Portraits of Our Past: Jews of the German Countryside [Hardcover]

Emily C Rose (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2001

An absorbing look at the daily lives of rural Jews in eighteenth and nineteenth century Germany.

Includes over 75 black and white illustrations, a guide for researchers, maps, and a bibliography.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

While many books describe daily life in Eastern European cities and shtetls before the Holocaust, Emily Rose's Portraits of Our Past: Jews of the German Countryside may be unique in highlighting the experiences of rural Jews in 18th- and 19th-century Germany. Through a genealogy research project, Rose came to realize that her understanding of rural German Jews "had been very limited and, in many respects, completely wrong"; this absorbing study weaves her discoveries about her own ancestors' experiences with the larger history of Diaspora Jews in Germany. The book is enhanced by dozens of maps, illustrations and facsimiles.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

"While many books describe daily life in Eastern European cities and shtetls before the Holocaust, Emily Rose''s Portraits of Our Past: Jews of the German Countryside may be unique in highlighting the experiences of rural Jews in 18th- and 19th-century Germany. Through a genealogy research project, Rose came to realize that her understanding of rural German Jews "had been very limited and, in many respects, completely wrong"; this absorbing study weaves her discoveries about her own ancestors'' experiences with the larger history of Diaspora Jews in Germany."—Publishers Weekly

(Publishers Weekly )

Product Details

• Hardcover: 372 pages
• Publisher: The Jewish Publication Society; 1 edition (June 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0827607067
• ISBN-13: 978-0827607064
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #821,528 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Librarian Recommends, March 21, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Portraits of Our Past: Jews of the German Countryside (Hardcover)

My father was born in 1904 in a house next to the synagogue in a small village in southern Germany. As the only child and a male, he was born "with a silver spoon in his mouth" and enjoyed his status by constantly getting into trouble with his friends and cousins. But not only did he describe his childhood pranks in an idyllic way, he also told tales of a small place where all the inhabitants knew each other and where Jews and Gentiles lived in harmony. Since my father's stories were in such contrast to those memoirs written later I often wondered if his wonderful boyhood was only the product of his immediate world or if life in these remote villages was so much better than the anti-Semitism of the cities. As a librarian and a tenacious researcher I began to look for an answer in the literature but could not find anything written in English about the history and society of rural Jews from non-rabbinical families.Just recently I have found a meticulously researched and detailed look at the lost culture of the Jews in rural southern Germany. Portraits of Our Past: Jews of the German Countryside by Emily Rose (Jewish Publication Society, 2001) describes the socioeconomic, political and historical lives of my grandparents and great grandparents and opens a window to a distinctive way of life not previously documented. This discovery is even more ironic since the author is a descendant of a family that settled in Chicago in 1857.From 1994-1999, the author spent two months each summer in Germany discovering her heritage and the lost world of rural German Jews. She eventually located 2,600 documents in Wurttemberg archives, some with only a line or two of relevant information, some with hundreds of pages. She examined 1,600 books in English and German. Materials had to be laboriously translated from Judeo-German, Hebrew and German, and about 30 people helped to translate the materials.The historical material is complemented by an excellent chapter on traditional Jewish life in the villages and small towns providing interesting information and local details of social and religious life. The final chapter, a "Blueprint for Researchers," is important for all researchers of German families. The author's work took years to accomplish, and knowledge of precise research techniques would have saved her "many hours of frustration."A notes chapter and a bibliography complete the book, which offers more than 75 photographs, maps, drawings, and documents. Many additional families are mentioned, a boon for researchers of the area, particularly when one realizes that 54 Jewish communities and 32 religious elementary schools functioned in 1871 in Wurttemberg. Portraits of Our Past is a unique example of how a simple genealogical research project developed into the social history of a lost community and culture.(Jerusalem Post 10-19-01)As a librarian I recommend Portraits of Our Past as an excellent scholarly resource that is accessible to all readers...

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enlighting, heartwarming, and sobering, March 3, 2002

By 

E. Brown (Madison, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Portraits of Our Past: Jews of the German Countryside (Hardcover)

This is a wonderful, warm, caring book about life and family and problems in the old country and about coming to America to start life anew. The author was inspired to write the book by the two old portraits of ancestors that hung in her childhood home. For five years she researched in the U.S. and Europe about her own ancestors and about the social, political, economic and religious forces that affected them. What she produced is a marvelous book that uses her own ancestors as a sort of everyman to take the reader through the experiences of daily life, social and political struggles, economic disruptions, religious strife, etc. in rural Germany in the 1800s. Anyone with German or German-Jewish ancestry will find this book enlighting, heartwarming, and sobering. The author truly succeeds in the difficult task of making history come alive. Other features of the book include lots of interesting and unusual illustrations, appendices on traditional Jewish life in the villages, guidelines for famly history researchers, and a lengthy bibliography.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Breathtaking!, February 25, 2002

By 

Howard Crown (Naples, Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Portraits of Our Past: Jews of the German Countryside (Hardcover)

This is a moving book! After I turned the first page, I could not put it down until late at night. Beginning with two oil portraits, I journeyed into the past, walked through small Germall villages of centuries ago, and I lived within a rich tapestry of lives and events.

Regardless of personal religion, Christian (this reader), Jew, Muslim or any other faith, this book carries the reader into the common cultural past and heritage of family we all share. The attention to detail is meticulous, but this book is more than a historical dramatization. Reading it is to experience German village life with its wedddings, joys, fears, hopes and excitement. We look forward to a sequel by Ms. Rose which will bring us forward and closer to our own time.