01.01.70

In 1907, when Austrian artist Gustav Klimt painted his famed portrait of the Viennese socialite Adele Bloch-Bauer, he could not have known that the sophisticated world inhabited by the sitter's wealthy Jewish family would be destroyed by the Nazi takeover of the country in 1938. Adele's heirs fled to Switzerland ---- their business interests in tatters and their art collection, including the portrait, confiscated by Hitler's minions.

As Washington Post journalist Anne-Marie O'Connor relates in her painstakingly researched history of the case, it would take 68 years and a massive legal fight before descendants succeeded in reclaiming the art from the Austrian government. The bureaucratic stonewalling and politically motivated bad faith they encountered added insult to the tragedy of the Holocaust. But through the tireless efforts of figures including American attorney E. Randol Schoenberg, who spearheaded the recovery effort, justice was eventually done. O'Connor's narrative is enriched by extensive interviews and a remarkable trove of family correspondence.

Source: North County Times

by Matt Robinson / JointMedia News Service

In “When General Grant Expelled the Jews,” Sarna examines the little-known history of Ulysses S. Grant’s “General Orders No. 11,” a notorious proclamation in 1862 that changed the face of American Jewry and might have changed the face of the nation itself, had it not been for two things: President Abraham Lincoln and faulty telecommunications. “But it did not say even that,” Sarna explains. “It said all Jews, so many innocent people, had to vacate their homes just because they happened to be Jewish.” Since Grant was in charge of such a large swath of land — stretching from its titular Tennessee territories to Mississippi, Ohio, and Kentucky — many Jews were potentially affected. “What happens basically is that when the Jews were expelled from Paducah, Ky., one of the Jews who is expelled — Cesar Kaskel — rushes down to Washington…on a Saturday, and goes directly to a congressman from Ohio who was a Republican who had ties to the White House,” Sarna says....

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by judabra0

Rit Millah,Jewish Naming Conventions,Bar Mitz•wâh′,leaving home,Marriage,etc.The explanation about the scriptural and Jewish understanding of Divorce is very different,I discovered,than the commonly held beliefs in the Xtn,secular world and civil practices.The book continues where The First Jewish Catalog left off,in contining to show how every part of Jewish life revolves around and reflects the Torah and his/her relationship to The Perfect-Singularity-Creator.

I think the great thing that makes the First and Second Jewish Catalogs important reading is their "hands-on," fun approach to making a Tor•âh Ꞌ life enjoyable, fun and a great experience (rather than the often-hateful, occult-ritualistic, sour, medieval and superstitious sanctimony of the Ultra-Orthodox). [Quote: Richard Bligdon]

Source: Book review, Second Jewish catalog, Judaism, Torah