Welcome to Litsy!

A collection of essays published at a the first anniversary of October 7th attack on Israel, it is written mainly by Jews living in diaspora and is centered on their experience of the aftermath: raise in antisemitism, loss of sense of security, friendships dissolving and pain not understood. And a question asked: will anyone hide us if necessary... And yet, these are messages of love and hope, never of hate #Hanukkahchallenge #imthatjew

Baddiel, a British Jew, is trying to explain how antisemitism prevalent and acceptable in UK. He raises a number of points: 1-this kind of behavior and hatred would not be accepted with regards to any other minority; 2-no significant action is taken against Jew hatred and 3-the antisemitic tropes used are the same old ones. The book was published couple of years before 10/7 attack on Israel, since then the Jew hatred soared #Hanukkahchallenge

I‘m really struggling with this one and it is 100% me and not the book. I read The Ravine first, and I am still caught up on the BEAUTIFUL work of scholarship that is, that this just isn‘t hitting for me. To be honest, he‘s doing really intriguing and unique scholarship as well, but the scholarship is not his point (and I‘m really wishing it was). His scholarship literally couldn‘t be done today, so my desire for more info is that much stronger.

I guess I didn‘t expect this to be a memoir. Still intriguing and helping to block out all of the bleeding football.
#FatherPatrickDesbois #TheHolocaustOfBullets #audiobook

I‘ve had this book for years and finally read it so I could give it to a friend. It was a roller coaster. A bit of a slow burn at first, the pace picked up towards the end. The antisemitism was a bit much at times but I understand the point the author was desperately trying to make. Takeaways for me: we never know when our most vulnerable moments might come, and we don‘t know the story of someone else unless they decide to tell us; is the⬇️

"In his [Cardinal Bertram] own hand he gave all the parish priests of the archdiocese instructions 'to hold a solemn requiem in memory of the Fuhrer and all those members of the Wehrmacht who have fallen...' Despite all the insults to the church, the threats and the persecutions, he continued to see and respect Hitler as the Catholic state head of the Reich. He did not have to live to realize how wrong he was in this. He died on 6 July 1945.

I listened to this on radio 4 after a friend mentioned it.
So gut wrenching and so important that Persephone Books have republished.
I can't believe she wrote it before WW2. But also terrifying that it was so clear to her the outcomes.
We need so desperately to learn from history 😔

I finished this yesterday, but I needed some time to process before I could write down my thoughts.

This book is intense. It‘s a quick read, but there is so much to take in. Racism, antisemitism, sexism, eugenics, high control religious groups - the roots of our obsession with thinness are multifaceted, but none of them are good.
👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻

“Every witness is unique,a living protest of sorts against the abject annihilation of the memory of his assassinated Jewish neighbors”(145).Why have I read this month 3 books addressing the holocaust,1 through a photograph,a 2nd,historical fiction following a real child,& this one, through bullets? I think I am seeing so many parallels to our president‘s attempt to turn this country into a dictatorship-I need the concrete.#MondayMood 🤬😡😢😭

“The Nazis had taken away beauty from everything…”