Judaism Books

Book SynopsisDespite an outpouring of scholarship on the Holocaust, little work has focused on what happened to Europe's Jewish communities after the war ended. And unlike many other European nations in which the majority of the Jewish population perished, France had a significant post-war Jewish community that numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Post-Holocaust France and the Jews, 19451955 offers new insight on key aspects of French Jewish life in the decades following the end of World War II. How Jews had been treated during the war continued to influence both Jewish and non-Jewish society in the post-war years. The volume examines the ways in which moral and political issues of responsibility combined with the urgent problems and practicalities of restoration, and it illustrates how national imperatives, international dynamics, and a changed self-perception all profoundly helped to shape the fortunes of postwar French Judaism.Comprehensive and informed, this volume offers a rich variety of Trade ReviewThis astute and wide-ranging collection captures multiple dimensions of French Jews reactions after World War II to a society that simultaneously had delivered 76,000 of them to death yet saved almost nine-tenths of those who had been born in France. Appearing at a time when the existence of a French Jewish community seems imperiled once more, this book is especially instructive. -- Peter Hayes,Theodore Zev Weiss Holocaust Educational Foundation Professor, Northwestern UniversityThis important and much-needed volume brings together an impressive collection of international scholars to tell the complex and fascinating story of postwar France. It is a story of destruction and reconstruction, despair and hope, memory and desire. Not only does this book help us to understand the convoluted relationship between France and the Jews, it deftly enriches our understanding of sociopolitical renewal within the broader context of European transnationalism. -- Aaron W. Hughes,author of The Study of Judaism: Identity, Authenticity, ScholarshipIn shining a light on the early post-war period, this readable and thought-provoking volume resonates with recent Anglophone scholarly contributions by Shannon Fogg and Leora Auslander on the work of the French restitution committee in the late 1940s. * Journal of Jewish Studies *Erudite and eloquent, the collection overcomes the constraints of a decennial approach, encouraging us to reflect on the changing historical relationship between Jews and the state, and illustrating consistently how decisions taken at this time affect Jews in contemporary France. Above all, it paints a poignant and vivid picture of a community that, in the aftermath of calamity, sought to combine new and existing tactics to rebuild for the future. * French History *This book should be essential reading for scholars of the Jewish dimension of French culture in the twentieth century. * French Studies *This edited volume examines the reconstruction of Jewish life in France after the Holocaust. Focusing on the first ten years after the war, editors Hand and Katz bring together diverse scholars whose essays will engage students and scholars of French and Jewish history.Cohesive and thought provoking, this book offers new paths of inquiry on a decade of critical change in France. Summing Up: Highly recommended. * Choice *Table of ContentsContents 1. The Revival of French Jewry in Post- Holocaust France: Challenges and Opportunities 26 David Weinberg 2. Th e Encounter between "Native" and "Immigrant" Jews in Post- Holocaust France: Negotiating Diff erence 38 Maud Mandel 3. Centralizing the Political Jewish Voice in Post- Holocaust France: Discretion and Development 58 Samuel Ghiles- Meilhac 4. Post- Holocaust Book Restitutions: How One State Agency Helped Revive Republican Franco- Judaism 71 Lisa Moses Leff 5. Lost Children and Lost Childhoods: Memory in Post- Holocaust France 85 Daniella Doron 6. Orphans of the Shoah and Jewish Identity in Post- Holocaust France: From the Individual to the Collective 118 Susan Rubin Suleiman 7. Jewish Children's Homes in Post- Holocaust France: Personal T.moignages 139 Lucille Cairns 8. Post- Holocaust French Writing: Refl ecting on Evil in 1947 156 Bruno Chaouat vi | Contents 9. L.on Poliakov, the Origins of Holocaust Studies, and Th eories of Anti- Semitism: Rereading Br.viaire de la haine 169 Jonathan Judaken 10. Andr. Neher: A Post- Shoah Prophetic Vocation 193 Edward K. Kaplan

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Book SynopsisWinner, 2017 National Jewish Book Award in American Jewish Studies presented by the Jewish Book Council Finalist, 2017 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, presented by the Jewish Book Council An engaging history of how Jews forged their own religious culture on the American frontierJews on the Frontier offers a religious history that begins in an unexpected place: on the road. Shari Rabin recounts the journey of Jewish people as they left Eastern cities and ventured into the American West and South during the nineteenth century. It brings to life the successes and obstacles of these travels, from the unprecedented economic opportunities to the anonymity and loneliness that complicated the many legal obligations of traditional Jewish life. Without government-supported communities or reliable authorities, where could one procure kosher meat? Alone in the American wilderness, how could one find nine co-religionists for a minyan (prTrade ReviewRabin makes a compelling case here that the full arc of American