Michael Cohn Livres

Focusing on the migration of Eastern Jews since 1648, the book explores their adaptation of skills from ghetto life to address social issues and fill commercial roles in industrialized Western societies. It highlights their significant contributions to social work, the fur trade, textiles, and entertainment, as well as their influence on ideologies such as Zionism and Marxism. Through this examination, the book sheds light on the profound impact of Eastern European Jews in shaping Western society.

Most Jews who now live in Germany have lived elsewhere. Forty thousand of them are members of official Jewish communities in today's Germany. As a study in the formation of minority communities within European national matrices, Cohn's work has interest for sociologists, political scientists, and anthropologists as well.

Simon ben Levi, a sixteen year old Jewish trader in Viking Norway and his young wife Leah, travel north from Bjorgvin to trade for furs, ivory and jewels. Trading on the arctic seas and in the deep northern forests requires ships, swords, diplomatic skill and especially courage from both to deal with Russian princes, Viking jarls and Saami tribesmen. Nor is Bjorgvin, now Bergen, a peaceful city in the eleventh century when this tale takes place.

Elizabeth Troyes, teenage orphan from Carolina, is sent to be a nursemaid in Revolutionary wartime Boston. The ship she is travelling on is captured by the British. Appointed prize master and captain of the Phoebe is Midshipman Jeffrey Kent of the Royal Navy and incidentally also her cousin. In storm and battle, among Tory refugees in America and noblemen and smugglers in England their relationship to each other and their loyalties are formed and tested.