reviews - Jewish Book Council

JBW 28.1_JBW 28.1 2/18/10 9:57 PM Page 28
REVIEWS
ish identity and activity. In this important
book of scholarship and conviction, Diner
attempts to revise our understanding of postwar
American Jewry. She correctly challenges
the conventional views on this topic, although
her alternative narrative is also overdrawn to a
degree, especially her assertions concerning
what American Jews did and said concerning
the “survivors,” the “refugees,” die geblibene
(those left) in Yiddish, or the Displaced Persons,
as they were variously referred to. Her
claims here, challenged by solid research, raise
doubts about the reliability of the overall thesis.
I suspect the reality is somewhere between
the denial and repression accepted by most
and the active and productive engagement
and advocacy suggested by Diner. A lively and
controversial book, it is sure to spark debate
and conversation for years to come. 2009
National Jewish Book Award Winner in
American Jewish Studies. MND
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
AND MEMOIR
Joel Chasnoff
Free Press, 2010. 288 pp. $25.00
ISBN: 978-1-4165-4932-1
28 Jewish Book World Spring 5770/2010
Autobiography and Memoir
THE 188 TH CRYBABY
BRIGADE: A SKINNY
JEWISH KID FROM
CHICAGO FIGHTS
HEZBOLLAH
Part Stripes, part Camp Ramah, comedian
Joel Chasnoff presents a new kind of coming-of-age
story in his memoir and first book,
The 188th Crybaby Brigade. Chasnoff had a typical
Jewish American adolescence; he grew up
in Chicago, got an Ivy League education, and
lived in Brooklyn in his early twenties. After a
failed attempt at a career in stand-up comedy,
he moves to Israel to fulfill his lifelong yearning
to serve in the Israel Defense Forces. Underneath
his skinny frame, weak stomach, and lack
of athleticism burns a long-running love of
Eretz Yisrael. Chasnoff is assigned to the
Armored Corps and trains as a tank gunner.
But stop right there; this is not an all-out slapstick,
silly-American-goes-to-Israel, missile
hijinks tale. The author illuminates the relatively
unknown side of the IDF and shows us from
the inside how an army made up of teenagers
and run by twenty-something officers actually
functions. Along with Chasnoff, we bond with
his platoon mates, who all call each other achi,
“my brother.” Chasnoff’s comedic timing and
honest heart shine throughout the narrative as
we follow his journey from supposed zero to
Israeli hero. Glossary of Israeli military slang,
south Lebanon security recipes. JBH
AARON’S JOURNEY:
FROM SLAVE TO
MASTER
Howard Herskowitz
Crown Publications, 2010. 230 pp. $19.95
ISBN: 978-0-9819821-2-0
This is not an easy book to read. It is the
memoir of the ordeal of Aaron Herskowitz,
a young Czechoslovakian who was
caught up in the deadly cauldron of Nazi
occupied Europe, who somehow survived
and with the help of his son, the author of
this work, shares his harrowing experiences
with the reader. As Aaron discloses in the
beginning of the book: “I am...beloved son,
father, brother, husband; a...patriotic son of
Czechoslovakia, soldier, lover of God; slave
The memoir is often raw and
disturbing, true to the times and
the personalities it depicts.
laborer, hater of God, Russian partisan, persecutor,
killer, survivor.” He shares his story
honestly, without apology and with no effort
to smooth over the jagged edges of the experience.
The memoir is often raw and disturbing,
true to the times and the personalities it
depicts. Perhaps the most stunning aspect of
the book is the “blood rage” it depicts, the
retribution that Aaron and his colleagues
took against Nazis and their collaborators.
These scenes are brutal and disturbing and
raise questions about standards of appropriate
behavior under extreme circumstances. Aaron
urges the reader to “...hear my testimony
before rendering judgment, and ask yourself:
what would you have done in my place?”
The book is well-written and often gripping
and provides a perspective rarely found
in Holocaust memoirs. It is recommended for
mature readers who have the perspective and
background to engage the material and the
ethical issues it raises. MND
Steve Luxenberg
Hyperion, 2009. 401 pp. $24.99
ISBN: 978-1-4013-2247-2
ANNIE’S GHOSTS:
A JOURNEY INTO
A FAMILY SECRET
Career journalists who attempt to write about
their own family histories sometimes find
they can’t separate their professional selves from
their personal journeys. But Steve Luxenberg, an
editor at the Washington Post, does not have this
problem. Instead, he demonstrates his abundant
writing skills and reporting talents by unearthing
a story that is gripping, haunting, and real while
telling it with just the right amount of professional
distance and personal depth. The tale bounces
through time and around the globe, illuminating
life in a mental hospital in Depression-era
Detroit, touching down in the Holocaust, traversing
the sacred space between fathers and children,
moving seamlessly from sadness to joy.
Luxenberg tells this family saga as if it were a
detective story, revealing one layer at a time of the
hidden world of an institutionalized aunt he was
never told existed and the consequences of family
secrets that, when revealed, imply lost worlds and
private motives that have consequences down
through the generations. Yet in his hands, the
story comes to life, and this memoir displays the
texture of social history as it sheds light on the
power of love in Jewish families to overcome the
secrets that drive us apart. Author’s note, family
tree, index, notes. The paperback edition of this
book will be published in May, 2010. LFB
THE ARISTOCRAT:
THE LIFE AND
LEGACY OF HILLEL
MENASHE SUTTON
Abraham Sutton
Abraham Sutton, 2008. 256 pp. $25.95
ISBN: 978-0-615-20572-4
With this memoir, a tribute to the
memory of his father, Abraham (Al)
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