Customer Reviews

Fragile Branches: Travels through the Jewish Diaspora

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This is a well-written, easy-to-read investigation of some unusual Jewish and Jewish wannabe communities in Uganda, Peru, Brazil, India, and even Israel. There are chapters on the ever-increasing discovery of Marranos and their descendents and an interesting one on the Karaite community, who are officially acknowledged as Jews by the rabbinic authorities in Israel though their rabbis are not. Ross focuses on several individuals in each chapter, which brings the research down to a personal and more readable level. He is also careful not to take any one `expert's' advice on the theories of some of the communitites who claim `Lost Tribe' status but brings objective reporting into the argument. Each chapter can be read independent of each other, with an introduction and conclusion linking them. On the whole, interesting and very readable of some unusual communities!

What exactly makes someone Jewish? Is being Jewish an ethnic characteristic, is it based on beliefs, or is it cultural? This fascinating book takes a look at scattered communities that self-identify as Jewish, but which are outside the mainstream, often because of isolation. How interesting to find that there are people who, entirely on their own through study of the Bible, decided to be Jewish. In the remote jungles of the Amazon are small communities of people trying to be Jewish. Are the lost tribes of Israel to be found in the New World, in Peru and Brazil? There are people living there who think so. What about the black Jews of Africa? There are several, notably in Ethiopia and South Africa. One community, the Lemba, have been proven by DNA analysis to be ethnically Jewish, even though they appear to be black Africans. Who should enjoy the Right of Return, the right of every Jew to live in Israel?

Other authors have explored Jewish history and found other peoples who were not originally Jewish. Arthur Koestler wrote an account of the Khazars of Eastern Europe, who adopted the Jewish religion in the 7th century and who may be the ancestors of the Ashkenazi Jews, in his book, Thirteenth Tribe. This book was controversial, but it is clear that there have been groups of people who have become Jewish by choice rather than by ancestry.

It is well known that there are people of Jewish ancestry who stopped being Jewish. What about the thousands of Jews who avoided torture during the Spanish Inquisition by converting to Christianity? It appears that, in many cases, those "conversions" did not really take. Some of these closet Jews (known as "Marranos" or "conversos") moved to South America and took up Jewish practices once again, but often with the hostility of existing local Jewish congregations who did not regard them as really Jewish. As Marranos attempted to gain recognition as Jews, disputes arose among rabbis as to whether they needed to be converted or whether no conversion was needed because they were already Jews. The author takes us into the fascinating and largely unknown lives of people facing this dilemma.

I learned in this book that the Catholic Inquisition actually followed these immigrants to Brazil, where many were hunted down and deported to Portugal and some were condemned to death for practicing Judaism. This book really brings home the meaning of the expression "Wandering Jew." It seems whatever it is that makes someone Jewish is a burden to bear in a world that mostly has not welcomed them. It is also a lesson in how this global wandering has created variations in practice that in turn create disputes over what is authentically Jewish. Ironically, this is the same problem the Catholic Church, which so vigorously tortured Jews for their religion, has with its indigenous converts who are prone to incorporating pagan and unorthodox beliefs and practices into their Catholicism. With the decline of the Catholic Church and huge shortage of priests, these mixed practices are likely to accelerate.

I enjoyed this book and found these stories to be inspiring; here are people who made a conscious decision about what they believed and how they wanted to think of themselves, people who declared themselves Jewish. They did not become Jewish through proselytizing or persecution, but through conviction. The rabbis may argue and the state of Israel may decide they are or are not Jewish, but these are people of courage who are living with the faith of their choice. In many, but not all, cases, it is also the faith of their fathers.

We can never know for sure how many of us have Jewishness in our ancestry which has disappeared due to persecution, but how interesting to find that some people who may never have had any Jewishness in their genes at all nevertheless want to be Jews.

Well written. Well researched. Reads like classic novel.