The Cook, The Peace,
The Dalai and Hitler's Shadow

The 43rd annual
Jewish Book Fair

brought a unique

mix of authors to
Detroit.

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

T

he accent, Yaron Svo-
ray said, was the easy
part.
With the support of
the Simon Wiesenthal
Center, the Israeli
journalist spent nine
months infiltrating Germany's
neo-Nazi movement. He made up
a name, Ron Furey (who could
miss the similarity to fuhrer?) and
explained his Israeli accent by
telling people he was an Ameri-
can with roots in Italy. "First of
all, Germans have no ear for ac-
cents," he said.
Second, he escaped suspicion
because no one noticed anything
unusual in the way Mr. Svoray
appears.
"I didn't fit their image of a Jew
because I don't have a long beard
and a big, hooked nose," he said. Yaron Svoray
"They literally think that's what
all Jews look like."
he feared for his life while work-
And finally, no one cared what ing undercover in Germany, it
accent he had once he spoke the never crossed his mind to retreat.
magic words: "I'm a Nazi like "I went in believing that what I
you."
was doing was 100 percent cor-
Mr. Svoray, who describes his rect," he said.
experiences in Germany in In
Mr. Svoray's strange journey
Hitler's Shadow: An Israeli's into the world of neo-Nazis began
Amazing Journey Inside Ger- in 1992 while traveling through
many's Neo-Nazi Movement, was Germany, where he met a skin-
among the head who believed him to be a
guests at the Nazi sympathizer.
Eager to infiltrate the move-
43rd annual
Jewish Book ment, Mr. Svoray soon returned,
Fair held at posing as editor of the fictitious
the Jewish Right Way magazine. (Nazi
Community sources in the United States
Center in would in fact call the number of
West Bloom- the "magazine," actually located
field.
at the Wiesenthal Center offices.
More than Wiesenthal officials even created
30,000 per- a Nazi journal to send callers.)
Mr. Svoray met up with liter-
sons attend-
ed the Book ally hundreds of German neo-
Fair, which Nazis, few of whom were what he
featured au- expected.
I went in looking for the new
thors that
chairman Nazis, the skinheads who drink
Chris Lewis beer and like to beat up the
described as Turks," he said. "What I found
"some of the was the bankers and the profes-
most diverse sors, the chiefs of police and the
and out- doctors — not people on the fringe
standing, whose topics ranged — and all of them are reading
from politics to spirituality, and Mein Kampf"
Red Auerbach to Menachem Be-
Among the men whom Mr.
gin. Book sales were excellent Svoray met: Jaschka, a young
and the mood was euphoric."
skinhead whose chest is covered
In an interview, Mr. Svoray with tattooed skulls and
said that while there were times swastikas, who asked Mr. Svo-

"

Joan Nathan

ray to help him kill his par- (written in 1871, it is believed to
ents; Nationalist Front be the first kosher cookbook pub-
leader Meinolf Schonborn, lished in this country) and the
who hopes to create under- story of a Polish immigrant
ground cells of young sup- named Reuben Mattus, who
porters for indoctrination wanted to make ice cream and
and training, as well as a came up with a crazy name for
"philosophical center" for his product. He called it Haagen-
Nazism; and Karl Wilhelm Dasz.
Krause, Hitler's former
Ms. Nathan said she re-
valet.
searched her book in various
After completing his re- ways. She solicited recipes from
search, Mr. Svoray — whose around the country (Jewish Cook-
story will be told in an HBO ing in America includes two from
film set to air in April — no- Michigan). She searched other
tified the German authori- cookbooks. She visited the Amer-
ties of his discoveries. But ican Jewish Archives where she
he said they have yet to ar- read through memoirs and bi-
rest any of the men about ographies.
whom he wrote (all Nazi ac-
What she was searching for,
tivity, including the use of she said, were recipes that "were
Third Reich symbols, is ille- a part of something." She didn't
gal in Germany).
just want any blintz recipe, she
"No one is paying atten- wanted a blintz recipe with a sto-
tion," he said.
ry. (She eventually selected for
"Yes, the numbers aren't that her book the many-cheese blintz
big now — they were small when recipe of Dorothy Licht, wife of
Hitler started, too — but these former Rhode Island Gov. Frank
are dangerous people and
they're willing to act. It's like
they have a fire in their bel-
ly and it has to come out."
0 one ever knew quite
what to expect at
Joan Nathan's dinner
table.
It could be something
tasty like Hungarian
goulash, Cuban black bean
soup, or matzah balls with
pecans. Or it could be some-
thing like the much-ma-
ligned eggplant, which Ms.
Nathan's children opted to
skip.
"My husband and I ate it,"
she said.
The food testing was part
of Ms. Nathan's research for
her book Jewish Cooking in
America, comprising more
than 300 recipes for singu- Barbara Victor
larly sumptuous suppers
ranging from Syrian cheese sam- Licht, who got the recipe from her
busak to Confederate Secretary mother-in-law.)
of State Judah Benjamin's chick-
All foods were tested at the
en with peppers, from salad with Nathan home. Ms. Nathan, who
nasturtiums and a champagne also writes about food for the New
basil vinaigrette to chicken jam- York Times, said she would "ba-
balaya.
sically" follow the recipe, but she
The cookbook also is filled with can never resist the urge to add
tasty tidbits about the history of fresh herbs instead of dried, or
Jewish food in America, like Es- egg whites instead of whole eggs,
ther Levy's Jewish Cookery Book or garlic instead of garlic salt, or