Israel Books

Cynthia Marino's One Dream, Two Loves is a deeply personal and entrancing memoir of a woman's whirlwind and wondrous life filled with romance and travels between in America and Israel. Emotional, romantic, filled with hope and the courage of a lifelong journey, One Dream, Two Loves is a singularly heartfelt story of passion and remembrance. The finely crafted, vivid and evocative writing style makes One Dream, Two Loves an autobiographical work well worthy recommendation.

This book details the author's life as told to her friend and is written as though she were sitting in your living room speaking with you. Her life's journey found her living on three continents, experiencing war first hand, raising three children and marrying twice. Her second husband, John, helps her realize her dreams--her passion for the dance and her desire to share her dreams with her readers,

A beautiful love story. Following a love story that takes you from England to Israel to U.S. It's a love affair if made into a movie, the whole family would enjoy.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Not only was it a very interesting story, it also taught me a lot about the plight of the POWs in war-torn London. I found the description of life in Palestine extremely interesting. I also enjoyed the novel approach the author used by telling her story through a series of letters to her best friend. The description of going to a super market upon arrival in the United States really showed how much we Americans take for granted and how lucky we are. All the above was leading up to the main theme of the book -- how the author met the "love of her life" who also shared her dream of dancing. A very interesting and enjoyable read.

In my opinion Israel's short but extremely violent campaign in Lebanon in 1982 is a subject that must be studied with great attention since it can teach us many political and operational lessons in order to evaluate the current situation in the Middle East and the way that Israel responds to periodic violence from Hezbollah. Mr Gabriel gives the background of that conflict and the subsquent military operations in great detail, accompanied by numerous black and white maps which show the situation on the ground every day.

Once Egypt signed a treaty with Israel in 1979 and Sinai became a buffer zone, Israel became safe from a full peripheral war. Jordan was not going to launch an attack and Syria by itself could not strike. The danger to Israel became Palestinian operations inside Israel and the occupied territories and the threat posed from Lebanon by the Syrian-sponsored group Hezbollah. In 1982, Israel responded to this threat by invading Lebanon, It moved as far north as Beirut and the mountains east and northeast of it, cutting in the process the Beirut - Damascus highway. Israel did not invade Beirut proper, since Israeli forces traditionaly do not like urban warfare as it imposes too high a rate of attrition. But what the Israelis found was low-rate attrition. Throughout their occupation of Lebanon, they were constantly experiencing guerilla attacks, particularly from Hezbollah, until the were forced to withdraw their troops from Lebanon in 2000.

Although the overall analysis is good, my complain is that the author does not devote enough pages to the terrific air battle of Bekaa Valley or the slaughter of the Syrian Air Force (the Israeli pilots achieved a score in the region of 81:0) and he makes some mistakes regarding the total number of weapons available to the IDF, like number of tanks, self propelled artillery etc. Despite this, the book is a very good introduction to the Lebanon War and the author does not avoid the hot issue of the Sabra / Shatila massacre, even though he does not blame Sharon openly. The book can be read together with Zeev Schiff's excellent "Israel's Lebanon War" and Martin van Creveld's "The Sword and the Olive" which is very critical of the Israeli choices but expertly written.

If you are looking for a politically-skewed analysis of the Arab-Israeli conflict or an overly biased account of the war, this is not your book. I say overly biased because all author have an opinion that is expressed overtly or covertly in their writing.

Richard A. Gabriel, a well-respected professor of politics at St. Anselm College, former US Army intelligence officer, and consultant to the House and Senate Armed Services Committees as well as the Pentagon, has written what is probable the most objective and well-written account of the 1982 War in Lebanon between Israeli, Syrian, Lebanese, PLO, and other forces. He has written numerous books about military actions including several books that constructively criticized the American actions in Vietnam. Several of his books have since become requred reading for courses at military academies.

Prof. Gabriel went out of his way to write an objective analysis of the combat, going so far as to interview PLO officials, IDF soldiers, and others. He also toured the battefields as they occurred as a guest of the IDF. Even more to his credit, he made a stipulation of his touring the front with the IDF that IDF miltary censors not be able to review his transcripts at all until after publishing. This means that he was able to effectively write whatever he wanted.

The book itself is brilliant. Within its' 242 pages are numerous analyses of various tactical and strategic conflicts of the 1982 War. He lists grievances and events of all sides into the war and yet hesitates to make value judgements about any of them short of miltary stance. While avoidings making the book a massive judgement of the political stance of any of the fighters, he doesn't hesitate to list political factors that the combatants considered at the time of the war.

One of the greatest treasures of having toured Lebanon and the conditions there is that he was able to disprove many of the false accounts that the media of the time forwarded to the public. Being a meticulous researcher also means that he always quotes sources and provides appropriate background. For instance, the PLO (through the Lebanese newspaper "An Nahar")claimed that Israeli forces killed 17,825 civilian noncombatants killed and wounded 30,103 civilians. Mr. Gabriel analyzed all of the data available from various sources (including interviews with village mayors and other on-the-site witnesses) and came up with a more likely figure of 4,000 to 5,000 killed and 12,000 to 14,000 wounded.

If you are looking for an account of the 1982 war that objectively evaluates military actions of the combatants then Prof. Richard A. Gabriel's "Operation Peace for Galilee - The Israeli-PLO War in Lebanon" is unparallelled. I highly recommend reading this book whether you are looking for more background on the Arab-Israeli conflict, are a military historian, a wargamer, or just someone interested in knowing more about the Middle-East.

If you are looking for a politically-skewed analysis of the Arab-Israeli conflict or an overly biased account of the war, this is not your book. I say overly biased because all author have an opinion that is expressed overtly or covertly in their writing.

Richard A. Gabriel, a well-respected professor of politics at St. Anselm College, former US Army intelligence officer, and consultant to the House and Senate Armed Services Committees as well as the Pentagon, has written what is probable the most objective and well-written account of the 1982 War in Lebanon between Israeli, Syrian, Lebanese, PLO, and other forces. He has written numerous books about military actions including several books that constructively criticized the American actions in Vietnam. Several of his books have since become requred reading for courses at military academies.

Prof. Gabriel went out of his way to write an objective analysis of the combat, going so far as to interview PLO officials, IDF soldiers, and others. He also toured the battefields as they occurred as a guest of the IDF. Even more to his credit, he made a stipulation of his touring the front with the IDF that IDF miltary censors not be able to review his transcripts at all until after publishing. This means that he was able to effectively write whatever he wanted.

The book itself is brilliant. Within its' 242 pages are numerous analyses of various tactical and strategic conflicts of the 1982 War. He lists grievances and events of all sides into the war and yet hesitates to make value judgements about any of them short of miltary stance. While avoidings making the book a massive judgement of the political stance of any of the fighters, he doesn't hesitate to list political factors that the combatants considered at the time of the war.

One of the greatest treasures of having toured Lebanon and the conditions there is that he was able to disprove many of the false accounts that the media of the time forwarded to the public. Being a meticulous researcher also means that he always quotes sources and provides appropriate background. For instance, the PLO (through the Lebanese newspaper "An Nahar")claimed that Israeli forces killed 17,825 civilian noncombatants killed and wounded 30,103 civilians. Mr. Gabriel analyzed all of the data available from various sources (including interviews with village mayors and other on-the-site witnesses) and came up with a more likely figure of 4,000 to 5,000 killed and 12,000 to 14,000 wounded.

If you are looking for an account of the 1982 war that objectively evaluates military actions of the combatants then Prof. Richard A. Gabriel's "Operation Peace for Galilee - The Israeli-PLO War in Lebanon" is unparallelled. I highly recommend reading this book whether you are looking for more background on the Arab-Israeli conflict, are a military historian, a wargamer, or just someone interested in knowing more about the Middle-East.

Review by: Maximillian Ben Hanan

Books that portray an objective, fair and unbiased assessment of Israel's `Operation Peace For Galilee' are very difficult to find..

In my experience most books on this subject appear to have a hidden agenda of vilifying Israeli military involvement in Lebanon whilst casting aside the wholesale, indiscriminate cross-border terrorism of Palestinian terrorist entities that caused such an involvement in the first place. Other books appear to be dedicated to the de-humanisation of then Defence Minister, Ariel Sharon, for an alleged connection to the horrific massacres of Palestinians at the Sabra/Shatila refugee camps by Lebanese `Christian' Phalange militia.

