reviews - Jewish Book Council

choice of which of their two daughters would
be put on the train to a labor camp, Goldie
made a “Sophie’s Choice” and volunteered to
go while her sister remained behind with
their parents. Ironically, Goldie, who was
chosen to work in the camp office, survived;
the rest of the family did not. Meanwhile, Sol
and his brother and father were sent to Mauthausen.
A daring young man, Sol maneuvered
himself into a better position and
became more able to withstand the fiendish
practices of the Nazi guards. He later lost his
father in a march. After the war ended, the
couple met in Stuttgart and later emigrated to
America—a new country, a new land, and a
new place to test their strength, ingenuity,
and marvelous attitude. Of course, HIAS
helped, but placed them in a location and
jobs in which they could not envision living
in the future. Then, fortuitously, these
sophisticated former Europeans found themselves
in Vineland, New Jersey, where they
became chicken farmers and the nucleus of a
small Jewish community. This is a well-written
account that makes use of wartime
records that became available in 2007,
enabling son Joseph Finkelstein to travel to
Poland and, eventually, to learn the details of
his grandfather’s, death in a hospital after liberation.
He was also able to show his father an
enlarged photo of a memorial in a cemetery
with his grandfather’s name engraved on it.
This is a lively, well written account with lots
of photos that families want to accompany
these memoirs, but it makes good reading for
us, too. Primarily an adult book, its liveliness
suits teen readers as well. MWP
MY FATHER’S
BONUS MARCH
Adam Langer
Spiegel & Grau, 2009. 229 pp. $26.00
ISBN: 978-0-385-52372-1
Adam Langer has written a small, elegant
book about his search for the interior
life of his father. For most of the author’s life,
his father had spoken of writing a book
about a little-known historical event, the
Bonus March. World War I veterans had
been promised payment for their service dur-
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Autobiography and Memoir
ing the war, which they would not receive for
several years. But during the Great Depression,
they marched on Washington demanding
the money, fearing they would never live
long enough to receive it. Mr. Langer uses
this event and his search for his grandfather’s
part in the Bonus March to research his family
history and explore his relationship with
his father.
During the research process Langer realizes
that his father was not always honest
about his family history. He would sometimes
embellish events or add facts. Why
would his father do this? He was a respected
doctor, highly intelligent and accomplished.
This raises an interesting question—to what
extent do we all construct our identities, and
what part is truth and what part is myth. And
is it the myth that really defines who we are?
Langer leaves us with another question to
ponder: how many of us really know our parents,
their life’s dreams and disappointments,
and how they find contentment and happiness?
BA
Sally Srok Friedes
O Books, 2009. 212 pp. $19.95 (pbk.)
ISBN: 978-1-84694-189-4 (pbk.)
THE NEW JEW:
AN UNEXPECTED
CONVERSION
When Sally, a Midwestern Catholic
who hadn’t practiced her religion in
years, met Michael, a Jewish New Yorker who
hadn’t been inside a synagogue in decades,
she didn’t expect that Judaism would become
a part of her life in any significant way. Yet
the first time she attended synagogue services
with her new family, she found her heart
filled with a deep spiritual longing.
Ultimately, she found the connection and
support she craved in converting to Judaism,
something she never expected to do. This
book is her warm, tender story, a tale told in
the most personal terms. Unsentimental yet
filled with small, endearing details such as
how her Jewish mother-in-law helped her
grow closer to her own mother, the story
takes us on Sally’s ten-year journey from
alienation to culture shock to inner searching
and finally, happily, to Judaism.
Memoir at its best reads like fiction, and
this small book will find a comfortable home
on the bookshelves of rabbis, converts and
their families, those who are part of an interfaith
marriage, and everyone who enjoys
gaining that touch of wisdom only a good
story can provide. LFB
A SENSE OF PURPOSE:
RECOLLECTIONS
Suzy Eban
Halban Publishers, 2008. 351 pp. $32.95
ISBN: 978-1905-559114
REVIEWS
In this memoir Suzy Eban, wife of the great
Israeli statesman Abba Eban, celebrates the
exciting and challenging years just before and
following the years of Israeli independence.
She describes the difficult political realities of
the time as the Middle East juggled the Suez
Crisis and post-World War II Jewish immigrant
conflicts. Groomed to play an important
role in the struggle for Israeli independence,
Abba and Suzy wend their diplomatic
...beautifully written, intelligent, and
comprehensive memoir...reward readers
interested in a behind-the-scenes understanding
of Israeli history and politics.
way through their service to the United
Nations and then as ambassadors for Israel to
America.
Eban discusses two pertinent items that
get little attention elsewhere in current historical
accounts. One is the role that wives of
Israeli leaders played in helping their husbands
in Israeli politics, such as Paula Ben
Gurion and Vera Weizmann. Their diplomatic
skills and astute sense of the necessities of
the moment make for fascinating reading.
The other item of specific note in this memoir
is the author’s cogent understanding of
how Israel has evolved from a nation sharing
socialist and religious foundations into one
that mixes those two elements with a rising
modern, Western ideological way of understanding
the nation and its relationship to the
rest of the world.
The Ebans, like all political families, made
many sacrifices, including having to constant-
Spring 5770/2010 Jewish Book World 35