Jewish history cannot ignore the young Jewish men who pursued their livelihoods by heading for the frontier. Their religious inconsistencies, creativities, and sense of empowerment as ordinary Jews may actually serve as a better template for thinking about how Judaism developed in America. * Annals of Iowa *Rabins clarion call to reimagine the labels we use to describe ourselves, to embrace diasporism, and to resist centralized practices speaks to a generation that actively deconstructs patriarchal and heteronormative structures, thinks more globally, and operates outside the institutional framework. . . . Jews on the Frontieris a valuable read not only for scholars of American Jewish and American religious history, but change-minded activists and citizens as well. * Marginalia Review of Books *Jews on the Frontier stands as a significant historiographical intervention in de-centering established institutions and denominations and the Protestant secular from the narratives of minority religions and religious communities. * Reading Religion *Rabin convincingly describes frontier mobility as the motive force behind one of the most creative and constructive eras in American Judaism. * The Journal of Southern Religion *In [an] enlightening study largely focusing on the preCivil War South and West, Rabinexamines the intertwining of Jews and mobility in the 19th-century US...Impressively documented, this intriguing exploration is appropriate for general libraries. * Choice *Jews on the Frontier is a compelling account of the cultural and spiritual changes experienced by American Jews outside the main coastal cities and their large congregations before the large East-European emigration waves of the late Nineteenth-Century. * Civil War Book Review *"Scholars of immigration have toiled for years on the question of how mobility affects nationalities and group identities alike. In Jews on the Frontier, Shari Rabin gives this framework an interesting twist by investigating mobility’s influence on religion. By relying on personal letters, published articles, and other first-hand testimonies, Rabin argues that the expanding United States created a uniquely American religion. * American Jewish Archives Journal *Generating as many questions about the nineteenth century American Jewish experience as answers, Rabins study enables us to take its measure, to see Jewish life on its own terms: as a full-throttled, complex, lively culture all its own rather than a backdrop to the sea changes of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. * American Historical Review *For far too long, historians of American Jews have glossed over most of the nineteenth century, as preamble for the truer or more interesting histories of twentieth-century American Jewry. Rabin offers a deeply researched, beautifully rendered case for the centrality of the nineteenth century to how we understand American Judaism. By looking toward ethnographic models, material culture, and narrative techniques, she argues that the provisionality, the instability, and the mobility of nineteenth-century Judaism created new modes of Jewish life suitable to endure in the American environment. Following in the footsteps of Robert Orsi, Leigh Eric Schmidt, and Kathryn Lofton, who all expertly wed ethnography to deep historical inquiry, Rabin allows the reader to understand the human contours of Jewish life in motion. -- Lila Corwin Berman,Temple UniversityJews on the Frontier is one of the most significant contributions in years to the study of nineteenth-century American Judaism with vast implications for students of American religion generally. An eye-opening and creative study of how mobility shaped distinctive patterns of religious life. -- Jonathan D. Sarna,author of American Judaism: A HistoryRabin’s religious studies scholarship differs from the typical histories of both American Jews in particular and Jewish history more broadly… [her] scholarship attends to place and space, nature, and infrastructure, and it also analyzes national particulars without being fully bounded by them. * Journal of Religion *The book can be read as a contribution to a number of fields ... Rabin has demonstrated convincingly the significance of mobility and thus space in the history of American Judaism and so has pointed the way for other scholars to do the same in the history of American religion more broadly. * American Religion *American Judaism is often treated as a more recent phenomenon, with much of the scholarly focus going to the communities that emerged in the wake of the new immigration era in the 1880s through the 1920s, yet Jews have continuously resided in what would become the United States since 1654. Jews on the Frontier breaks away from this traditional view to explore how Jews engaged with their Judaism while living outside of major Jewish communities. Jews on the Frontier is a compelling book about the process of Jews adapting to American life during the nineteenth century. [This book] serves to fill in chronological and geographical gaps in the current Jewish historical scholarship. * H-Borderlands *Jews on the Frontier is a compelling book about the process of Jews adapting to American life during the nineteenth century...[It] serves to fill in chronological and geographical gaps in the current Jewish historical scholarship. -- H-Net Reviews * H-Net Reviews *

