Falk’s Disappointing History of the Jews

This tedious and pretentious work — it could have used an editor with a broad blue pencil — probably tells us more about the author than about the subject. The author is seeking his roots and identity, which limits his vision. There is a great deal of research and Falk makes use of all of it, relevant or not. But the research is limited to the author’s preconceived fantasy that equates the Ashkenazi (German and other eastern European) Jews with the totality of Jewish experiences. This is clear from the first sentence of Chapter 45, “The Golden Land,”: “The history of the Jews in America begins in Russia and the Balkans.” This provides an excuse for a puerile digression into the political history of Romania. Four pages later we learn of the arrival of the Sephardi (Iberian) Jews two hundred years earlier.