Drive : the story of my life by Larry Bird

I remember when Dennis Rodman publicly claimed that "if Larry Bird were Black he would be average"  It caused such a stir and discussion especially when Isiah Thomas seemed to concur.  At the time what really impressed me was the reaction of Mr. Bird - "it don't matter to me"  He seemed to dismiss the whole affair.  Then I started to follow Mr. Bird's career as someone who lived in Northern California.  He seemed to be able to get a shot off against anybody!  But his passing skills stood out for their "no look" quality.  Red Auerbach had stated that knew that Bird could shoot but that he did not know what a good passer he was or that he was a good defender or that he could steal the ball so well.  Larry Bird is one of greatest all around Basketball players ever.  One only needs to go on YouTube and find countless films that followed his career and countless Black players comment about him.

This featured memoir gives a glimpse of Larry Bird's natural modesty since the whole book makes positive observations about everyone that he came in contact with during his Basketball encounter. There is no criticism of others, only expressions of feelings of hurt, anger and frustration over losses, missed calls, altercations and injuries. The concept of 'appreciation of others' is ever present in this brief easy read.  He complements almost everyone from his teammates, coaches, front office people, unknown support people (trainers etc) and opposing players.  He has very positive comments about Dennis Rodman and Isiah Thomas despite their negative outbursts.  He has special praise for Magic Johnson with whom he regards as the greatest all around rival. 

What is clearly missing from the book is Larry Bird's reputation as a "trash talker", "provocateur" and "prankster".  Every documentary about Larry Bird or any interview of a player asked about Larry Bird always features some unique bravado expressed by Bird.  For example, he was known to call his shot or play to the opposing player or team before he received the ball and proceed to fulfill his predicted agenda!  The ability to back up his taunts made him a very respected player in the league.  

Kareem Abdul Jabbar called him "the greatest opposing player that he has faced" He would go on to describe that fact that Bird was smart and used his head in every game situation to win.  His shrewdness made him in the top tier of the NBA.

What also is clear from the book and consistent with other sources of information about Bird is the fact that he was incredibly self motivated. For example, the way he would think would be: If I would dribble the ball 100 times (to improve), I assumed that there was someone else out there dribbling 101 times! (This is consistent with the Talmudic dictum 'reviewing a lesson 100 times does not compare to reviewing the lesson 101 times!) 

Gun Control in the Third Reich by Stephen Halbrook

This is a study of how the Nazi regime disarmed the Jewish community in Germany during the 1930's. The Jewish people were targeted as enemies of the state and therefore posed as a threat to Hitler's power.

The book discusses the gun laws that were in place during the Wiemar Republic including lists from registries.  There were not really any obstacles in acquiring guns and other weapons as long as there were sufficient reasons for owning a weapon.  For example, a store owner who experienced robberies and break-ins could relatively easily gain access to a gun.  As long as one registered the gun with the local police department a citizen could own a gun. If one was member of a hunting club, one could retain a hunting rifle etc.

Germany had sporting hunting clubs that were registered; there were people who retained their service rifles and revolvers from their WWI military service.  Many reasons could be conjured up to own a gun in Germany.

With the fall of Wiemar, however, and the rise of the National Socialists (Nazis) the fate of gun ownership changed radically. Under Nazi leadership, there were certain people and peoples that became targeted for gun confiscation.  Hitler's political enemies in addition to the Jewish people became the object of search and seizures.  Before Hitler attacked and eliminated his political enemies during the "Night of Long Knives" his Gestapo was already confiscating weapons.  Such confiscation made retaliation and self defense much more difficult.

The book highlights eye witness accounts and diaries that recount the personal searches and harsh treatment.  Many were cast into Concentration camps as punishment in the 1930s (the final solution was not in place yet)  Starvation was not an uncommon death to those committed to the camps waiting out their sentence.

The book argues that had Germany not had gun and weapon registries then confiscation would have been much more difficult and such difficulty might have changed the outcome of the extent of armed resistance against the Reich.  By the time of the final solution against the Jewish people was put in place, the Jews of Germany were basically stripped of there legal gun ownership and thus were at a disadvantage to properly defend themselves and possibly fight back.

There is an obvious argument that this book puts forth forcefully: the only true purpose of registering a gun or weapon is so that the authorities or government can ultimately take them away. The Jewish people of Germany were not threats and were law abiding citizens.  There was no good reason to confiscate their guns.  Taking away their guns was part of a grand conspiracy to destroy them.  In a country that has a constitutional amendment to "bear arms", this book contributes to the contemporary conversation about unimpaired free gun ownership.

