Ben Waber reviewed Building and Consoling a Nation by Mark L. Smith
An Insightful, Unique, and Moving Collection
5 stars
This is a perfect example of how to deliver an academic reader, providing informative instructions to each selection to set the context, only include material that is still considered to be valid, and make sure the material itself is great. Obviously your mileage on this particular collection will vary based on how interested you are in Eastern European Jewish history, but even if you're only mildly curious this is a fascinating/heartbreaking read.
There is a paucity of academic texts on 1500-1850 Eastern European Jewish history, so I especially liked the sections that dealt with that here. The chapters on the first Yiddish newspaper and on the Jewish guilds were standouts, and if you're interested in these areas more broadly you should absolutely check them out.
The selections that deal with the aftermath of the Holocaust were painful, and even though academically I knew of the connections between these …
This is a perfect example of how to deliver an academic reader, providing informative instructions to each selection to set the context, only include material that is still considered to be valid, and make sure the material itself is great. Obviously your mileage on this particular collection will vary based on how interested you are in Eastern European Jewish history, but even if you're only mildly curious this is a fascinating/heartbreaking read.
There is a paucity of academic texts on 1500-1850 Eastern European Jewish history, so I especially liked the sections that dealt with that here. The chapters on the first Yiddish newspaper and on the Jewish guilds were standouts, and if you're interested in these areas more broadly you should absolutely check them out.
The selections that deal with the aftermath of the Holocaust were painful, and even though academically I knew of the connections between these survivors and migrations to Palestine, you viscerally feel that experience and gain a better understanding of why the state of Israel has developed its current ideology. It adds up to a chain of tragedy that we continue to see play out in the news today.
Given that my ancestors all come from this community, and that this volume captures some of the history that was lost in their migration to Canada and the US, this book hit more personally than most. Highly recommend