Reviews for The Chief Rabbi, the Pope, and the Holocaust: An Era in Vatican-Jewish Relations

The average rating for The Chief Rabbi, the Pope, and the Holocaust: An Era in Vatican-Jewish Relations based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-03-11 00:00:00 Eric Wilen My Amazon review -

Review # 2 was written on 2014-05-09 00:00:00 Frank Hayden This biography of Wilford Woodruff, fourth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was teeming with detail about the events and people surrounding Wilford Woodruff. After reading this book and placing Wilford Woodruff in context of overall church history, I agree with the author's conclusion that "[o]n balance he is arguably the third most important figure in all of LDS church history after Joseph Smith, who began Mormonism, and Brigham Young, who led the Saints to Utah and supervised the arly colonization of the intermountain west." The book's discussion of the post-Manifesto workings of the church's general leadership and shift in political philosophy was fascinating. Although I generally found this to be an excellent book, I had two minor issues with it. First, the very detailed description of Woodruff's surroundings, at times, dwarfed the story of Woodruff himself. In other words, while the author paid significant attention to things surrounding Woodruff, he sometimes seemed to be more focused on those issues rather than on Woodruff himself. Second, although Thomas Alexander is a first-rate scholar and historian, on a couple of occasions I believe that he declared as historical, "facts" that many scholars find to be in doubt. For instance, his rather casual declaration that the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants "explicated a doctrine of a godhead composed of the Father, who was an incorporeal spirit. . ." gives short shrift to the significant disagreement among many historians and scholars about that very issue. While I certainly would have no problem with the author making such a declaration with some explanation, the statement itself seems to be a rather bold pronouncement of historical fact when historians and scholars disagree about (1) the particular passage at issue and (2) the Latter Day Saint belief regarding that issue prior to 1835. Similar statements are made throughout the text regarding other disputed issues. However, recognizing that those facts were neither particular important or relevant to the overall story, this is a minor criticism of a fine piece of work. Overall, I quite enjoyed this book, particularly the later chapters.