“Rasputin and the Jews” by Delin Colon is a great introduction not only to Rasputin, but to the state of the average Jew in Tsarist Russia. The author does assume that the reader has some basic knowledge of Rasputin’s story, but nothing you couldn’t find after an internet search about Rasputin. The primary source used for this book is the papers of Aron Simanovich, Rasputin’s Jewish secretary. Instead of focusing only on recounting the outline of his life, Colon instead expounds upon Rasputin’s beliefs, sayings, and the actual advice he gave to the Tsar—most of which was ignored, despite the popular belief that Rasputin somehow controlled all of the Tsar’s decisions. In fact, Colon does a magnificent job of explaining that if Tsar Nicholas II had listened to Rasputin, the entire Bolshevik Revolution would likely have been avoided. Rasputin drew the ire of the aristocracy because he believed in equal rights for all Russians, including Jews. Jews were at the bottom of the soci...