Is Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” considered a Jewish book?
Of course not.
But can the Nazi dictator’s autobiography be found in a Jewish library?
Of course.
In a panel discussion called, “They Array Themselves With Gorgeous Words: What Makes a Book Jewish,” Susanne Batzdorff, head librarian for the Celia Gurevitch Jewish Library at Congregation Beth Ami in Santa Rosa explained why Hitler’s book has a place in her library’s 4,000 volume collection.
“At first I thought ‘We don’t want that,'” said Batzdorff, a published poet and author. “But then I realized the impact it has in showing what happened to the Jews in Europe.”
Although she said she didn’t believe “Mein Kampf” to be a Jewish book, its historical perspective as it relates to Jews “justified its inclusion.”
Speaking during Jewish Book Month as part of the Jewish Community Agency of Sonoma County’s Jewish Book Fair and Sale in November, Batzdorff was one of five panelists tackling the topic. Fellow panelists were Rabbi Michael Robinson, creative writing instructor Marianne Ware of Santa Rosa Junior College, Bureau of Jewish Education family educator Ellen Brosbe, and Rabbi Leah Sudran.
The panelists, like Batzdorff, relayed their personal perspectives on those books that play a fundamental role in the lives of Jews and why they play that role.
For instance, Robinson, the former rabbi at Congregation Shomrei Torah in Santa Rosa, called Jews “insiders and outsiders at the same time.” Because of this “different social view” he recommended reading Jewish books as a way to “grow as Jews.”
“Living in a non-Jewish world where we represent less than 2 percent of the population, we have to know who we are and why we are,” he said. “These are questions that are not raised as profoundly by anyone else.”
So what exactly is a Jewish book? Panelists had differing ideas.
Batzdorff gave a broad definition, referring to them as “books that have some value consistent with Jewish beliefs and life,” usually written by someone Jewish. But, she said, “Not all books by Jewish authors are necessarily Jewish.”
And, she added that like “Mein Kampf” and “The Convent at Auschwitz” — written by Polish-Catholic author Barto Szewski about a controversy arising from a monastery built adjacent to Auschwitz — “not all books in my library are written by Jewish authors. But books that hinge on Jewish issues should be included.”
Robinson emphasized that Jewish books, whether by a Jewish author or a non-Jewish author, should have “a social consciousness.” But, he added, “A book on social consciousness isn’t Jewish unless it touches on Jewish issues.”
Sudran, the spiritual leader of Congregation B’nai Israel in Petaluma, gave a more detailed answer, ultimately explaining that Jewish books are “those which speak to us.”
To reach this conclusion, Sudran first explained that in a Jewish book, such as the Talmud, prototypical verses have 85 letters. For instance, the prayers said before the Torah is taken from the Ark and before it is returned, both have 85 letters, she said.
Next, referring to the gamatria (Hebrew for numerology), she explained that the number 85 is signified by the Hebrew letters peh and hay, which together mean “mouth.”
“Jewish books have a mouth,” she said. “They cause us to speak and they speak to us.”
Sudran went on to name three eternal themes found within the canon of Jewish books:
*”The meaning of history.” An example of this, she said, is Joseph “looking back at his life and how it led him from slavery in Egypt to bringing his family back there as a way to save them.” Another applicable theme: survivors looking back on the Holocaust and “trying to discover meaning.”
*”The struggle between good and evil.” A classic example: Why did Cain slay Abel?
*”The struggle against assimilation and persecution.” This includes literature about “how we felt” during the Holocaust, Sudran said. Or, “assimilation into the court of Pharoah” by Joseph.
“These three themes carry through the literature, mystical, philosophical and even modern novels,” she said. “We refer to them as ways to understand ourselves and to discuss issues relevant to our understanding of Judaism.”
As for modern novels, “Very few will enter the timeless canon of Jewish books,” Sudran said in a conversation following the panel discussion. “But those which are reprinted 100 years from now will be those that speak to us…and deal with eternal themes.”
Those books, she added, are sometimes the ones frowned upon by Jews today.
“When Maimonides wrote ‘God for the Perplexed’ in the Middle Ages, some rabbis declared he had gone too far and didn’t include it in the canon,” she said. “Today it’s considered one of the greatest Jewish books of all times. We’ll have to see what happens with our modern novels.”