Elder of the Jews [English]

Author: Ruth Bondy
Published by: Grove Press (1981)

“Edelstein’s Race Against Time” is the dramatic life story of a major figure in the Czechoslovakian branch of “Hehalutz”, whom Adolf Eichmann appointed the first Jewish Elder of Ghetto Theresienstadt. Edelstein was neither a visionary nor a war hero. His unique role in that specific place and time, as head of the Jewish Council, was rooted in his aim of protecting the Jews in the German occupied lands, in a desxife, and the death of optimism.

In this rich and important book, based on documents and testimonies and illuminating the life of the Jews in the ghetto from a new perspective, one that seeks to understand rather than to pass judgment, Ruth Bondy portrays the character of Jews in the Holocaust, their worldview, way of thinking, illusions, and hopes. This is a biography of one man who reflected the unending optimism of an entire nation.