This book is refreshing and perhaps unique in that it seeks to provide as balanced an analysis as is possible.

Richard Gabriel, Professor of Politics, only proceeded with this book on the understanding that he was able to avoid any involvement with the Israeli censors and that he was permitted to obtain a neutral publisher. The final results of Professor Gabriel's study only being seen upon publication by any interested parties at the very same time as everyone else.

Professor Gabriel was able to draw upon interviews with many journalists - Lebanese, European, British, American and Israeli. The author was also able to spend unsupervised time with `PLO suspects' detained in Israeli and Lebanon to gather the personal impressions and opinions of these prisoners in relation to their treatment and the conflict itself.

Access was also provided to numerous Palestinian Doctors and Nurses in Lebanese camps and also to many high officials in the Lebanese Government and combatants/members of the `Christian' militias, the Druse militia and the Amal Moslem milita, thus providing some `enlightening' information on the nature of the ethnic and religious hatreds prevalent within Beirut and Lebanon.

Similar access was provided to the Israeli side which also included interviews with the battalion & company commanders in the field together with the `common' soldiers who bore the brunt of the combat.

The author was provided with his own transport and able to travel throughout the Lebanese battle zones, retracing by car or on foot, all the major routes of advance taken by the major Israeli units. This included the Bekaa Valley, Damour, the outskirts of Beirut itself and the region overlooking Damascus.

The author, having access to the actual terrain of the battle sites and with some eighteen years as a former Army & Intelligence officer, was able to comment in knowledgeable context about the operations at first hand.

One is left in no doubt about the horrors of this conflict and the traumas of having to frequently fight against an enemy hiding in civilian areas, with the harrowing experience which unavoidably ensued, of seeing civilians die as a result of military actions.

The author analyses the Sabra & Shatila massacres in some detail and credits the Israeli Government for not following the path of the debatable US Government reactions in relation to the My Lai massacre in Vietnam and instead proceeding to condemn the action outright, whilst also convening an immediate tribunal of investigation.

(Might I respectfully direct those interested in Ariel Sharon & the Sabra/Shatila incident to the excellent work by Uri Dan entitled "Blood Libel". This book covers in depth the trial/court-case against Time Magazine for it's allegations against Sharon in relation to the episode. Oft ignored information is aplenty in this particular work.)

As is the nature of this book by Professor Gabriel, the main features involve the immediate context surrounding Israeli operations in Lebanon. Of necessity therefore, I suppose many aspects of the Lebanese conflict are unable to be included in any detail.

For example, the massacres at Tel az-Zataar and the Lebanese Christian towns of Damour, Aishiye, Beit Mallat and Tall Abbas. Massacres committed at these places by Palestinian militia under the control of Yasser Arafat, where it is estimated that about 100,000 Lebanese civilians were killed. I was disappointed that attention could not have been paid to important issues such as these, and also indeed to the Syrian massacre of civilians at Hama where some estimate that 30,000 or more Lebanese civilians were killed. These innocent victims still needing a voice to speak out for their plight.

All in all this is a splendid book which portrays a human aspect to both sides of the conflict sadly lacking in other books on the Lebanese conflict.

This is an outstanding historical document daring to tell the truth about the early years of the Israeli State. Based primarily on Israeli government documents it details the sytematic efforts to expunge the Palestinian people from their land and incorporate it under Israeli control. Every American should read this book.

I read this book a couple of years ago and was very impressed at the level of research the author has done to bring this information to the public. It is hard to find books with impartial view on this sensitive subject, this is a good one. Read it!!

When I was a teenager, all I knew about the 1948 "war of independence" was what I saw in the movie "Exodus" with Paul Newman and what I read in the World Book Encyclopedia entry.

In that movie the Zionist wanted nothing more than to live in peace with their Arab neighbors, but the "arab neighbors" like children following the pied piper of Hamelin, left their homes (and all their earthly belongings) at the word of radio broadcasts from "Arab High Command". (It didn't occur to me to ask why not let them back once they came to their senses.)

