Memoirs of My People : Through A Thousand Years

Plot

This is a monumental anthology which contains autobiographies of distinguished Jewish personnages many of whom are not very known or remembered today. Judah Asheri, Menahem benZerah, Solomon Molko , Simon von Geldern, Aron Isak, Eliakum Zunser, Ezekiel Kotick have their place here along side legendary and historical figures like Moses Maimonedes, Gluckel of Hameln, Sholom Aleichem , Hayim Nachman Bialik , Theodor Herzl, Martin Buber. A tremendous variety and richness of experience is chronicled in this volume .There are many wonderful surprises and insights.
I especially enjoyed Martin Buber's account of how he learned to admire the Hasidic world. His fascination with this world was from early childhood but only in young manhood did he put himself in close touch with the world, and began that proces of Translation and Revelation which would be so critical to the world's understanding of Hasidism. I also enjoyed an account by Jesse Sampter of her early years in Eretz Yisrael, the excitement and pioneering spirit of the time, her sense of the beauty of the land. What surprised me once again was that I was not thrilled by the writing of Heinrich Heine his account of his early education. He is one of the great writers I have never really felt the greatness of. I enjoyed in contrast to this Sholom Aleichem's account of his beginning years, his stories of how he was class clown, mimic, and general entertainer, the prelude to his career as great Yiddish writer.