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Welcome to Vallentine Mitchell Publishers!
Vallentine Mitchell, founded over fifty years ago, are international publishers of books of Jewish interest, both for the scholar and general reader. Subjects published include Jewish history, culture and heritage, modern Jewish thought, biography and reference.
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|  | 250 Years of Convention and Contention
A History of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, 1760-2010
Langham, Raphael
In November 1760, the leaders of the Bevis Marks synagogue in London established a committee to consider how the synagogue should pay homage to King George III, who had just ascended the throne. This committee evolved into what we know today as the Board of Deputies, the representative body of Jews in Britain. This is the first comprehensive history of the Board of Deputies. The history of the Board is about disputes, controversies, factions, responding to crises, protecting Jewish religious observance, and providing the Jewish community with direction and leadership. Author Raphael Langham covers issues such as emancipation, Sunday trading, marriage and divorce laws, combating anti-semitism and fascism, pogroms in Russia, the rise of Zionism, the Holocaust, and Israel. The book concludes by looking back over the last 250 years, thus enabling the reader to answer the question 'Has the Board been good for the Jews?' The book will appeal to the general reader, as well as those interested in Jewish history.
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|  | Place and Displacement in Jewish History and Memory
Cesarani, David; Kushner, Tony; Shain, Milton
A finalist in the Anthologies and Collections category of the 2009 National Jewish Book Awards
The twelve essays in this fascinating collection range broadly over time, covering the period from early modern era to the early twenty first century. Their geographical scope is also impressive, including Europe, north and south America, Australia, north and South Africa and the far east, the 'old' and the 'new' worlds. What unites these essays - whether dealing with centre or periphery - is the interrogation of place and (displacement) in the Jewish experience and in the construction of Jewish identities. These studies are given further complexity and unity of purpose by studying the relationship of history and memory in negotiating Jewish identities in relation to time and place. What emerges is a rich volume bringing together established academics and younger scholars. All the essays have a strong historical context but they provide insights informed by the fields of literary, cultural, geographical, anthropological, racial and ethnic and sociological studies. The dynamics between migration and settlement and the processes of racialisation run across this volume as a whole, adding to its multi-layered, challenging and ultimately exciting nature.
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|  | Raoul Wallenberg in Budapest
Myth, History and Holocaust
Levine, Paul
Paul Levine presents here for the first time the true history of Raoul Wallenberg, one of the most-famous heroes of the Holocaust. It is the first scholarly study of Wallenberg and Swedish diplomacy in Budapest during the Holocaust which both utilizes and contextualizes those Swedish diplomatic documents which best describe his historic mission. Analysing Wallenberg's own correspondence and reports, it provides a new insight into his motives and background. The study explores and deconstructs the many myths which have enveloped his morally important and heroic story. Together, the two strands of the study explain what Wallenberg did to assist and save many thousands of Jews in Budapest.
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|  | Rescue the Perishing
Eleanor Rathbone and the Refugees
Cohen, Susan
Rescue the Perishing is the first study to date of Eleanor Rathbone's commitment to the 'refugee question' from 1933 until her death in 1946. It explains how, from a working life devoted to championing the cause of the disadvantaged, the impoverished and the underrepresented in British society, her humanitarian activism shifted towards Britain's imperial colonies as well as Europe, before focusing on refugees, most of them Jewish, fleeing persecution in Nazi occupied Europe before and during the Second World War. Susan Cohen highlights the challenges that Rathbone faced, especially from within government from officials who did not share her philosophy on rescue. The difficulties that she encountered in attempting to persuade the British government to act honourably towards refugees, whether they were in Czechoslovakia, had been deported to the Dominions, or were enemy aliens interned in Great Britain or on the Isle of Man, is an abiding theme throughout this book.
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|  | Jewish Refugees from Germany and Austria in Britain, 1933-1970
Their Image in AJR Information
Grenville, Anthony
Between 1933 and the outbreak of war in 1939, over 60,000 Jewish refugees from Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia fled to Britain, and some 50,000 settled there. No previous historical study of this group of immigrants exists, though they form one of the most high-profile groups of refugees to have come to Britain in the twentieth century, both as survivors of the Nazi terror and as high-achieving contributors to British society. Author Anthony Grenville focuses on the first quarter-century of their settlement in Britain. He covers new ground by drawing on a rich source of contemporary material - the previously untapped monthly journal of the Association of Jewish Refugees, AJR Information, which started in January 1946. The journal is the only contemporary source that provides material for a full-scale history of these refugees when they established themselves permanently in Britain, how they adapted to British society and developed their distinctive 'Continental' identity and culture that characterized them in their adopted homeland.
