About Books

A History Of God,
A Child's View Of Russia,
And The Frozen Chosen

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM ASSOCIATE EDITOR

THE DETRO IT J EWIS H NEWS

I

80

The Staff Of
Borg's Barbers
Wishes Their Customers,
Families and Friends
A Happy, Healthy New Year

14 Mile at Farmington Road • Simsbury Plaza • 810-855-8250

n the beginning there was an Ben Copies Inc.), the 18th annu-
author named Karen Arm- al calendar featuring games,
strong who took on God. recipes and Jewish history tid-
Who is the God of the bits for Jewish children.
Written by Judye Groner and
philosophers, she asks. Who is
the God of the mystics? And does Madeline Wilder, My Very Own
Jewish Calendar contains He-
God have a future?
In A History of God: The brew and English dates; Ameri-
4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, can, Canadian and Jewish
Christianity and Islam, (Bal- holidays; Torah portions; and
lantine), Ms. Armstrong — a candle-lighting times for major
leading British commentator on U.S. and Canadian cities.
The calendar also has cute
religious affairs — takes on such
ideas about writing "dreidel
complex, enigmatic questions.
A former nun, Ms. Armstrong thank-you notes," a 1913
Chanukah crossword puzzle and
describes her book as:
a history of the way men and a recipe for Passover s'mores.
(By the way, the "Land of the
women have perceived (God) from
Abraham to the present day. The Frozen Chosen" is how some An-
human idea of God has a histo- chorage Hadassah members re-
ry, since it has always meant fer to home.)
something slightly different
to each group of people who
have used it at various points
of time. The idea of God
formed in one generation by
one set of human beings
could be meaningless in an-
other. Indeed, the statement
`I believe in God' has no ob-
jective meaning, as such, but
like any other statement only
means something in context,
when proclaimed by a par-
ticular community. Conse-
quently there is no one
unchanging idea contained
in the word 'God; instead, the
world contains a whole spec-
trum of meanings, some of
which are contradictory or
even mutually exchisive.
A best-seller on the New
York Times list, A History of
God includes chapters on the
"God of Islam" and the effect
of the Enlightenment on re-
ligion. She also considers
why 99 percent of the Amer-
ican population believes in
God, yet there also exists an
extensive crime and drug
problem. "In Europe," she
adds, "there is a growing
blankness where God once
existed in the human con- From the new "My Very Own Jewish
Calendar"
sciousness."
ou know about Niet-
ho knows 10? Mark
zsche. You know about
Podwal knows 10.
Vaughn Williams. You
Mr. Podwal, also
know about the Theory of
the author of A Book
Relativity. (Well, you sort of know
about the Theory of Relativity. of Hebrew Letters and illus-
You know it has something to do trator of Elie Wiesel's The Golem,
knows plenty of 10s. And he
with Einstein.)
But do you know about the writes of them in The Book of
Tens (Greenwillow Press).
Frozen Chosen?
"Ten," he says, "is endowed
So pick up the 5755 My Very
Own Jewish Calendar (Kar- with many sacred meanings, es-

y

pecially among the Jewish peo-
ple."
His Book of Tens features brief
descriptions and colorful illus-
trations of such lOs as the 10
wonders created on the first day,
the 10 generations that passed
from Adam to Noah and, of
course, the Ten Commandments.
One legend says that they were
formed from a piece of the foun-
dation stone, believed to be the
center of the world, that lies on
Mount Moriah in Jerusalem.. An-
other says that the tablets were
fashioned out of a sapphire from
God's throne. Although the tablets
were made of stone, they could be
rolled up like a scroll.
Also new for older children,
Behind the Border (Lothrop),
Nina Kossman's story from a
young girl's perspective of life in
the former Soviet Union.

In 1930, Adler began
a lecture tour of
Michigan.

Nina feels odd that she doesn't
love "grandfather" Lenin as much
as she loves her parents, and the
whole idea of national borders is
confusing. But most disconcert-
ing is what's so different about
Nina because she's a Jew.
When her teacher says that
Jews are just like all other Rus-
sians, then asks Jewish children
to identify themselves, Nina be-
gins to cry.
I didn't know what all this was
about. I just knew that there was
something embarrassing about
being a Jew; it was being differ-
ent from everyone else.
Ms.Kossman now lives in New
York, where she is an author,
artist and language instructor.
ope Edelman was 17 when
her mother died of breast
cancer. She had no one to
turn to, no place to go for
help.
Thirteen years later, Ms. Edel-
man has written a book for those
in similar situations. Mother-
less Daughters: The Legacy
of Loss (Addison-Wesley Pub-
lishing) is a kind of guidebook
and companion to any woman
who has lost a mother to death,
divorce, abandonment or emo-
tional absence.
In her book, Ms. Edelman

H