A thoughtful, well-informed analysis.
An examination of the complexities of Israel’s past and future.
On the 75th anniversary of the creation of Israel, Gordis, a two-time winner of the National Jewish Book Award, offers a nuanced assessment of its successes and challenges. Israel’s Zionist founders, he writes, “did not really agree about the fundamental justification for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. Was it God? History? The Bible? Something else?” Yet they managed to forge a declaration that reflected their dream of creating a unique and exemplary nation, “different because it was a Jewish state, a nation that holds itself accountable to a different set of standards.” They envisioned a society that would ensure “complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex” and guarantee “freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture.” Gordis considers a host of relevant issues, including Israeli democracy, treatment of minorities, the economy, secularism, religion, relationship to Diaspora Jews, and, not least, place on the international stage, underscoring Israel’s determination to survive in a world in which antisemitism still rages. From the outset, it confronted violence by Palestine and volatility throughout the Middle East. Iran has repeatedly called for Israel’s annihilation. Faced with these threats, Gordis asks, “If Israel can only survive by the sword, should the Jewish people give up the profound transformation in the Jews’ existential condition that Israel has wrought?” The author acknowledges problems both within the nation (political corruption, internal violence, income inequality) and with its neighbors. “Israel,” he writes, “can be fairly characterized as a success only if it and its people continue to be honest about who they have been, who they are, the terrible decisions that they have at times made, and who they and their country still need to become.” Yet in light of its founders’ dreams, he sees the nation as “one of the greatest stories of resilience, of rebirth, and of triumph in human history.”
A thoughtful, well-informed analysis.Pub Date: April 11, 2023
ISBN: 9780063239449
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Ecco/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
A rousing, suspenseful adventure tale.
A harrowing expedition to Antarctica, recounted by Departures senior features editor Sancton, who has reported from every continent on the planet.
On Aug. 16, 1897, the steam whaler Belgica set off from Belgium with young Adrien de Gerlache as commandant. Thus begins Sancton’s riveting history of exploration, ingenuity, and survival. The commandant’s inexperienced, often unruly crew, half non-Belgian, included scientists, a rookie engineer, and first mate Roald Amundsen, who would later become a celebrated polar explorer. After loading a half ton of explosive tonite, the ship set sail with 23 crew members and two cats. In Rio de Janeiro, they were joined by Dr. Frederick Cook, a young, shameless huckster who had accompanied Robert Peary as a surgeon and ethnologist on an expedition to northern Greenland. In Punta Arenas, four seamen were removed for insubordination, and rats snuck onboard. In Tierra del Fuego, the ship ran aground for a while. Sancton evokes a calm anxiety as he chronicles the ship’s journey south. On Jan. 19, 1898, near the South Shetland Islands, the crew spotted the first icebergs. Rough waves swept someone overboard. Days later, they saw Antarctica in the distance. Glory was “finally within reach.” The author describes the discovery and naming of new lands and the work of the scientists gathering specimens. The ship continued through a perilous, ice-littered sea, as the commandant was anxious to reach a record-setting latitude. On March 6, the Belgica became icebound. The crew did everything they could to prepare for a dark, below-freezing winter, but they were wracked with despair, suffering headaches, insomnia, dizziness, and later, madness—all vividly capture by Sancton. The sun returned on July 22, and by March 1899, they were able to escape the ice. With a cast of intriguing characters and drama galore, this history reads like fiction and will thrill fans of Endurance and In the Kingdom of Ice.
A rousing, suspenseful adventure tale.Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-984824-33-2
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 29, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
A valuable contribution to our understanding of one of history’s most vital figures.
An epistolary memoir of Nelson Mandela’s prison years.
From August 1962 to February 1990, Mandela (1918-2013) was imprisoned by the apartheid state of South Africa. During his more than 27 years in prison, the bulk of which he served on the notorious Robben Island prison off the shores of Cape Town, he wrote thousands of letters to family and friends, lawyers and fellow African National Congress members, prison officials, and members of the government. Heavily censored for both content and length, letters from Robben Island and South Africa’s other political prisons did not always reach their intended targets; when they did, the censorship could make them virtually unintelligible. To assemble this vitally important collection, Venter (A Free Mind: Ahmed Kathrada's Notebook from Robben Island, 2006, etc.), a longtime Johannesburg-based editor and journalist, pored through these letters in various public and private archives across South Africa and beyond as well as Mandela’s own notebooks, in which he transcribed versions of these letters. The result is a necessary, intimate portrait of the great leader. The man who emerges is warm and intelligent and a savvy, persuasive, and strategic thinker. During his life, Mandela was a loving husband and father, a devotee of the ANC’s struggle, and capable of interacting with prominent statesmen and the ANC’s rank and file. He was not above flattery or hard-nosed steeliness toward his captors as suited his needs, and he was always yearning for freedom, not only—or even primarily—for himself, but rather for his people, a goal that is the constant theme of this collection and was the consuming vision of his entire time as a prisoner. Venter adds tremendous value with his annotations and introductions to the work as a whole and to the book’s various sections.
A valuable contribution to our understanding of one of history’s most vital figures.Pub Date: July 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-63149-117-7
Page Count: 640
Publisher: Liveright/Norton
Review Posted Online: April 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2018
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