From the World Book encyclopedia, I was told that all the surrounding arab countries declared war on Israel within the hour of it's "declaration of independence" and their armies invaded with single minded aim of destroying the country. Israel, against incredible odds, triumphed over all an as an added bonus ended up with 78% of Palestine, instead of the 52% provided for in the UN partition. (What Luck!)

Michael Palumbo, who previously got the goods on Kurt Waldheim's wartime record, followed up by writing this history from UN archival sources, Palestinian sources, and Israeli diaries and memiors (frequently more reliable than Israeli military and intelligence archives).

No matter how much you think you know about the middle east, how much of a critic of Israel you might be, this book will make you angry. Angry over the continuing injustice, angry over the continuing lies, angry over the continuing manipulation of western opinion (particularly US opinion), angry over the impotence of the newly formed UN.

In this book you will learn that the Palestinians did not leave because they were ordered to, on the contrary Arab radio broadcasts demanded that they *stay.* The Palestinians left, because they were terrorized, coerced, and, when all else failed, forced out. The Zionist movement never had any intention of living in peace with "their arab neighbors." From the very beginning (even before Herzl), they intended to claim the entire land for a Jewish State, and would only tolerate the smallest Arab minority possible. The Arab states declared war, but the fighting had started with the partition a year earlier. Their intervention was half-hearted at best and was never meant to destroy Israel (e.g. they never entered in the "jewish part" of the partition.)

Reading this at this time will give the uncanny sense of deja vu.
You'll find the systematic use of looting and wanton vandalism of palestinian homes and businesses. The same manipulation of opinion. (On the one hand, denying access because of fight. On the other hand denying atrocities, because there's "no evidence."
The destruction of houses with people still in them (by dynamite, not by bulldozers tho').

Also there's Menachem Begin's role in the massacre of Deir Yassin and Yitzak Shamir's role in the assasination of UN mediator Folke Bernadotte. (Keep in mind next time you hear Yassir Arafat a "terrorist.")

The overwhelming feeling will be "how can we have been so lied to for so long."

How indeed?

It is amazing to read of the level of atrocity and deceit. Ethnic Cleansing, Localized Genocide, Rampant Racism- it reads like something out of Nazi Germany. But here it is, in the middle of the Middle East, anti-Semitism, committed by Jews against Arabs. Brother against Brother. Palumbo shares with us stories of those who helped the Jews flee the Nazis, and how these same individuals watch the actions of the nascent Israeli Defense Forces, and can see no difference in their actions. Truly, as Walter Wink said, we become that which we hate. We learn hatred, and the practices of hatred, from our enemies. And here one repeatedly hears leaders of the Zionist movement explicitly calling for the same practices as the Nazis, as they worked so well, and even calling for alliances with the Nazis, in order to establish a country 'Goyim Rein', an 'Israel for the Jews, as Germany is for the Germans'.

And it is surprising to hear how most Jews in the first half of the 20th century did *not* want an Israeli nation, as they did not see that as part of God's call for their people. Or how leader after modern Israeli leader engaged in explicit terrorist action- in fact, most of them were on the top 20 list of terrorists by the British government, during the British mandate. Doing the same practices, the same suicide bombings, as extremist Palestinians do today. We become that which we hate. And it's not just Palumbo's opinion- this is a meticulously researched book. If you choose to disagree with what is said, you must prove a large number of resources wrong- including many resources from Israeli government leaders.

This isn't just dry history. Palumbo uses a highly readable format, telling stories through the eyes of the observers and the victims, with additional factual information. Yet he does it in a way that is in now way fictional, but breathes authenticity. He looks primarily at the infamous al nakba, the Catastrophe, wherein the Palestinians were driven from their homeland- a people uniquely tied in self-identity to the land, just as Americans are tied to their sense of the individual in their identities. I reside, therefore I am.

Insult to injury is the Zionist propaganda machine, that has managed to shift the blame for wartime atrocities on to the victims. After reading this work, one may come away with the same feeling- that truly, Israel has been one of the primary leaders in terrorism.

To read more, I'd recommend Wink's Engaging the Powers, as well as Dying in the Land of Promise. Don Wagner focuses here on the history of Christian Palestinians, from the year 33 to the present, and how they were driven away during al nakba, and their experiences afterward.

