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From My Bookshelf: A Safe Haven: Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel

by on Tuesday, May 07, 2013 (0) Comments

I’ve mentioned before how grateful I am to be taking a noncredit course on “Zionist Thought & Statesmanship” this spring. Among other benefits, the seminar has provided me with an excellent reading list. Most recently, I finished reading A Safe Haven: Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel, by Allis Radosh and Ronald Radosh. (It is worth noting that May 14 will mark the 65th anniversary of the United States, under President Truman’s leadership, becoming the first nation to recognize the State of Israel.)

TrumanPublished in 2009, the book won the Washington Institute’s Book Prize (for nonfiction books on the Middle East). It received widespread attention; rather than give you a summary/review myself, I’ll point you to some existing analyses.

  • “Zionist in the White House,” by Jonathan Tepperman (New York Times Book Review)
  • Review by Walter Russell Mead (Foreign Affairs)
  • “Success Has Many Parents,” by Daniel E. Levenson (New Vilna Review)

    • But wait–there’s more. Bonus material that I’ve located online includes an excerpt and a video (which I hope to have the opportunity to watch in the near future myself) that features the authors discussing their book at the YIVO Institute.

    Have any of you already read the book? What are your thoughts?

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    Theodor Herzl, George Eliot, and Me

    by on Monday, April 22, 2013 (0) Comments

    If you follow me on Goodreads, you know that not long ago, I was reading George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda.

    Today’s edition of Jewish Ideas Daily features some reflections on that reading.

    In the beginning, there was Theodor Herzl. Or so I thought. I have a Ph.D. in European history, but I have long been aware of the deficiencies in my knowledge of Jewish history and my Israel literacy. So when I discovered the opportunity to take a non-credit course on Zionism here in New York, I jumped at the chance.

    Once enrolled, I learned just how much Zionist history there was before Herzl. Our initial sessions were devoted to a variety of Zionist forerunners and an extensive documentary legacy that anticipated Herzl’s visionary 1896 pamphlet, The Jewish State.

    I was dutifully taking notes during our second class meeting when our professor mentioned another text that expressed Zionist sentiments well before Herzl took up his mission. But unlike the writings of Rabbis Yehuda Alkalai and Zvi Hirsch Kalischer, or those of Leon Pinsker and Ahad Ha’am, this text was written in English, and by a woman who wasn’t even Jewish. Somewhat surprisingly, it wasn’t a polemic or a pamphlet. It was a novel by George Eliot (the pen name of Mary Anne Evans), Daniel Deronda, published in 1876, 21 years before Herzl convened the First Zionist Congress.

    To read the rest of my essay, please click here.

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    Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

    by on Friday, April 19, 2013 (0) Comments

    Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen

    Every Friday morning My Machberet presents an assortment of links, primarily of the literary variety.

  • Can you describe your Jewish mom in six words? The Forward would like you to try.
  • “This is a complicated story, but here goes.” So begins Joan Acocella’s (The New Yorker) tale of book-reviewing, Primo Levi, and Israel.
  • This month’s Jewish Book Carnival is hosted by the Jewish Book Council, and there are some real goodies included.
  • A fascinating glimpse into Albert Einstein’s last speech.
  • Finally, I wish I could attend the “Holocaust Lives” panel at this weekend’s Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Panelists include Jonathan Kirsch, Jewish Journal Books Editor and author of a book I’m especially eager to read: The Short, Strange Life of Herschel Grynszpan. (See Michael Berenbaum’s review.)

    • Shabbat shalom.

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    Reform Judaism Blog Seeks Israel-focused Essays

    by on Tuesday, April 09, 2013 (0) Comments

    This just in…

    (NB: I’m pretty sure that this is a nonpaying opportunity.)

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    Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

    by on Friday, March 29, 2013 (3) Comments

    Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen

    Every Friday morning My Machberet presents an assortment of links, primarily of the literary variety.

  • Rebecca Klempner presents a true Passover story that epitomizes an instance when reality seems stranger than fiction.
  • Many of us perceive Tay-Sachs disease to be a malady that strikes only Jewish families; Emily Rapp isn’t Jewish, but her son, Ronan, recently succumbed to the disease. Judy Bolton-Fasman writes about Rapp’s new memoir, which opens with Ronan’s diagnosis.
  • Canada-based author Ayelet Tsabari recently wrote a series of guest posts, my favorite of which deals with the challenges she has faced in writing about Israel.
  • Beth Kissileff profiles Shimon Adaf, most recent recipient of Israel’s prestigious Sapir Prize.
  • Latest Quiet Americans news.

    • Shabbat shalom.

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