The Grandees: America's Sephardic Elite (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Decendents of the original 23 Jewish families who arrived in New York in 1654, the Sephardic Jews began a tradition of wealth, pride and exclusiveness. This is the story over three centuries of power, achievement, scandal and folly, elegant lifestyles and flamboyant personalities.

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Syracuse University Press (March 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0815604599
• ISBN-13: 978-0815604594
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #160,661 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fascinating picture of a closed society, October 16, 1999

By	Katherine F. Peake (Fredericksburg, TX United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book does what good histories should do, open up doors to inaccessible places. Well written and incisive, it tracks a part of our history not well known. Especially fascinating were the accounts of how the first 44 came to America, and the story of the Civil War admiral. I'll read more of his books.

19 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A book filled with bias and errors, October 8, 2002

By	Alfassa "alfassa" (La Florida) - See all my reviews

In 1971 when Birmingham (who is not Jewish himself) released this book, the Foundation For The Advancement of Sephardic Studies and Culture in New York City put out four formal reviews on Stephen Birmingham's book. The reviews were by people from the academic community WITHIN the very community he wrote about.

The Foundation For The Advancement of Sephardic Studies and Culture wrote: "...Mr. Birmingham addressed a gathering on October 10th, 1968 at Shearith Israel [the very congregation he writes about in his book], Mr. Louis N. Levy, the president of the Foundation, asked Mr. Birmingham whether he proposed to write on the Balkan Sephardim. For some reason the audience burst into laughter and the answer was not heard."

One of the reviews was the Rabbi of the very congregation the book is based on "Marc Angel". He wrote: "Birmingham is so eager to show that the "Grandees" are aloof and snobby, that he ignores reality. He interprets things as he wants them to be, not as they are." Rabbi Angel also wrote: "His book is plagued with factual inaccuracies and poor historical perspectives. Unfortunately, many Jews and non-Jews are reading the book and are having their opinions molded by it because they know little or nothing about Sephardim."

The well-respected Sephardic scholar David N. Barocas wrote of the Grandees: "To rely on hearsay information, or to select at random passages from books and then try to weave them into the fabric of one's text or report constitutes in the final analysis a combination of misstatements, incomplete truths and factual omissions tending to present a perverted opinion of an innocent people."

There are many good books out there which are acurate, unfortunatly this is not one of them. It was written by an outsider of the community. It is biased, and does give a good example of the Sephardic community.