by Larry Tye
First published 2001
Larry Tye documents the unexpected revival of Jewish communities across seven cities spanning four continents. Working as a Boston Globe reporter, Tye witnessed firsthand the reawakening of Jewish practice and spirit in communities long thought to be disappearing. He focuses on individual families and congregations in each location, from Boston to Buenos Aires, from Dusseldorf to Dnepropetrovsk in Ukraine. Tye attended High Holiday services and Sabbath celebrations, interviewed community leaders, and spoke with residents young and old. His reporting reveals striking contrasts: Germany hosts the world's fastest growing Jewish population just one generation after the Holocaust, while Buenos Aires Jews thrive in a country that once sheltered Nazi war criminals like Adolf Eichmann. Ireland's small but influential Jewish community has produced Jewish Lord Mayors in Belfast, Cork, and twice in Dublin from the same family. In Boston, Tye examines his own family's deep roots in the city's Jewish life. The book captures how Jews worldwide maintain shared customs and rituals while adapting to their local environments, developing a new comfort level in the lands they call home.
Genres: history, non-fiction, 21st-century, jewish
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family
Setting: Boston, Buenos Aires, Dusseldorf, Dnepropetrovsk, Belfast, Cork, Dublin
Period: 21st-century
352 pages · Hardcover · Henry Holt and Co.