Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: The Mezuzah in the Madonna's Foot: Marranos and Other Secret Jews--A Woman Discovers Her Spiritual Heritage by Trudi Alexy ISBN: 0-06-060340-2 Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: 03 September, 1994 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.56 (9 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Interviews if you will.
Comment: This is a good book, all the stories gathered and told really paint the picture of what people went through trying to escape the Holocust, and how Spain really did help them.
Rating: 5
Summary: Heartbreaking Title
Comment: Once you read this book,the title makes sense. The author was a holocust survivor and was so grateful and impressed with Spain that she felt compelled to go back to see if others felt the same. Lot's of interviews in this book regarding that perticular era. What a twist for Spain!
Excellent Read!
Rating: 4
Summary: Fascinating mix of heroism, personal histories and religion
Comment: I found this book at my Jewish boyfriend's mother's house. She checked it out of the library as part of a Sephardic reading group. I started skimming through it and couldn't put it down, had to buy my own copy here on Amazon! Trudi Alexy and her family fled Czechoslovakia to escape the Germans and were chased through France and finally Spain before they felt safe. Spain, in spite of its history of ultra-conservative Catholicism, Inquisition, expulsion of the Jews, etc., was one of the few safe havens for Jews fleeing the Germans during WWII. I was surpised to find this out, since Franco was a part of the Axis powers, a rigid ultra-Catholic, a dictator, and a Fascist. But I guess he wasn't an anti-Semite, because he basically looked the other way when Jews began pouring into Spain illegally to escape being killed in the concentration camps of Occupied Europe, especially Vichy-controlled France, which practically did all they could to deliver the Jews over to the Germans, nasty anti-Semites that the French are. In contrast, Spain not only looked the other way when Jews came pouring over the border, in many cases Spanish diplomats would demand that arrested Jews in other countries be released to them as Spanish citizens, even in cases where the Jews were Ashkenaz, not even Sephardic! The Spanish Red Cross also made a great effort to get food, clothing and letters shipped to Jews in concentration camps in the rest of Europe, even as the International Red Cross did absolutely nothing to help. There are horrific stories from the survivors themselves, tales of fleeing the Nazis with only the clothes on their backs, of escaping concentration camps and struggling over the Pyrenees in mid-winter without even a proper coat. Tales of getting to Spain and turning themselves in to the police to find warm beds, food and even money provided for them by kind hearted Spaniards from all walks of life. Then there are stories from the people who smuggled them into Spain, the risks they took to save thousands upon thousands of people from certain death. And tales of the Secret Jews, or Marranos, or Crypto-Jews, who were forced to convert during the Inquisition, or who were expelled from Spain, and the constant threats that they faced. Many of them continued practicing their Jewish rituals in absolute secrecy, in most cases not even letting their children know that they were of Jewish blood until age 12, when they were less likely to slip and give the secret away to outsiders. Many Crypto-Jews live in Mexico and New Mexico today, their ancestors having arrived in the 1500's after the expulsion from Spain. The Inquisition follwed them to the New World, however, so they continued practicing the most minimal Jewish traditions, such as ritual prayer, in absolute secrecy. Trudi interviewed some people who only identified as Catholics, but had listened to an NPR show on the Crypto-Jews and identified ancient and distorted Jewish traditions that their own family practiced! These people were utterly shocked to find out that they were of Jewish ancestry. I don't personally see the big deal, but I guess if you're a major Christian, then you might think it's a bad thing. In most cases though, the families were not only aware of their Jewish ancestry, but fostered it in secret while living a public life of Catholicism. They would intermarry only amongst one another and kept to fairly tight-knit communities. I liked the stories of the people who escaped to Spain during WWII best, since they were so full of heroism and drama, but really the whole book was fascinating.
 |
Title: The Marrano Legacy: A Contemporary Crypto-Jewish Priest Reveals Secrets of His Double Life by Trudi Alexy ISBN: 082633055X Publisher: University of New Mexico Press Pub. Date: 15 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
 |
Title: Burnt Bread and Chutney : Growing Up Between Cultures-A Memoir of an Indian Jewish Girl by CARMIT DELMAN ISBN: 0345445937 Publisher: One World/Ballantine Pub. Date: 27 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
 |
Title: JEWS OF SPAIN : A HISTORY OF THE SEPHARDIC EXPERIENCE by Jane S. Gerber ISBN: 0029115744 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 31 January, 1994 List Price(USD): $21.50 |
 |
Title: The Wholeness of a Broken Heart by Katie Singer ISBN: 1573228311 Publisher: Riverhead Books Pub. Date: 12 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
 |
Title: The Ghost of Hannah Mendes by Naomi Ragen ISBN: 0312281250 Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin Pub. Date: 16 November, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
