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GG44

November 18 • 2010

MI

ichly illustrated, Marek
Halter's The Jewish
Odyssey (Flammarion;
$49.95) is an oversized coffee-
table-style volume that goes
beyond a visual treat for the
eyes. Halter, a best-selling
author of more than 20 books,
weaves biblical texts, historical
events and personal experi-
ences into a story of the
Jewish people that transcends
four millennia.
A painter with several
international exhibitions,
Halter's 220-page history
is presented with a curator's eye,
made vivid with 150 illustrations.
Many are beautiful pictures drawn
by famous painters who specialized
in art of the Bible, among them Fra
Angelico, Rembrandt, Michelangelo,
Blake, Fragonard, Brueghel and
Tissot.
A resident of France since 1950
and a political activist who orga-
nized the International Committee
for a Negotiated Peace Agreement
in the Near East, Halter escaped as
a young child with his family from
the Warsaw Ghetto. He was awarded
the Legion d'Honneur by President
Nicolas Sarkozy of France.
Halter charts the course of
Judaism in three sections.
In the first, titled "From Sumer to
Jerusalem: The Origins of a People
he begins with Terah, an idol-maker
in the Sumerian city of Ur, whose
youngest son, Abram, smashed the
idols and followed the voice of God,
Who ordered him to travel with
his wife, Sarai, to Canaan. With his
name changed to Abraham, which
means father of many nations, and
his wife's to Sarah begins the "birth
of a new people, the Hebrews!'
Halter goes on to discuss Isaac,
Jacob, Joseph and Moses; how the
Hebrews settled in the land of

Canaan; and briefly
describes what happened when Saul,
David and Solomon ruled as kings.
The period of the two kingdoms,
Judah and Israel; the Hellenization
of the Jews and victory of the
Maccabees; the rule of Herod, the
Roman conquest and the rise of
Christianity and Islam follow.
Halter devotes the second sec-
tion of his narrative, titled "Next
Year in Jerusalem: Enlightenment,
Destruction, Renaissance to an
overview of Jewish history, begin-
ning with the Jews of France
(including a mention of the medi-
eval biblical commentator Rashi)
and moving on to the Crusades;
the Jews of Spain and the Ottoman
Empire; early Jewish settlements
in what is now Israel; Polish
Jewry; Kabbalah; the false mes-
siah, Sabbatai Zevi; the Haskala
(the Enlightenment); the French
Revolution; return of the Jews to
England in 1656; Theodor Herzl;
Zionism; Nazi persecution; the
Jews of Russia; World War II;
establishment of Israel; the War
of Independence; the airlifts of
Yemenite and Ethiopian Jews; the
Six-Day War; and the Refuseniks.
Finally, in the section titled "Israel