Reviews by Julie Feirer – Page 2 – Books, Brews & Banter

The Truth About Immigration: Why Successful Societies Welcome Newcomers, by Zeke Hernandez

The Truth About Immigration was published in June of 2024, and therefore was quite timely and relevant when our group began reading it in late Fall of 2024 – finishing our discussion of it just after the second election of Donald Trump.

Having read it, the upside is that we all feel better educated about how immigration works in the United States, as well as its pros and cons. While it’s clear that the current archaic system needs to be updated, it is also clear that immigrants are a net positive to society for economic, social and cultural reasons.

The downside is that we’re likely to start seeing mass deportations anyway, due to Trump’s campaign promises, and we’ll be powerless to do anything about it. We are living in a time when fear of immigrants has been stoked to an all-time high for political gain.

If only everyone could read this book. We’d like to think it would make a difference, but who knows. Perhaps fear is just an easier sell.

One of the main takeaways is that both sides of the typical immigration debate are wrong, or at least short-sighted. One side claims that immigrants are a drain on society’s resources and dangerous to “our way of life.” The other side tends to counter by whispering the victim narrative, that taking in immigrants is the right thing to do because of the violence and oppression that causes people to flee their home countries. The truth is actually far more powerful than the victim narrative: Successful societies welcome newcomers. Unfortunately, that information is rarely part of the discussion. It takes more time to explain, and therefore is harder to break through.

Zeke Hernandez is very thorough in his presentation of the details, and although the book is heavy on facts, it is readable for the average American who has not experienced the immigration system first-hand. Another round of editing before publishing might have eliminated some repetition of ideas and made the information that much more digestible. His various stories and anecdotes, some from friends and others from his own experience as an immigrant from Uruguay, are a welcome illustration. We applaud his effort to enlighten readers with the truth.

— Julie Feirer

Invisible: The Forgotten Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America’s Most Powerful Mobster, by Stephen L. Carter

This book presents the true story of Eunice Hunton Carter, one of the most famous and accomplished Black women of 1940s America. Although she’s no longer a household name, the author – her grandson, the novelist Stephen Carter – provides a detailed account of her fascinating life.

Eunice Hunton’s grandfather, Stanton Hunton, purchased his freedom from slavery before the Civil War. His son, William Alphaeus Hunton Sr., migrated to Atlanta and married Addie Waites Hunton. Both William and Addie were college educated and activists with the YMCA and NAACP. They had two children, Eunice and Alphaeus, and eventually they moved their family to Brooklyn, New York. Addie Hunton, Eunice’s mother, was relentless in her work in advancement and support of the “darker nation” (term used by the author), and she was clearly a role model to Eunice for choosing to pursue a non-traditional path despite both societal expectations and the seemingly insurmountable roadblocks of gender and race. Ultimately, Eunice became one of the first female African-American lawyers and one of the first African American prosecutors in the United States.

In 1921, Eunice graduated from Smith College with a degree in social work. After a few years of work in that field, she went back to school to study law. She became the first black woman to earn a law degree from Fordham University in New York City, and then in 1935, the first black woman assistant district attorney in the state of New York. After gaining some notoriety with her legal and political work, she was one of 20 lawyers selected by special prosecutor Thomas Dewey, who was on a mission to curtail the mafia in New York and in general. Although she was initially tasked on that team with listening to what were perceived to be lower-level morality crimes of prostitution, it was through that work that she identified ongoing patterns and connections that eventually led to the conviction of mafia boss Lucky Luciano in 1936. Her professional commitment to Dewey lasted through his presidential runs of 1944 and 1948.

Although she did not seem very interested in or suited for motherhood, she and her husband, Lisle Carter Sr., had a son named Lisle Carter Jr. He was the father of the author of this book, her grandson Stephen Carter.

