Middle East Books

Ruth Gruber's EXODUS 1947: THE SHIP THAT LAUNCHED A NATION
In 1945, President Harry Truman, learning of the horrible DP(Displaced Persons) camps in Germany asked Ernest Bevin, England's foreign minister to open the doors of Palestine to 100,000 DP's. A committee was formed that voted to open the doors, but Bevin refused. The ship named Exodus 1947, carrying 4,554 refugees, met resistance for this destination of Palestine. As noted in Gruber's book, Exodus, 1947: The Ship That Launched A Nation, a predominantly Jewish city, Tel Aviv, was on strike to protest this as it shut down for an entire day.
Following this, the ship, landed in Haifa as a battered vessel and Ruth Gruber documented the surge of heartbreak and hope, emotion and enormous anxiety to desperately reach the homeland. Exodus, 1947 came out in America recently and just came out in England after being banned for sixty years. It is now receiving rave reviews. One headline in London's Sunday Express read, "I SAW JEWS FORCED INTO SHIPS FROM DANTE'S HELL", and the article described the shameless way the Jews were treated.
Some reporters wrote the Jews of the Exodus were sent to Cypress. It is not true. Bevin considered Cypress a prison hell hole of sand and wind-too good for the Jews of the Exodus. They were sent to Germany in three prison ships. Gruber was selected to represent the entire American Press aboard the prison ship Runnymede Park. When she climbed the top deck the Holocaust survivors raised a flag. They had printed the Swastichka on the British Union Jack. Gruber's photo of the flag became Life Magazine's photo of the week. These Jews were defying not only the British Empire. They were defying the whole world. The refugees managed to escape from the prison camps in Germany and were in Palestine when it became Israel on May 14, 1948.
Gruber's words paint a picture of what the refugees endured between surviving the Holocaust and being settled afterwards. Her insight into the resourcefulness and creativity of people in the camps revealed a people with a fierce determination to rise above a sad past and still difficult present environment. Exodus 1947: The Ship That Launched A Nation chronicles the journey of hope and desperation for Holocaust survivors.

Review by Phyllis Johnson, author of Being Frank with Anne- the poetic interpretation of Anne Frank's diary- Community Press

This very moving book covers the story of the "Exodus", the unarmed ship carrying more than 4,500 Holocaust survivors seeking refuge in "British occupied" Palestine during 1947.

The ship, a former tourist vessel designed to carry only 400 passengers, is described as having been rammed and boarded by the British Royal Navy which was determined to prevent the Jewish Holocaust survivors from finding refuge in Palestine. The entry of the "Exodus" into Haifa harbour is further described amidst a British military blockade. But the story in this book is not so much about the ship, but about the individuals on board, their history & personal suffering, together with what faced them following their arrival in "Palestine" and the process outlined with such clarity in this work, which saw them being used as "political pawns" by the British Government.

The book begins with a description of the "Displaced Persons" camps of Europe, where those fortunate to survive the "Concentration Camps" were housed. The book recounts how some 70,000 Holocaust survivors "found their way out" of the "Displaced Persons" camps and made the tortuous journey across land borders, forests, mountain ranges, the Alps until they eventually located "secret" ports in France and Southern Italy where they climbed aboard a motley fleet of virtually obsolete vessels, including cutters, leaky fishing boats, cargo vessels, icebreakers, banana carriers, yachts & steamers (one called Exodus 1947) upon which they embarked upon their desperate journey to reach their ancient homeland of Eretz Israel, the "Promised Land".

The journey on the "Exodus" itself is described as being endured under extremely insanitary and unbelievably cramped conditions, whilst always under the threat of being arrested as "illegal immigrants" during the British blockade.

The book is replete with many photographs documenting the above and the story reaches the night of 17th July 1947 when "Haganah boys" pasted handbills on the shop windows of Netanya, Haifa and Jerusalem depicting the plight of the "Exodus" and describing it's cargo of 4,554 refugees consisting of 1,600 men, 1,282 women, 1,017 young people and 655 children. The posters also advising readers that the ship had been spotted by the British Navy and that five destroyers and a cruiser were closing in on the vessel.

