A serious lapse is Rabbi Stone’s failure to include the most recent editions of the Encyclopaedia Judaica (Macmillan Reference USA in association with the Keter Pub. House, 2007. 2nd ed. 22v.) and the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774–2005 (U.S. G.P.O., 2005). Nor has he consulted the more recent American National Biography (Oxford University Press, 1999.24 v.; American National Biography Online http://www.anb.org/home.html).

Another serious concern for students and scholars is Rabbi Stone’s inconsistent citation style as previously noted. He neither indicates from which of his references he gathered specific pieces of information nor does he provide in most instances a full and complete bibliographic entry. Black and white photographs that accompany each biographical sketch also lack identification as to their source.

In his “Acknowledgements” Rabbi Stone cites the first edition of the Almanac of American Politics (Gambit, 1972) as his inspiration for undertaking what is clearly a labor of love. “What I was looking for back in 1972 was a Jewish version of that book. That is why I decided to write The Jews of Capitol Hill; it was the one book that ‘wasn’t on the shelf’” (vii).

In that light The Jews of Capitol Hill may be seen as a collection of entertaining success stories about a group of elected Congressional representatives who share in common the fact that they are Jewish, born either of a Jewish mother or converted according to Jewish rituals and rites, though Rabbi Stone makes an exception to this for Barry Goldwater whom he considers “Jewish enough” (xv). Family backgrounds and life experiences are given as much or more emphasis in Rabbi Stone’s lively telling as each Senator’s or Representative’s congressional career.

Libraries with strong collections of Judaica may want to add The Jews of Capitol Hill to their reference shelves, providing as it does a singular and up-to-date compendium of Jewish members of Congress. Others may want to add The Jews of Capitol Hill to their circulating collections and depend for information about the legislative and political activities of members of Congress on such standard reference works as the previously cited Almanac of American Politics, American National Biography, and Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774–2005, as well as the recent edition (111th Congress, December 2009) of the Official Congressional Directory (U.S. G.P.O., 1887–), also online at the U.S. Government Printing Office’s Federal Digital System site.