“Fiddle-dee-dee. War, war, war!” -Scarlett O’Hara, Gone With the Wind

I’ve always been interested in war.  Not in battles, bloodshed, or that famous opening scene from Saving Private Ryan – rather, I’ve had a growing fascination over the years in the causes and consequences of war.  Some would call those the peripherals; I would call them the essentials.  In college, I always found myself gravitating towards paper topics related to war (the underground newspapers of the Vietnam War, the political causes of armed insurrections in Africa, etc etc).

Well, it appears that even in grad school, that interest hasn’t abated.  For one of my Judaic Studies classes, I’m supposed to write a review critiquing the methods of the authors of two scholarly works.  I found it interesting (and one of my friends found it somewhat disturbing) that although I can choose any topic I like – biblical criticism, Hebrew literature, medieval Jewish history – I immediately decided that I wanted to write about Jews during wartime.  I chose my first book immediately – American Jewry and the Civil War, by Bertram W. Korn.  I wanted my next book to be about American Jewry during the Revolution… but after many fruitless Google searches and a consultation with a professor in the department, I discovered that… there are no scholarly books about American Jews during the Revolutionary War!

How can this be?!  Sure, there weren’t many Jews around at the time, but there’s a whole rich history surrounding the Jews of the Colonial and Revolutionary period!  (I won’t bore you with the details… but don’t take my word for it, either).  Needless to say, that really got my goat.

Well, in light of the situation, I’ve decided to compile a list (the source? my imagination…) of the greatest Jewish books never written (disclaimer: if you don’t find this all that funny, please note the thing about funny bones in my profile):

1. American Jewry and the Revolutionary War (The one that started it all)
2. “It’s OK, I’ll Sit In The Dark…”: A Beginner’s Guide to Jewish Mothers
3. Pharaoh Forgot to Pay the Electricity Bill: An Anachronistic Scientific Explanation of the 10 Plagues
4. Hillel Potter and the Goblet of Kiddush Wine
5. My Life as a False Messiah: Dreams, Adventures, and All-Around Fun, by Shabbetai Tzvi
6. Dancing the Hora For Dummies

Happy, er, non-reading…
Naomi