The Forgotten Man: a new history of the great depression by Amity Shlaes

The Forgotten Man is a new look at the Great Depression and the effects of the New Deal from the Roosevelt administration.  Many of the themes addressed here are similar to current debates and controversies concerning 'big government'- government spending to stimulate the economy vs. 'small government'- allowing business to prosper freely so that the economy flourishes. The arguments between government controls vs. private enterprise are highlighted in this very readable history.

One is introduced to some important people on both sides of the debate.  Franklin Roosevelt, Henry Morgenthau, Felix Frankfurter, David Lilienthal and others who promote the New Deal and are charged with selling the project to the people.  Coolidge, Hoover, Wilkie,, Mellon and the other Republicans unsuccessfully fight Roosevelt and his administration.

The book highlights the clash between government regulations and small business owners.  A kosher poultry company is relentlessly pursued and prosecuted for violating New Deal ethical ordinances, a charge the brother categorically deny.  The brothers believe the government regulations interfere with the relationships with their customers The Jewish immigrant Schechter brothers who barely speak an intelligible English, fight the government all the way to the Supreme Court and win 9-0.  A unanimous decision is reached: the Roosevelt administration oversteps its reach and interferes in the small business. It is a great victory for small business and give pause to Roosevelt to consider his next strategy to circumvent the court.

The book reveals the change in the Black vote despite Roosevelt's apathy in legislating against lynching, knowing that the Southern Democrat would filibuster such a law.  The big personalities like Father Coughlin, the most famous anti semite radio personality and Father Divine the Harlem Black preacher with a sizable following are uncovered as initial followers of Roosevelt but sour on his inability to dig out of the Great Depression.

The books main argument is that there are really three 'men' involved in solving that great economic down turn: the public servant (government)- the author of the new programs, the abject poor- the one that suffers the most who is out of work etc, and 'the forgotten man' the one who ends up paying for the government programs that redress the problems of the abject poor.  The middle class is not consulted nor listened to but rather ignored and forgotten.  He does not have the freedom to refuse the paying of taxes.  The forgotten man's freedom is encroached.

Themes of self reliance and personal responsibility come out of this era.  Bill Wilson and Bob Smith start a self help group for Alcoholics resulting in AA groups across the country.  How to win friends and influence people  by Dale Carnegie is a runaway best seller. These attitudes contrast the attitude that the government should bail one out of one's troubles.

This book is an excellent discussion of the tensions between capitalism and socialism, the Left and the Right, equality vs. freedom.  The author sides with freedom over equality and believes given freedom, the economic downturns would take care of themselves much like what happened during the Coolidge administration.

Jabotinsky: a life by Hillel Halkin

Although this biography is brief, the information and insights contained are well worthwhile. One is introduced to a very complex character, a man of contradictions, yet Ze'ev Jabotinsky proves to be a visionary of the Jewish future and shows great power of observation.  He sees the future before Ben Gurion or Weizmann.

He was a controversial figure, called a fascist but believed in democracy. He saw the need for a Jewish fighting force early on before anyone else because he understood the Arab/Zionist conflict as irreconcilable.  He was not religious in any way but saw the natural alliance with Religious Zionists who needed autonomy, freedom from socialism. He understood the failure of socialism, never understanding the appeal of a way of life that lacks freedom and autonomy.

His controversy and mercurial nature prevented him for staying in the land of Israel which actually benefited him. His political adversaries and the British effectively banned his entry to the land and thus operated from Europe, mostly from Paris and London. He was a very cultured personality and saw life in Israel as very crude and did not fit into the agricultural milieu.  He was eloquent in so many languages and seemed to be partial to Italian! His power came from his writings and oratory.

He was utterly unimpressed with American Jewry.  He thought that the Jewish community there was afraid of its shadow! That American Jewry would not sacrifice for European Jewry was all too evident to Jabotinsky. (Only about 400 powerless rabbis from the orthodox rabbinate in America were courageous enough to march on Washington and confront the Roosevelt administration. The mainstream Jewish community,nevertheless, effectively blocked any real dialogue with them)

According to Mr. Halkin, Jabotinsky was not an effective politician, but rather a literary giant. Ben Gurion and Weizmann were much more effective politicians.  He was, nevertheless, the lightning rod for the Right that directly inspired Menachem Begin and the current Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

East of Eden by I. J. Singer

This Yiddish novel should not be confused with John Steinbeck's novel although the Biblical reference is the same. Singer's novel is set in Poland and Russia, not the Salinas Valley.  Singer's theme is the great transformation of Eastern European Jewry from a very religious, traditional parochial God fearing community to a God hating, collectivist internationalism of Marxism that swept Russia.

