Customer Reviews

The Death of an American Jewish Community: A Tragedy of Good Intentions

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3 star:		(1)
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As this type of exodus had occurred before in other large U.S cities, I believe this book is an excellent detailed account of what occurred in Boston. The author does a great job of showing all of the issues facing those involved (local politicians, Jews, Blacks, etc.). The end got a little boring for me since I was interested less in the legislation surrounding this problem and more in how it affected individuals. I highly recommend this book if you're from the Boston area or know the area they speak of well.

I grew up in the neighbourhood described in this book. We left in the mid-fifties along with many other families for the near suburbs, but I remember the vitality of the neighbourhood well. We continued to return to the area (just off Blue Hill Avenue in Roxbury) until my remaining relatives were driven out.

The authors go into great detail to set the scene of the neighbourhood and to describe the motives and actions of the main participants. I think that there is sufficient evidence to conclude whether any party has a greater share of the blame -- if blame must be attached at all. The authors point their finger at the banks (who always seem to be castigated for being Brahmins). Relying on the authors' own evidence, I conclude that it was the result of the cruel, vicious, criminal and arrogant, posturing blacks who drove the Jews out. Exceptions to this were noted in the book. The authors said that the Irish were tougher and wouldn't give in to intimidation so easily; the Jews were seen as easy marks. How right those harsh characterisations were!.

The book left my mother in tears. Highly accurate, the book will give you something to cry over if you knew the area. It will puncture a liberal myth in any case.

As a student of Urban Life/History in the US, there are two great books to read on urban renewal: this book and the Power Broker (Caro). What Levine and Harmon expose in Boston, Caro does the same for NY. The difference is that the latter seeks to blame an individual (Robert Moses) for the demise of communities, cultures, homes and neighborhoods, while the former holds financial institutions and the government accountable. Nonetheless, I believe this book is a must read for anyone interested in understanding the intracies surrounding urban development. If you are like me, you will not put this book down.

Its easy to believe that the status quo is inevitable, that Jews have always lived in faceless suburbs. But this book shows that this is not so--once upon a time there were Jewish neighborhoods just like there are Chinatowns and black neighborhoods today. And it also shows that the status quo isn't just a natural result of the market -- that government "urban renewal" drove blacks out of older neighborhoods into those Jewish neighborhoods, thus spurring Jewish flight. These sorts of places aren't totally extinct--if you want to see a slightly more upscale version of what Blue Hill Avenue must have looked like, visit Squirrel Hill in Pittsburgh sometime (I think the major commercial strip is Murray Avenue, but I haven't visited there from some years).

Being born and raised in the Roxbury/Dorchester section of Boston and being a child whose parents chose to leave, I was quite familiar with the names, dates and places mentioned in the book. The book answered many questions about community and government involvment during those hectic times. Elected city officials nationwide should be required to read this book.

"This book is must reading for urban planners and elected officials. I cannot recommend it enough" Paul J. Walkowski, Author, "From Trial Court to the United States Supreme Court"

Some of the individuals in this book were slandered by blaming them unfairly for the purchase of Temple Beth Hillel by the city of Boston. The bias of the authors was not tempered by interviewing the Temple members whom they verbally attacked.
A one-sided account was given by the authors who never lived the experience of an ever changing, now dangerous area from which Boston's Jewish population was literally forced to flee by threats and intimidation.
When one of the author's was questioned by a family member of one of those he slandered (since deceased and thus unable to defend himself), his reaction was: "Go ahead, sue me."
Although the book overall is interesting, some parts, regretably, are pure fiction!