Description
Book SynopsisExploring the critical influences shaping the decisions made by Jews in Nazi-occupied eastern Europe, Finkel sheds new light on the dynamics of collective violence and genocide.
Trade Review"Winner of the 2018 Alexander L. George Book Award, International Society of Political Psychology"
"Winner of the 2018 Joseph Rothschild Prize in Nationalism and Ethnic Studies, Association for the Study of Nationalities"
"Winner of the 2018 Bronislaw Malinowski Social Sciences Award, Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences"
"A political scientist turns fresh eyes on the problem of how European Jews responded to the Holocaust as it was unfolding. . . . Of much interest to students of modern history but also to those engaged in humanitarian relief efforts, refugee relocation, and the like." * Kirkus *
"Instances of . . . mass hysteria have been appearing on a weekly basis, revealing an historical illiteracy so vast that it could contain 1,000 books on the Holocaust. If the ignorant could read only one of them . . .
Ordinary Jews would be an excellent way to begin their education."
---Stefan Kanfer, City Journal"Finkel provides a fresh and often fascinating analysis. . . . He makes a compelling case that the response of Jews was based in no small measure on their experiences before the war."
---Glen Altschuler, Jerusalem Post"Finkel's book on an individual’s choice and survival during the Holocaust focuses on how victims from three Jewish ghettos--Minsk, Kraków, and Bialystok--reacted in response to danger from the Nazis and their allies. . . . This study is fascinating in how Finkel weaves personal narratives from the victims with social science foundations in order to reach some macro conclusions. . . . Finkel’s book is provocative and worth reading for scholars looking to understand the victims within these wretched ghettos." * Choice *
"As more Holocaust works push through the barrier of the Holocaust as unknowable, restoring Jewish life and agency before, during--and after--the Shoah is essential. Finkel's work makes a solid contribution in this regard without losing sight of the people, actions, policies, and laws most responsible for creating the contexts of such life-or-death ‘choices.’"
---Peter Admirand, Reading Religion"[A] most sensitive of investigations . . .
Ordinary Jews is an ultimately important contribution toward the many writings on the subject of the Holocaust. Its complexity and deftness lies in Finkel's telling, which, if truth be told, resonates with all the clarity of subdued beauty."
---David Marx, David Marx Book Reviews"[A] fine book. . . . This book is very carefully documented with endnotes distinguishing between primary and secondary sources. Finkel himself is of Eastern European Jewish extraction and that colors his study with a very personal and poignant aspect enriching the research but in no way detracting from its scientific approach. His writing is clear and very readable. . . . This book is recommended for all academic Judaica collections and for JCC libraries."
---Marion M. Stein, Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews"The book’s persuasive theory, distinctive findings, specific real-life examples, and far-reaching policy options is amply rewarding. It models an ever-finer mode of scholarship, fills in major gaps in knowledge, and with its astute challenges to faulty conventional 'wisdom' makes a major contribution to Holocaust studies. Future discussion of survival decision-making in the ghettos will not be complete unless it draws on Finkel’s exemplary work."
---Arthur Shostak, European Legacy"
Ordinary Jews is an important book for two reasons. First, it offers one of the few sustained efforts to analyze how Jews in different places behaved in response to Nazi rule instead of simply describing how they experienced it. . . . It also notices aggregate
patterns of behavior that varied from community to community, and it tries to account for them using methods and insights from the social sciences."
---David Engel, Shofar Book Forum"Finkel’s ambitious study brings political science to Holocaust history, enriches our understanding of individual choices by the victims, sheds light on the conditions that influenced their decisions, and establishes patterns by comparative analysis of behavior in three ghettos." * Holocaust and Genocide Studies *
"[
Ordinary Jews] is not only brave, but opens up new avenues of research about the Holocaust and other processes of mass violence.—Laia Balcells and Daniel Soloman,
Comparative Politics"