The book documents the subsequent broadcast from the "Exodus" itself, which related how the Royal Navy had attacked the vessel at a distance of "17 miles from the shores of Palestine" in "international waters". The "Exodus" described as having been rammed from three directions and subjected to gas bombs and gunfire which left one Jewish civilian dead, five dying and some twenty wounded. The boarding of the "Exodus" by British troops is also detailed. Photographs of the damage to the vessel and the wounded Jewish civilians are also included. The book then describes the plight of the Jewish refugees as they are then forcibly ejected from the "Exodus". The ensuing public reaction is also described.

As the story proceeds, the book cites the British authorities as describing the prison camps of Cyprus as being "too good" for the Jewish refugees and outlines how the British "decided to make an example of them" by returning the Holocaust survivors upon three ships to Port-de-Bouc in Southern France. A measure portrayed in the book as a deterrent to others who would "dare run the British blockade".

Amidst further British threats to then transfer the Holocaust survivors to Germany the book shows the reaction on board ship as a British flag is painted with a "swastika" below the Union Jack. The described plight of the refugees is heartbreaking as they are disembarked in Germany where the book recounts so many having been murdered by the Nazi regime. (Being British, having served in our military & studied the Holocaust for many years, I feel very uncomfortable at the described behaviour of my "compatriots".)

The book also details how, having been forcibly returned to Europe and incarcerated in these "camps" in Germany, many of these self same Jewish refugees/Holocaust survivors began repeating their individual, tortuous process of escaping. The book depicting how they once more embarked upon their journeys back to their ancestral homeland, with many having reached Israel when their nation was re-born on 15th May 1948. Many described as forming part of the fledgling Jewish forces which met the combined invasion from the surrounding Arab nations immediately after the Jewish nation's declaration of independence.

This is an extremely moving, often disturbing book, about an often overlooked period of history. Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in Jewish history and events surrounding the re-birth of the Jewish state of Israel. The excellent photographs themselves are worthy of a special mention. Thank you.

This is a masterful study of the Graeco-Roman culture of the first century AD which underlies the New Testament. Bell examines a wide variety of topics, from dress to how meals were eaten, from child-rearing to the treatment of slaves, and discusses the dominant philosophical and religious movements of the day. Knowing such things enables a reader of the New Testament to delve more deeply into the meaning of the text and to dig out new levels of understanding.

Albert Bell sees this book as beginning while he was yet in high school. At some point, he says, he made the connection that the authors he read in his Latin class "lived in the same world as the people who wrote the books I studied on Sunday." Now as an instructor at Hope college in Holland, MI, Bell asks the question of how we can believe something that we simply do not understand. Will we be like the Ethiopian eunuch of Acts 8.26-40 who asked, " How can I (understand) unless someone guides me?"

As an illustration of what he means, Bell says he once heard a minister tell the story of Paul's imprisonment in Rome. In his story, the minister told of clanking chains and a foul-smelling dungeon. But in ancient Rome, the law was that prisons were for holding people for trial and not for punishment. More accurately, Paul as under house arrest. He was chained during moves but even in Rome he was allowed to by himself in his own hired dwelling with a guard.

There are ten major sections to Bell's book ranging from the Judaic background of the NT to Roman law, religion, and philosophy to Greco-Roman society and morality to a section on time, distance, and travel. In the section on Roman Law, Bell covers Pliny the Younger, the powers of Roman governors, and so on. in the section on Greco-Roman religion Bell notes the story of Vespasian's healing of the blind man; such stories succeeded, says Bell, because "the popular mentality of the time accepted such things happening"

I heartily endorse the study of non-canonical writings in order to study the cultural milieu of a text. Time and again Bell guides the reader through the world in which the writers of the New Testament wrote.

My Brownie Troop is using this book to prepare for "Thinking Day" - a day Girl Scouts learn about other countries and cultures. The book is full of activities that first graders love - mazes (Istanbul landmarks), color by number (a ceramic plate), hidden pictures (the Dolmabahce Palace), connect the dots (the Blue Mosque), etc. The girls will have a fun time learning about Turkey and it was soooo easy for me, their leader! My daughter can't wait for our "Turkey meeting"!

I was thrilled when I discovered "Exploring Turkey". I think it is really important for children to learn about different places and cultures in the world. Filled with fun activities for children, it is a great introduction to a culture full of so many things. I have used the book as a learning tool during the holidays. Children love it.