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Book SynopsisWinner, 2016 Best First Book Prize from the Immigration and Ethnic History SocietyFinalist, 2016 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish LiteratureWinner, 2015 Book Prize from the Southern Jewish Historical Society Finalist, 2015 Jordan Schnitzer Book Award from the Association for Jewish Studies Winner, 2014 National Jewish Book Award in American Jewish Studies from the Jewish Book CouncilThe majority of Jewish immigrants who made their way to the United States between 1820 and 1924 arrived nearly penniless; yet today their descendants stand out as exceptionally successful. How can we explain their dramatic economic ascent? Have Jews been successful because of cultural factors distinct to them as a group, or because of the particular circumstances that they encountered in America? The Rag Race argues that the Jews who flocked to the United States during the age of mass migration were aided appreciably by their association with a particular cornerTrade ReviewInThe Rag Race, Adam Mendelsohn traces the intertwined fates of the Jewish community and the garment industries in America and Britain...Like any good historical writer, he turns documents and data into relatable human stories. * Sewjewish.com *An inquiry into the wellspring of modern Jewish economic success, [The Rag Race] attends to the origins of the garment industry, poking around in the dusty, and often little-known, corners of a global exchange basedon kinship and the Jewish collective...The Rag Raceis a remarkable achievement, a testament to the vitality of the historical imagination. * Jewish Review of Books *Deeply researched and beautifully written, The Rag Race returns to a classic topicthe story of Jewish immigrants in the clothing industryto shed entirely new light on the route that led from the sweatshop to success. Moving the conventional starting point backward, from the turn of the twentieth century to the early 19th century, Mendelsohn demonstrates how early differences in Jewish settlement and the structure of the garment trade led to divergent Jewish trajectories on both the U.S. and British sides of the Anglophone world. An outstanding example of comparative history, The Rag Race offers insights that any scholar or student of immigration will appreciate. -- Roger Waldinger,Distinguished Professor of Sociology, University of California, Los AngelesDrawing upon the social and economic historiography of Britain, Australia, and the United States, this book weaves together disparate historical threads into a seamless narrative with a compelling argument. Making shrewd use of historical comparison, it illuminates the interplay of inherited culture with historically contingent structures of opportunity. The result is a book studded with insight, and written with wit and style. -- Jerry Z. Muller,author of Capitalism and the JewsMendelsohn joins the scholarly debate over the roots of Jewish economic success in the U.S. This he does with great style and energy, offering vivid descriptions, telling detail, and clear arguments, all based on meticulous research. This is a superb book that is a model of comparative and transnational history. It should be read not only by historians of American or modern Jewry, but by historians of immigration, business, fashion, and urban life. * American Historical Review *With this gracefully written monograph, deeply researched on three continents, Mendelsohn joins a cohort of scholars writing Jewish economic history through a transnational lens. * Choice *Table of ContentsContents Introduction: The Rag Race 1 1 Goblin Market: London, 1843 18 2 New York City: A Rag-Fair Sort of Place 37 3 Rumpled Foot Soldiers of the Market Revolution 58 4 Clothing Moses 91 5 The Empire's New Clothes 112 6 A New Dawn in the West 134 7 Clothing the Blue and Gray 159 8 A Ready-Made Paradise 183 Conclusion 207 Acknowledgments 229 Notes 233 Index 287 About the Author 297

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Book Synopsis2017 Jordan Schnitzer Book Award in Jewish Literature and LinguisticsHonorable Mention, 2016 Baron Book Prize presented by AAJRA monster tour of the Golem narrative across various cultural and historical landscapesIn the 1910s and 1920s, a golem cult swept across Europe and the U.S., later surfacing in Israel. Why did this story of a powerful clay monster molded and animated by a rabbi to protect his community become so popular and pervasive? The golem has appeared in a remarkable range of popular media: from the Yiddish theater to American comic books, from German silent film to Quentin Tarantino movies. This book showcases how the golem was remolded, throughout the war-torn twentieth century, as a muscular protector, injured combatant, and even murderous avenger. This evolution of the golem narrative is made comprehensible by, and also helps us to better understand, one of the defining aspects of the last one hundred years: mass warfare and its ancillary technologies. In the twentiTrade ReviewBarzilai makes a bold even brilliant connection between . . . the golem and . . . the soldier. * Times Literary Supplement *[Barzilai] wisely decides to focus on . . . golem representations in response to war and other mass violence. Barzilais extensive research and clear, interesting style make this a fine work. * Publishers Weekly *The multiple strands ofGolemare what constitute its great strength, presented not just chronologically but within themes that cross eras and borders Barzilai painstakingly analyses films, books and comics to reveal the Golems enduring cultural presence and influence. And the violence of this appealing creature, especially the idea of Jewish violence, is what makes it simultaneously so threatening. * Jewish Chronicle *A thorough and