Trotsky Eats and Runs

 

I first heard the name Trotsky when I was seven years old. My grandfather, a Jewish tailor from Belarus who arrived in the goldene medine and pulled himself up by his bootstraps to own a men's suit factory in New York, had just gotten a swept-back haircut. He called it a Trotsky.

Abraham Cahan, American Author  D.G. Myers,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  Abe Cahan, Trotsky's benefactor, was not just an editor but the author of an important American novel.  SAVE

Trotsky the Jew  Richard Pipes,  Tablet.  Attempts to treat Trotsky as an "eminent Jewish figure" must glide over the more savage features of his thought and behavior.  SAVE

Trotsky's Jewish Question  Robert S. Wistrich,  Forward.  Although Trotsky abandoned Judaism and was actively hostile to Zionism, he was one of the first to warn of the threat to the Jews posed by Nazi Germany.  SAVE

Lenin's Bad Blood  Ruth R. Wisse,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  Lenin's great-grandfather was a shtetl Jew who married a Christian, then denounced Jews to the tsar. Perhaps violent paranoia ran in the family.  SAVE

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The Whole Damn Deal

 

On April 2, 1979, President Jimmy Carter recorded in his diary that he had asked Robert S. Strauss to be his Mideast peace negotiator. Strauss answered, "I've never even read the Bible. And I'm a Jew." Observance-wise, Bob Strauss, who spent 50 years as a consummate practitioner of American politics, wasn't much of a Jew.  

Marathon  Jules Witcover,  Outlet Books.  The complicated role played by Strauss in Jimmy Carter's long pursuit of the presidency.  SAVE

The Lone Star  James Reston, Jr.,  Harper & Row.  Strauss's fellow Texan John Connally was not quite so loyal as Strauss—or so careful.  SAVE

Deep in the Heart  Ruthe Winegarten, Cathy Schechter,  Eaken Press.  A photographic history of the lives and legends of Texas Jews.  SAVE

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2011: A Year in Books

 

The holidays are over, the coffee-table books have all been unwrapped and set aside, and winter isn't going anywhere for a while. In short, it's time to settle in for some good reading. The literary critic D. G. Myers here presents the 38 best Jewish books of 2011, all of which merit your attention.

2010: A Year in Books  D.G. Myers,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  From the popular to the scholarly, a reader's and buyer's guide to 34 of the best books of 2010.  SAVE

Retrieving American Jewish Fiction  D.G. Myers,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  A historical symposium of some neglected classics, and an introduction to the avot and imahot of American Jewish writing.  SAVE

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Highlights of 2011:
Part II

 

Part II of our round-up of the past year's most popular features on Jewish Ideas Daily. (Part I is here.)

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Part II"

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Insight & Analysis

The Lost Tribe of New Mexico  Irene Wanner.  Seattle Times.  Straddling the border between Colorado and New Mexico, San Luis Valley is home to Hispano communities, where research shows that almost everyone is related by blood. Jewish blood.  SAVE

Blessed are the Bootleggers  Allan Nadler.  Tablet.  While rabbis opposed Prohibition in the name of religious freedom, and many Jews embraced the black market, one Izzy Einstein became the most successful enforcer of dry laws in the country.  SAVE

Independent is the New Democrat  Ilana Ostrin.  American Prospect.  Jewish affiliation with the Democratic Party has dropped by ten percent since 2009. This won't hurt President Obama—but may affect other electoral races in 2012.  SAVE

The Big Lie Returns  Ben Cohen.  Commentary.  As long as the enemies of the Jews control the meaning of the term 'anti-Semitism,' Jews will remain vulnerable to the calumny that they alone are the authors of their own misfortune.  SAVE

Reb Shlomo, Superstar  Mary Jane Fine.  Forward.  If Fiddler on the Roof is about tradition, a new musical about Shlomo Carlebach is about breaking with tradition—even if that means, as in Carlebach's case, breaking one's father's heart.  SAVE

Are Jews Trending Republican?  Shmuel Rosner.  Jewish Journal.  Conservatives have often tried to convince the public that a new wave of Jewish Republicans was just around the corner. So far, they've only been disappointed—but should now watch the independents.  SAVE

Who's on First?  James Kirchick.  Haaretz.  So-called progressives should stop mimicking the far Right and refrain from using terms like "Israel-firster" that question the allegiance of their fellow Americans.  SAVE

On Books

Retrieving American Jewish Fiction: Abraham Cahan

 

D.G. Myers

Third in a series on landmarks in American Jewish literature

MyersIn American literature, the critic Leslie Fiedler once quipped, nothing succeeds like failure. But among American Jewish writers, something like the reverse is closer to the truth: for many of their fictional characters, nothing fails so miserably as success. Nowhere is this seen more clearly than in The Rise of David Levinsky (1917), the first classic of Jewish fiction in America.

Continue Reading "Retrieving American Jewish Fiction: Abraham Cahan"  D.G. Myers,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  SAVE

The Rise of David Levinsky  Abraham Cahan,  Google Books.  The book in its entirety.  SAVE

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