Product Description

Some time ago an elderly Indian friend of Martin Gilbert's, known to him as Auntie Fori, revealed that she was actually Jewish and asked him to recommend a history of the Jews. He decided to write it for her, in letter form, week by week. This book is the result. The letters begin with Abraham's journey from Mesopotamia to Canaan and cover all the great events of Jewish history: the migration to Egypt, entering the Promised Land, Moses and the Ten Commandments, the kingdoms of David and Solomon, the Assyrian destruction of Jewish independence, and so on through ancient and medieval times up to the present day. As one would expect, he writes particularly well - and movingly - about the Holocaust. The last couple of letters in this selection are about the modern state of Israel.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #608988 in Books
• Published on: 2003-06-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

About the Author
Born in London in 1936 and now resident in north London, Sir Martin Gilbert was educated at Highgate School and Magdalene College, Oxford. An outstanding historian of the 20th century, he became the official biographer of Sir Winston Churchill in 1968 and has written to great acclaim on the Holocaust and the events of the Second World War.

Customer Reviews

Dr Weil's recommendation
This book is a tour de force. In gripping English, Sir Martin Gilbert, the renowned Oxford historian, unfurls 5,000 years of Jewish history in 460 highly readable pages. In and of itself, this would be remarkable. Even more outstanding, is the Indian 'twist' to the story. I would recommend the book to anyone who would want to learn more about the Jewish history and religion. Attacking the most complex of subjects, Sir Martin somehow manages to transform history, ritual and text into lucid, comprehensible issues.

Easily Digested History
I have recommended this book to many friends; from those who are interested in filling in the gaps in their knowledge of Jewish History, to those who know nothing at all about it, and even this very evening to a relative of 12 1/2 years old, about to embark on his Barmitzvah, as the easy way to find out about who we, the Jewish People, are. That, in fact, was the object of the exercise when Martin Gilbert wrote the letters to Auntie Fori, as she had left her Jewish background whilst still very young and married into Indian 'aristocracy' with all the lifestyle changes that entailed. In old age, Fori asked him to tell her about the Jewish People, so he told her in the form of letters. His weekly epistle contained just enough information to take on in a short read, and short enough to make you keen to move onto the next letter. The letter format to a fondly regarded friend makes the tone of the book very accessible, yet being by this author it is also learned and erudite but never pompous. It makes easy reading for people of all backgrounds as he never assumes that Fori knows anything about Judaism and explains everything clearly. At the end is a glossary of Jewish festivals and customs; useful as a reference, and as so many tie in with biblical history they are a natural progression. Because of The Old Testament and Mosaic Law, the Jews have had a written history longer than other peoples. Regardless of the spiritual content of The Bible, there is plenty of factual history to be found in the Pentateuch.

Having read of the trials and tribulations and challenges thrown at the Jews over the millennia, it won't surprise the reader that a resourceful and successful race was born out of hardship. Sometimes, just when you think it can't get any worse - it does, yet here we are to tell the tale. And what a tale it is.

Fascinating history in the form of 141 letters
Letters to Auntie Fori documents Jewish history, faith and tradition in the form of 141 fascinating letters to a woman in India BK Nehru who reveals she is a Jew born in Hungary who would like to know something about her people. Gilbert traces Jewish history and faith from the Creation until the year 2000.
It is packed with some very interesting information written in a very interesting way. The way that Gilbert chose to present this history works very well.
Gilbert tells Aunt Fori that after Cain slew Abel and G-D, who of course knew of Abel's murder asked Cain where Abel was, Cain answered "Am I my brother's keeper?"
According to Jewish tradition the rest of the Bible explains how the answer is yes to teach us that we are all responsible for each other.
We learn that the matriarch Rachel, known to the Jews as Rachel Imenu (Rachel our mother) weeps in prayer for the Jewish people. It was giving birth to Joseph's younger brother that Rachel died. Her tomb between Jerusalem and Bethlehem is a holy site fr the Jewish people and for Christians, and has been desecrated by Palestinian mobs several times (which makes it odd that Gilbert says that is also a Muslim holy site).
In the section of King David, where Gilbert writes of the psalms David composed, we learn that Natan Scharansky, a Soviet dissident, imprisoned for many years by the Communists, found solace in a small book of psalms which he was able to keep with him, despite the hostility of his Soviet captors.
Interesting lesser known facts include the popular legend among Iraqi Jews that King Hoshea of the northern kingdom of Israel was deported by the Assyrians further east all the way to Japan where he became the first Japanese Emperor Oshe, founder of the Japanese imperial house. Dates which coincide bear out that this actually could be the case.
While Part 1 deals with the events of the Biblical era, Part 2 deals with the era of the Greek conquest of the Land of Israel up to the Zionist revival of the late 19th century.

It deals with Christian and Islamic persecution as well as the different periods in the development of Judaism including the birth of the Chassidic movement and the Haskalah ("Enlightenment") of the 18th century.

It is interesting to note how the cry of anti-Semites was once "Jews, go to Palestine" and is now "Jews, out of Palestine".

The book takes us through modern anti-Semitism, the Holocaust (of which Gilbert is one of the most prolific historians) and the rebirth of the State of Israel, and it's struggle for survival over 60 years.

We read o the many pogroms against Jews in Arab lands during and after world War II (encouraged by the Nazis) which is knowledge for those who thought the Holocaust was merely by Europeans against Ashkenazic Jews in Europe.
While reading about the War of Independence of 1948, it struck me how Israel-haters harp on about the so-called Deir Yassin massacre while airbrushing out of history events such as the Hebron massacre of Jews in 1929 and the massacre by Arabs of a convoy of Jewish nurses and doctors, known as the Hadassah convoy.
The book traces the history until 2000 when Ehud Barak was the Israeli Prime Minister and the world was hopeful for peace.
A few months after the book concludes, Arafat reacted to a generous offer by Barak of almost all of the disputed territories AND land inside pre-1967 Israel with a war of terror against the Israeli people, supplemented by a massive propaganda war to destroy Israel waged around the world.
The last part of the book is an explanation- in brief- of Jewish faith and worship.