Aaron Garber Library Recommendations 8

This week’s book recommendations from Ilka Gordon, Librarian, Aaron Garber Library, 26500 Shaker Boulevard

Summer Library Hours: Mon.-Thurs. 9-1.  Closed June 25, 26 & July 2-4. All are welcome to borrow books.  Phone 216-371-0446 ext. 269.

 From Where I Stand: Life Messages From the Weekly Torah Reading. by Rabbi Yossy Goldman, KTAV Publishing House, 2012.

 Rabbi Yossy, former Lubavitch emissary to South Africa, presently Rabbi of Johannesburg’s largest Jewish congregation, has written short (one or two pages) thoughts on the weekly Torah readings.  Each vignette is written in easy to comprehend language and contains a valuable message to which all readers can connect.  Recommended for all those involved in kiruv, youth organizations or those looking for a down to earth vort on the weekly parsha.

 Vision and Leadership  : Reflections on Joseph and Moses by Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchick.

 Vision and Leadership, the eleventh in the series MeOtzar HoRav:  Selected Writings of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchick, presents Rabbi Soloveitchick’s reflections on biblical narratives and characters, beginning with the Joseph stories and the Jewish people’s sojourn in Egypt and ending with the story of Moses’ death.  (from the flyleaf) Recommended for scholars and lay people interested in insightful analysis of the Bible and midrashim.

 Nothing to Speak of: Wartime Experiences of the Danish Jews 1943-1945. by Sofie Lene Bak.

 This coffee table size book filled with color and black and white photos traces the history of Danish Jews during the Nazi occupation.  99% of Danish Jews survived the war by being hidden by Danes or sailing to Sweden by fishing boat.  Most poignant and heartwarming are the photographs of children who survived.  The pictures are all positive and inspiring and the text delivers a story by witnesses who have broken their long silence.

 A History of Jewish Plymouth by Karin J. Goldstein 

 Many visitors flock to Plymouth, Massachusetts to see the landing spot of the Pilgrims.  Unknown to most visitors, is that three blocks from Plymouth Rock is Congregation Beth Jacob synagogue built 1912-1913.  Karin Goldstein discusses how the Jewish community has flourished and how Plymouth’s history was shaped by Jewish culture.  Recommended for all history buffs.

 FDR and the Jews by Richard Breitman and Allan J. Lichtman

 “In a quiet and sober fashion, it (FDR and the Jews) reexamines what is already known and lays out new and previously unknown information.” Nearly seventy-five years after World War II, a contentious debate lingers over whether Franklin Delano Roosevelt turned his back on the Jews of Hitler’s Europe. Defenders claim that FDR saved millions of potential victims by defeating Nazi Germany. Others revile him as morally indifferent and indict him for keeping America’s gates closed to Jewish refugees and failing to bomb Auschwitz’s gas chambers.

 In an extensive examination of this impassioned debate, Richard Breitman and Allan J. Lichtman find that the president was neither savior nor bystander. In FDR and the Jews, they draw upon many new primary sources to offer an intriguing portrait of a consummate politician—compassionate but also pragmatic—struggling with opposing priorities under perilous conditions.