Portraits of Our Past

While many books describe daily life in Eastern European cities and shtetls before the Holocaust, Emily Rose's Portraits of Our Past: Jews of the German Countryside may be unique in highlighting the experiences of rural Jews in 18th- and 19th-century Germany. Through a genealogy research project, Rose came to realize that her understanding of rural German Jews ""had been very limited and, in many respects, completely wrong""; this absorbing study weaves her discoveries about her own ancestors' experiences with the larger history of Diaspora Jews in Germany. The book is enhanced by dozens of maps, illustrations and facsimiles.