times of tranquility and the rcalit’ ofrnJewish achievement.” From the beginningsrnof Jewish settlement in the Rhine,rnin Roman times, to the first Crusade, arnperiod of 700 years, Jews in the Germanrnlands enjoyed a normal and ordinary life,rnwithin the context of normality thatrnthen prevailed. It was only with the massrnkillings at the time of the plague of 1348-rn1349, when Jews were blamed for thernblack death and whole communitiesrnwere wiped out, that large numbers ofrnGerman Jews fled to the tolerant pioneeringrnterritories of the East—Poland,rnfor example. Mrs. Gay notes, “Therernwere onlv nine Jewish settlements inrnPoland at the end of the 14th century; inrnthe next century, 50 more were established.rn. . . German Jews were the dominantrnclement and formed the basis ofrnJewish life in Eastern Europe for the nextrnfive centuries.” Even from the Crusadesrnthrough the black death and on to therntheological anti-Semitism of Luther andrnthe ideological anti-Semitism of Hitler,rnas Peter Cay notes, “Jews managed tornbuild a sturdy culture in their Germanrnsettlements, partlv independent of theirrngentile neighbors, partlv intertwinedrnwith them. Jewish learning, however isolated;rnJewish prosperity, however precarious;rnJewish public service, however limited;rneven Jewish participation in thernwider society, all claim our attention.rnAfter all, even the language they developedrn—^Yiddish—wrongly despised as arnmere dialect and ridiculed as a debasedrnversion of German, was a remarkablernenture in adaptation in its own right,rnwith an impressive literature to its credit.”rnIt is to that long and deeply humanrnhistory of ordinary people living commonplacernlives that Mrs. Gay devotesrnmost of her pictures and gentle, factualrnnarratives. With words, maps, but—especiallyrn—with illustrations of all kinds,rnshe works her wav through the long story,rncovering such topics as the originsrnand institutions of Jewish life; GermanrnJewish history from the Middle Ages tornthe Court Jews; the return to history;rnthe struggle for emancipation; the 50-rnyear empire; and the end. What is freshrnin her account is the balance—sevenrnchapters of approximately equal length.rnOther books on the same subject, likernholocaust museums bound between covers,rnset forth a perfunctory survey of everythingrndown to the National Socialists,rnwith attention gien mostly to the rehearsalrnof the tragic denouement. Mrs.rnGay defies the obsession with the holocaustrnthat has captured American Jewishrnconsciousness, insisting on the contraryrnthat everything must be seen in perspectivernand with a certain balance. Arngreat life that ends with cancer is notrnrightly captured by a brief resume listingrnthe deceased’s jobs, followed by a day-todayrndetailed reproduction of the doctor’srnmedical records complete withrnblood counts and urine samples; Mrs.rnGay dwells on each segment in a longrnhistory, according to them all proper appreciation.rnHer chapters follow a simple pattern:rnnarrative introduction interspersed withrnextensive illustrations, themselves fullyrnexplained; the book makes its impactrnboth verbally and visually. Mrs. Gay notrnonly narrates public and political history,rnbut portrays the private and inner life ofrnthe people, their devotion to God, andrntheir shaping of every day in response tornthe Torah. What happened in the woddrnbeyond takes place as if on a distantrnplanet; the views of Israel at home re-rnLIBERALARTSrnSPREADING SENSITIVITYrnIn Harrogate, Yorkshire (England), a children’s choir so impressed musicians thatrnthey made a video recording of the group. It was brought to the government’s attentionrnthat there were no black kids in the choir, and the video was withdrawn untilrnthis disgusting fault was remedied. In vain it was pointed out that there are nornblacks in Harrogate. A few token blacks were then ferried up from London tornmime on the recording.rn—Louis B. Delpinornmind us of the purpose of its shared, enduringrncommunity. Mrs. Gay’s touch isrnso sure that an^one who wants to knowrnwhat it has meant, and now means, tornlive the Judaic life will find here, in wordsrnand in pictures, as authentic an accouirtrnof Judaism as a living religion as today existsrnin print. Theology, philosophy,rnlearning, and mysticism—these takerntheir rightful place in the narrative,rnalongside massacre, repression, and, ultimately,rnextermination. The final chapterrn—mercifully, if unstylishly, brief—isrnall the more depressing because by thenrnwe know the people. In these pages thernholocaust happened to real people,rnwhom Mrs. Gay has made us esteem:rn”When the counting stopped, it wasrnclear that 170,000 German Jews hadrnbeen killed in the camps. Sixteen hundredrnyears of German Jewish history werernover.”rnJacob Neusner is DistinguishedrnResearch Professor of Religious Studiesrnat the University of South Florida,rnTampa, and Life Member of ClarernHall, Cambridge University. He isrnauthor most recently of A RabbirnTalks With Jesus: An Intermillennial,rnInterfaith Exchange (Doubleday).rnThy Will Be Donernby Edward B. AndersonrnThe Children of Menrnby P.D. JamesrnNew York: Alfred A. Knopfrnl-H pp., $22.00rnP.D. James has attracted notice forrnhow well she is able, within the confinesrnof her mstery novels, to writernabout contemporary British society. ReviewingrnDevices and Desires in the NewrnYork Review of Books some time ago, HilaryrnMantel made the suggestion that itrnwas perhaps time for James to “slide outrnof her handcuffs, kick off her concreternboots, and stride onto the territory ofrnthe mainstream novel.” James had beenrngetting this advice for some time, notrnleast, one suspects, from herself. Onernmight have thought that James wouldrnwrite her first serious novel by carryingrnon in the same vein as her earlier mvs-rn36/CHRONICLESrnrnrn