Jewish councils established under Nazi occupation faced an impossible moral dilemma: maintain traditional communal governance while being coerced into implementing genocidal policies. Isaiah Trunk's encyclopedic "Judenrat: The Jewish Councils in Eastern Europe Under Nazi Occupation" challenges oversimplified condemnations of these administrative bodies through extensive historical analysis of the Lodz Ghetto and survivor opinion surveys. Drawing from unprecedented archival research, Trunk reveals how Nazi coercion permeated every aspect of council operations, from initial appointments through eventual deportations, including forced labor supervision, collective punishment enforcement, and "resettlement" facilitation. The high suicide rates among council members and widespread community hostility toward their leadership underscore the psychological toll of their position. Through meticulous documentation, Trunk produces a nuanced dual judgment that acknowledges both the condemnable aspects of Nazi collaboration and the contextual logic behind maintaining Jewish institutional structures under extreme duress. His groundbreaking analysis establishes a foundational framework for understanding the tragic complexities faced by Jewish leadership during the Holocaust, demonstrating how previous scholarly interpretations have been both biased and incomplete.