is an accurate accounting of what has happened and what is currently happening today despite being written 20 year ago.

Mr. Lewis explains that some concepts were not only alien but also incompatible to traditional Islam. For example, democracy and nationalism are plants in the Muslim world by the West.  Autocracy or monarchy fit well into traditional Islam, but democracy is completely alien.  The only place where democracy flourishes is in a secular Muslim country like Turkey.  The Islamic Republic of Iran, for example is clearly not a democracy that would have an independent voting body.  The Supreme Leader has absolute control like a monarch.  Similarly, Nationalism is unknown because Islam binds all Muslims together, not the nation state.  When the British destroy the Ottoman Empire and instigate the ‘Arab revolt’ there is no real overwhelming feeling against the Turks because they are fellow Muslims and it’s the British that do the lion share of upheaval.  The British seem to place pliable tribal leaders at the head of new state governments.

After the fall of the British Empire, the Cold War becomes the animating force the pushes events in the Middle East.  The Soviets successfully persuade some Arab countries to join in an alliance because the Soviet Union never struck the Muslims of the Middle East as being similar to the Western countries. Socialism and Marxism make its way into some of the Arab countries. Soviet aggression is perceived by the USA as a threat.  The USA decides that the Soviet influence needs to be countered.  The USA sides with the sole democracy in the region, Israel to counteract the perceived Soviet posturing.  Allowing the two Super Powers to dominate the region testifies to the lack of independence and impotence to the many Muslim countries. 

With the Cold War’s end, Mr. Lewis observes festering Muslim rage translates into new opportunities to take back their region and re-establish a Muslim superiority and dominance.  He calls it Islam's response or the Revolt of Islam.  He observes that the Islamic Revolution in Iran of 1979 is just the beginning of re-establishing traditional Islam (albeit Shi’ite formulation).  The Shah, for example, is seen not traditional but rather, as a Western influenced secularist that needed to be removed. 

One can observe now that there seems to be a war between the original countries manufactured by the West's influence and Islamist organizations that view themselves more legitimately; a war within Islam. For example, Egypt is fighting the Muslim Brotherhood; Iraq, Syria and Jordan are fighting ISIL.  The most unfortunate country in the region that seems destined to unavoidable war is the State of Israel.  Israel has always been viewed in the Muslim world in a hostile fashion because as a non Muslim state, it has always been associated with the Imperial Western powers dating back to the Balfour Declaration that committed the British Crown to enable a Jewish homeland in the ancient land of Canaan.  The luxury of the an escape (i.e. like France and England returning to their respective lands) is absent.  Israel was not set up as a colony from some other Nation-state to be able to return. She must fight and convince her opponents that there is no dislodging of her from the region. Arab rejectionism and irredentism seems to guarantee more violence against the Jewish State.

This volume is highly recommended for one looking for a brief, clear insightful observation of the Middle East.

Islam in the Modern World and other studies by Elie Keduourie

Islam, according to Mr. Kedourie took a great hit during the Modern period of the 20th century because it woefully lagged behind European countries' technological advances.  The proud civilization, with a self image of religious superiority over the other original faiths believing Muhammad is the zenith and seal of prophecy, suffered humiliation when England and France completely dominated the former Ottoman empire setting up new individual Arabic states.

Mr. Kedourie outlines the historiography of the famous Lawrence of Arabia, T. E. Lawrence and shows definitively that his life's legacy is exaggerated.  He also claims that Arnold Toynbee deliberately changed British Policy away from the Balfour Declaration that committed aid to setting up a national Jewish Home in Palestine.  He also shows that the British double crossed the Sharifian Leadership in their commitments in promising Palestine.

The 1936 Arab riots are discussed in detail.  The diplomat, George Rendel is seen as completely unsympathetic to Zionism and borders on the Anti-Semitic.   Rendel always takes the side of Arab sensibilities and mischaracterizes the Mufti of Jerusalem as a reasonable man and not as the extremist that he actually was.  Mr. Kedourie points out that an unrealistic romantic attitude set in with the British diplomatic corp, one that ignored the brutal realities of life in the Arab world. The author speculates that had the British been more circumspect and more conservative and not romantic about the Arab world, had the British been much more forceful in following through with their original policies then one might have expected a much different outcome.

The book outlines the 1956 campaign of the Suez Canal crisis and shows how the British and French practically rope in the State of Israel to fight.  British interests in the Canal ignore the US.'s warnings and threats.

Mr. Kedourie also touches upon his experience in writing his original thesis severely criticising British policies that was supposed to grant him the doctorate degree (but was rejected out of prejudice by H. A. R. Gibb) by uncovering new material that seems to confirm and support his original thesis.