suggestive review . . .with a wide array of 20th-century sources, including films and cartoon literature. It will be a useful resource for those interested in modern history and culture. * Choice *Barzilai offers a fascinating analysis of how a legendary monster was appropriated in the last century as a way of understanding the baffling reality of war. . . . A creative and thoughtful approach, this book raises the deeper and unresolved questions of when, if ever, an act of violence justifies a violent response. Although Barzilai does not attempt to answer this question, she raises it as one of the unavoidable issues faced by an oppressed people who, in their fiction, have access to a protective monster. * Reading Religion *Fascinating and well argued, Golemexamines the modern incarnations of the old Jewish myth, tracking its many meanings as it crosses between generations and cultures, from the muddy trenches of WWI to the killing fields of science fiction. An indispensable text for anyone looking to understand our ongoing fascination with the golem figure, in all its malleable forms. -- Helene Wecker,author of The Golem & the JinniIn her wide-ranging Golem: Modern Wars and Their Monsters, Maya Barzilai argues that the myth of the golem tells us something about humanity more generally. It teaches us about what she calls 'the golem condition,' inwhich 'the fantasies of expanding our capacities and transgressing our natural boundaries are always curbed by the inborn limitations of human existence.' * Jewish Review of Books *This tracking of the adaptations of the Golem myth from World War I to the present becomes a probing cultural history of the past hundred years. Maya Barzilai moves with assurance from fiction, theater, and film to comic books and graphic novels, perceptively commenting on their formal aspects while preserving a lucid sense of the relevant historical contexts. This is a splendid piece of critical reflection. -- Robert Alter,University of California, BerkeleyBarzilai certainly puts her finger on a central paradox of European and Jewish culture coming out of the Great War: how can death and technological creativity coexist? The golem myth is a clever and successful way to probe that question. . . . Fascinating and intellectually venturesome. -- Alan Mintz,Chana Kekst Professor of Jewish Literature, The Jewish Theological SeminarySavior, soldier, demon, oafa golem is all these and more, and Barzilai guides us a fascinating tour of its supple mythology through shifting cultural and historical contexts. -- Jonathan Kellerman and Jesse Kellerman,authors of The Golem of ParisGolem: Modern Wars and their Monstersis highly recommended to those with an interest in the intersection between Jewish tradition and pop culture, as well as anyone with a focus on monster and twentieth century cultural studies. * The Journal of Religion and Culture *As Barzilai notes that future wars will likely be characterized by growing dependence on golem-like entities—whether drones or cyborgs or robots equipped with artificial intelligence—her book provides a timely meditation on the human effects of remote and automated violence. * Political and Legal Anthropology Review *

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Book SynopsisJewish and Islamic histories have long been interrelated. Both traditions emerged from ancient cultures born in the Middle East and both are rooted in texts and traditions that have often excluded women. This volume focuses attention on the theoretical innovations that gender scholarship has brought to the study of Muslim and Jewish experiences.Trade ReviewThe book could be helpful for graduate students hoping to think theoretically about gender in religion and history. With its succinct and compelling introductions for each part as well as an afterword by Scott and a glossary, the book is also made highly useable for undergraduates or novices. * Religious Studies Review *This volume is a solid beginning to a serious scholarly treatment of the topics surrounding gender in Judaism and Islam, It fills an important gap in the scholarship and promises to open the field to further critical studies. It addresses similarities and differences in womens issues and experiences within Jewish and Islamic national, religious, and ethnic identities. * Reading Religion *While this collection of essays is most useful for those with some background on the topics, it will also appeal to scholars hoping to expand their knowledge on many different aspects of Judaism and Islam. The essays do a great job of bridging ideas of the past with those of the present, making this volume valuable for scholars of history and current cultural trends as well as for researchers in anthropology, sociology womens health, media studies, Middle East studies, legal studies, literary studies, and more. * Feminist Collections *Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet and Beth S. Wenger are to be congratulated for assembling a compelling collection that illuminates a wide range of issues around gender in Judaism and Islam drawn from discussions of Muslim and Jewish law to analyses of contemporary feminism to crimes of passion and 'honor killings' in the modern Arab world. Written by eminent scholars in accessible prose, these powerful pieces carry us beyond stereotypes and politics toward mutual understanding and shared knowledge. -- Deborah Dash Moore,Frederick G.L. Huetwell Professor of History, University of MichiganA long overdue volume exploring commonalities and differences among Jewish and Muslim women along with gendered