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|  | A Holocaust Crossroads
Jewish Women and Children in Ravensbruck
Dublon-Knebel, Irith
Ravensbruck was the only major Nazi concentration camp built for women. Its history constitutes a crossroads in the various stages of the Third Reich's persecution of women accused of offending the Nazi state and of those ethnically and racially persecuted. Women from different social strata, national, ethnic and religious origins were forced to live together under the most extreme conditions within the social system created by the SS. Among the many crossroads of Ravensbruck was the one in which citizens from the surrounding area, as well as citizens of many of the small towns in which Ravensbruck's external camps were located, came across the prisoners and witnessed the events. From its first days until its liberation, thousands of Jewish women, girls and children were among Ravensbruck's prisoners. They were part of the camp's population even when the industrial mass killing was 'exported' to the East - and Germany, including its concentration camps, was to be 'freed' of all Jews. Against the overall background of the Nazi concentration camps and Holocaust historiography, this collection of essays provides a socio-historical in-depth analysis of the singularity of the female Jewish experience by focusing on the Jewish experience in the microcosm of Ravensbruck.
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|  | The Arab Cocoon
Progress and Modernity in Arab Societies
Heggy, Tarek
In The Arab Cocoon, author Tarek Heggy explores the reasons behind the widespread refusal of Arabic-speaking societies to join in the march towards modernity and progress. The refusal, according to Heggy, is due to three constraints, namely: (1) a widespread anti-modernity and anti-integration religious Islamic movement; (2) out-dated educational systems; and (3) unhealthy hatred of the 'other'. He suggests that the systematic rejection of modernity and progress which has resulted from these three constraints is the direct cause for the confrontation between most of the Arabic-speaking peoples and the West. It ensures that Arab culture, people, and their mentality are unable to integrate in the march of civilization, based on progress and modernity. Very little - if anything - has been written in depth on the Arab culture and mind. Writing in an informative and accessible style, Tarek Heggy offers the depth needed to understand and deal with this expanding antimodernity culture, and consequently reduce clashes between the Arab and Western worlds.
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|  | Polish Witnesses to the Shoah
Turski, Marian
82 recollections of scenes that 'cannot be forgotten' following an appeal on the 50th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising, thematically arranged with an introduction to each section, with an insight into the people behind the faceless numbers.
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|  | Solomon Schonfeld
A Purpose in Life
Taylor, Derek
For nearly fifty years, Rabbi Dr. Solomon Schonfeld was a controversial figure in British Jewry, after he took over the fledgling Charedi Union of Hebrew Congregations from his late father in 1933. Against all the odds, this charismatic rabbi built up the foundations of the organization until it was equal to the other traditional Jewish power bases. He also saved many thousands of lives organizing the immigration of refugees from the Continent before and after the war. He transformed the attitude of the Jewish community in Britain towards Jewish education. His Jewish Secondary School Movement provided the proof that it was possible to combine an extensive curriculum in Jewish studies with a secular curriculum, rigorous enough to take a disproportionate percentage of the pupils to the best universities in the country and into the professions. These massive achievements were only attained by overcoming an enormous amount of opposition from the Jewish establishment, and persuading successive governments to bend the rules. They were achieved by a man who had the necessary combination of conviction and determination to overcome constant financial difficulties, obdurate and inflexible opponents, and daunting personal problems. Many of the fascinating figures who dominated Anglo-Jewry over these years are presented in the book. The fiery Chief Rabbi, Joseph Hertz, Schonfeld's greatest supporter; the inspiring educationalist, Judith Grunfeld; the powerful and antagonistic head of the United Synagogue, Sir Robert Waley Cohen; Schonfeld supporters such as impressario Victor Hochhauser, politician Joe Lobenstein, and a young refugee who eventually became Lord Jakobovits. Schonfeld's victory against all the odds is a fascinating story and long overdue. Chaim Bermant, one of the great Jewish writers, once described Schonfeld as 'One of G-d's Cossacks'. The story that unfolds in the book is very often that dramatic.
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|  | Licoricia of Winchester
Marriage, Motherhood and Murder in the Medieval Anglo-Jewish Community
Bartlet, Suzanne ; Skinner, Patricia
On a spring day in 1277, the prominent Jewish businesswoman Licoricia of Winchester was found by her daughter murdered, stabbed to death in her own house. Alongside Licoricia's body was that of her Christian maid, Alice. Why was Licoricia killed? And why was her death reported as far away as Germany? In this ground-breaking new book, Suzanne Bartlet draws on extensive research in the fiscal archives of medieval England, most notably those of the Jewish Exchequer, to examine the family history behind the famous murder. This is the story of Licoricia's route to wealth through advantageous marriages (her second amidst a divorce scandal which was referred to the Beth Din in Paris) and business acumen, the business contacts she made, the close relationship she appears to have had with King Henry III, and the altogether more mixed fortunes of her sons. By using Licoricia's family as an example, Bartlet demonstrates the gradual deterioration in the conditions of even the wealthiest Jews in England in the run up to the Expulsion of 1290, as well as drawing together the fragments of a medieval life which has long fascinated historians, but has never been fully investigated.
