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Rating:  Summary: Everybody can find something in this collection Review: When a collection contains stories by such writers as Agnon, Aleichem, Babel, Malamud, Singer, and Zweig, you know that you're not going to get a bunch of junk ! Sure enough, there are some great stories in this volume, some by people perhaps not so well known, like Joseph Opatashu and Leo Litwak. There are also weak links, but "weak" is certainly in the eye of the beholder, I admit. Nevertheless, I'd have to say that this is an uneven collection and I wonder what the purpose of it was, other than to say, "Yep, we can compile a bunch of stories written by Jews and mostly about themes which relate to Jews." Perhaps the time for such collections has gone by and we can now say that as people, Jews have intimate connections to every aspect of human existence, just like everyone else. Is there really "African-American literature" which is only of interest to African-Americans ? Is there really a "Jewish" literature ? This book provides proof of two answers: one is yes, the other is no. I suppose it depends upon your already-existing perspective. Anyhow, if you want to read some excellent stories, whether you are Jewish or not, try this book. There are a lot of five star stories here---I give the book three stars as a "concept".
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