aspects of their religious and cultural experiences. Path breaking in its range and scope, with outstanding chapters by leading historians in the field, this work puts Islamic and Jewish Studies into a rich dialogue. By emphasizing shared histories and intersecting paths, it delivers on its promises, opening new vistas for understanding complexities in the lives of Muslims and Jews, past and present. -- Beth Baron,Director, Middle East and Middle Eastern American Center, CUNYTable of ContentsContents Part I. Comparative Perspectives 13 1 Jewish and Muslim Feminist Theologies in Dialogue: Discourses of Difference 17 Susannah Heschel 2 Jewish and Islamic Legal Traditions: Diffusions of Law 46 Amira Sonbol Part II. Limits of Biology: Bodily Purity and Religiosity 69 3 Scholarly versus Women's Authority in the Islamic Law of Menstrual Purity 73 Marion Katz 4 Gender Duality and Its Subversions in Rabbinic Law 106 Charlotte Elisheva Fonrobert 5 Gender and Reproductive Technologies in Shia Iran 126 Soraya Tremayne Part III. Crimes of Passion: Formative Texts and Traditions 151 6 Not a Man: Joseph and the Character of Masculinity in Judaism and Islam 155 Lori Lefkovitz 7 Dishonorable Passions: Law and Virtue in Muslim Communities 181 Catherine Warrick 8 Legislating the Family: Gender, Jewish Law, and Rabbinical Courts in Mandate Palestine 203 Lisa Fishbayn Joffe Part IV. Cultural Depictions of Jewish and Muslim Women 237 9 A Literary Perspective: Domestic Violence, the "Woman Question," and the "Arab Question" in Early Zionism 241 Andrea Siegel

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Book SynopsisWinner, 2019 Saul Viener Book Prize, given by the American Jewish Historical SocietyA groundbreaking history of the practice of Jewish name changing in the 20th century, showcasing just how much is in a nameOur thinking about Jewish name changing tends to focus on clichés: ambitious movie stars who adopted glamorous new names or insensitive Ellis Island officials who changed immigrants' names for them. But as Kirsten Fermaglich elegantly reveals, the real story is much more profound. Scratching below the surface, Fermaglich examines previously unexplored name change petitions to upend the clichés, revealing that in twentieth-century New York City, Jewish name changing was actually a broad-based and voluntary behavior: thousands of ordinary Jewish men, women, and children legally changed their names in order to respond to an upsurge of antisemitism. Rather than trying to escape their heritage or pass as non-Jewish, most name-changers remained active mTrade ReviewFermaglichs thoroughly researched book delves into many implications of changing ones name and examines the way that Jewish culture was shaped overall by the practice. * Jewish Exponent *An important history . . . Well-written and thoroughly documented . . . demonstrates the struggle that individuals underwent to become fully realized as Jewish Americans. Highly recommended. * STARRED Library Journal *Fascinating . . . A fine contribution to an important, previously underexplored area of American Jewish identity and social history. * Publishers Weekly *Fermaglich's thorough research and bright insights produce a provocative account of a seldom-explored cultural phenomenon. * Kirkus Reviews *The real history behind Jewish name changing in the US . . . a worthy accomplishment. One doesn't have to be a . . . historian to appreciate A Rosenberg by Any Other Name . . . anyone with an interest in the subject matter [can] enjoy it. * Foreword Reviews *Kirsten Fermaglich’s insightful book explores the seemingly ordinary phenomenon of Jewish name changing to shed light on broad themes of racial and ethnic identity, and the complicated ways that Americans—and particularly American Jews—negotiated the markers of distinctiveness and racial “otherness” with the goals of integration and access... While only a minority of Jews petitioned to change their names, the phenomenon proves to be an instructive window for examining the changing boundaries of race and ethnicity in America. -- The Journal of American HistoryBoth entertaining and enlightening, A Rosenberg By Any Other Name comes up smelling, well, like a rose. -- Canadian Jewish NewsContesting longstanding stereotypes, Fermaglich (history and Jewish studies, Michigan State Univ.) creatively examines name changing by Jews in the US, focusing on New York City Jews. From the onset of her study, Fermaglich refutes the notion that name changing was an individual or isolated act, asserting that it dramatically impacted American Jewish culture. -- CHOICEThe beauty of A Rosenberg by Any Other Name lies in its choice of a site so rife with potential and yet, one that seems so utterly banal. Fermaglich offers us new appreciation for the levels of complexity that Jewish identity was forced to take on in post-war America. It is a powerful story about anti-semitism, adaptation, markers of identity, and the kinds of choices and sacrifices that people must make in the name of access, privilege, and commitments to their communities. -- Deborah Dash Moore,author of Jewish New York: The Remarkable Story of a City and a People

