Tag: Jewish

PALESTINE 1936: the great revolt and the roots of the Middle East conflict by Oren Kessler

- Jill 2 Comments

“Exceptional…opens new vistas on troubles past and present.” – The Wall Street Journal

“Key to understanding the current situation between Israelis and Palestinians.” – Booklist (starred review)

When Oren Kessler’s first book, Palestine 1936: the great revolt and the roots of the Middle East conflict,was published earlier this year, while lauded, its true significance would not be felt until now. With the recent surprise attacks on Israel by Hamas on October 7, and the following response including a declaration of war on Hamas by Israel, this book is more important than ever in understanding the complex history which has shaped the present state of affairs. Kessler addresses this complicated topic by utilizing only recently declassified documents as well as memoirs and other sources to draw a thorough examination of this formative and often overlooked period.

In his book, Kessler relates key events from the period of 1936 to 1939 that laid the foundation for the establishment of Israel as a state in 1948 and for the current Arab-Israeli conflict. That period itself is a complicated time in world history, as political tensions were already heightened and ultimately ignited World War II. Kessler believes that events almost 90 years ago, and just prior to the second World War, have so shaped the attitudes and posture of the conflict that it will ultimately lead to tragedy for both Jews and Arabs. Primarily, Kessler suggests that many Arabs in the region are unwilling to accept Jewish equality, political or social, let along their right to an ancestral homeland. He believes that this is the true core of the conflict and not one easily resolved.

“Oren Kessler is a journalist and political analyst based in Tel Aviv. He has served as deputy director for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, Middle East research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society in London, Arab affairs correspondent for the Jerusalem Post, and an editor and translator at Haaretz English edition.” –  orenkessler.com

If you want to more fully understand the current state of affairs in Palestine and the war that is now commencing, Palestine 1936 is a must read. In addition, the Davenport Library has a number of other books that you might find informative and enlightening on this topic and as well as closely related topics.

                         

A Lethal Obsession : antisemitism from antiquity to the global Jihad by Robert S. Wistrich

Master of the game : Henry Kissinger and the art of Middle East diplomacy by Martin Indyk

RAF : the birth of the world’s first air force by Richard Overy

Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco

1917 : war, peace, and revolution by D.(David) Steveson

Decolonizing Palestine : the land, the people, the bible by Mitri Raheb

Tehran children : a Holocaust refugee odyssey by Mikhal Dekel

Remember Us : my journey from the shtetl through the Holocaust by Martin Small

I Am Not Your Enemy : stories to transform a divided world by Michael T. McRay

Bethlehem : biography of a town by Nicholas Blincoe

The Lemon Tree : an Arab, a Jew, and the heart of the Middle East by Sandy Tolan

19 varieties of gazelle : poems of the Middle East by Naomi Shihab Nye

Things you may find hidden in my ear : poems from Gaza by Mosab Abu Toha

Chronicle of the Old Testament kings : the reign-by-reign record of the rulers of ancient Israel by J.W. (John William) Rogerson

New moons : contemporary writing by North American Muslims by Ali Kazim

 

The Assignment by Liza M. Wiemer

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What would you do if you were asked to do an assignment in class or at work that you believed was discriminatory? Liza M. Wiemer explores this topic in her latest young adult novel, The Assignment.

The Assignment  is inspired by a real-life incident that was splashed all over the news. This book talks about the impact of discrimination and antisemitism in schools, surrounding communities, and the world.

It’s their senior year of high school and Cade Crawford and Logan March are ready to graduate. Taking a class from Logan’s favorite teacher, the two are excited to be together until a certain assignment is given. He has given an assignment to the students that they must argue for the Final Solution, the Nazi plan for the genocide of the Jewish people. Horrified and disgusted, Logan and Cade want nothing to do with that assignment. They can’t believe that more of their fellow students aren’t willing to stand up. This teacher can’t really expect them to argue for discrimination, intolerance, and antisemitism.

