David Richard Goldberg

This book of inspirational readings, geared towards a junior or young adult audience, was written by David Richard Goldberg, a financial services consultant, business man and activist within the American Jewish community. It is one Jewish American’s homage to his personal Jewish heroes throughout history. He tells the stories of Rabbi Akiva and Queen Esther of Ancient times, of Holocaust survivors Felix Zandman and Simon Wiesenthal, and of visionaries and fighters who bought about the creation of the modern Israeli state; Theodor Herzl, Ze’ev Jabotinsky, David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir and Menachem Began.

For this reader the most interesting stories concern two members of the Jewish Diaspora in America: Haym Solomon [1740-1785] who helped arrange for the financing of the American Revolutionary War of Independence and Uriah Phillips Levy [1792-1862], a young naval officer who took part in the War of 1812 and rose to the rank of Commodore. A successful real estate investor and philanthropist, Levy purchased Monticello, the estate of Thomas Jefferson, the country’s third President, saving it for posterity and eventual preservation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. These two profiles underline the Jewish Diaspora’s contributions to the evolution of America’s national identity. American history is large and inclusive enough for minorities of all varieties to find their faces reflected in the nation’s foundational stories.

The author’s hope was to provide inspirational stories instructive of moral and spiritual guidance, and to shine light on the challenges overcome by the Jewish people to stand strong as a people and to achieve the creation of their own homeland. Although aimed at a young adult audience, the content is perhaps of a higher level. Based on existing documentary resources it offers little new content except for the author’s personal invocations to believe in God and devote one’s life to the betterment of humanity through study, work and acts of loving kindness.

The subjects of the book receive very uneven attention ranging from less than 3 pages for Queen Esther and Theodore Herzl to over 33 pages devoted to Menachem Began. The text is at times a heavy chronology of the political and military struggle for the creation and evolution of the State of Israel. The old adage that “One man’s freedom fighter is another man's terrorist” would certainly hold true for this book in that many of the heroes covered were involved in the sometimes violent and bloody conflicts that led to securing the state of Israel.

That being said the book is a tribute to Jewish community identity and exceptionalism which inspired the author to chart his own life course. Sadly, Goldberg passed in October of 2016 at the age of 79, with the book being published posthumously in 2018. A moving afterword from the author’s son Zachary pays tribute to his father as the last Jewish hero of the book and “the first and most important Jewish hero in my book”, an amazing example of a father, friend, businessman and Jew for whom family was everything.… (meer)

David Richard Goldberg had a love for his own people that comes through loud and clear in this book. You can pick up on his sentiment by repeated frequent references to various featured personalities as “our hero.” The stories are biographical sketches about people who made great differences by the exemplary lives they led. The fairly short book consists of 184 pages that provide wonderful pictures of great Jewish people. Amazing insight is provided into what made each of these people extraordinary.

I would suppose everyone who reads Amazing Jewish Heroes will conclude that one of the 11 individuals portrayed in these stories stands out as their favorite. The life that most interested me was that of Golda Meir. It is well known that she was prime minister of Israel. She received a great amount of press because she was the only woman to have obtained that position. She was the fourth and only female leader of the country. To this day no other woman has accomplished the same thing.

It is not quite so much common knowledge that she was born in Kiev, which is now part of the Ukraine. Her family moved to the United States when she was a girl. Some of Meir's girlhood was spent in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. While there she demonstrated fierce independence. At the young age of 14, she ran away from home. Having purchased a train ticket, she rode the rails to Denver, Colorado where lived with a married sister. The independence developed at that young age may have hinted at Meir's future as the prime minister of Israel. People liked her job performance. Her approval ratings were very high.

All of the 11 personalities who are profiled in the book led amazing lives. Chapters cover the lives of Rabbi Akiva, Queen Esther, Haym Salomon, Uriah Phillips Levy, Felix Zandman, Simon Wisenthal, Theodor Herzl, Ze’ev Zobotinsky, David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir and Menachem Begin. Something in the Jewish culture and belief system that has been handed down from one generation to the next over the thousands of years produces iconic figures. The ones that Goldberg picked for his book are the cream of the crop. It's not just a book to read. It's one to contemplate, reflect upon and study.

Amazing Jewish Heroes: Down Through the Ages was a late in life labor of love for its author. If you care about people who have really mattered, you will be thankful for Mr. Goldberg for taking us on a journey to meet fascinating people. That trip takes us all the way back as as 70 CE and until the last leader of Israel talked about in the book, who died in 1993. It’s one of those books that I may revisit.… (meer)