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Book SynopsisBiography: Neusner is a social commentator, a post-Holocaust theologian, and an outspoken political figure. Jacob Neusner (born 1932) is one of the most important figures in the shaping of modern American Judaism. He was pivotal in transforming the study of Judaism from an insular project only conducted byand of interest toreligious adherents to one which now flourishes in the secular setting of the university. He is also one of the most colorful, creative, and difficult figures in the American academy. But even those who disagree with Neusner's academic approach to ancient rabbinic texts have to engage with his pioneering methods. In this comprehensive biography, Aaron Hughes shows Neusner to be much more than a scholar of rabbinics. He is a social commentator, a post-Holocaust theologian, and was an outspoken political figure during the height of the cultural wars of the 1980s. Neusner's life reflects the story of what happened as Jews migrated to the suburbs in the late 1940s, darinTrade Review"In this respectfully balanced biography, Hughes explores the life of Jacob Neusner, a renowned scholar of Judaism and a controversial figure in the American academy...The author presents an interesting and widely accessible life story that should appeal to readers interested in American Judaism, Jewish studies, or the academy itself." * Kirkus Reviews *"InJacob Neusner: An American Jewish Iconoclast, religious studies scholar Aaron Hughes has written an insightful biography of a different kind of academic." * H-Net Reviews *"A lively and readable account of the life of a fascinating figure who more than deserves a biography." -- Religious Studies Review"Even those who disagree with Hughes's conclusions, however, will learn from Jacob Neusner. Well written and well researched, the volume serves as a valuable first step in understanding one of the most significant religion scholars of the past generation." * Journal of Religion *"Aaron Hughes has written a comprehensive, compelling, and candid intellectual portrait of Jacob Neusner and his unparalleled lifetime of achievements. By detailing the original and vital contributions Neusner has made to Judaic and Religious Studies as well as to modern religious and political thought, Hughes has succeeded brilliantly in highlighting the singular significance Neusner holds as an academic, as a religious thinker, and as a public intellectual. Hughes has given his readers a captivating intellectual biography to savor!" -- David Ellenson,Chancellor Emeritus and former President of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion"Aaron Hughess chronicle deftly displays the development and impact of Jacob Neusners intellectual achievements and the academic, political, and cultural contexts from which they emerged. With clarity and concision, this book limns the key issuessome of which are complex and reconditethat shaped the study of Judaism when Neusners career began and shows how his innovative, independent, and transformative scholarship created a contemporary academic field." -- William Scott Green,University of Miami"Not only is Jacob Neusner a much needed, long awaited biography of perhaps the most important American Jewish thinker of the mid to late twentieth century, but it offers a window into the creation of Jewish studies in the American academy. Aaron Hughes illuminates Neusners pathbreaking role in the construction of Judaic studies scholarship as we now know it. More than this, he presents a balanced account of Neusner the radical, innovative, compelling and rambunctious scholar and Neusner the conservative political activist and public intellectual. Drawing connections between Neusners demanding and volatile personality and his extraordinary brilliance and productivity, Hughes sheds much needed light on this luminary. This is a concise book about excess that covers so much of what made Jacob Neusner, 'Neusner'!" -- Laura S. Levitt,Temple University

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Book Synopsis2017 Jordan Schnitzer Book Award in Jewish Literature and LinguisticsHonorable Mention, 2016 Baron Book Prize presented by AAJRA monster tour of the Golem narrative across various cultural and historical landscapesIn the 1910s and 1920s, a golem cult swept across Europe and the U.S., later surfacing in Israel. Why did this story of a powerful clay monster molded and animated by a rabbi to protect his community become so popular and pervasive? The golem has appeared in a remarkable range of popular media: from the Yiddish theater to American comic books, from German silent film to Quentin Tarantino movies. This book showcases how the golem was remolded, throughout the war-torn twentieth century, as a muscular protector, injured combatant, and even murderous avenger. This evolution of the golem narrative is made comprehensible by, and also helps us to better understand, one of the defining aspects of the last one hundred years: mass warfare and its ancillary technologies. In the twentiTrade Review"Barzilai makes a bold even brilliant connection between . . . the golem and . . . the soldier." * Times Literary Supplement *"[Barzilai] wisely decides to focus on . . . golem representations in response to war and other mass violence. Barzilais extensive research and clear, interesting style make this a fine work." * Publishers Weekly *"The multiple strands ofGolemare what constitute its great strength, presented not just chronologically but within themes that cross eras and borders Barzilai painstakingly analyses films, books and comics to reveal the Golems enduring cultural presence and influence. And the violence of this appealing creature, especially the idea of Jewish violence, is what makes it simultaneously so threatening." * Jewish Chronicle *"A thorough and suggestive review . . .with a wide array of 20th-century sources, including films and cartoon literature. It will be a useful resource for those interested in modern history