Flower of God: A Jewish Family's 3,000-Year Journey from Spice to Medicine

Flower of God tells the story of the author's paternal ancestral family from the time of the Temple of Solomon to the present: their migration from ancient Israel to Babylon, to Persia, to Anatolia, to Europe and finally to the United States.

Dr. Herbert Ausubel's saga of his family history is a captivating story of the Jewish experience, at once universal and unique. It is Everyman's tale, and the family's struggles are immediately recognized by anyone who knows something of the immigrant's journey, whatever the ethnicity. It is easy to empathize with the characters because Ausubel captures their humanity, and their difficult search for a hard-won life of dignity, purpose and acceptance.

This book is a testament to the unbelievable courage of the Jewish people and the indomitable human spirit. William Faulkner's marvelous Nobel Prize acceptance speech provides the perfect summary of their struggle: ''We will not merely endure, we will prevail.''

Dr. Ausubel has written with a sensitive pen, using poignant language, evoking compassionate images, describing action with its fortuitous consequences. Were this not a portrayal based on the lives of real people, documented by historical facts, environmental locales and interviews with remaining relatives, it would read like a compelling novel-the reader cheering the families on in their laborious quest for dignity, freedom and life.
Lynne Gusikoff Hawes author of Guide to Musical America

Dr. Ausubel’s writing is highly colorful, meticulous, historically accurate, and beautifully expressed.  The author obviously sees the Jewish experience from the inside out, and his ability to make the reader, Jewish and gentile, share his unfolding saga.  Thus the reader is carried along in a most impressive “page-turning” experience.
Dr. Arbie Orenstein
Professor of Music, Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College