Book excerpt: This book traces the descendants of Rabbi Meir Katzenelnbogen of Padua through 16 generations. More than 25,000 people are identified as descendants of this Rabbi. The author uses charts and tables to show the links between the elite of Ashkenazic Jewry, and includes some of the twentieth century's most important Jews in Europe, Israel, and America. It covers most of the leading Hassidic dynasties includingLevi Isaac of Berdichev, Halberstam, Twersky, Rabinowitz, Horowitz, Rokeach, Shapiro, Spira, and Teitelbaum and includes the bloodlines of Karl Marx, Mendelssohn and Helena Rubenstein.