and culture." * Choice *"Barzilai offers a fascinating analysis of how a legendary monster was appropriated in the last century as a way of understanding the baffling reality of war. . . . A creative and thoughtful approach, this book raises the deeper and unresolved questions of when, if ever, an act of violence justifies a violent response. Although Barzilai does not attempt to answer this question, she raises it as one of the unavoidable issues faced by an oppressed people who, in their fiction, have access to a protective monster." * Reading Religion *"Fascinating and well argued, Golemexamines the modern incarnations of the old Jewish myth, tracking its many meanings as it crosses between generations and cultures, from the muddy trenches of WWI to the killing fields of science fiction. An indispensable text for anyone looking to understand our ongoing fascination with the golem figure, in all its malleable forms." -- Helene Wecker,author of The Golem & the Jinni"In her wide-ranging Golem: Modern Wars and Their Monsters, Maya Barzilai argues that the myth of the golem tells us something about humanity more generally. It teaches us about what she calls 'the golem condition,' inwhich 'the fantasies of expanding our capacities and transgressing our natural boundaries are always curbed by the inborn limitations of human existence.'" * Jewish Review of Books *"This tracking of the adaptations of the Golem myth from World War I to the present becomes a probing cultural history of the past hundred years. Maya Barzilai moves with assurance from fiction, theater, and film to comic books and graphic novels, perceptively commenting on their formal aspects while preserving a lucid sense of the relevant historical contexts. This is a splendid piece of critical reflection." -- Robert Alter,University of California, Berkeley"Barzilai certainly puts her finger on a central paradox of European and Jewish culture coming out of the Great War: how can death and technological creativity coexist? The golem myth is a clever and successful way to probe that question. . . . Fascinating and intellectually venturesome." -- Alan Mintz,Chana Kekst Professor of Jewish Literature, The Jewish Theological Seminary"Savior, soldier, demon, oafa golem is all these and more, and Barzilai guides us a fascinating tour of its supple mythology through shifting cultural and historical contexts." -- Jonathan Kellerman and Jesse Kellerman,authors of The Golem of Paris"Golem: Modern Wars and their Monstersis highly recommended to those with an interest in the intersection between Jewish tradition and pop culture, as well as anyone with a focus on monster and twentieth century cultural studies." * The Journal of Religion and Culture *"As Barzilai notes that future wars will likely be characterized by growing dependence on golem-like entities—whether drones or cyborgs or robots equipped with artificial intelligence—her book provides a timely meditation on the human effects of remote and automated violence." * Political and Legal Anthropology Review *

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Book SynopsisThe complete story of Jewish Harlem and its significance in American Jewish historyNew York Times columnist David W. Dunlap wrote a decade ago that on the map of the Jewish Diaspora, Harlem Is Atlantis. . . . A vibrant hub of industry, artistry and wealth is all but forgotten. It is as if Jewish Harlem sank 70 years ago beneath waves of memory beyond recall. During World War I, Harlem was the home of the second largest Jewish community in America. But in the 1920s Jewish residents began to scatter to other parts of Manhattan, to the outer boroughs, and to other cities. Now nearly a century later, Jews are returning uptown to a gentrified Harlem. The Jews of Harlem follows Jews into, out of, and back into this renowned metropolitan neighborhood over the course of a century and a half. It analyzes the complex set of forces that brought several generations of central European, East European, and Sephardic Jews to settle there. It explains the dynamics that led Jews to exit this part of GoTrade Review"This well-written volume makes clear that the Harlem Jewish community significantly influenced American Jewry as a whole . . . This is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of American Judaism." * Publishers Weekly *"What stays with you long after you have finished [The Jews of Harlem] is Gurock's steadfast devotion to his subject." * Jewish Review of Books *"The Jews of Harlem skillfully traces Jewish Harlem from its tentative beginnings to the years when Jewish life there rivaled that of the Lower East Side, and from the massive migration elsewhere to the community's even more tentative reemergence today. It's an important piece of American Jewish history." * Segula Magazine *"Nearly forty years after the publication of his first monograph,When Harlem Was Jewish, 18701930(1979), Jeffrey S. Gurock has returned to Harlem, revisiting the story of the Jewish communitys beginnings in the 1870s and 1880s, its heyday in the early twentieth century, and its rapid decline after World War I, and adding something that seemed unlikely in the 1970s: the return of Jews to the neighborhood." * The American Historical Review *"Athoughtful and comprehensive history of Jewish Harlem." * American Jewish Archives Journal *"The studies by Gurock are very valuable not only for anyone interested in American Jewish history, but they also make a significant contribution to other fields. Scholars and general readership who are interested in the history of New York, as