Letters to Auntie Fori: The 5,000-Year History of the Jewish People and Their Faith

Sir Martin Gilbert renowned author of many authoritative works of history and biography speaks in a charming personal voice in this fascinating volume the saga of five thousand years of Jewish life laid out in a series of intimate storytelling letters to a lifelong friend. Sir Martin first met Auntie Fori in 1958 when he arrived in New Delhi with a letter of introduction from her son a fellow Oxford student. Their friendship flourished for forty years through correspondence and visits to the capitals where her husband the diplomat B. K. Nehru was posted. Then at her ninetieth birthday celebration in 1998 Auntie Fori told her adopted nephew that she was not of Indian birth but was actually Hungarianand Jewish. She did not know what this Jewish identity involvedhistorically or spirituallyand she asked him to enlighten her. In response Sir Martin embarked on the series of letters that have been gathered to form this book shaping each one as a concise individually formed story. He presents Jewish history as the narrative expressionthe timelineof the Jewish faith and the faith as it is informed by the history. Starting with Adam and Eve he then brings us to Abraham and his descendants who worshiped a God who repeatedly and often dramatically intervened in their lives. The stories of Genesis and Exodus lead seamlessly on to those of the eras when the land was ruled by the Israelite kings and then by Assyria Babylonia Persia Greece and Romethe Biblical and post-Biblical periods. In Sir Martins hands these stories are rich in incident and achievement. He then traces the long history of the Jews in the Diaspora ending with an unexpected visit to an outpost of Jewry in Anchorage Alaska. Ranging through almost every country in the worldincluding China and Indiahe maintains a chronological structure weaving in the history of other peoples and faiths to give Auntie Foriand usa sense of the larger stage on which Jewish history has played out. The last fifty letters are devoted to an explanation of Jewish faith and worship intertwined with the history and observance of holy days and festivals. These letters are fascinating in their objectivity and at the same time infused with a deep personal warmth. Written for one beloved friend Letters to Auntie Fori brings to life the events and sequence of Jewish history with a special charm that will endear this volume to readers old and young.