Howard Fast's The Jews--Story of a People

I just turned the last page of Howard Fast's The Jews - Story of a People. I was offered it by a friend in the orchestra and once I got going on it, it really riveted my attention.

The fat, 380-page, old-fashioned paperback, yellowing with age, reminded me of the delicate scrolls found by the dead sea in the 1940's--better turn carefully. The tale begins at the beginning--people very unlike today's Jews--and ends with modern life, including the State of Israel. Written in 1968, Israel had just won back some territory and the mood was exhilarating.

I learned a lot I didn't know about how Jews lived in different places and times. I didn't know about Jewish expertise in map making. It's pretty much assumed that a Jewish map expert was along with Columbus. Speaking of that, 1492 is associated with Columbus but is also the year that Jews were expelled from Spain. Because Jews were so actively involved in the economy of the country, it declined significantly after the expulsion. That showed them--well it probably didn't, since it appears that we don't learn much from history.

Jews were some of the great early doctors, and were way ahead of other groups in their knowledge and skills. That meant that many leaders kept a Jewish doctor on hand--even if the "official" policy was to drive them out of their country. Jews had well developed trade routes a thousand years ago which were broken up by the lunatic Crusaders.

The hardest thing in the book was to read about all the terrible things that have happened to the Jewish people--for so long and in so many places. So many killings and burnings and so much destruction. Some tyrant would go on a rant and hundreds of Jewish settlements perished. We all know about the Holocaust in Germany in the 1940's that took six MILLION Jewish lives--surely the worst thing ever to happen to one group of people. What I didn't know was the long history of German anti-Semitism. It was just the most recent outbreak of it. And what about the Crusades? Unspeakable horrors. It seems the Catholic church has had anti-Semitism as part of it's program since the beginning. I have hope that today is different, but we'll see.

Somehow, in his telling of the story of the Egyptian slaves to the desert wanderers, the first and second Temples in Jerusalem, and the varying strains of the Diaspora, Fast never gets you feeling too depressed. The greatness of how Jews have prospered--in spite of their difficulties--is very inspirational. And it ties in a little with what I'm sensing from my increased reading of the Jewish prayers. The tone is so positive and so much involved in praising God and feeling grateful to be alive that it must have sustained people through terrible times. Somewhere, in Jewish minds, there is a God who values the times we perform the commandments and the mitzvot we're asked to do. Well, of course, I don't do most of them, but I'm becoming aware of that as I learn what they are.

It's interesting to read about the early Jews--especially because there's so much we can't really know for sure. The later history, especially of the remarkable history of the Jewish migration from Eastern Europe starting in 1881 and lasting for decades, is easier to chronicle. I wish I could know more about my family--which came over in that movement. It's also interesting to read about the founding of Israel and the various ways that the countries tried to make it more difficult. Like anything, the more you know (and I'm just scratching the surface) the more complex the picture becomes.

I live in a special time and place on the West Coast of America in the 21st century, when it's fine to be a Jew and really no problem at all. The real issue, then, becomes assimilation, and I've done a perfect job of it. I can't be blamed, really, that in the freedom I've always known I've chosen not to participate in most of the Jewish things around me. The book places me more centrally in the history and future of Judaism. Strange that without the terrible situations that kept Jews together in their communities, we end up losing not our lives--or our comforts--but we do lose our connection to our culture and community.

What should my NEXT book be?