Thumb-nail Book Reviews

I am a rabbi’s wife. By Esther Bengis (Bloch Publishing Company).

Every phase of Jewish community life is taken up separately in this book—the synagogue, its leaders, its physically and mentally ill, its weddings and its funerals; all these and more are within the province of the rabbi and his wife. Their lives are one round of duties to the community and they seem to have as much privacy as gold fish.

Esther Bengis writes simply and directly of her own experiences and those of her husband, whose health finally gave way under the strain. There are amusing stories and some sad ones. All of us recognize the “pillars” of the congregation—they who recite the prices of their jewelry or furniture as a topic of conversation when the rabbi and his wife come to call; the man who rushed them upstairs in his home to see his new brightlytiled bathroom, and the socially-prominent hostess who pouted when Mrs. Bengis left her bridge party early to call on a sick parishioner.

Mrs. Bengis has amply answered the question which she says is often asked, “What do a rabbi and his wife have to do, anyway?” A full life and a useful one for both, it seems to be, and one can but hope that Rabbi Bengis will regain his health in order to carry on and become once more the leading spirit of a congregation.

Blanche Finley.

The church and the synagogue. By S. James Parkes (Soncino Press).

For at least 600 years before the first crusade the Jews had been the objects of fierce denunciation from the pulpit of the Christian Church. The protection of the Jews under the Roman law became steadily weaker, especially from the time when the empire passed into Christian hands and the Jews were left to the mercy of bishop, king or baron as the case might be.

The basis of all the trouble was not the Jew’s race but his religion. From the very first records of anti-Semitism it is the fact that the Jew, being in some way unlike and alien from the other inhabitants of the land, which led to ill-will in various forms.

Those who wish to pursue this line of thought in full detail will find a most careful, fair-minded and well-documented study in Mr. Parkes’ book. It deals only with the first eight centuries. A second volume will continue the story to the end of the Middle Ages.

R. T. H.

Music of the Ghetto and the Bible. By Lazare Saminsky (Bloch Publishing Company).

Lazare Saminsky, one of the most distinguished Jewish composers of our time, deserves every possible praise for his work “Music of the Ghetto and the Bible.” It is an authoritative and instructive book on the history of Jewish music, from ancient Biblical days to modern times. The book is obviously a labor of love.

Dealing not only with ancient and modern Hebrew music, Mr. Saminsky also discusses outstanding Jewish composers. A special chapter is devoted to the Hebrew-American composers, and will prove of interest not only to lovers of music but to all those who are interested in American Jewish history.

—B. B.