Carter’s work in this book is a bit of an enigma. He is a well-known best-selling author of works such as The Emperor of Ocean Park, which was one of Time Magazine’s 100 best mystery and thriller books of all time. He is also a law professor at Yale Law School. But his presentation of this material is fairly dry and reads like an academic paper or a book report at times. With all the interesting facts and storyline he had to work with in his grandmother’s life, it’s odd that he wasn’t able to identify the mundane bits and condense them so that the interesting parts would have room to be more compelling. As it is, the reader has to get through a LOT of back-story about the lives of William and Addie – especially Addie – before getting to Eunice. One of our club members described the title as a bit of a bait and switch. That being said, the book also contains interesting glimpses of professional life in Harlem, and Alphaeus’s association with the Communist Party.

We found it unusual that the author didn’t personalize the story a bit more by saying, “my grandmother” or “my father,” but always Eunice and Lisle, etc. This was especially noticeable when he talked about Eunice sending Lisle away as a child and rarely visiting, a period of time that was very painful “for Lisle.” It was unclear whether this was an attempt to stay emotionally neutral while sweeping feelings under the rug or if he really feels distant from it. In any case, he clearly does admire the work that his grandparents did, even if their paths did not allow time for warm family bonds.

Overall, our group was glad that we read this book and became aware of the life and work of Eunice Hunton Carter. Her story is an inspiration and very deserving of documentation.

— Julie Feirer & Bill Smith

Can We Talk About Israel? by Daniel Sokatch

Can We Talk About Israel?: A Guide for the Curious, Confused, and Conflicted was written by Daniel Sokatch, an American Jewish activist and CEO of the New Israel Fund since 2009. His aim with this book, as he states in the first chapter, is to break down the conflict between Israel and Palestine into a thorough but understandable narrative so that the average uninvolved (but interested) person can understand it enough to participate in discussion to some degree.

Based on the fact that our group had several interesting discussions about it, I think he achieved that goal.

The first half of the book starts at the very beginning – God telling Abraham of Canaan – and steps through the full history of the conflict, highlighting the major incidents, competing interests and philosophies, milestone events, and most notable leaders on both sides to the present day. Though it was definitely engaging, this part was so full of facts that it was hard to stay focused and keep the details straight. Overall, it left us with a better understanding of the motivations and emotions behind both sides.

The second half went into greater detail about the “current” state of the conflict, such as it was in 2021 when the book was published. Sokatch stated that he endeavored to present it in a balanced way, and we felt that he achieved this also (or as our Bill Smith said, as even-handed a resource as we’re likely to find). We learned about the carved-up and walled-off map of the territory, the political climate and living conditions of the major hubs, the bond between America and Israel, the creeping Israeli Settlements, the debates around apartheid and BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel), what constitutes antisemitism versus fair criticism of Israel, and so much more. None of it told us how to feel, which is not a comfortable place for Americans who are used to being able to claim one position or another for every issue.

Much has happened since the book was published, most notably the attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7^th, 2023, which is still a full-scale conflict at this moment. Sokatch continues to weigh in on the subject on the website for The New Israel Fund, an organization which was established in 1979 and “designed to expand the work that the United Jewish Appeal was then doing … to protect Israel’s strength by protecting democracy, human rights, justice, and equality for all Israelis – Jews and Arabs” (from jewishvirtuallibrary.org). His latest post can be found here: https://www.nif.org/blog/finding-light-in-the-darkness/. In it, he makes a statement that I find to be somewhat more hopeful than the last chapter of the book, which was titled “The Case for Hope.”

President Biden has offered us a light in this darkness. But there is another light, one that shines today in the darkness in Israel: Activists in Israeli civil society—regular Israelis, Arab and Jews, seeking a better, shared future—are leading the way towards a different path—especially grantees like Standing Together, Combatants for Peace, Bereaved Parents—Families Forum, Breaking the Silence, and Yesh Din—who either are co-led by Arabs and Jews or have worked hand in hand with Palestinians for years.

They know that Israelis share the responsibility for envisioning a horizon where tomorrow is better than today—for everyone.

On December 20, 2023, my daughter came home from college on Christmas break and we didn’t get through one full day before the issue of Israel/Palestine came up at the dinner table. I was glad to be able to understand her fervent opinion and offer thoughts of my own, which I would not have been comfortable doing if not for this book. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning more.

— Julie Feirer