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59 TH NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARDS Finalists: JEWISH PROPERTY CLAIMS AGAINST ARAB COUNTRIES Michael R. Fischbach Columbia University Press Michael R. Fischbach’s book surveys the losses of Jewish personal and communal property across the Arab world. Beginning with an examination of the circumstances surrounding the departure of Jews from each Arab country in the wake of the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Fischbach demonstrates the divergent political processes that led to the demise of Arab Jewry and caused certain communities, such as Iraqi Jewry, to suffer massive property losses. Fischbach also explores how Jewish property claims were handled by the Israeli government. In contrast to its championing of the claims of Nazi victims and survivors, the Israeli government did not pursue compensation for individual Jews or communities with claims against specific Arab countries. Instead, it hoped to establish a global claim for Jewish property losses to counterbalance what Israel might be required to pay Palestinian refugees as compensation for their losses. Fischbach’s keen ability to conduct intensive research in hitherto unexplored archives and to write closely and carefully on such an explosive topic is remarkable. The committee saw his scholarship worthy of recognition in its thoroughness, persistence, and moral commitment to evaluating all the evidence available on this politically sensitive, yet critically important topic. MAJOR FARRAN’S HAT: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE STRUGGLE TO ESTABLISH THE JEWISH STATE David Cesarani Da Capo Press David Cesarani’s Major Farran’s Hat: Murder, Scandal and Britain’s War Against Jewish Terrorism tells the story of the murder of Alexander Rubowitz and the cover-up that took place in Palestine in the final days of the British Mandate. Rubowitz was abducted in Jerusalem in 1947 by a “special squad” of the Palestine police, led by Major Roy Farran, who took him to the woods, interrogated him, and murdered him. The backdrop to this compelling story is the tenacious campaign of British forces in Palestine against Jewish ‘terrorists.’ Using recently declassified British government records, David Cesarani conveys this episode, with all its curious twists and turns. While the author does not openly compare this botched interrogation to contemporary efforts to combat terrorists, he provocatively illustrates why 2009 provides “an opportune moment to revisit the events that took place in Jerusalem 60 years ago,” because they provide a clear “warning of everything that can go wrong when young warriors directed by desperate and unscrupulous politicians wage war on terror.” 12 Jewish Book World Spring 5770/2010 WE LOOK LIKE THE ENEMY: THE HIDDEN STORY OF ISRAEL’S JEWS FROM ARAB LANDS Rachel Shabi Walker & Company Rachel Shabi explores one of the most significant fissures within Israeli society in We Look Like the Enemy. Part history, part reportage, her book chronicles the experience of Israel’s Mizrachi Jews, those who came from Arab or Muslim nations and who today comprise roughly half of the country’s Jewish population. Traditionally the lesser partner to Ashkenazi Jews, the Mizrachi population has struggled both for full inclusion is Israeli society and for the legitimacy of their Judeo-Arab culture. Herself born in Israel to Iraqi Jewish parents, Shabi writes with both passion and literary flair. HOLOCAUST Winner: THE UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CAMPS AND GHETTOS, 1933-1945, VOLUME 1 Geoffrey P. Megargee, volume ed. Indiana University Press The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945, Volume 1, edited by Geoffrey P. Megargee is a work of devoted research, exhaustive study, and scholarly collaboration. The first of what is to be a seven-volume series on all the camps and ghettos of the Nazi period, the volume painstakingly details the early camps set up by the Nazis and police in 1933, as Hitler came to power, as well as the concentration camps and subcamps under the rule of the SS-Business Administration Main Office. The value of this volume is multifold: it lies in its narrative framing— a scholarly introduction helps the reader to contextualize the entries; its comprehensiveness—hundreds of main camps and sub-camps, large and small, are included, ensuring they will not be lost to history; and its accessibility—the volume will be of use to both students and scholars, readers new to the topic and readers steeped in Holocaust research. Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos is sure to assume an essential and unrivaled place in reference literature on the Holocaust. www.jewishbookcouncil.org Dafna Kaplan
