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Behind the Aegis

(54,827 posts)
Sun Jan 7, 2024, 05:16 PM Jan 2024

(JEWISH GROUP) What have you read?

Out of curiosity, what books have y'all read regarding Jews? It can include books about Israel, Zionism, anti-Semitism, culture, language, history, or anything related to the Jewish experience. Here's what I have read in the past year (a few may have been 2022).

Anti-Semitism
The Bloody Story of Anti-Semitism Down the Ages by Joseph McCabe
Anti-Semitism: A Disease of the Mind by Theodore Isaac Rubin
Christian Supremacy: Reckoning with the Roots of Antisemitism and Racism by Magda Teter
Protocols: Exposing Modern Anti-semitism by Elder of Ziyon
The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism: Historical Facts on Anti-Semitism as a Reflection of Jewish Social Discord by Michael Laitman
Contemporary Left Antisemitism by David Hirsh
Anti-Judaism : The Western Tradition by David Nirenberg
It Could Happen Here: Why America Is Tipping from Hate to the Unthinkable - and How We Can Stop It by Jonathan Greenblatt
Antisemitism: What It Is. What It Isn't. Why It Matters by Julia Neuberger
The Chosen Wars by Steven R. Weisman
The Devil That Never Dies: The Rise and Threat of Global Antisemitism by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen
Antisemitism: The Oldest Hatred by John Mann
How to Fight Anti-Semitism by Bari Weiss
Antisemitism: Here and Now by Deborah E. Lipstadt
Jewish Space Lasers: The Rothschilds and 200 Years of Conspiracy Theories by Mike Rothschild

Israel
Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth by Noa Tishby
Reclaiming Israel’s History: Roots, Rights, and the Struggle for Peace by David Brog
Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn by Daniel Gordis

Judaism
3,000 Years of Judaism in 30 Days: Understanding Jewish History, Beliefs, and Practices by Howard N. Lupovitch
Mystical Tradition: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam by Luke Timothy Johnson
Maimonides and Medieval Jewish Philosophy by Idit Dobbs-Weinstein
Judaism by Dr. Geoffrey Wigoder
Great World Religions: Judaism by Isaiah M. Gafni

Language
Born to Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All of Its Moods by Michael Wex
Yiddish: A Nation of Words by Miriam Weinstein

The Shoah (Holocaust)
The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World by Jonathan Freedland
Killing Queers: The Nazi Extermination of Gay Men by Helmut Rohn (touches on the Jewish experience)
Beyond Courage: The Untold Story of Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust by Doreen Rappaport
The Last Million: Europe's Displaced Persons from World War to Cold War by David Nasaw (READ THIS!)
Our Crime Was Being Jewish: Hundreds of Holocaust Survivors Tell Their Stories by Anthony S. Pitch
The Last Jew of Treblinka: A Survivor’s Memory, 1942-1943 by Chil Rajchman
The Holocaust: A New History by Laurence Rees
The History of the Holocaust by Howard N. Lupovitch
Defiance: The Bielski Partisans by Nechama Tec
An Underground Life: Memoirs of a Gay Jew in Nazi Berlin by Frank Heibert

Culture
Unfinished People: Eastern European Jews Encounter America by Ruth Gay
Disguised as Clark Kent: Jews, Comics, and the Creation of the Superhero by Danny Fingeroth
Jewish Comedy: A Serious History by Jeremy Dauber
All About Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business by Mel Brooks
Superman Is Jewish?: How Comic Book Superheroes Came to Serve Truth, Justice, and the Jewish-American Way by Harry Brod

Other
Denying History: Holocaust Denial, Pseudohistory, and How We Know What Happened in the Past by Michael Brant Shermer
Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism by Rachel Maddow (Read this, then...)
The Minuteman by Greg Donahue
The Plot Against America by Philip Roth (fiction)

MUST READ
People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present by Dara Horn
Jews Don’t Count by David Baddiel



What have you read? What do you recommend?
9 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies

kimbutgar

(23,165 posts)
2. I have been working with a Jewish woman who is very active in her Jewish library community and genology
Sun Jan 7, 2024, 05:56 PM
Jan 2024

Of Hungarian, Polish and Lithuanian Jewish history. We’ve been downsizing her home which is sadly at hoard level. I have seen so many books in Jewish history books working with her and recognize several of these titles. When I get to 20 boxes I will be donating them to our local library.

atreides1

(16,345 posts)
3. These are the books I've read
Sun Jan 7, 2024, 06:24 PM
Jan 2024

I work at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and I've read the books listed below. I read While Six Million Dies and Oh Jerusalem before I was employed at the museum, the others I have read since working there.




While Six Million Died by Arthur D. Morse

Defiance by Nechama Tec

Oh Jerusalem by Larry Collins and Dominique LaPierre

Night by Elie Wiesel

I Escaped from Auschwitz by Rudolf Vrba , Alan Bestic, Sir Martin Gilbert(foreward)

Ravensbruck by Sarah Helm

The Last Jew of Treblinka: A Survivor’s Memory, 1942-1943 by Chil Rajchman

I Have Lived a Thousand Years: Growing Up in the Holocaust by Livia Bitton-Jackson

Hell Before Their Very Eyes by John C. McManus

Hitler's Furies German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields by Wendy Lower

History On Trial by Deborah E. Lipstadt

Behind the Aegis

(54,827 posts)
9. My husband and I were there in July.
Wed Jan 10, 2024, 03:04 PM
Jan 2024

We spent an obscene amount of money in the gift shop....twice! I got a book titled: "Hybrid Hate" about the parallels of anti-Semitic and anti-Black racism throughout the ages. I am trying to get through it but my contacts aren't allowing for close-up reading, at least not well. So, I can only read for about 20 minutes before a migraine sets in.

Of the ones you read, do you have a favorite or two?

AZLD4Candidate

(6,257 posts)
4. just for historical reference and where modern anti-semitism came from, I recommend the Protocols.
Sun Jan 7, 2024, 08:05 PM
Jan 2024

Just like I recommend "Reefer Madness" so we can explain our drug policy to young people.

MyMission

(1,999 posts)
5. Thanks for asking, and sharing
Mon Jan 8, 2024, 02:16 AM
Jan 2024

So many interesting books have been suggested on this thread.
I've downloaded a few from audible and look forward to reading them.

I enjoyed the following books, written by Burton L Visotzky, a professor of Midrash:
Reading the Book: Making the Bible a Timeless Text (1991)
Sage Tales: Wisdom and Wonder from the Rabbis of the Talmud (2011)
Aphrodite and the Rabbis: How the Jews Adapted Roman Culture to Create Judaism as We Know It' ' ( 2016)

Lately I've read articles and commentaries on many Jewish subjects and issues, but no books.
I do read from the Torah each week, and can say I've read all 5 books (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy; or Bereshit , Shemot, Vayikra, Bamidbar, Devarim) several times over.

70sEraVet

(4,133 posts)
6. One of my first thoughts was 'Tales of the Hasidim' (Martin Buber)
Tue Jan 9, 2024, 10:29 AM
Jan 2024

Many of those stories really stuck with me, especially tales of Hasidic leaders from my ancestral areas of Europe.
Also, I had read 'The Chosen' (Chaim Potok) MANY years ago, and enjoyed watching the movie right after it came out. I recently rewatched the film (on youtube), and was startled to find that the conflicts it portrays are, in many ways, still playing out in the Jewish communities.
Thanks for this invitation, Behind the Aegis!

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