eersake to

e

wealthy merchant, Pereira helped to
organize the Jews of Amsterdam and to
build the famous Portuguese synagogue,
which stands to this day.
Court Jews, such as Samuel
Oppenheimer and Samson Wertheimer,
figured significantly in the development
of Hapsburg rule over Austria and sur-
rounding territories. While they tried to
improve the lot of their fellow Jews, they
encountered considerable opposition
and envy from both Christians and
Jews.
Following chapters on the rise of the
Rothschilds and the Jews of the shtetl in
the Pale of Settlement, the saga of Alfred
Dreyfus and of French Jewry is present-
ed. Even though well over 100 yeais
have passed since the anti-Semitic hor-
rors of the Dreyfus case frightened Jews
everywhere, Levine's effective re-creation
of the story still has the power to send a
chill down the spine.
The last four times and places that are
dealt with include American Jewry in
the early part of the 20th century; pre-
Nazi Germany in the 1920s; Vilna in
World War II; and Soviet Jewry before
the end of Communist rule.
Finally, the contemporary Diaspora is
considered and the book concludes with
the assertion that Jews are forever bur-
dened with the task of "coming to terms
with the Jewish condition" in every time
and place.
Levine has given us an exceedingly
well-written survey of Jewish history
since the expulsion from Spain in 1492.
Some might quarrel with his starting
point by arguing that the Diaspora on
which he concentrates really began in
586 B.C.E. and 70 A.D. when the tem-
ples were destroyed.
However, this would be quibbling in
view of the author's remarkable ability to
combine lively popular history with out-
standing scholarship. •
— Morton I. Teicher

A CD slideshow of over 160 beautiful photographs from the
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit's Miracle Mission 4.

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v *2,

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2004

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