Not getting the response that they want from the teacher, Logan and Cade work together to put together an alternate assignment to present to the teacher and school administration. When they still are not satisfied with the school administration’s response, Logan and Cade decide that they have to take a stand and do more. The more they explore their options, the wider and more known this assignment becomes. The student body, their families, and the community become divided over the assignment. The turmoil gets worse and worse, leading to an explosive situation full of anger and resentment on both sides. Striving for justice and tolerance, Logan and Cade aren’t sure where this situation will lead, but they know they want love and peace to succeed.

This book is also available in the following format:

Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse

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Did you know that the Davenport Public Library offers book clubs that you can join for free? We currently offer four book clubs that you can join: Book to Film, See YA, Short & Sweets, and True Crime Book Club. More information about the book clubs can be found on our website, by calling 563-326-7832, or by stopping by any service desk.

Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse is the September book club pick for See YA, our adult book club that reads young adult books.

Girl in the Blue Coat tells the story of a teenage girl fighting to survive in 1943 Amsterdam. Amsterdam in 1943 is now Nazi-occupied with citizens scared as family and friends are either being killed in front of them or are being shipped out of town in transports. Hanneke has found a way to help her family survive by working the black market.

Hired to work at a funeral home, her boss has ‘errands’ for her to run on the side. Hanneke is good at finding whatever people need. With a network of contacts, she hunts down cigarettes, makeup, perfume, lotions, food, etc. While out on a delivery, Hanneke is asked by a repeat customer to find a Jewish girl that the customer had previously been hiding. The girl has seemingly disappeared into thin air.

Beginning the search for the missing girl, Hanneke is drawn into the resistance. Asking questions leads her down a road filled with underground resistance, activities, and secrets. Not sure about wanting to join the resistance, but wanting to find the missing girl, Hanneke has to decide how far she is willing to go in order to save the missing girl and solve the mystery surrounding her disappearance.

Sound interesting? Want to join one of our book clubs or have questions? Stop by any Davenport Public Library location and we can help! If you can’t make it to the book club, read the book anyway and let us know what you thought about it in the comments below.

Are You Anybody? by Jeffrey Tambor

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I love reading autobiographies by funny people. I can see them in my head acting out each part of their life and I’m instantly amused. I feel like I’m being given a behind-the-scenes look into their daily lives every time I pick up the book. It’s fascinating. Finding new autobiographies by funny people, who also do their own audiobook narration, is one of my favorite things to do. I recently found another and decided to give it a go.

Are You Anybody? by Jeffrey Tambor popped up in my Rivershare OverDrive book list one day and I knew I needed it. I put the audiobook on hold and quickly forgot about it. When the email finally came that it was ready for me to check out, I downloaded it instantly and began listening.  Jeffrey Tambor is funny and spends equal amounts of time on each part of his life, which is a great plus.

Now, I must preface this blog by saying that I have never seen an episode of ‘Arrested Development’ or ‘Transparent,’ both shows that Jeffrey Tambor starred/stars in, respectively. Now you’re probably thinking , “Well then, how did you know he was funny? Why’d you check this book out?” I frequently see commercials for ‘Arrested Development’ on television late at night when I can’t sleep and decided to give his book a go. That was a good decision all around.

In this book, Tambor writes a series of autobiographical essays about topics all the way from his childhood to his current life. While some of the topics discussed are indeed humorous, most of his stories are more emotional. Every topic he writes about he labels as a ‘formative event’. Beginning at the start with the question ‘Are you anybody?’, Tambor moves the book right along by answering with a resounding ‘No’. His relationships with his Russian and Hungarian-Jewish parents and his childhood as a husky kid with a lisp shaped his years of work in repertoire theater which in turn led to his first film, ‘And Justice for All’, and then later led to fame in various television roles. Each defining moment in his life is hashed out in relation to what he had to do to get to that point. Tambor’s driving motivation throughout the book is his overwhelming desire to rise above his troubled upbringing and provide a better life/home for himself and, now, his family.