Finalists: THE WARSAW GHETTO: A GUIDE TO THE PERISHED CITY Barbara Engelking and Jacek Leociak; Emma Harris, trans. Yale University Press The Warsaw Ghetto: A Guide to the Perished City by Barbara Engelking and Jacek Leociak, and translated by Emma Harris, is a dazzling, fascinating, and monumental work, and the most complete resource to date on the Ghetto, its inhabitants, and legendary uprising. Illustrated with eight full-color maps of the Ghetto in its various phases, the book is a feat of material research and psychological depth. All imaginable data (and more) are presented for the serious researcher and general reader, including a detailed chronology, demographic and topographical records, and chapters on every conceivable cultural, medical, educational, economic, religious, commercial and social activity. Adding vibrancy and multiplicity, the book is haunted by ordinary people whose experiences and observations—from diaries, journals, chronicles, letters, newspapers, and memoirs—bring to vivid life the resourcefulness of lives lived on the edge of poverty, hunger, and despair. Panoramic and lapidary, to date no book on the Warsaw Ghetto is more impressive and useful. THE THIRD REICH IN THE IVORY TOWER: COMPLICITY AND CON- FLICT ON AMERICAN CAMPUSES Stephen H. Norwood Cambridge University Press The Third Reich in the Ivory Tower: Complicity and Conflict on American Campuses by Stephen H. Norwood is an insightful and disturbing study of the eagerness with which America’s elite universities and colleges greeted and feted the representatives of the Nazi and Fascist governments in the 1930’s. It is well researched and organized, and gracefully written in a style accessible to scholars as well as the general public. It is a comprehensive examination of the response of major American universities and colleges to the ethical and professional challenges posed by the Nazi and Fascist regimes. These college administrations helped Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy improve their image in the United States at the very time they were persecuting Jews. Norwood brings this too little-known history to light. www.jewishbookcouncil.org 59 TH NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARDS ILLUSTRATED CHILDREN’S BOOKS Louis Posner Memorial Award Winner: JPS ILLUSTRATED CHILDREN’S BIBLE Ellen Frankel; Avi Katz, illus. Jewish Publication Society Acclaimed storyteller and Jewish scholar Ellen Frankel has masterfully tailored 53 Bible stories that will both delight and educate today’s young readers. Using the 1985 JPS translation (NJPS) of the Hebrew Bible as her foundation, Frankel retains much of the Bible’s original wording and simple narrative style as she incorporates her own exceptional storytelling technique, free of personal interpretation or commentary. Included in the volume is an “Author’s Notebook,” in which Frankel shares with rabbis, parents, and educators the challenges she faced in translating and adapting these stories for children, such as how she deals with adult language in the original Bible text and themes inappropriate for most young readers. With his enticing, full-page color illustrations of each Bible story, award-winning artist Avi Katz ignites readers’ imaginations. His brush captures the vivid personalities and many dramatic moments in this extraordinary collection. Finalists: NACHSHON, WHO WAS AFRAID TO SWIM: A PASSOVER STORY Deborah Bodin Cohen; Jago, illus. Kar-Ben Publishing All children are afraid of something at one time or another. Some children confront those fears and move on, while others do not. Deborah Bodin Cohen takes an ancient story and artfully turns it into a modern-day midrash that teaches children about bravery and overcoming fear in a most captivating way. She tells the story of Nachson who, although afraid to swim, overcomes his fear in the face of mortal danger from Pharaoh’s armies. He walks into the water and, as we know, the rest is history. Although Cohen subtitles her book “a Passover story,” it is its universal message that is so compelling. It illustrates in both words and pictures a powerful theme: children can change how they feel and act and lead the way for others. Jago’s beautiful illustrations illuminate the tale in a way that connects the contemporary reader to ancient times and yet transcends time and place. Spring 5770/2010 Jewish Book World 13
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Monika Schroder Front Street, 2009.
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efuge in Cuba. This book uses poetr
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A CHAT WITH ZACHARYSHAPIRO By Barba
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Please note that all book descripti
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THE LIFE WORTH LIVING: FAITH IN ACT
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in the United States against Swiss
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THE BOOK OF PSALMS: A TRANSLATION W
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SHELLY FEIT (SF) has an M.L.S. and
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