Jew Wishes…Peace and Tolerance

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My Jewish-photography and book passions were rewarded, once again, last week. I was able to get a copy of Poyln: Jewish Life in the Old Country, by Alter Kacyzne.

I have been completely mesmerized by the incredible photographs appearing in Poyln that were taken by Kacyzne He was on assignment in 1921 for the New York Yiddish Daily, Forverts (now known as The Jewish Daily Forward). Over a ten-year period he documented Jewish life in Poyln, like most of us have not seen it before. The incredible photographs take us back through the time continuum, and through the history of Jewish life in Poland.

The book moves the reader to tears, as they move through the photographic journey of a time and place of the past.

“Candid and intimate, tender and humorous, Kacyzne’s portraits– of teeming village squares and primitive workshops, cattle markets and spinning wheels, prayer groups and summer camps– tell the story of a way of life that is no more.
For the last sixty years, Kacyzne’s “Forverts photographs– the sole fragment of his vast archive to survive World War II– lay unseen. Now the work of this lost master is restored to the world in a volume of extraordinary force and beauty”. This blurb is a copyright of, and was taken from, the National Yiddish Book Center website.

I have read Poyln from front cover to back cover, and over again. I keep gravitating back to it, and can not get the beautiful and poignant journey that Kacyzne undertook out of my thoughts. The visuals are compelling and filled with high impact, and evoke emotional responses from the viewer. Kacyzne’s work is a tribute to his determination and humanitarian efforts in documenting Jewish Life. It was obviously a labor of love, and the photographs demonstrate that, and they speak volumes, as the silence resounds through the pages.

Poyln, by Alter Kacyzne is on display on my table of Jewish-related photographic books that detail Jewish life in Eastern Europe. This particular table holds only those genre of books. Guests can see the books when they walk through my front door, as the table is in a corner setting, with lamp, chair, candles, soft chimes, teapot, cup and saucer, and ancestral photos on the wall above. My visitor’s eyes are immediately drawn to the serene setting arrangement, in an environment of solitude. I have had friends come over just to pour through and peruse the books.

Poyln is a must-read and must-have book, and belongs in every Jewish house.
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Jew Wishes…Peace to you all.
© Copyright 2007 - All Rights Reserved - No permission is given or allowed to reuse my photography, book reviews, writings, or my poetry in any form/format without my express written consent/permission.

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I have read and reviewed many books in 2008, written by Jewish authors, or about Judaism in some aspect, whether it was a novel or a non-fiction book. I have gained something from each and every one of them, but the books that I list below are the ones that left a strong impression in my mind, or had a profound impact on me. This does not diminish the other books not listed in any way. I have read some of these books listed more than once, and have referred to a page or more in most of them throughout the year.

Dawn, by Elie Wiesel

The Diary of Peter Ginz, by Peter Ginz

Survival in Auschwitz, by Primo Levi

Heschel’s Kingdom, by Dan Jacobson

The Same Sea, by Amos Oz

The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit, by Lucette Lagnado

Every Day Lasts a Year, by Richard Hollander

People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks

The Savior, by Eugene Drucker

An Uncommon Friendship, by Bernat Rosner and Frederic C. Tubach

This Has Happened, by Piera Sonnino

Kaddish, by Leon Wieseltier

Rutka’s Notebook, by Rutka Laksier

Flory, by Flory Van Beek

The Dream, by Harry Bernstein

A Late Divorce, by A.B. Yehoshua

Hidden History of the Kovno Ghetto, by Walter Reich

Blackmore Park in World War II, by Fran and Martin Collins

Five Chimneys, by Olga Lengyel

The Enemy at His Pleasure, by S. Ansky

Man’s Search for Meaning, by Viktor E. Frankl

The Righteous Among the Nations, by Mordecai Paldiel

Joshua and Isadora, by Michael Benanav

The Reawakening, by Primo Levi

The Gates of November, by Chaim Potok

Sarah’s Key, by Tatiana de Rosnay

Two Lives, by Vikram Seth

Skeletons at the Feast, by Chris Bohjalian

The Holocaust by Bullets, by Father Patrick Desbois

Vita, by Melania G. Mazzucco

The Book of Customs, by Scott Martin Kosofsky

The Righteous: The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust, by Martin Gilbert

Mourning & Mitzvah, by Anne Brener

Where She Came From, by Helen Epstein

The Time of the Uprooted, by Elie Wiesel

Legends of Our Time, by Elie Wiesel

Thanks to My Mother, by Schoschana Rabinovici

The Judges, by Elie Wiesel

The Tranquil Star, by Primo Levi

Hours of Devotion, by Dinah Berland

The Black Seasons, by Michal Glowinski

Everyman, by Philip Roth

The Pianist, by Wladyslaw Szpilman

Messengers of God, by Elie Wiesel

The i Tetralogy, by Mathias B. Freese

The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, by Michael Chabon

Esau, by Meir Shalev

Wandering Star, by J.M.G. Le Clezio

Wise Men and Their Tales, by Elie Wiesel

Italy’s Sorrow, by James Holland

The Fifth Son, by Elie Wiesel

Kristallnacht: Prelude to Destruction, by Martin Gilbert

Towers of Gold, by Frances Dinkelspiel

The Pages In Between, by Erin Einhorn

The Women’s Torah Commentary, by Rabbi Elyse Goldstein

Yesterday, by Hadassah Rosensaft

BESA: Muslims Who Saved Jews in World War II, by Norman H. Gershman

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, by Georgio Bassani

The Zookeeper’s Wife, by Diane Ackerman

A Thread of Grace, by Mary Doria Russell

Novels by Irene Nemirovsky

Children in the Holocaust and World War II, by Laurel Holliday

Lambrusco, by Ellen Cooney

Infidelities, by Josip Novakovich

City of Dreams, by Beverly Swerling

My Grandfather’s Blessings, by Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D.