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|  | Rome's Wars in Parthia
Blood in the Sand
Sheldon, Rose Mary
The leader of an empire invades Iraq. He has inadequate intelligence and underestimates the resistance of the locals, but he believes his overwhelming military strength will bring him a swift victory. His army overruns the area between the Tigris and the Euphrates, but as soon as he occupies the area a massive insurgency arises, made up of various ethnic and religious groups. What began as a simple conquest for dominance bogs down in deadly fighting as the once-victorious commander-in-chief now desperately searches for an exit strategy.... This scenario could be any number of Roman campaigns, not to mention America in 2003 CE. Both ancient and modern attempts to invade Iraq have been plagued with the same problems. These problems have been caused by lack of adequate intelligence gathering, both strategic and tactical, and have resulted in long drawn out wars that have been costly in both money and manpower. Ultimately, they led to little political or military gain. Could more have been accomplished through diplomacy rather than brute force? This book details Rome's military encounters with Parthia from the bumbling campaign of Crassus to the fall of the Parthian regime. America's recent war in Iraq has shown that invading Mesopotamia without proper intelligence is a bad idea, but it is not a new idea. Time after time the Romans stormed into the area between the Tigris and Euphrates thinking 'shock and awe' was all they needed to prevail. What they discovered was that it takes more than just overrunning an empire to defeat it.
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|  | Jewish Refugees in Switzerland during the Holocaust
A Memoir of Childhood and History
Forman, Frieda Johles
This is the first English-language memoir of the Jewish refugee experience in wartime Switzerland focusing on children's experiences and daily life in the refugee camps. The author integrates her memories of a refugee childhood with archival and historical research, including interviews. Fleeing the Nazis, the author's family was among the 25,000 Jews who sought refuge in Switzerland. The refugee camps were administered by Swiss government authorities with a peculiar mix of rigidity and compassion. Families were frequently separated, with men in one camp, and women and children in another. Thousands of refugee children were placed in foster care; many of them with non-Jewish foster families. At the same time, the refugees were allowed unparalleled scope for religious and cultural expression. Torn from a Jewish world that was fast disappearing, the refugees created a remarkable cultural life in the camps including educational programs for children and adults, vocational training, art classes for children, newspapers, theater productions, religious programs, music, lectures, and study groups. Paying particular attention to the experiences of women and children, the author explores the response of the Swiss Jewish community, and interviews some of the men and women who dealt with the refugees, including former welfare workers, camp administrators, and foster families. Research in the archives of the Swiss government, as well as of Jewish organizations, uncovers a treasure trove of official documents, along with refugee correspondence, photographs and children's art created in the camps. Original French, German, and Yiddish documents are translated into English for the first time to reveal the heated public debates about Switzerland's refugee policy and about the treatment of Jewish refugees.
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|  | Arnold Daghani's Memories of Mikhailowka
The Illustrated Diary of a Slave Labour Camp Survivor
Schultz, Deborah; Timms, Edward
Arnold Daghani (1909-85) came from a German-speaking Jewish family in Suczawa, then in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, now Romania. His understated narrative of his experiences in the slave labour camp at Mikhailowka, south west Ukraine (1942-43), presented here in its first English book edition, provides a day-by-day account of the chilling experiences of Jewish slave labourers. It is written in a compelling style and illustrated by watercolours and drawings that Daghani made secretly in captivity and smuggled out of the camp and a Romanian ghetto. It includes an extraordinary account of the couple's escape and the shooting of over three hundred prisoners. The uniqueness of Daghani's Holocaust testimony lies in his role as an artist which led to his (and his wife's) escape from the camp and their survival. The camps in Ukraine have been under-investigated and the diary provides significant material. It was used as the basis of investigations in the 1960s into war crimes in the slave labour camps in Ukraine, helping to bring attention to the region and providing some form of recognition for those who suffered there. This richly illustrated and scrupulously edited book is distinguished from more conventional Holocaust memoirs by focusing on fundamental questions of historical testimony and the problems of representation in both words and images. Daghani's diary is contextualized on the basis of wide-ranging new historical, archival and art historical research in essays that document the artist's attempts to achieve justice and reconciliation. They locate the diary in relation to contemporary issues on migration and statelessness, genocide and trauma, self-reflection and memory. The diary is both art and document, addressing how we understand and construct history. It enables readers to engage with the Holocaust via the viewpoint of an individual, making statistics more meaningful and history less distant.
