For a list of all books discussed at Book Nosh all time, click here.
We were missing a few of our regulars at our last meeting, but they had a good excuse: They were attending the AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington, DC. We are expecting a complete report on all the speeches at our next meeting.
In the meantime, taking advantage of our more intimate numbers, we ranged even further afield than usual in our discussions. Among several interesting ideas, one of our members suggested that we should consider launching a Book Nosh spinoff, to be known as Movie Nosh. He pointed out that screening one of the movies nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar this year, In Darkness, would be a perfect way to launch such a series. It is a dramatization of the little-known story of a group of Jews from the Lvov ghetto, who managed to survive the Holocaust by hiding out in the sewers under the city. The mother of David Lee Preston, a Philadelphia Daily News staff writer, was one of the people who survived in the Lvov sewers. His article, entitled “A Bird in the Wind,” which recounted her story, was published in the old Inquirer Magazine. You can read it here. Apparently, it served as one of the bases for the movie.
In Darkness is not out on DVD yet, but when it becomes available, we may want to see it together one evening, followed by our usual discussion and snack. Other movies that we may wish to watch in a group setting include Everything is Illuminated, Sarah’s Key, and Defiance. Please consider this note your official invitation for comments about: (a) starting a new program to be known as TBI Movie Nosh; (b) ideas on how best to organize and run such a program; and (c) movies that you would like to see as part of such a program.
BOOKS DISCUSSED AT OUR LAST MEETING:
The Lemberg Mosaic, by Jakob Weiss. Lemberg is the German name of the city that is also known as Lemberik (לעמבעריק) in Yiddish, Lwów in Polish, L'viv (Львів) in Ukrainian, L'vov (Львов) in Russian, and Lvov in Czech, Slovak, and English. It is also one of those great cities in Central Europe that has been in Prussia, the Austrio-Hungarian Empire, Poland, Nazi Germany, Soviet Union, and Ukraine, all without ever moving an inch. But I digress.
This is another book about the total and tragic destruction of the Jewish population of Lvov. Prior to WWII, Lvov was the third largest city in Poland, with the third largest Jewish population (after Warsaw and Lydz). It was Jewish cultural center for hundreds of towns, villages, and “shtetls” in the region known as Galicia, which stretched from the Carpathian Mountains in the south, to the Soviet Union in the east, to Krakow in the west, and to Lithuania in the north. As part of the Nazi’s “final solution,” this area, which contained more than one million Jews before the War, was rendered “Judenrein.” Faithful readers of this blog already know about the infamous Janowska transit camp in Lvov, in which more than 200,000 Jews perished, and from which another 500,000 Jews were sent on to their ultimate fate in Blezec, Auschwitz, and various other Nazi death camps.
In Lvov itself, there was an educated, highly literate, and accomplished population of some 150,000 Jews before the War. It is estimated that perhaps 5,000 of them survived the Holocaust. The wealth of books that has been written about Janowska and Lvov by this relative handful of survivors is a testament to the caliber of people living in Lvov before the War. If this relatively tiny number of survivors managed to produce such luminaries as Simon Wiesenthal, Helene C. Kaplan, David Kahana, and our own Alex Redner, imagine the combined talents of the 150,000 Jews who were alive in Lvov before the War, and what they might have accomplished, had they not been murdered by the Germans, the Russians, the Ukrainians, and the Poles.
Jakob Weiss is the son of Holocaust survivors, a trial lawyer, and a former New York City prosecutor. His book is based on the testimony of survivors from the region, on original documents, and on other sources culled by the author. The first part of the book describes Jewish life in Galicia before the War; the second part describes the Shoah. According to our reviewer, it is extremely well written, accurate, lively, colorful, absorbing, meticulously documented, and illustrated with numerous photographs. It is the kind of book that, after you read a sentence or two, you will not be able to put down until you have finished the entire volume.
The Great Typo Hunt: Two Friends Changing the World, One Correction at a Time, by Jeff Deck and Benjamin D. Herson. And now for something completely different, to borrow the title of the Monty Python television series. This delightful volume tells the story of two friends who took a couple of months out of their lives in order to travel across America, armed with nothing more than chalk, magic markers, correction fluid, and perhaps a little spray paint, correcting typos in highway and street signage, as well as signs in museums, malls, restaurants, grocery stores, mini-golf courses, beaches, and national parks. It’s a classic travelogue, buddy road-trip tale, grammar thriller, and copy editor’s wet dream, all rolled into one.
Beware, there are typos everywhere. On our way home after our last meeting, we actually took a closer look at the electronic sign advertizing our Book Nosh meeting at the TBI entrance. It informed us that the TBI Book Nosh was for the “literary omnivore ho enjoys a snack.” I tell you, these gremlin are everywhere, and especially in this blog.
New American Haggadah, by Jonathan Safran Foer and Nathan Englander. We all know and love Jonathan Safran Foer (well, some of us love him), because of his debut novel, Everything is Illuminated. Since the publication of that work, Foer has had an eclectic career, publishing books ranging from a vegetarian rant, Eating Animals, to a touching retelling of 9/11 and its aftermath, as seen through the eyes of the young son of one of the victims, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. As we all know, the movie based on this novel was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar this year. Nathan Englander is the author of What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank and several other collections of short stories.
As we get ready for Pesach, and you are looking for a new and colorful Haggadah, you may want to consider this new volume, which contains a new translation of the traditional text by Nathan Englander, beautiful design and illustrations by the acclaimed Israeli artist and calligrapher Oded Ezer, and provocative commentary by major Jewish writers and thinkers Jeffrey Goldberg, Lemony Snicket, Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, and Nathaniel Deutsch.
Stories for Children, by Isaac Bashevis Singer. Until and unless you have introduced your children and grandchildren to all the schlemiels from Chelm, you have not fulfilled your pedagogical obligations as a parent and grandparent. We are all familiar with these delightful stories, that will please children between the ages of 5 and 105; therefore, there is no need for a review – just a reminder to get a copy and give it to, or read it to, some youngsters in your life.
The Outside World, by Tova Mirvis. Another entertaining and enlightening novel from the author of The Ladies Auxiliary, this book tells the story of the collision between the world of Modern Orthodox Judaism, as experienced by a young woman in Brooklyn, and the insular world of the ultra-Orthodox community in Israel, as adopted by a young man who travels from Brooklyn to Israel and back. The two young people meet, of course, and marry, and highjinks ensue, but along the way, we the readers learn a great deal about the lives, mores, religious practices, and mating habits of these two groups that we only think we know. Recommended by our reviewer.
Music Quickens Time, by Daniel Barenboim. Barenboim, the well-known pianist, conductor, supporter of Palestinian rights, and outspoken critic of Israel's government, examines in this slender volume the transformative power of music, and explains how his contemplation, performance, and exploration of music has led him to his radical views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. According to our reviewer, this is a totally engrossing book.
