Howard Simons

This is a wonderful, dense, collection of oral histories covering much of the length and breadth of the American Jewish experience from immigration through much of the 20th century. The book was published in 1990, when there were still some of the early 20th century immigrants to interview, but the bulk of the book is taken up with Simons' interviews with the children of those immigrants, and in some cases their grandchildren. A majority of those interviewed are professional people, some quite prominent, either nationally or at least within their own communities. A few are famous, such has Barry Goldwater, who had converted from Judaism by the time he ran for president in 1964 but had much to say about his Jewish upbringing, and Larry King, interviewed when he was still only a Chicago radio personality. Plus Red Auerbach, the famous, longtime coach of the Boston Celtics and one of the pioneers of the NBA. There are two or three others who were Congressmen or White House advisers. The breadth of the scope is impressive, as we read the early, immigrant days of struggle, and then what it is/was like to grow up Jewish in America. Some of the speakers were religious, others not as much, identifying culturally as Jews instead. Sports, education, assimilation, anti-semitism and exclusion, politics, growing up within large Jewish communities and growing up as a member of one of two or three Jewish families in a town, growing up Jewish in the South, playing sports, being religious, not being religious, dating, summer camp, all of these areas and more are covered. To his credit, Simons removed himself from the interviews, not printing his questions, but simply letting his subjects speak, often at-length and in-depth, about their lives. For anyone interested in the topic, this is a fascinating book.… (meer)