Book Reviews

Baltimore Jewish Times Book Review of "Barney Ross: The Life of a Jewish Fighter".rss feedComments (0)

Barney Ross: The Life of a Jewish Fighter

November 20, 2009

Meredith Jacobs
Special to the Jewish Times

Douglas Century
Schocken Books 2009, $12.95, 217 pages (softback)

Rashi, David, Spinoza, Maimonides — Barney Ross? One might wonder why Nextbook and Schocken chose a boxer for its Jewish Encounters series, but the story of Barney Ross is the story of the ultimate Jewish warrior. The power of his life story makes this a book I recommended not only to my father and my husband, but also to the women of my synagogue’s Sisterhood.

“Barney Ross” tells a gritty immigrant story I had not heard applied to the Jewish American story. At 13, Ross (born Dov-Ber “Beryl” Rasofsky) witnessed his father’s murder and his mother’s breakdown. His siblings were sent to live in an orphanage. Ross began working for Al Capone in hopes of raising enough money to reunite his family. Already a street fighter, Ross left Capone and turned to boxing, entering the ring to “My Yiddisha Mama.” Although he was the first Golden Glover to go on to win a professional championship, his goal was never boxing fame, but rather “to keep going until I could put away enough money to bring the kids out of the orphanage and support them until they could support themselves.”

Ross boxed in the era of the Jewish fighter, following the likes of Jackie Fields, Mushy Callahan and Benny Leonard. Matches became mirrors of the immigrant street struggle — Jews cheering on Ross, Irish rooting on Jimmy McLarnin and Italians supporting their hero, Tony Canzoneri; the boxing ring, a cleaned-up version of the streets, echoed their fight for space in America.

But it was Ross’ life after the ring that makes his story heroic. A recipient of the Silver Star for his actions at Guadalcanal, he became addicted to the morphine prescribed for his massive wounds. He was the first celebrity to go public with his battle and eventual recovery from addiction, using his struggle to help others.


Baltimore Jewish Times Book Review of "I Shudder: And Other Reactions to Life, Death, and New Jersey".rss feedComments (0)

I Shudder: And Other Reactions to Life, Death, and New Jersey

November 13, 2009

Brandon Chiat
Editorial Intern

Paul Rudnick
Harper Collins 2009, $23.99, 318 pages (hardcover)

In his latest book, Paul Rudnick, one of America’s preeminent humorists, exemplifies the kind of wit he has come to describe as “gay banter.” It is ironic, self-deprecating with undeniable swagger, devastatingly funny and poignantly effective.

“I Shudder” is a collection of essays and stories that deal with everything, from his childhood in Piscataway, N.J. and the death of his father to the brazenly funny sketches of his Broadway cohorts.

Mr. Rudnick utilizes Elyot Vionnet, Manhattan “fashion fascist,” protagonist of several stories, to deliver biting social commentaries. At once sunny and stabbing, he openly describes the gay community’s reaction to AIDs, channeling Vionnet, who knows what is right, what is wrong and what should be better in New York, the international “capital of absurdity.” Vionnet is a character that ensures that Mr. Rudnick’s message is heard.

Mr. Rudnick shines in the personal essay, “The Sisters,” an account of a visit by his mother and her two sisters to his Charles Street apartment in the West Village. He hears them complaining as they climb the many stairs to his top-floor flat. “Are there bugs?” they want to know. He can’t afford them, he tells them. “Is there a bathroom?” his Aunt Lil wants to know. He uses a bucket in the hall, he tells them. Personal and humorous, the amusing anecdotes detail the clash between values of the middle class and the counterculture.

This thematic friction runs through the whole text — whether it be the Bohemianism of the Village or the provincial attitude of New Jersey.

Mr. Rudnick’s favored topic, sexual orientation, is notably accentuated during a discussion of the problematic male kiss in the film “In and Out,” used to underscore the early medical reaction to AIDS.


Previous Book Reviews

Betrayal: The Life and Lies of Bernie Madoff
The Game of Opposites
Far From Zion: In Search of a Global Jewish Community
Remedies
Einstein on Israel and Zionism: His Provocative Ideas About the Middle East
The Increment
Dark Side of the Moon: Wernher von Braun, the Third Reich, and the Space Race
This Is Where I Leave You
Tales of the Ten Lost Tribes
I Shudder: And Other Reactions to Life, Death, and New Jersey
Barney Ross: The Life of a Jewish Fighter

2007 Jewish Book Award Finalists

Finalists for the 2007 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, administered the Jewish Book Council, have been announced. The $100,000 prize, the largest of its kind in the Jewish literary world, honors an emerging author in the field of Jewish literature who has written a book of exceptional literary merit that stimulates an interest in Jewish themes.

Finalists are: Ilana M. Blumberg for "Houses of Study: A Jewish Woman Among Books"; Eric L. Goldstein for "The Price of Whiteness: Jews, Race and American Identity"; Lucette Lagnado for "The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: My Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World"; Michael Makovsky for "Churchill's Promised Land: Zionism and Statecraft"; and Haim Watzman for "A Crack in the Earth: A Journey Up Israel's Rift Valley."

The inaugural Rohr Prize, awarded in 2006, went to Tamar Yellin for "The Genizah at the House of Shepher.”

2006 Jewish Book Winners

The National Jewish Book Association announced its 2006 award winners and finalists in a variety of categories. The winners are:

Jewish Book of the Year:
"A Code of Jewish Ethics" by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin
Click Here To Buy This Book"

American Jewish Studies:
Winner:
"Emma Lazarus" by Esther Schor
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Finalists:
"The Price of Whiteness" by Eric L. Goldstein
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"Crown Heights" by Edward Shapiro
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Anthologies and Collections
Winner:
"Writing a Modern Jewish History" by Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett
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Finalists:
"Scribblers on the Roof" by Melvin Jules Bukiet and David G. Roskies
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"Daughters of Sarah" by Eva Martin Santori
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Biography and Autobiography
Winner:
"The Lost" by Daniel Mendelsohn
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Finalists:
"This Has Happened" by Piera Sonnino and Ann Goldstein
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"A Family of Strangers" by Deborah Tall
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Children's and Young Adult Literature
Winner:
"The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak
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Finalists:
"Solomon and the Ant" by Sheldon Oberman and Peninnah Schram
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"Yellow Star" by Jennifer Roy
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Contemporary Jewish Life and Practice
Winner:
"Fragmented Families" by Ellen Sucov
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Finalists:
"The Jewish Book of Days" by Jill Hammer
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"Auschwitz" by Laurence Rees
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Eastern European Studies
Winner:
"Caviar and Ashes" by Marci Shore
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Finalists:
"Men of Silk" by Glenn Dynner
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"Fear" by Jan T. Gross
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Education and Jewish Identity
Winner:
"Building Jewish Roots" by Faydra Shapiro
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Finalist:
"Rethinking Synagogues" by Lawrence A. Hoffman
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Fiction
Winner:
"The World To Come" by Dara Horn
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Finalists:
"Accidents" by Yael Hedaya
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"Disobedience" by Naomi Alderman
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"Golden Country" by Jennifer Gilmore
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History
Winner:
"Becoming Eichmann" by David Cesarani
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Holocaust
Winner:
"The Enemy" by Jeffrey Hart
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Jewish Family Literature
Winner:
"Lilith's Ark" by Deborah Bodin Cohen
Click Here To Buy This Book

Women's Studies
Winner:
"Why Aren't Jewish Women Circumcised?" by Shaya Cohen
Click Here To Buy This Book


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