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|  | The Survivors
The Story of the Belsen Remnant
Goodman, Cecily; Hardman, Leslie
Leslie H. Hardman, a Jewish chaplain, entered Belsen camp two days after its liberation by the British Army. This book tells the story of what he found there, and what he did. The horror which first confronts him is overwhelming, and something other than himself makes him stay and face it. In the beginning he feels he is making no inroads into the task he has set himself, that he is a pigmy grappling with a mountain. But with courage and patience he brings faith, comfort and help to the stricken survivors. In his mission he meets some remarkable men and women: Marta the woman doctor, Yankel the strong man, Eva whose love is oddly deflected, Joseph who rises to astonishing heights, and many others. He himself is enmeshed in the life of liberated Belsen, experiencing hope, despair, intolerance, inspiration. This book is an authentic record, written with compassionate understanding. The account of the rebirth of the almost dehumanised survivors is an inspiring, rather than a harrowing narrative. In the simplicity and sincerity of its writing, it tells a moving and vivid story of a crime which has shocked the world, but which should be read and remembered.
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|  | The Frankfurt Judengasse
Jewish Life in an Early Modern German City
Schlüter, Margarete ; Backhaus, Fritz; Engel, Gisela; Liberles, Robert
Frankfurt was one of the most important centers of Jewish life in central Europe. In 1462, the Frankfurt City Council ordered the resettlement of the Jews in an especially constructed street, surrounded by walls and located at the very edge of the city. The three gates were closed at night, on Sundays, and during Christian holidays. The Frankfurt Judengasse was the first legally constructed space of a ghetto in the Holy Roman Empire, and one of the first in Europe. The economic, demographic, cultural, and religious significance of this community in the Early Modern era has been a neglected area of study. The significance of the Frankfurt community; the great number of sources for the Early Modern era which are still available despite all the losses; and the increasing interest in the history of the Jews in Germany since the 1990s - evident in an array of dissertation projects - almost inevitably led to the idea of organising a conference to once again direct attention on the Frankfurt Judengasse. The conference was organized by Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, represented by the Centre for Research in Early Modern History, Culture and Science and the Department of Jewish Studies, as well as the Frankfurt Jewish Museum, the Judengasse Museum and the Leo Baeck Institute in Jerusalem. Most of the essays in this collection were first presented at the May 2004 conference in Frankfurt. The authors cover a wide spectrum of themes on a great variety of aspects of Jewish life in the Frankfurt Judengasse, spanning a broad chronological arc from the Middle Ages to the dissolution of the Frankfurt Judengasse in the early years of the 19th century. The essays illustrate, after decades of disinterest on the part of German scholarship, a revival of Jewish history in the Early Modern Era, and thus of the Judengasse.
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|  | Through the Eyes of the Mufti
The Essays of Haj Amin, Translated and Annotated
Elpeleg, Zvi
Mufti Haj Amin al-Husayni had no chance of prevailing against the well-organized Zionist movement with its international support. The Palestinian Party that he headed after the First World War was split, conflicted and rife with corruption. In particular, it was isolated, with neighbouring Arab countries more concerned with their own problems. In light of this state of affairs, Haj Amin sought to enlist the help of the Arab and Muslim world in favor of the Palestinians. How did he do this? When appealing to the Arab world, he utilized the myth that the Zionists intended to use the Land of Israel as a base from which they would seek to conquer all Arab countries; when appealing to the Muslim world, he said that the Jews wished to destroy the al-Aqsa mosque and build their temple on its ruins. Another of the Muftiís myths is the story of ëthe ancient conspiracyí, recounting the plot of the British and the Jews to expel the Arabs from Palestine and award the consequently uninhabited land to the Jews. Even though this ëplotí was unsubstantiated, at the time it became anchored in the consciousness of millions of local Palestinians who believed the Muftiís inventions and were alarmed by them. This remains true to a great degree to this very day. The book presents the Muftiís essays - the literal source of those myths, as well as notes and essays which reply to the ideas presented by Haj Amin.
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|  | The Jewish Year Book 2010
Levy, Elkan; Taylor, Derek
What do you want to know about the Jewish community in Britain? For 115 years the answers have been found in The Jewish Year Book: the institutions, the organizations, the charities with their contact details, and a who's who of the personalities. Also provided are: the dates that matter in the Jewish calendar, the award winners, the anniversaries, and the obituaries, along with an overview of the position of Jews in countries outside Britain, what is happening in Israel, and the times in 2010 for festivals and Sabbaths all over the country, along with a 30 year Jewish calendar. Plus a series of articles which look back over the year gone by and the centuries gone by: The Board of Deputies at 250 * The Communities That Nobody Knows About * The Jews In The British Armed Forces * Yom Hashoah - 27th Nissan: The Annual Jewish Remembrance Day for Victims of The Holocaust * The Chareidim * The Jew's College Library: 1860-2010 * The Edgware & District Reform Synagogue at 75. The Jewish Year Book has always been meticulous in its research and widespread in its coverage. When you want to know the answer on anything to do with the Jewish community, your best chance is to find it in the Jewish Year Book.
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