A magnificent history of Vienna’s antisemitic past, told through the voices of those who lived and died there.
Empty streets.
Before World War I, Vienna was, for several decades, “one of the cradles of modernism,” writes Smith, a historian and translator as well as the author of Rasputin (2016) and Former People (2012). But the city was also the crucible of antisemitism. In this powerful and well-researched history of the city, Smith traces the roots of Vienna’s antisemitic society from the late-19th through mid-20th centuries. Beginning with the vicious policies of the city’s mayor, Karl Lueger, at the turn of the century and working through the plight of a demoralized Austria after World War I, Smith turns to the city that “birthed Hitler’s dream, and Europe’s nightmare.” The nascent nationalisms simmering in the old Austro-Hungarian Empire bubbled into resentment against the successful Jewish families of Vienna. By the late 1930s, deportation was in full swing. Josef Löwenherz, personally appointed by Adolf Eichmann—the architect of the Holocaust—as head of the Jewish community in 1938, vividly “likened himself to a piece of paper caught in a pair of scissors,” Smith writes. By 1941, Jews were being arrested daily. Then we get to the heart of the book: the evidence of personal documents, letters, and journals of the long-forgotten men and women whose lives were snipped in two. Reading the stories of Vienna’s Jews in their own voices leaves an indelible scar. You can’t but feel marked by the yellow star yourself, can’t but feel the dislocations of transport and incarceration. This is a book of civic history on both the personal and the grand scale. Archives have been opened, “incorporating all the new findings of recent decades in a broad history of the subject.” Smith lets the dead speak for themselves. And, after all, isn’t that what history is supposed to do?
A magnificent history of Vienna’s antisemitic past, told through the voices of those who lived and died there.Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026
ISBN: 9780374606558
Page Count: 560
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2026
An eye-opening and thought-provoking read.
Antisemitism is alive and well and worth talking about.
Fersko, senior rabbi at the Village Temple in Manhattan and vice president of the Women’s Rabbinic Network, argues that Americans of all backgrounds must discuss antisemitism. The author notes that many people view antisemitism as a problem of the past, an issue that is rare and isolated in 21st-century America. She demonstrates convincingly that this mindset is misinformed and that antisemitism is on the rise. Early on Fersko provides a lengthy explanation of antisemitism as “the longest-held, farthest-reaching conspiracy theory in the world.” She explains that antisemitism is a belief in a variety of lies and stereotypes about Jews and Judaism, which manifests in everything from seemingly innocuous remarks to outright physical violence. Fersko points to seven points of dialogue that Jews and non-Jews need to address in order to help battle antisemitism, including race, Christianity, microaggressions, the Holocaust, and Israel. Throughout, she urges readers to educate themselves about the past and to learn to recognize the prejudices about Jews that many Americans inherit unknowingly. Though Fersko addresses such obvious sources of antisemitism as right-wing and racially based extremist groups, she makes it clear throughout the book that the American left is also a major source of antisemitism today. In some cases, this is seen in virulent anti-Israel stances, where left-wing activists portray Jews as racists and oppressors. In other cases, American liberals simply perpetrate tropes and stereotypes about their Jewish friends and neighbors, often through microaggressions, misplaced humor, miseducation about the Holocaust, etc. Though there are certainly points for debate, the text serves as a meaningful starting point for dialogue. If nothing else, she provides the important reminder that the age-old specter of antisemitism is not extinct; in many ways, it’s stronger and more dangerous than at any time since the Holocaust.
An eye-opening and thought-provoking read.Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2023
ISBN: 9781541601949
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Seal Press
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2023
An important dialogue at a fraught time, emphasizing mutual candor, curiosity, and respect.
Two bestselling authors engage in an enlightening back-and-forth about Jewishness and antisemitism.
Acho, author of Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man, and Tishby, author of Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth, discuss many of the searing issues for Jews today, delving into whether Jewishness is a religion, culture, ethnicity, or community—or all of the above. As Tishby points out, unlike in Christianity, one can be comfortably atheist and still be considered a Jew. She defines Judaism as a “big tent” religion with four main elements: religion, peoplehood, nationhood, and the idea of tikkun olam (“repairing the world through our actions”). She addresses candidly the hurtful stereotypes about Jews (that they are rich and powerful) that Acho grew up with in Dallas and how Jews internalize these antisemitic judgments. Moreover, Tishby notes, “it is literally impossible to be Jewish and not have any connection with Israel, and I’m not talking about borders or a dot on the map. Judaism…is an indigenous religion.” Acho wonders if one can legitimately criticize “Jewish people and their ideologies” without being antisemitic, and Tishby offers ways to check whether one’s criticism of Jews or Zionism is antisemitic or factually straightforward. The authors also touch on the deteriorating relationship between Black and Jewish Americans, despite their historically close alliance during the civil rights era. “As long as Jewish people get to benefit from appearing white while Black people have to suffer for being Black, there will always be resentment,” notes Acho. “Because the same thing that grants you all access—your skin color—is what grants us pain and punishment in perpetuity.” Finally, the authors underscore the importance of being mutual allies, and they conclude with helpful indexes on vernacular terms and customs.
An important dialogue at a fraught time, emphasizing mutual candor, curiosity, and respect.Pub Date: April 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781668057858
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Simon Element
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2024
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