After two years of language classes, I´ve managed to pass the exam, and finally resume my studies. I will soon be buried under stacks of books not of my own choosing.
But since last writing I managed to finish two of the books I was working through. And after completing them, I would definitely recommend both of them, if you´re interested in the topics. Israeli author Amos Oz´s memoir, A Tale of Love and Darkness, and Forced Out: The Fate of Polish Jewry in Communist Poland, by Arthur J. Wolak.
Instead of trying to finish some of my other half-read books, I picked up two new ones. Walter Laquer´s authoritative "A History of Zionism: From the French Revolution to the Establishment of the State of Israel." I´m only a few chapters into it, but his broad historical knowledge is seen from the start.Here´s a description:
"Walter Laqueur traces Zionism from its beginnings - with the emancipation of European Jewry from the ghettos in the wake of the French Revolution - to 1948, when the Zionist dream became a reality. He describes the contributions of such notable figures as Benjamin Disraeli, Moses Hess, Baron Edmond de Rothschild, and Sir Herbert Samuel, and he analyzes the seminal achievements of Theodor Herzl, Chaim Weitzmann, and David Ben Gurion." Laqueur outlines the differences between the various Zionist philosophies of the early twentieth century - socialist, Communist, revisionist, and cultural utopian - and he discusses both the religious and secular Jewish critics of the movement. He concludes with a dramatic account of the cataclysmic events of World War II, the clandestine immigration of Holocaust survivors, the tragic missed opportunities for co-existence with both the Arab residents of Palestine and those in the surrounding countries, and the struggle to forge a new state on an ancient land. Laqueur's new preface analyzes the present-day difficulties, and places them into a historical context.The other new one is Emil Draitser´s memoir "Shush! Growing Up Jewish under Stalin."
Here´s a description:Many years after making his way to America from Odessa in Soviet Ukraine, Emil Draitser made a startling discovery: every time he uttered the word "Jewish"—even in casual conversation—he lowered his voice. This behavior was a natural by-product, he realized, of growing up in the anti-Semitic, post-Holocaust Soviet Union, when "Shush!" was the most frequent word he heard: "Don't use your Jewish name in public. Don't speak a word of Yiddish. And don't cry over your murdered relatives." This compelling memoir conveys the reader back to Draitser's childhood and provides a unique account of midtwentieth-century life in Russia as the young Draitser struggles to reconcile the harsh values of Soviet society with the values of his working-class Jewish family. Lively, evocative, and rich with humor, this unforgettable story ends with the death of Stalin and, through life stories of the author's ancestors, presents a sweeping panorama of two centuries of Jewish history in Russia.