I have recently started reading books about Byzantium, upon my business trip to Istanbul. I visited many great historic sites there from the Byzantium times and when I came back home I started getting books about this city. I have been always interested in European history, especially the medeival times, but my visit to this magnificient study ignited my interest in this area.

I was disappointed by the first few books I ordered through Amazon about Byzantim. They were simply boring, full of history and details. This is actually the area where this book shines where allothers fail. All the historical events are written in a fiction-like plot, resembling a novel, with character dialogues and 1st person points of views of characters.

The main shortfall of the book is its use of the English language. It gets awkward and "foreign" one too many times. Some of the descriptions feel like they were direct translations from the native language to English, word to word. There are also some grammatical mistakes here and there indicating to the "seriousness" of the publishing house.

I still gave it a 5, because all the grammatical errors etc. did not bother me all that much because the plots, filled with 1st person inner conflicts of the characters, of the short stories are fascinating and exciting.

I recommend to all who are into European history but who do not want to read a textbook.

I picked this book up in one of my random treasure hunts in the net, and startled all the way thru. Constantinople has been the envy of the world throughout history. Its Byzantine times is narrated in this book and drags you all along. 'Crusade against Christendom', 'The collapse of Divine Wisdom' and the dramatic closing sequence, 'Last day of the Queen' have been my favourite chapters.

The author guides you along the ancients forums, streets, palaces, monasteries and hippodrome of this 'Queen of all cities!' as he tell his stories in almost cinematographic format which creates pictures in your vision.

I read it twice and am now dying to visit this fabled city!!

I would like to add a confirmation here, as this is a very valuable book. In it are many scenes and experiences with relevance to the present, as well as in the longer term.

What is most impressive as I re-read it these days is the unusual clarity and point of view from each of these young men writing, officers inserted into complex duties in Japan, after the Pacific war.

Yes, there was something different about those times, and it shows here, as a form of moral clarity; also purpose. This capacity for personal insight reaches into the confused situations of culture and aftermath of a war, and each time pulls out both the valuable, and that which must for their present remain in question.

It is a very fine approach, and engages considerable personal warmth.

A further intrigue is in the writing included of Nisei, second generation Japanese-Americans, who as the same kinds of language and intelligence officers were on the same team.

Both their own commentary, and the special conversations they relate as coming due to their Asian appearance, are filled with substance which should be very enlightening in the conversations rampant today, about globality and individual culture.

Truly valuable voices from a recent past, highly recommended.

These are rare first-person accounts from Japan and Asia immediately after World War II - eyewitness reports by the first young Americans to set foot in that ruined region at a critical juncture in time when people were struggling to make sense of the past and piece together a new life.

The authors were U.S. servicemen, trained (and several raised) in the language and culture of their assignments. Their letters to one another are perceptive, provacative, sympathetic to the losing side, and frank - sometimes brutally frank. They record the dramatic events of the times: the fate of the Nazis and the Japanese military in Asia, the return of POW's to their defeated country, and the forging of a new role for the Japanese Emperor. And they reveal how the young, intelligent writers themselves became involved.

Reissued half a century after the war, this revised edition includes an updated forward by Otis Cary and a new afterword by Donald Keene - both now recognized authorities in the field of Japanese studies - reflecting on the intervening years and reassessing some of the assumptions made in the original edition.

Few other books on postwar Asia are as moving or interesting as this work, which speaks to us in the voices of those who were actually there and lived through those turbulent years.
--- form book's dustjacket

With alll the bad rap that Islam has gotten lately, it's nice to have this informative, balanced and interesting book to share with students. I learned a lot and it is a valuable book for most classrooms.

This is a brief, but contains a variety of information. Contents of the book simply speak about these details:
Early Arabia 6
The Prophet Muhammad 8
The Qur'an 10
The Five Pillars of Islam 12
The mosque 18
The caliphate 20
First conquests 22
Scholars and teachers 24
The spread of learning 28
Nomadic or settled 32
Islamic culture 34
The Islamic city 36
Merchants and travelers 38
The crusades 42
Arms and armor 44
Spain 46
Africa 48
Mongols and Turks 50
Central Asia, Iran, and India 52
China and Southeast Asia 54
Costume and jewelry 56
Islamic society 58
Festivals and ceremonies 60
Index and acknowledgments 64

Useful for the young to educate themselves.

