An Incomparable Guide to
the Lost Jewish Communities
The
Encyclopedia of Jewish Life,
Edited by Shmuel Spector and Geoffrey Wigoder,
New York, NYU Press, 2001; $395
by Mitchell Bard
Monumental. It is not a
word one can often use to describe a book,
but it is perhaps the only appropriate one
to describe the remarkable three volume set
titled The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life.
This is not a set that anyone is likely to
read through from cover to cover, but it is
an invaluable documentary record of life in
more than 6,500 Jewish communities before
and after the Holocaust that should, at the very least, be browsed
from cover to cover.
The three volumes, 1824 pages,
are actually abridged from a 30-volume set
in Hebrew published after three decades of
research by scholars for Yad
Vashem, so an even more astounding collection
is available to readers who can read it in
the original language. As it is, the book
provides a wealth of information produed by
more than 80 international contributors. For
some small towns, the entries may be a few
lines while for the larger cities, the history
stretches for several pages. More than 600
black-and-white photographs are sprinkled
throughout the text to add a visual sense
of the time and place. The entries are listed
in alphabetical order so it's very easy to
use and there is also an excellent chronology,
glossary and index of personalities.
The encyclopedia will certainly
be invaluable to scholars and those with a
special interest in the Holocaust and Jewish history, but it may also be of
particular interest for people interested
in tracing their family histories and the
places they've come from. One frustration
in looking up European places is often the
confusing spellings, but the editors wisely
anticipated this and provide an index of communities
that includes alternative spellings.
If there is a criticisim,
it is that the title is somewhat misleading.
I expected this to be a history of Jewish
life through the ages around the world rather
than one that specifically relates to the Holocaust.
The book does contain some history on communities
that does not relate directly to the Holocaust,
but it is essentially a book about the impact
of Hitler's extermination campaign on Jewish communities,
large and small, that fell within his control.
The size of the encyclopedia is depressing
because it gives a sense of the magnitude
of the catastrophe that befell the Jewish
people. It is not the numbers, however, that
are important. As with so much about the Holocaust,
it is easy to cite statistics and lose sight
of the impact of the Nazis on day to day life
and institutions, but this encyclopedia makes
clear the lasting damage they did not only
to individuals but to communities.
Sources: Mitchel Bard is the Executive Director of the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise |