March 2015 - The Family by David Laskin

Last year at this time we were anxiously anticipating our trip to New York City for the Jewish Book Conference where hundreds of Jewish authors present a short, oral synopsis of their book for an audience representing Jewish book fairs across the country. We focused on our presentation but we didn’t anticipate how it would feel to meet Jewish authors. After we received our name tags and directions, I looked up and saw David Laskin. The only other time I was as star-struck was at a US History Conference where I saw David McCullough descending on the escalator. Imagine teenaged girls spotting Paul McCartney in 1967 and you will have a sense of my excitement level. David Laskin, even jet lagged, is very approachable. He had just returned from a trip to see the Israeli branch of his family and was willing to talk to me. He also calmed my nerves about the upcoming trial by oral presentation.

The Family: A Journey into the Heart of the Twentieth Century by David Laskin is one of the best books we’ve read that traces family history. If you’re a faithful Jewish Luck blog reader (and we hope you are), you will have noticed our predilection for family history and genealogy blogs in the past month so it’s natural to highlight a book that not only immerses the reader in Laskin’s family history, but also succeeds in its promise to travel to the heart of twentieth century history. Writing Jewish Luck immersed Leslie and me into Vera and Alisa’s family histories and also our own.

There are many glowing reviews to read about The Family. In fact, it was the Wall Street Journal review that led me to the book. Read about Leslie’s encounter with The Family on her blog. Even were there no celebrities in Laskin’s family tree, the story is gripping. It is at once his own story and the story of so many other Lithuanian Jews whose family spilled onto four continents as the twentieth century erupted and disrupted the lives of so many. Laskin succeeds in drawing his readers into his own family’s story. As he indicates in his subtitle, history can be related through the grand events from a perch far above individuals where death tolls are related in the millions and revolutions are fomented. But, Laskin succeeds in helping us dive into the waves of historical change and feel world change on a personal level.

In this month leading up to Passover and the narrative of the Israelite exodus (emigration) from Egypt, take the time to read one of our twentieth century exodus tales as David Laskin’s family fans out across the globe from Lithuania. Maybe your family crossed paths with his.