From a Ruined Garden: The Memorial Books of Polish Jewry (review)

126 SHOFAR Winter 2000 Vol. 18, NO.2 genocide and ofour empathy for its victims. Besides the broad scope ofthe cases, what distinguishes this edited volume from some other recent contributions is the inclusion of eyewitness testimonies. This gives each case an immediacy and credibility that the scholarly analysis alone cannot match. In that sense the volume reaches beyond the narrow confines ofthe scholarly community to a wider community ofreaders, including students. Had there been a more extensive discussion ofthe analytic meaning ofterms, this volume could have made a stronger contribution to the scholarly and legal literature on genocide, but that was not its intent. Although comparative studies ofthe perpetrators of genocide and their motives do exist, there are precious few studies that include eyewitness accounts ofthe victims. For their discerning selections of case studies and for including eyewitness accounts of victims and bystanders we should be grateful to the editors. Robert Melson Department of Political Science Purdue University From a Ruined Garden: The Memorial Books ofPolish Jewry, edited and translated by Jack Kugelmass and Jonathan Boyarin. 2nd expanded ed., with geographical index and bibliography by Zachary M. Baker. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, published in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1998. 353 pp. $39.95 (c); $17.95 (p). Rarely is a book published that causes an entirely new genre ofstudies to open up. This, however, was the result ofthe remarkably fortunate publication by Schocken Books of the first edition in 1983 of From a Ruined Garden. Before 1983, some scholars, librarians, and genealogical researchers certainly knew about yizker bikher in general, but up to that time there had not been a major focus on these books as social, historical, and genealogical sources offirsthand knowledge about destroyed communities, to some extent because of language barriers. But as more lay persons began searching for their "roots" in the late 1970s, with interest building in the 1980s and exploding in the 1990s, they started to tap into these remarkable books. The publication of From a Ruined Garden, containing over 70 translated excerpts from Polish yizkor books, illuminated for many lay persons the lost world depicted in these books from which they had been cut offbecause they could not read them in their original languages, primarily Yiddish and Hebrew. The first edition has long been out of print, but again, in another bit of fortunate timing, a second, expanded edition has been published. Book Reviews 127 The 1998 edition contains four new chapters and a revised bibliography by Zachary Baker, the head librarian at the VIVO Institute for Jewish Research. Most genealogists researchingyizker bikher cut their teeth on earlier versions ofthis bibliography and will be grateful for the update. This extensive bibliography, along with the geographical index and gazetteer, make this book an indispensable source of information on Eastern European communities. The introduction, written by Kugelmass and Boyarin, is a judicious, learned, and sensitive analysis oftheyizker bukh genre. The editors, both ethnographers, view these books from a unique perspective and perfectly balance analysis with sensitivity. Their insight into the social, cultural, and political organizations ofthe shtetls adds great depth to their interpretation of life in these now annihilated communities. They convincingly explain the importance of these books as acts of commemorating the dead by the survivors. Their translated selections are "unique historical documents that offer English readers glimpses into a previously locked storehouse of information on the traditions and transformations that marked everyday life in the shtetl." The editors vividly describe the role of the landsmanschaftn in settling on the writing of a yizkor book as a way of commemorating the death of their shtetl and the deaths oftheir friends and landsleit. Not having physical graves, the dead would have paper graves.l But while performing a holy duty as "guardians of memory," the editorial committees organizing the writing of these books by the survivors and emigres of the shtetl could not avoid factional disputes. Not shirking from describing the nasty political fights that arose during the planning stages of these books, the editors nevertheless manage to bring some light humor and whimsy into the discussion. Many ofthe landsmanschaftn that sponsored memorial books were oriented toward the Zionist and non...