“Jack Cooper’s Who Knew?! Unusual Stories in Jewish History” is a catchy title suggestive of a supermarket tabloid or a Jewish version of “Ripley’s Believe It or Not!” But bypassing the book for that reason is to risk missing more than 200 mostly fascinating episodes in Jewish history.
In his preface, Cooper quotes Mark Twain from the September 1899 Harper’s magazine commenting on the perseverance of the Jews. Their accomplishments, Twain wrote, are “way out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers.”
“What,” Twain concluded, “was the secret of their immortality?”
Cooper’s answer in this collection of short vignettes: In dealing with intolerance in everyday situations, Jews developed extraordinary intelligence and energy “to overcome … man-made difficulties … to scale great heights in politics, business, and the professions.”
The author spent years as a schoolteacher and principal and is an enthusiastic collector of Jewish books. He says he owns 100 tomes on Jewish history and has read “thousands of pages” about Jews. He uses his library and reading to document his stories in “Who Knew?!”
The bibliography runs the gamut of historians of the Jews: Abba Eban, Abram Leon Sachar, Jacob Rader Marcus and Cecil Roth. Some references are old, such as “Graetz, History of the Jews,” published in 1893. Others are middle-aged, such as Eban’s “My People: The Story of the Jews,” published in 1968. And others, such as websites, are younger. The Encyclopedia Judaica, CD-ROM edition, is used liberally.
“Who Knew?!” is a not a formal history. There are no discussions of trends, how events tie together and how Jewish history was made. The stories do, however, illustrate the diverse experiences of Jews over time, ranging from anti-Semitic regulations to cultural contributions. Most are unusual and not that well known, unless you paid attention in Sunday school or are a Jewish history buff.
Reading this book gives insight into:
• The genius of Jewish businessmen in the United States in the 19th and 20th century;
• The courage of Jews on the battlefield;
• The tragedy of anti-Semitism and its impact on people’s accomplishments (without the Shoah, Germany might have ruled the world);
• The inconsistency of how people viewed Jews — some hated them (Nazis), some tolerated them (Napoleon), others were respectful (George Washington); and some were publicly intolerant and instituted expulsions, but made exceptions for medical care and raising funds (popes, European kings);
• How Jewish customs influenced Christian rituals.
There are inspirational, rags-to-riches biographies of Jews, such as David Sarnoff and Estèe Lauder, and stories of courage and accomplishment, such as Louis Marshall of the American Jewish Committee, who took on Henry Ford’s anti-Semitic weekly paper Dearborn Independent.
Some vignettes show not just overt anti-Semitism, but also the contrast between public prejudice and private accommodation. The Russian mystic Rasputin hired a Jewish business manager to handle his bribery cases and to hide his dealings from the imperial Romanovs. Richard Wagner wanted a Jewish conductor, Hermann Levi, to lead the performance of “Parsifal” at the Beyreuth Festival and resisted efforts to have him replaced.
A few stories strain credulity, such as the Yuchi Indians’ celebration of a festival that resembles Sukkot. Is this evidence of ancient contact between Jews and Native Americans, or a coincidence?
Some episodes show the seamy side of Jewish life and culture. In the early 1900s, Jewish prostitution was fairly extensive but disappeared as social service programs came into action and immigration ceased.
There is an old adage about Jewish holidays: “They tried to kill us, they failed, let’s eat.” Cooper’s book answers Twain’s question about Jews’ immortality: “They tried to make us mortal, they failed, let’s document it.”
Indeed, Twain himself might have asked, “Nu! Who knew?” He would know if he read this book.
“Jack Cooper’s Who Knew?! Unusual Stories in Jewish History” by Jack Cooper (256 pages, Gefen Publishing House, $21.95)