"Israel/Palestine is the model of the world Americans want to achieve. It has peasants and their flocks dying of thirst, and on the hilltop there are villas and swimming pools for the chosen folk. It has a huge army and it has many labourers without any rights. In order to turn all the world into Palestine they began now World War 3 against the Third World."

Want more? http://www.israelshamir.net/shamirImages/Shamir/TwoPathes.htm

How do we turn this around? Start by reading Pardes.

Israel Shamir has chutzpah. He lives in Israel and yet crticizes the brutality, danger, hypocrisy and illegitimacy of the Jews-only apartheid state like no one else, and yet does it in a constructive, hopeful and poetic way. Amazing. The Zionists have no recourse to logical disputation in this case so must resort to smear attacks in order to debunk his arguments. Not only Pardes but Shamir's other books, Flowers of Galilee and Our Lady of Sorrow are required reading for anyone seeking a solution to problems in the Middle East. As Shamir points out, the real antisemites are the Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe who helped to create the Jewish state and now run it to their class advantage. Palestinians have more semitic blood than many of these Jews (for what that's worth), and being "Jewish" is nothing more than an ideology of exclusivitism and domination, which Gentiles (Christian Zionists and others) can join in with if they want to share the spoils in the Neo-con/Zionist grab for global domination.

The saying "A loved child has many names" definitely applies to Israel Shamir. Following the war crimes committed against the Palestinians, Shamir felt he no longer could keep quiet. That decision has made him unpopular with the Jewish Zionists, who immediately initiated a campaign to smear Shamir. Though powerful, the lobby has not yet managed to stop him.

In Pardes, Shamir deals with Jewish ideology, which he sees as the cause of current events in the Middle East. Inspired by great Jewish dissidents like Simone Weil, Shamir finds Judaism problematic and calls for the dismantlment of the Jewish Apartheid state. Instead, he favours equal rights for all in one singel state.

Pardes can be said to be Shamir's explanation to why he came to denounce Judaism and embrace Jesus Christ as the savior of man. It's a great book everyone interested in Jewish ideology must read.

This is a great expose of the dark side of Judaism all the
more convinicing by the fact that Shamir is Jewish. He has
now converted to Christian Orthodoxy and to some extent, this book
explains why he did so. He uses the traditonal four fold analysis
that the Jewish philosophers and mystics use to interpret the Tor-
ah, but he uses it to analyze Judaism itself. He concludes that
they have ceased to worship God and for a long time now have ac-
tually worshiped themselves-Jehovah being just themselves writ
large. This process started before Christ, but the murder of Christ
was the epitome of it. One caveat though: this book may not be for
the beginer because they will find it unbelievable. To get the most
out of Shamir's book, you already have to know the territory: how
the Jews take credit for Christ's death and even boast about it. That
gentiles are animals who only exist to serve the Jews, etc. All this
and more is found in their secret scripture, the Talmud. Once the
reader has researched this for himself, then he is ready for "Pardes"
by Israel Shamir.

Simply the best book published in Israel for the last 30 years.Absolutely fantastic!

Shortly before his death, Y. Shabtai wrote two inter-related books, Past Perfect and Past Continuous (both of them translated by the gifted Dalia Bilu). The title of the first book, in Hebrew, is Zikhron Devarim, or Memory, and these are indeed books that look back, not only at the lives of their characters, but at the entire project that became the State of Israel, and, more universally, at the human project. These are novels of biblical proportions and they are brilliant from start to finish.

one of the best books written in this century. not an easy reading- the book is written in one paragraph, and as a continous thought, but it's damn worth it.

Past Continuous is an engaging novel by Yaahov Shabtai and is set in modern-day Tel Aviv. Astutely translated from the original Hebrew by Dalya Bilu, Past Continuous strives to present a landscape portrait of Tel Aviv, as it depicts three men, their lives, their loves, their families, and their friends in a criss-cross tangled tale wrapped in the unfolding vibrancy of the city itself. A compelling and deftly written saga, Past Continuous will well serve to introduce to American readers an Israeli writer of significant literary talent.

With great poignancy and thought provoking questions, this book immediately grabs your attention and never lets it go! With simple, yet often overlooked, truths the author reminds us of God's unshakable, unconditional love for us. That we are heirs and as such are intitled to all the priviledges and rights of the kingdom. That God is our source - Amen

READ THIS BOOK!