This book provides a wonderful foundation for understanding the cultural norms which allow human rights violations to occur, and the foreign policy implications which allow them to be unnoticed. This book will make you want to change our policies. It enhanced my understanding of the struggles of Muslim women. A definate must read.

An excellant record of the link between faith, and religion and human rights. I would suggest that anyone interested in religious rights, women's rights, and the US foreign policy response to these issues, read this book.

Faith and Power examines the Islamic world through its politics, an idea that may seem odd when other religions are the topic but one that makes perfect sense in a religion that sees no distinction between the secular and religious world.

Edward Mortimer, a journalist and most recently a special adviser at the United Nations,

I first read this book for a Middle East studies class in the mid-1980s, and a few details are now out of date, such as names of various rulers who are no longer in office (or in some cases, alive). But overall, the book holds up quite well because it takes a look at the historical issues feeding Islamic matters today.

Given Pakistan's importance to U.S. anti-terrorism efforts, I found the chapter on that country especially worth re-reading.

Here are a couple of things Mortimer says: "Pakistan was an attempt to re-create an Islamic order after a long period of colonial rule...Pakistan was therefore an experiment of great significance for Muslims wherever the incursion of the West had broken the continuity of their political tradition."

Mortimer goes on to raise questions about the viability and even logic of the existence of Pakistan, given its lack of ethnic and religious identification that would distinguish it from other states in the area or around the Muslim world.

Pakistan forms just one chapter of Mortimer's excellent book, which starts with the beginnings of the Muslim faith and goes through the historical divisions within Islam, Western impact on the Arab and Muslim world, Arab nationalism, the rise of the Shiite clerics to power in Iran and the Soviet disaster in Afghanistan.

This is a book requiring serious attention because what Mortimer has to say applies to current events regardless of when it was published.

Edward Mortimer's "Faith and Power" offers an invaluable tool to all open-minded individuals who don't easily buy trendy depictions of the violent nature of Islam as a religion, and Muslims as its followers. It is a well written account of Muslim attitudes, dilemmas, successes and frustrations that shaped and is still shaping Muslim psyche in every corner of the world. It is in no way obsolete, and if there is a genuine desire in the West to build bridges toward Muslim world, this is the book to start with.

I discovered this book by reading Mazower's book. This was a pure delight to read. The author brought me back to a Thessaloniki I had learned about in Mazower, but added the warm, personal details of family life and interaction among the groups which made up Salonica in the early 20th century. I didn't want the book to end. I was surprised to learn that it had been published quite a while ago and that the author's child added an epilogue. I wish I had read it before and wandered the streets to find some of the landmarks.

Farewell To Salonica: City At The Crossroads is the autobiography of Leon Sciaky and tells of his having grown up in Salonica (now called Thessaloniki), in Greece. A remarkable view of a place where Sephardic Jews, Greeks, Turks, Macedonians, Albanians, and Bulgarians all met, traded, and went about their daily lives. A superbly written memoir, Farewell to Salonica is a heartfelt, highly recommended testimony to a memorable city and a cultural mecca.

Well, I'm the second person to write a review, and I should probably wait until I finish the last ten pages. But I can't wait! This books is wild, unlike any other book that I've read from the Middle East. Fatma's life keeps spinning, twisting, reshaping, and surprising. What an amazing ride!

Raja Alem has gifted English speakers with this wonderful tale about a young Arab woman and her strange life. Raja wrote Fatma in English with some help from Tom McDonough, these two should collaborate more often! It's intense stuff, and yes Raja does mean it. She's one of a kind, and you should all thank whatever you consider sacred that her stuff is getting published. She's the closest thing to a modern day profit I know of, and if you hear her talk you'll realize she isn't playing around. Poetic, beautifully written, every word is meant to be there, readable and very enjoyable, and if you let it Fatma can make you think differently about life. It is capable of rehumanizing the most jaded soul. It's like the opposite of Kafka's The Castle, Raja is the 'Anti-Michel Houllebecq'- and it would be funny to see what her mind's creations would do to a sad balding Frenchman. Raja's stuff is great, her sister Shadia did the cool cover art. Now, having been BLESSED with owning and reading Fatma, I and many others fervently wish for her other books to be published in English... she's a genius, you've just got to love this woman.