Wednesday, October 24, 2007

What are you reading?


This isn't an official meme, but you can continue the chain...

I'm reading Inventing Great Neck, by Judith S. Goldstein. It was given to me by my good friend, whom I've known since we were in Great Neck North together.
So far, I've found one very major mistake. She's off by over a decade concerning when the second high school/junior high campus, Great Neck South, was built. She claims that it was built in the 1960's or 1970's. Badly edited, the book mentions both, but the truth is that the campus was functioning by 1958, so the planning must have begun during the very early 1950's.
The author is concentrating, it seems, on the growth of the Jewish community in Great Neck. Granted that I'm just in the middle of the book, but it seems more ludicrous than ironic, that she ends the book in the 1960's rather than closer to now.
It was in the 1970's that the character of the Jewish community in Great Neck changed drastically. Considering that she totally ignores the legendary pioneer, strictly Orthodox Rabbi Wolf of the Great Neck Synagogue, it shouldn't surprise me that she ends her book before the Great Neck Jewish Community became strongly Modern Orthodox. I guess that she finds the fact too disturbing.
I'll write more when I finish reading the book.

2 comments:

CRUSTY MOM-E said...

Bizarre, I was just informed of this book the other day by a family member, and here I see it!!
So, taking aside the timegap, would you suggest it as a meaningful read?
Always,
Crusty~

Batya said...

I'll be posting more, very soon. If you don't know Great Neck, don't read it. It's terribly subjective, making it inaccurate.