Historians ask what happened to that very religious community?  What was the attractive nature of communism that swept so many Jews away from their Torah lifestyle?  Singer creates an authentic answer through the medium of a family saga that begins in abject poverty from one of the small Jewish villages, Shtetles in Poland not far from Warsaw and ends with disillusionment in Soviet Russia.

This is a gritty novel of indentured servitude, lack of education, simple faith, simple heresy.  It is a story of seduction in both the sensual world and the world of ideas.  It is a story of being seduced by the new promises of "liberation" only to be disappointed that there is no utopian society.  It is a story of desire, the desire to be Jewish or not to be Jewish!

I J Singer always promises a climatic ending and this novel delivers a powerful message against Communism and the collective society that strips one of one's personal autonomy.  Truly a great novelist, his contribution is highly recommended!

The Golden Age: Shtetl: a new history of Jewish life in East Europe by Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern

This is a lively well researched, well written history of 18th and 19th century Jewish life in the Pale of Settlement.  It is a lesson that teaches the truth about "the Fiddler on the Roof".  It clarifies exactly what was a Shettle.  It is certainly more than an "Anatevka"!  Professor Petrovsky-Shtern teaches us that most of our understanding of Shtetl life has been falsely idealized and simplified through that famous Broadway show and movie.  He sets the reader straight with copious evidence of the vibrant life and close relationships between the Jews and the Polish gentry and the Polish peasantry.  He reminds us that the Jewish settlement in Pale was a majority culture that was not afraid to stand up and fight back, a community that did not play the victim!

 He shows the evidence of the Jewish trade, Jewish monopolies, and Jewish middlemen to protect the Polish Gentry's investments.  It's a life of feudalism that is advantageous for the Jewish community between the Polish upper class and peasantry.

He shows that with industrialization that comes with the partitions of Poland, the Jewish people are now at a loss on how to relate to a centralized government that views the community as a project to ameliorate. After so many years of independence and autonomy the Jewish community struggles to maintain the status quo unsuccessfully.  Industrialization destroys the Shettle economy and trade and forces the Jewish people to find work in the big cities.  The centralized state smashes the autonomy of the Jewish community!

The Professor's style is rhythmic and lively exhibiting much research and learning.   This is a very excellent, readable textbook on Jewish life in Modern Eastern Europe.

The Jews of Eastern Europe, 1772-1881 by Israel Bartal

This excellent history of modern Eastern European Jewry explains the original conditions of the Jewish people when they were an isolated majority and how the community deteriorated with the indulgence of partitions and interactions of the central states of Austria, Russia and Poland. It is a story of the end of a golden age of Shtetl life with the commencement of the industrial revolution of Russia which forced the townspeople into the big cities.

Modernity for the eastern European Jewry means the change from an agrarian feudal society where the Jews fit in as middlemen and brokers for the Polish gentry to an industrialized capitalism that broke the feudalism.  It is the change of being communally independent to being subservient to the central state of Russian or Austrian or Polish countries.

One reads about the successful Jewish revolution of Hasidism that overwhelmed the entire Ukraine with the lone Lithuanian opposition of the community led by the Vilna Gaon.  What becomes clear is that although the opposition is vigorous and strident, it nevertheless, is a failure.  Hasidism even makes strongholds in Lithuania.  Only the modern yeshiva that follows the approach of the Vilna Gaon becomes the dominant educational vehicle that is transplanted in America.

The Haskalah, the Jewish enlightenment makes its way to Eastern Europe and the maskilim, its advocates become very optimistic about the possible reforms and freedoms that seem destined to be visited upon the Jewish people. They become practically agents of the regimes, propaganda machines to convince the people to adopt the various themes of the enlightenment.  The adoption of the Russian language, dropping of Yiddish, integrating secular education is the agenda of changes.

Hasidism is ravaged by the ideologies of the late 19th century: Communism, Socialism, Zionism, Capitalism because of the innate optimism of the Jewish people.  The Central state makes demands that squelch the autonomy of the Jewish community and the hostility of the Russian Orthodox and Polish Catholic churches remain constant.

Ultimately the program to integrate the Jewish community as a Russian minority is a failure.  The Jewish people do not assimilate well since for so many years the community functioned autonomously.  This failure translates into violent attacks, pogroms against the Jews all over Russia! The pogroms marks a watershed, the beginning of the greatest migration of Jewish history mostly to the USA, a  place where most Eastern European Jews experience true emancipation and freedom for the first time.