Open this book to almost any page and the light literally (pardon the pun) goes on. With understanding comes illumination--that's Pelshaw's greatest gift to a reader. Although the book has biblical allegories because of the author's deep-rooted belief in religious text, the themes explored are universal in terms of the human condition. The simple stuff which ultimately allows transformation to heightened awareness of self is seldom so clearly articulated. The inspiration to "know oneself" and thus to be able to achieve undreamed levels of personal and professional success comes in grateful waves throughout the book.

Captivating book - I sure learned a lot, and I really enjoyed it. Reading it was like sitting down for coffee with a good friend. I highly recommend it to anyone!

Discover the simple stuff that makes all of us great! Pelshaw tells us how to fulfill the need to feel good about living life in the comfort zone inhabited by each of us. Read this book and pass it on to someone you admire, love, and want to share a great insight with.

I have been drinking Israeli wines for many years. Neverhave they been as good as they are now,and finally a book that will help us separate the wheat from the chaff. Daniel Rogov seems like a thoroughly honest critic and his comments and tasting notes are not merely ego-trips but genuinely useful. Just enough about the history and technical details and lots and lots of easy to read tasting notes. This one goes with me to the stores every time I want to buy wines.

Good wines deserve a good book. Israeli wines are improving every year and this book makes a great guide to them. No nonsense reviews and good history, background. Good reading and good for shopping.

Daniel Rogov's book puts Israeli wines where they should be - as interesting to all wine lovers. Better yet, the book is completely professional, as interesting and competently written as those of Hugh Johnson, Oz Clarke and Robert Parker. Worth reading for every lover of wine and for those with a special connection to Israel. My rating - tops!!

An excellent book, along the model of other international wine guides, with details on wineries, reviews of wines and complete honesty on the part of the author. Some really fine wines from Israel and finally a book that describes them.

The main character is a young girl from Israel and her friend is from Palestine, the place that has been in war with Israel for years. She needs to race for a reason her friend can't understand, but her father was killed and he was a runner so she has to run. I liked this book because it was well written and had just enough detail. It's about a really interesting topic- you know, the wars in Israel, really, things that happened only a couple years ago. This is a book full of meaning and truth.

Written by Anna Levine, her inspiration for Running on Eggs was developed from her experience living on a kibbutz, an agricultural settlement, in Israel. It is a book about a hidden friendship between two 13-year-old girls. Their families do not approve of their friendship and they try to hide it.

Karen and Yasmine are track teammates from very different backgrounds. Karen lives on an Israeli kibbutz as a Jewish girl. Her father was killed years ago in the war in Labanon. Her family is still struggling with the loss. She secretly meets Yasmine in "no man's land," a lot dividing Karen's kibbutz from Yasmine's village.

Yasmine lives in an Arab village. Her parents are very strict. Her dad does not allow her to run in shorts and wants her to run in a long skirt. Yasmine's family does not support her love for track, and eventually her father forces her to drop out.

Although they ride the bus together, the young Arabs and Jews have lived apart. On the bus, they purposely switch lunchboxes, giving them a reason to meet. The two are brought together by their passion for running. They both were hoping to do well in the Galilee Run so they could qualify for another race in Spain. After Yasmine is forced to quit, Karen continues to train with Yasmine's help.

When Yasmine's brother discovers the girls' friendship, the punishment could divide the two communities even. This book is about loyalty and friendship during conflicts and distrust. The story ends peacefully. This book teaches readers about the Arab-Israeli dispute. It also teaches about the way people judge others and form opinions based on preconceived ideas instead of the real person.

This was a great book. It's hard to believe it is a kids book because you don't get many books for kids on this subject. I think it's great that kids can learn about the Arab-Israeli dispute in a mellow way. I really liked this because you start to understand what it must feel like to be 9 in Israel right now. I think the reason the Israelis and Arabs got over their fight (in the book) is because they relized they could share, and they could use it for something they had in common. And, in the end it all worked out, for everyone.

