L’Shanah Tovah to all our library borrowers!
A BANKER’S JOURNEY by DANIEL GROSS: How Edmond J. Safra built a global financial empire. Historian Gross traces Edmond Safar’s exceptional life. He tracks his remarkable journey from the Jewish quarter of Beirut to Milan at the age of fifteen then to Geneva and New York. Edmond was fluent in six languages and in perpetual motion until his tragic death in 1999. His traditional old-world belief that a banker must protect his depositors led to his success as he founded four financial institutions on three continents. Gross presents the achievements of this intensely private man.
A SMALL TOWN IN THE UKRAINE by BERNARD WASSERSTEIN: Historian Wasserstein has written a family biography of the violence, injustice and trauma suffered by his family at the hands of the Nazis. His grandparents and aunt were forced to dig their own graves and shot. He attempts to understand it as he examines the small town of Krakowiec and its inhabitants. He traces its recorded history across centuries of religious and political conflict. After 1945, according to Soviet records, just one Jew survived in Krakowiec.
ELIE WIESEL by JOSEPH BERGER: Drawing on Wiesel’s literary achievements and interviews with his friends, family, scholars and critics, Berger paints a portrait of the man whom the Nobel Committee called “a messenger of mankind”. Berger explores Wiesel’s Hasidic childhood in Hungary, his postwar years spent rebuilding his life from the ashes in France and his transformation into a Parisian intellectual.
EVERYDAY HATE by DAVE RICH: How antisemitism is built into our world and how you can change it. The author shows how this ancient prejudice continues to endure and how antisemitism, whether in politics or music, theatre or sport is hard to avoid. Blending personal anecdotes, contemporary examples and historical insights, the author takes you on a journey through this contentious subject. At a time of economic and social turmoil fuelled by conspiracy theories on your smartphone or conflict in the Middle East antisemitism is back.
FALL IN LOVE WITH THE PROBLEM, NOT THE SOLUTION
by URI LEVINE: Unicorns are companies that have reached a valuation of more than one billion dollars and the author has built two. As the co-founder of Waze, he is committed to spreading entrepreneurial thinking so that others in tech can build their own valued companies. He offers an inside look at the creation and sale of Waze as well as his other iconic company revealing the formula that drove these companies to compete with industry veterans and giants alike.
DRESSMAKER OF PROSPECT HEIGHTS by KITTY ZELDIS:
A historical novel about three women in 1920’s New York and the secrets they kept. Beatrice arrived from New Orleans to establish a chic dress shop with Alice, her orphaned teenage ward. Catherine Berrill, a wealthy socialite who is desperately trying to conceive, lives in the same vicinity. Their lives intertwine and Zeldis skilfully carries the reader from Brooklyn Heights in 1924 back to New Orleans in 1898 and Russia between 1878 and 1896.
THE VILLAGE IDIOT by STEVE STERN: A richly colourful novel on real life artist Chaim Soutine. He was born in a Belarusian town and nicknamed ‘village idiot’. Stern shares Soutine’s genius and drive for creativity that persisted throughout his life. He focuses on his adventures and romances as well as his unlikely friendships. Stern depicts him as a man who fled his grim shtetl life, remained non-observant for decades until he realised in Vichy Paris “I am a Yid again.” Stern shares this artist’s extraordinary life as a gifted Jewish refugee.
WINNIE & NELSON by JONNY STEINBERG: A well-researched account by journalist Steinberg of Nelson Mandela’s relationship with Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. He recreates the political and private lives of both. During his years in prison Nelson lived with the idealised version of his wife. However, Winnie, his political equal, became estranged from his politics. She tried to orchestrate an armed seizure of power. Soon after his release they divorced but were both emotionally scarred by the complexity of their time together.
The only Jewish community library in Africa! Membership is free and open to all. Contact: admin@gitlinlibrary.co.za or phone 021 462 5088
Jacob Gitlin Library www.gitlinlibrary.co.za
Find us on Facebook and Instagram
• Published in the September 2023 issue – Click here to start reading.
• To advertise in the Cape Jewish Chronicle and on this website – kindly contact Lynette Roodt on 021 464 6736 or email advertising@ctjc.co.za. For more information and advertising rate card click here.
• Sign up for our newsletter and never miss another issue.
• Please support the Cape Jewish Chronicle with a voluntary Subscription for 2023. For payment info click here.
• Visit our Portal to the Jewish Community to see a list of all the Jewish organisations in Cape Town with links to their websites.
Follow the Cape Jewish Chronicle: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn
