reviews - Jewish Book Council

groups, the attitudes and actions of Soviet partisans
who eventually liberated the survivors, and
finally the role played by the non-Jewish neighbors
(i.e., the Poles, Ukrainians, and Belorussians)
in the murder of one-fifth of all the victims
of the Holocaust. CJR
Reinhard R. Dorries
Enigma Book, 2009. 330 pp. $25.00
ISBN: 978-1-929631-77-3
HITLER’S INTELLI-
GENCE CHIEF: WALTER
SHELLENBERG: THE
MAN WHO KEPT
GERMANY’S SECRETS
This is a thoroughly researched, scholarly
text. Its audience is the serious student
or researcher; the casual student of Holocaust
history would find this book overwhelming,
albeit informative. But, one can always learn.
Hitler’s Intelligence Chief gives the reader an
opportunity to examine the workings of the Nazi
government machine and the political “games”
played in the name of “getting ahead in the Nazi
party.” If little else, it reinforces the atmosphere of
distrust in all ranks of the Nazi party, and explores
some of the unexpected alliances and activities of
those in power, e.g., Shellenbergs’ collaboration
with Count Bernadotte to save Jews in the waning
months of the war.
This is a good book, but not what we
would call a good read. It benefits from careful
reading and rereading, as well as a discussion
partner. Abbreviations, appendices, bibliography,
editors comment, glossary, index,
introduction, preface. NDK
HUMOR
I DRINKFOR
A REASON
David Cross
Grand Central Publishing, 2009. 236 pp. $23.99
ISBN: 978-0-446-57948-3
www.jewishbookcouncil.org
Fans of David Cross’ stand-up comedy
won’t be disappointed by his new book, I
Drink for a Reason. Much of the book is written
in the persona that Cross assumes onstage: personal,
ranting, profane, political, often antagonistic
and hyperbolic, and enlivened with an
engaging and imaginative silliness. The book
comprises dozens of short chapters, most
roughly five pages long. Some of them read like
stand-up routines set on the page; others are
elaborations on material that has earned Cross
his reputation as a fearless polemicist. Many are
essentially concerned with language, marking
Cross as a potential heir to George Carlin, the
language-obsessed and consistently hilarious
lapsed Catholic comedian.
Cross explains that he was raised Jewish
and now considers himself an atheist. He fits
into that category of atheist Jews whose Jewishness
informs their outlook without touching
their ethics or spirituality. The basic
polemic posture Cross strikes—the sardonic
critic attacking established assumptions and
popular misconceptions with sarcastic and
impassioned commentary—sounds recognizably
Jewish. Organized religion is among
Cross’ favorite targets and, since he would
identify himself as (at most) culturally Jewish,
organized Judaism and its adherents come
under the hammer frequently in I Drink for a
Reason. Cross’ self-criticism, which he points
out is not self-loathing, is representative of the
opinionated secular modernity that Judaism’s
tradition of argument has helped create. This
may be the ultimate Jewish joke: After everything
we’ve done to shape this free and modern
world, this is the thanks we get? JDE
ISRAEL STUDIES
ISRAEL VS. UTOPIA
Joel Schalit
Akashic Books, 2009. 253 pp. $15.95
ISBN: 978-1-933354-87-3
Israel vs. Utopia is a left-wing Israeli-American
Jew’s attempt to parse out some subtle
distinctions about the Israeli-Arab conflict.
Schalit, who openly aspires to depth of analy-
Israel Studies
REVIEWS
sis, believes that too much dialogue on the
subject in the diaspora, both from the right
and left, deals with a fantasy Israel, rather
than the one Israeli Jews and Arabs, and
Palestinians deal with daily.
Schalit, a former editor of Tikkun magazine,
feels that Israel’s ties to the U.S. have
been very much to Israel’s detriment and
longs for Europe’s embrace. While he regrets
that France and England parted ways with
Israel as punishment for the Six Day War, he
thinks of their having done so as “enlightened.”
The Israelis act like “colonial subjects
of America” in his view. Despite the withdrawal
from Gaza, which one would think he
would have approved, he believes that there
was a “lack of meaningful progress” during
the Bush years.
In perhaps his most provocative chapter,
he writes extensively on the rise of the word
“apartheid” in left-wing circles to describe the
situation in Israel, which he deplores as an
inaccurate and obfuscating use of the word. It
slowly becomes clear, however, that Schalit
believes that word actually obscures the ‘fact’
that Israel has “devised a strategy for maintaining
power over the Palestinians that’s
more insidious than the South African
model...” and “in some instances transcending,
in terms of its cruelty... ‘apartheid.’” So
much for subtlety. For someone intent on
using accurate language, Schalit frequently
falls back on inaccurate and hyperbolic
metaphors for a complex and unique reality,
such as describing Israel as an “extremely brutal
Colonial occupation.”
His most telling (and damning) sentence
comes toward the end of the book, however.
“I am not sentimental about its (Israel’s) political
existence the way I am, for example, about
its cuisine.” The book is not without the occasional
intriguing insight, but it is not a coherent
whole. It is more a meandering pastiche of
political analysis and a subjective expression of
Schalit’s contradictory feelings about Israel’s
situation, derived from his status as a “progressive”
Israeli-American. His anguish is palpably
sincere, and he himself is troubled by
what he perceives as genuine anti-Semitism on
the left, but his own bias is simply not subtle:
America and Israel are invariably in the
wrong, and not once does he suggest that the
Arab nations or the Palestinians themselves
may be even in small part responsible for the
Palestinians’ plight. Just about every time
Schalit says something somewhat interesting
and not typically left-wing, he doubles back to
reveal that, in fact, he really is to the left of
most, and tiresomely so. EA
Spring 5770/2010 Jewish Book World 55