Reaching to the present, Tambor discusses how his ‘Are you anybody?’ question revolves around his family now. His creative process has expanded and Tambor finds that in his more than four decades of entertainment, he still has no idea who he is. That’s not a problem per se, more of a challenge to figure out how to balance the triumphs and pitfalls of the entertainment industry. Tambor also is quick to mention that even if you’re successful, that doesn’t mean you’re perfect. Failing, while disastrous, heart-breaking, and depressing at the time, may actually lead you down a better path to who you want to be.

Jeffrey Tambor may be a television legend, a Broadway star, and an accomplished screen actor, but he is still struggling to figure out just who he is and if he is anybody. I enjoyed that he swept between essays about famous people (check out his shout-outs to said people) and every day discussions of his family (his stories about his young children crack me up). The differentiation between those two types of essays lends a necessary balance to this book that allows readers to view Tambor as a normal person who just happens to be famous. He still gets up in the morning to make his kids’ lunches, takes them to all of their practices, and then makes sure they read every night. Just like the rest of us. If you have the chance to listen to or read this book, I recommend you give it a go. I enjoyed it and now I’m off to start ‘Arrested Development’!

This book is also available in the following formats:

Mother, Can You Not? by Kate Siegel

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mother can you notIntroducing your parents or grandparents or even cousins or siblings to any new form of social media means that there is going to be a learning curve where mistakes are made and ridiculous things said. We’ve all been there. Before you bridge the social media gap however, there is one important step that needs to happen: text messaging. Author Kate Siegel’s mother is the queen of off-the-wall text messages, so much so that Kate decided to broadcast their most ridiculous conversations all over Instagram for everyone to see. (Want to follow their antics? Check out @crazyjewishmom on Instagram!)

Mother, Can you NOT? : And you thought your mother was crazy… follows Kate’s Siegel’s decision to broadcast her and her mother’s text messages online and the crazy journey it proved to be for her. This book is chock full of anecdotes featuring Kate’s mom and the conversation that she has with her on a daily basis.

Kate’s mother is the classic helicopter parent and you can even go as far as to call her a drone parent, which Kate certainly does. Kate’s mom is a hovering Jewish mother who only wants the best for her daughter and the best just happens to be married to a wealthy Jewish doctor and pregnant with his many children. Never mind the fact that for a long time, Kate was single and her boyfriends weren’t even Jewish. These are just unnecessary obstacles in Kate’s life that her mother knows all the solutions for: hanging out with the Princeton rabbi, going out even when you don’t want to, talking to a new doctor about sex when your mom is right in the room, etc. All perfectly normal things. This book is a very humorous and hilarious read chronicling the many adventures that Kate and her mother find themselves on and the many different ways all of our mother go on to help better their children’s lives even if their children’s don’t even ask for the help.

Unterzakhn by Leela Corman

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unterzakhnUnterzakhn (yiddish for ‘underthings’) by Leela Corman tells the story of Jewish twin sisters at the start of the 20th century in New York City.  Esther and Fanya’s stories are told in graphic novel form, spanning more than a decade from childhood through adulthood, with black and white illustrations reminiscent of Russian folk art. The sisters make decidedly different decisions in their lives, but they both chose career paths outside of community and family expectations of them and drift apart from one another (forcefully in one scene).

Fanya starts this story when she finds a woman bleeding in the street and is instructed to go find the “lady doctor”.  This encounter brings her to Bronia, a feminist obstetrician who performs illegal abortions, and convinces Fanya’s mother to let Bronia teach Fanya to read.  Fanya then begins to apprentice for Bronia, and adapts to the strident expectations of her teacher.  While her sister is learning to work as an obstetrician, Esther begins working at the local burlesque theater and brothel — running errands and cleaning up.  As she grows toward adulthood, her work changes and she loses her family in the process.

This is a quick, but in no way a light read.  The writing and the illustrations show a lot of darkness and pain.  The sisters always seem better when they’re together, showing the quick wit and love that seems to be reserved for each other. I had a difficult time putting this book down, because Corman made it easy to care about Fanya and Esther.  This is a good read for fans of David Small’s Stitches or anything by Charles Burns.