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BookReviews 127 original, but American readers will nevertheless be interested in how this European takes his stand on many ofthe most important issues on German and Jewish history. Traverso is widely read in the French and German language literature on the subject and makes occasional references to the Anglo-American discourse. Few of his references are in his native Italian, and none are in Hebrew. He maintains that in German society Jews were never genuinely assimilated. Either they were pariahs, like the novelist Joseph Roth, or parvenus, like the industrialist and statesman Walther Rathenau. His selection ofthese two figures as his models allows him to make his case rather easily. Much of his argument follows that ofHannah Arendt, to whom he readily acknowledges his debt. His [mal two chapters deal with the post-Holocaust period, not so much addressing new relationships between Germans and Jews, but as an exercise in the interpretation of history and ofmemory. He articulatesjust why he prefers the term "Shoah" to "Holocaust." He spells out the "functionalist" vs. "intentionalist" approaches to explaining the Nazi genocide of the Jews. He describes the Historikerstreit. The reunited Germany, he concludes, still "is far from having overcome its past" (p. 161). Though he does not use the term "eliminationist antisemitism" coined by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen in describing Germany, one feels that he might well agree with the approach which that term implies. His essay would have been strengthened ifhe had noted that, in spite ofthe Shoah, the new Germany has attracted a growing Jewish population. These are not former "German citizens ofthe Jewish faith" and their descendants who are returning to the fatherland. They are largely Jews from Eastern Europe, now given the freedom to come westward to Germany, who are seeking opportunity and security if not full-scale assimilation. Though this reviewer does not have access to the French original for comparison, the translation by Daniel Weissbort, professor ofEnglish at the University ofIowa, appears quite serviceable. His "translator's foreword" adds important insights to the' book. Unfortunately there were flaws in the final editing, which created some embarrassing typographical errors (Chancellor "Khol" and "Paul" Hilberg). In all, the book is a useful contribution to the ongoing conversation on the issue of Germans and Jews. Gordon R. Mark Department ofHistory Purdue University Model Mothers: Jewish Mothers and Maternity Provision in East London, 1870-1939, by Lara V. Marks. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994. 320 pp. $53,00. In her study Model Mothers: Jewish Mothers and Maternity Provision in East London. 1870-1939, Lara Marks explores the "visions ofJewish women as good mothers 128 SHOFAR Spring 1997 Vol. 15, No.3 with robust children" (p. 1). Admired for their low infant mortality rates, Jewish women received credit for excellent domestic skills, remaining at home with their babies, and breast-feeding them. Some women, as Marks notes, failed to live up to this image, especially single mothers and prostitutes. Marks views her work as connecting, heretofore disparate fields, the history ofmaternal and infant welfare and immigration to Britain. She analyzes the extent and quality ofservices for pregnant Jewish women and mothers in East London and the degree to which high quality maternal and child welfare services offset the deprivations associated with poverty. Between 1885 and 1895 iilfant mortality rates in Jewish areas were higher than in nonJewish , becoming lower than other East London neighborhoods after 1895. Marks concludes that despite terrible poverty, overcrowding, and insanitary surroundings, Jewish infants were more likely to survive than the children ofnon-Jews, indicating that "Jewish infants had certain advantages over non-Jewish infants" (p. 55). Certain Jewish rituals, the emphasis on hygiene, and dietary laws contributed to Jewish health, especially to reducing infantile diarrhoea, a major cause of infant deaths. Contemporaries believed breast-feeding was common among Jewish mothers, but, notes Marks, the practice was "said to be common among Irish immigrants, and was very prevalent among the general workingclass " (p. 69), suggesting the importance offactors other than breast-feeding. Marks contends that Jewish religious, cultural, and social behavior allIed to healthier offspring. Mothers breast-fed longer and provided a better diet, rich in vitamin D, and few families spent scarce resources on alcohol. Generally, experts believed...

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