I have been reviewing books for The Jerusalem Post and its sibling, the bi-monthly Jerusalem Report, for a good many years. One day, looking through the ever-expanding “Reviews” folder on my computer, I was struck by just how many good books and eminent authors the Post and the Report have allowed me to bring to the attention of their readers. A quick tot-up showed that I had well over 100 reviews stored online.
Dedicated readers, I thought, might welcome the chance to learn about books and authors they could have overlooked, while occasional book buyers or people seeking a suitable gift could surely find something to their taste in such a wide selection of titles. So, the idea was born of bringing 100 of my book reviews together in one volume.
What would I call such a volume? My first thought was “Your Middle East Bookshelf,” but I realized almost immediately that potential readers might be misled into thinking that the contents would cover the whole regional spectrum, whereas the books I have been reviewing all these years were selected to appeal specifically to a Jewish readership. Honesty is always the best policy, so I decided on Your Pro-Israel Bookshelf: 100 titles reviewed.
With that issue settled, the next challenge was how to present the material. The reviews covered a very wide range of genres. Among the 100 were biographies, political and personal memoirs, novels, thrillers; works on morals, religion, and psychology; and poetry, humor, children’s books, even a cookbook and a graphic novel (that is, a book conceived as drawings accompanied by words). Should all the biographies be listed together, all the short stories, and so forth?
That possibility was rejected for good reasons, as were several others. Finally, the best solution, from the point of view of the potential reader, seemed to be to present the 100 volumes alphabetically by title. Anyone reading through the book would never be aware of what type of volume the next review would be dealing with and would, it was hoped, be pleasantly surprised by the variety of subject matter and the range of authors – some of them very eminent – whose works are represented.
Highlights from the shelf
Among the authors is Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, whose final book before his death, Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times, I reviewed for the Post in 2020. I tried to identify the core of his argument. “In attempting to define what he means by ‘morality,’” I wrote, “Sacks concentrates on his ‘We-I’ contrasting views of how to live the good life. The ‘We’ basis has fallen into decline, he maintains, with many an example to prove his point, and the ‘I’ is at the heart of the new morality. ‘Our children and grandchildren are paying the price of abandoning a shared moral code,’ he writes.”
Another eminent author represented is Douglas Murray, with his On Democracies and Death Cults: Israel, Hamas, and the Future of the West – his direct, detailed, and personal account of the unspeakably barbarous Hamas pogrom of Oct. 7, 2023. I describe it as “an in-depth examination of both the irrationality and the deep-rooted persistence of the oldest prejudice – antisemitism. He finds that hatred of Jews, and the desire to exterminate them, is integral to the very purpose of terrorist organizations such as Hamas. He also uncovers it in the blocs of public opinion that condone acts of barbarism by Hamas that almost defy description.”
I reviewed the highly acclaimed biography of Winston Churchill by leading historian Lord Andrew Roberts: Churchill – Walking with Destiny. I was able to write: “Roberts, himself a founder member of the international Friends of Israel Initiative, is perhaps more alive to Churchill’s ‘philo-semitism,’ as he puts it, than other biographers have been. As a young man on the brink of his parliamentary career, Churchill refused to subscribe to the well-nigh universal antisemitism of his peers. On the contrary, says Roberts, backing his assertion with facts and figures, he was an active Zionist then, and remained so throughout his life.”
I describe Guardian Angel by leading political journalist Melanie Phillips as “a book for the times.” It is a powerful account of her personal and professional voyage through stormy seas. “We accompany her,” I write, “as she resolves for herself some of the political and moral inconsistencies that she sees all around her.” She sees hatred of Israel as a failure by the public to perceive where their true interests lie – to combat those who hate Western civilization and aim to destroy it. In that battle, Israel is the first line of defense.
“If Israel were ever to go down,” writes Phillips, “Britain and the West would be next in line, and with no defender in the Middle East.” A sentiment with which Alan Dershowitz, in his book War Against the Jews: How to End Hamas Barbarism, also reviewed, would concur.
Among the memoirs represented in my book are those of Danny Danon, writing of the five years he spent in his first term as Israel’s ambassador to the UN (he is currently in his second tour of duty in that capacity). His title, In the Lion’s Den, paints a fair picture of his experiences.
In his book Jerusalem and Washington, Zalman Shoval provides an unflinchingly honest account of his experiences in the heart of Israeli politics over many years, culminating in his two terms as Israel’s ambassador to the US.
Thrillers with an Israeli theme include A Death in Jerusalem, Jonathan Dunsky’s seventh novel featuring his Israeli hero-detective Adam Lapid; and Khaled Talib’s fast-paced thriller Smokescreen.
I also reviewed a fair selection of books of short stories. Notable is Michael Oren’s The Night Archer and Other Stories; and two volumes by Jennifer Anne Moses: The Man Who Loved His Wife, and You Told Me Before.
Lodged among many other titles is Rabbi Shmuley Boteach’s profoundly moving Good Mourning. Through his description of how he coped with the death of his father, he offers his readers 10 lessons about mourning taken from his experience and based on his faith.
The graphic novel is Judessey by Shay Charka – a fast-moving and attention-grabbing tale, not without moments of real emotion, told in a series of vivid hand-drawn pictures, embellished with dialogue balloons. “It is clearly designed,” I wrote, “to inform the modern generation about some basic aspects of the Jewish experience in the twentieth century in a way that appeals, and is relevant, to them.”
The cookbook is Eat Jewish by Melinda Strauss, which I described in the Jerusalem Report as “a unique publication.” On the one hand, it is a very readable explanation of the dishes that were common in the author’s multi-cultural Jewish background, together with easy-to-follow recipes for them, and large color photographs of how each should look. On the other hand, it is an in-depth explanation of the relationship of Jewish religion and culture with the food that is special to it.
My hope in putting together this collection of reviews was to whet readers’ appetite, and lead them perhaps to purchase a volume or two that particularly catches their interest. To help potential book buyers, each review is preceded by the book’s publisher. ■
Your Pro-Israel Bookshelf will be published on February 10.
YOUR PRO-ISRAEL BOOKSHELF
100 TITLES REVIEWED
By Neville Teller
BookBaby
360 pages; $18