Does the Soul Survive?, by Elie Kaplan Spitz

Books are windows to the world, and to the soul.

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Jew Wishes…Peace to you all.
© Copyright 2007 - All Rights Reserved - No permission is given or allowed to reuse my photography, book reviews, writings, or my poetry in any form/format without my express written consent/permission.

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The Sixth Lamentation by William Brodrick is his debut novel, published in 2003. I have had this on my stack of books to read for that long. I finally read it, and sit here wondering what took me so long to pick it up and peruse the pages. It is fitting that I start off 2009 reviewing it.

It is a book that seemingly wants to be a mystery, a thriller, a fast-paced book, a book of intrigue, a book filled with secrets, and a book with a surprise ending. It is a novel that contains many of those facets, and is a good read.

The Sixth Lamentation jumps back and forth in time, one minute we are in World War II occupied France, the next we are in the present, then back through time, again. The novel doesn’t dwell on the Holocaust, per se, but rather focuses on the characters and their roles during the Holocaust.

Brodrick has given us some characters that have depth to them, such as Father Anselm, a former barrister (lawyer) who left his life to become a monk. Brodrick, himself, is a former monk, who left that life to become a barrister, and I am positive that he was able to bring substance to Father Anselm due to that factor. Father Anselm is caught between various factions within the novel’s pages, ever searching for the truth of the situation he is thrust into.

The monastery is giving sanctuary to Eduard Schwermann, a WWII SS officer, who is accused of involvement of in the deportation of Jewish immigrants to Auschwitz, and Jewish French citizens to Auschwitz during WWII occupied France. The fear is that the church will be put into the spotlight in a negative way, especially if Schwermann is eventually found guilty of the war crimes.

Brodrick injects a bit of subtle humor into the story. Father Anselm has a few quirks, and the monks he becomes involved with are a bit eccentric, also (as we all are…in our own way). The novel drifts slowly through the present, as Father Anselm turns up more interesting facts about the individuals that were involved in a group known as “The Round Table”, whose object was to smuggle Jewish children out of France during WWII and the German occupation.

One person who was part of “The Round Table” is Agnes Embleton, who, in the present, is dying from motor neuron disease. She has a secret, and can’t bring herself to verbalize it, but decides to keep the facts in a diary of sorts (she bought two notebooks to write into). That is all I will describe of the plot and of some of the characters. You will have to read it for yourself to decide what you think.

The first half of the book went slow for me, and I feel that it is possibly due to the fact that Brodrick wanted to inject some background information and some depth into some of the characters, and convey lack of depth in others. The last half of the book went quicker, and I was more eager to read it. There are secrets revealed within extremely harrowing situations, and through those secrets we come to realize that individuals are not who we think they are. That is the brilliance of Brodrick’s writing.

Brodrick injects vivid word-images with sharpness and beautiful prose into the novel. His brilliance lies in his ability to blend a tapestry that spans decades, jumping from the present to the past, and back again to the present, with ease. One doesn’t feel his writing is forced or constrained, as it is quite fluid (even the initial pages that went slow for me). In order to grasp the intentions of the characters, their substance (or lack of), their integrity, and the facts, one must read carefully in order to make sure they comprehend what is happening.

What exactly does the title imply? The Biblical Book of Lamentations and its poems describe the fall of Jerusalem and destruction of the Temple, and how individuals cope with love, loss and grief. The addition of a “sixth lamentation”, for me, is an analogy to the Holocaust. It is also a comparison to the characters in the novel, and how they maintained their lives, through superficial presentations of themselves, in order to cope with their crumbled past, during a devastating period of history.

In my opinion, the book is a metaphor for truth, and for how an individual presents himself/herself to the world around them. People are not always what they appear to be. What is my truth is not necessarily your truth, even if we are involved in the same issues or events. Does one really know the people in their daily lives, such as family members? Are they seemingly forthright, but in reality displaying superficial sides of themselves? an one forgive the ultimate betrayal by another? Those issues, and so much more, are what one is left to ponder within the pages. Brodrick writes with brilliance and depth, and his word-paintings fill our senses. The Sixth Lamentation, by William Brodrick is an excellent debut novel, and keeps the reader wanting to learn more.
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Jew Wishes…Peace to you all.
© Copyright 2007 - All Rights Reserved - No permission is given or allowed to reuse my photography, book reviews, writings, or my poetry in any form/format without my express written consent/permission.

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<p>I have many incredible and lovely memories to treasure from last year. There are those very few family events that have brought a bit of sadness in my life, but overall the majority of the days were filled with goodness and love, kindness and rewards.

I have read over 230 books this past year. I have reviewed the majority of them, but there are a few I didn’t manage to review.

I have many books on my to-read stack, and hope to get all of them by the end of 2009. I will be adding more as time goes by, with new book purchases, and any advanced Review Copies (ARC) that I have requested from various publishers. The pages of Jewish reading and learning will keep on turning!</p>

<p>The sun is shining brightly, this first day of 2009! That’s a wonderful way to begin the year. I hope everyone has a rewarding, peaceful and joyous 2009, and hope the same for the remainder of the year 5759! Good reading to everyone!M/p>

Jew Wishes…Peace to you all.
© Copyright 2007 - All Rights Reserved - No permission is given or allowed to reuse my photography, book reviews, writings, or my poetry in any form/format without my express written consent/permission.

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