Judaic songs and sorrows

Jerusalem Song of Songs by Jill and Leon Uris (Andre Deutsch £14.95).
THIS SEEMS to me to be one of the very best books to have come out on the subject of Jerusalem for many years. Terence Prittie's recent Whose Jerusalem? was a well informed analysis of the background to conflict in what some consider the capital of Israel. And the solution to its problems there presented was ingenious.
This book, though coffee-table in appearance, is a serious contribution to modern literature on the subject of one of the most interesting cities of the world. Leon Uris has proved himself to be an outstanding commentator on the historical roots of some of today's most troubled areas. He wrote not only Exodus but also Ireland. A Terrible Beauty.
He rightly tackles the history of Jerusalem as if it reflected the religious history of the whole world. He is soon to be found boldly writing of Abraham's "intimacy" with God. For that was how the story began.
The confused story of how God's own people came to find their home in the promised land gains new clarity. Uris as a Jew is brutally frank as all scholars must ultimately be. Frankness does not necessarily imply being critical. Jews, Moslems, Christians must all face the truth about themselves and sometimes they find the truth is painful.
The story is thus free of sentimentality but full of emotion. Heady were the Jewish days of glory. Bitter was the period of defeat and dispersal. For Christians, a new era began with Jesus of whom Uris writes with admiring detachment. But the founder of Christianity — who was he? Does his mystery still lie hidden in Jerusalem'?
There are many mysteries. There are lost civilisations and evidence that only now are we beginning to rediscover in more sophisticated form certain advanced technologies once taken for granted by the citizens of primitive Jerusalem.
The pre-Christian period is written with the most love, it seems. But the medieval period is the most exciting. The Crusaders after all were colourful figures. The manner, moreover, of how, Islam came to Jerusalem is shown, in this book to possess a key to understanding that part of contemporary Islam whose superiority complex differs greatly from Jewish feelings of invincibility and Christian ones of self-righteousness.
The history comes right up to the minute and the photographs, by the author's wife, belong more to a sumptuously mounted exhibition in an elegant salon than between the pages of a book. In this sense the book is an exhibition and a brilliant one conceived, illuminated by a text based on immense industry and deep insights.
Comprartively speaking the price is not high.for what could be many people's favourite giftbuy this Christmas.
Sarah Rubens The Diaspora Story by Joan Comay (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 15).
It is rare to come across a book where the concept an d illustrations are based on a Museum! Mrs Comay has succeeded in doing so, using the new Museum of the Jewish Diaspora in Tel Aviv. The exhibits are a panorama of the dispersion of the Jews throughout the nations, and over the centuries and it uses prints, maps, full and scale models, 11,500 slides, recorded music and conversations, and every conceivable visual aid, employing the most elaborate electronics.
The author divides the book into two sections. The first she calls, The Inner World of the Diaspora, covering the traditional Jewish home life, the Synagogue, the religious Festivals, the Talmud, religious culture and languages, and much else besides. The second section looks at The Jews Amongst the Nations, from the Biblical period through the Hellenistic-Roman World, Byzantium, Christian Spain, Italy, Holland, England, the Slav countries, to the New World. What a mixed story evolves. A story of a small people subjected
to every degree or persecution from segregation, banishment, to
death. Periods of relative peace when they gave so much to civilisation and culture including the formation of civil law.
After each migration as a result of some edict, they settled elsewhere learning to adapt to their new host-country, but, then they were on the move again. Similar to a bouncing ball they were patronised or persecuted.
Fortunately there is in this portrait of a religious orientated people, a bright portrayal of strong faith, engendering resilience and survival; the love of study and prodigious achievements lir the arts and sciences. Community, Faith, Culture.
The book is well illustrated in colour and in black and white, and there is an enormous index.
If one has been to the museum, then here is a fine souvenir. If one has not visited the museum, this is an encouragement to go there. The analogy is, "The Book of the Films".
Graham Jenkins