This is a great book on a subject that is not often written about for kids. It is written in language that draws them into the story, and lets them understand and experience another part of the world through the eyes of normal kids facing problems that are much bigger than they are. This book tackles the subject of distrust between Jews and Arabs in Israel. It is ultimately about friendship. American kids will be easily able to identify with the kids in this story even though the subject may be new to them.

Chaim Kaplan begins by blaming Poland's 1939 defeat on the "incompetence" of the prewar Polish government (never mind the fact that Nazi Germany was powerful enough to roll over most of Europe, and that it finally took several powerful, industrialized nations--combined--many years to subdue Nazi Germany). He also misrepresents the Poles as ones who were basically sympathetic with Hitler and who were only forced to change their minds when Hitler conquered Poland. In actuality, many prewar Polish politicians (e. g. Pilsudski) warned of the evils and dangers of Nazism. Then again, positive opinions of Hitler were common all over the prewar world. And just as some prewar Poles didn't mind Hitler so long as he was anti-Semitic but not overtly anti-Polish, so also some prewar Jews (especially German Jews) were ready to support the Nazi movement and its Polonophobia if it would only outgrow its anti-Semitism and behave more like the old-style German aggressive nationalism.

Kaplan implicitly refutes those who say that there was no Polish Quisling only because the Germans never wanted one: "You will not find one single public-spirited citizen among them [the Poles] who is willing to be the conquerors' representative, to talk to his people and make them realize that they cannot change reality and must accept the yoke of German rule--like Hacha in Czechoslovakia and Quisling in Norway. We could also add Petain in France, that stupid old man who willingly said Kaddish for his country." (p. 206).

In early 1940, Kaplan rejected the notion that the Nazis would be able to stir up the Poles to large-scale violence against Jews (p. 101, 114), but he realized that isolated attacks may occur because: "No nation lacks hooligan elements, and the conquerors have paved the way for them." (p. 114) and because: "Terrorists and troublemakers are not lacking among any people, and at all times and places they can be found in sufficient numbers." (p. 101). He characterizes the Easter 1940 events as follows: "The conquerors have begun a new political operation. Gangs of young toughs, Polish youth (you won't find one adult among them), armed with clubs, sticks, and all kinds of harmful weapons, make pogroms against the Jews." (p. 134).

Kaplan comments: "The conqueror tramples upon both `inferior' races, but the Jews are on the lowest rung and the Poles on the next to lowest." (p. 81). At other times, he comes close to juxtaposing the victimhood of both peoples: "Nazi pride is unlimited. The Poles and the Jews are classed together as if they were both `natives' of African jungles. Both were supposedly created only to serve the conqueror." (p. 73). Kaplan includes the following amazing statements: "At heart, the conqueror hates the Poles more deeply than the Jews. Once the head of the Warsaw district, Dr. Fischer, said, `The Poles we hate instinctively; the Jews we hate in accordance with orders.'" (p. 204).

Kaplan presents evidence that, in many ways, Poles were initially victimized by the Germans more than Jews. Consider the summer of 1940: "Today, Aryans were seized for work!...When pedestrians disappeared from the streets after the hunt began, they stopped the trolleys and took the male passengers off, whether they were Poles or Jews. After personal interrogation the Jews went home and the Poles were imprisoned. How good it is to be a Jew!" (p. 179). At other times, Poles wore the Jewish Schandeband to avoid forced labor (p. 150). Poles also sent their children to Jewish homes overnight to prevent the children from being seized by Germans for forced donations of blood for German soldiers (p. 152). In spring 1941, Poles hid in the Jewish ghetto during German mass executions of Poles (p. 254).

About 140,000 Poles lost their properties, along with a comparable number of Jews, during the German creation of the Warsaw ghetto (p. 212; see also p. 266). (The occasional postwar Polish killings of Jews over properties, much exaggerated by Jan Thomas Gross in his recently-published FEAR, must be understood in the light of the atmosphere of complete disregard for property rights that had recently befallen both Jews and Poles.)

Katsh, the editor, credits a Pole, Wladyslaw Wojcik, for preserving Kaplan's diary for posterity and for later discovering the second Ringelblum Archive (p. 14). Kaplan himself credits the Poles for smuggling food into the Warsaw Ghetto (p. 304, 316), and, in general, for not falling for Nazi anti-Semitic propaganda: "We thought that the `Jewish badge' would provide the local population with a source of mockery and ridicule--but we were wrong. There is no attitude of disrespect nor of making much of another's dishonor. Just the opposite. They show that they commiserate with us in our humiliation. They sit silent in the street cars, and in private conversation they even express words of condolence and encouragement. `Better times will come.'" (p. 82). Also: "Common suffering has drawn all hearts closer, and the barbaric persecutions of the Jews have even aroused feelings of sympathy towards them. " (p. 114). Later, Kaplan repeatedly credited Polish messengers for scouring the entire General Government to ascertain the fact that, up to that point, 40,000 "resettled" Lublin Jews were definitely no longer alive (p. 286, 291, 309).

In his entry for July 22, 1942, Kaplan is candid about the fact that, even at that late date, Warsaw's Jewish officials continued to insist that Warsaw's Jews would never be deported (p. 319). And, in common with many Jewish chroniclers, Kaplan criticizes world Jewry for its indifference to the fate of Polish Jews (pp. 76-77). During the deportations of Jews to the death camps, Kaplan lambastes the Jewish ghetto police "...whose cruelty is no less than that of the Nazis..." (p. 324), and says that: "It is the Jewish police who are cruelest toward the condemned." (p. 326).

Kaplan writes: "Nazism is not original. They took everything from Bolshevism, only that they expanded its rottenness." (p. 329).

Kaplan's comtemporaneous recording of the destruction of the Jewish community in Warsaw, starting with the Nazi invasion of Poland is most gripping and compelling. It is most interesting because it was written without the "benefit" of other purported historical accounts or the need to explain why the Nazis acted as they did. Although Kapaln has a perspective and knows he is writing for history, his maniscript is mostly reportorial. When he is providing his opinion, rather than telling what actually happened that day, Kaplan let's the reader know.

How refreshing to be able to read an historical work, without the "spin" that now accompanies most works about the Nazi occupation of conquered lands and the extermination of the Jews of Europe. This book is must reading for both serious scholars and those who are interested in the subject matter.

This is the 4th Warsaw ghetto diary I've read and the 3rd I've reviewed. If I had to do it over again, I'd pick this one first. The author was a teacher and more than just a recorder of events. He was a gifted writer and master storyteller who was never deluded for a moment about what was going to happen and who never lost sight of the universal perspective. He writes in a wry, almost sarcastic style that makes his point effectively as he blasts the Nazis, Polish and Jewish collaborators, corruption in the ghetto, etc. He had me asking myself deep questions as I was reading. He constantly refers to the Nazis he encounters as stupid people. It shows how dangerous stupid people can be when given power. At one point, he says cruelty is a sickness that can affect whole communities and even entire nations. You see from his writings how contagious a sickness it is, and the more that violent, sadistic, atrocious behavior is permitted, the more it occurs. He vividly shows what can happen when people lose their sense of outrage. He knew what was going on at Sobibor and Treblinka and that the people being "resettled" were not coming back. He never trusted the Nazis, saying only evil can come from evil people. Who can argue with that when you are talking about people who lied up to the minute they closed the door of the gas chamber behind you? The last line in the book is "If I am taken, what will become of my diary?" He was not afraid of dying, but afraid that all his effort would be wasted. Well, it wasn't wasted. If only one more person reads this book on the basis of this review, I'll feel I have done my belated bit for a man who had real guts and unfortunately didn't live to see the ultimate survival of his people.

Having read many accounts of existence during the Holocaust, I recommend "Scroll of Agony" because it pulls the reader in on so many levels.
The reader can learn about the system the Nazis used to try and fragment Jewish morale, culture, health and lives by attempting to suppress every aspect of Jewish life. What a powerful and understated diary!

We got this book for our children, and they really love it. Even though she's heard it a thousand times, our daughter still frequently asks us to read this book !

This wonderful book fills a major gap in the world of children's books related to traditional Jewish holidays.

Joan Benjamin-Farren's masterful handling of midrashic sources creates a work that is both subtle and enjoyable, for parent and child alike.

A must-have for every Jewish educator and parent!

The artist/author's stunning artwork & easy-to-follow story line has created a book for children of all ages.

This beautiful book takes us through the omer period in a wonderful way. Both my kids love it.