well as urban history in general and African American history, will find Gurock's volume an indispensable addition to those fields." * American History *"The Jews of Harlem is a masterful work of scholarship that further concretizes Jeffrey Gurock's position as a preeminent academic practitioner. In parallel, it offers the reader a unique perspective from which to witness transitions in American Judaism, as well as the way one of its prime chroniclers interfaces with the story he tells." * Journal of Religion *"Gurock traces anew the history of Jewish Harlem, a subject he first explored in When Harlem Was Jewish, 1870-1930. While the earlier work told the story of an important, but largely forgotten, community, this well-written, comprehensive study examines a neighborhood whose history "is not over, but rather a work in progress"... this book is not merely a localized case study, but one that has great significance for Jewish American as a whole." * Journal of American Ethnic History *"Jeffrey Gurock is the historian of Jewish Harlem, but he is also its anthropologist and sociologist. He chronicles the fortunes of this storied neighborhood treasured by blacks and Jews and now home to both groups with the fresh-eyed relish of an explorer discovering a new land yet with the authority of an old-timer intimately familiar with every block and alley. He has populated his fascinating tale of Jewish Harlem's development, decline, and resurgence not just with events and institutions but with flesh and blood people who bring the community to vivid life." -- Joseph Berger,author of The Pious Ones: The World of Hasidim and Their Battles with America"Jeffrey Gurock offers an evocative account of the evolution of Jewish Harlem. This book is a 'must read' for anyone interested in race, religion, and culture in New York's ever-changing neighborhood." -- Beth S. Wenger,Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania"No one knows the history of the Jews in Harlem as well as Jeffrey S. Gurock, and this latest book recounts in wonderful detail not only their move uptown from the Lower East Side early in the 20th century, but their important role in the revival of the neighborhood in the 21st century. The Jews of Harlem is engagingly written and persuasively argued, and it will soon be recognized as a classic account of community change in a contested environment." -- Kenneth T. Jackson,Barzun Professor of History, Columbia University""Jeffrey Gurock has done it again! His well-crafted narrative presents a convincing history of Parkchesters transition from a whites-only melting pot to a complex and racially diverse alternative to suburbia. Gurock raises significant questions that are persuasively answered by his solid research and clear-eyed analysis. His chapters throb with real life tensions and controversies, and finally with lessons about how reason and comity ultimately can prevail over intolerance. " -- Thomas Kessner,The Graduate Center, City University of New York"Taking the long view, across the twentieth century and beyond, allows Gurock to show how Harlem’s history encapsulates the ‘crucial variances in fates’ (246) between Jews and African Americans—the former, progressively absorbed into whiteness and middle-class property ownership, while the latter remained in the grip of racial injustices including housing and employment discrimination—as well as the complex, sometimes tense relations between them." * Journal of Modern Jewish Studies *

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Book SynopsisAn exploration of the emergence of Rabbinic Judaism drawing on primary sources and new methodsOver the past generation, several major findings and methodological innovations have led scholars to reevaluate the foundation of Judaism. The Dead Sea Scrolls were the most famous, but other materials have further altered our understanding of Judaism's development after the Biblical era.This volume explores some of the latest clues into how early Judaism took shape, from the invention of rabbis to the parting of Judaism and Christianity, to whether ancient Jews considered themselves a nation. Rather than having simply evolved, normative Judaism is now understood to be the result of one approach having achieved prominence over many others, competing for acceptance in the wake of the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in the year 70 CE. This new understanding has implications for how we think about Judaism today, as the collapse of rabbinic authority is leading to tTrade ReviewA spectacular round-up of superb authors, all of them expert in fields relating to the transition centuries between the Hebrew Bible and the emergence of Judaism -- and Christianity too. One after another, the essays provide the state of the question: what scholars are saying now, and why. If there is such a thing as a scholarly page-turner, this is it, a rewarding synopsis of scholarship on pretty much every page -- Dr. Lawrence A. Hoffman,Barbara and Stephen Friedman Professor of Liturgy, Worship and Ritual, Hebrew Union CollegeOutstanding scholars of early Judaism share cutting edge research and new insights in this highly readable anthology. The succinct and accessible essays foreground the varieties of Judaisms and Jewish writings in late ancient times, the separation of Christianity from its Jewish origins, evolving constructions of gender, the development of the synagogue and its liturgy, and the consolidation of rabbinic Judaism in clear and compelling ways. This volume is sure to be welcomed by teachers of formative Judaism and Christianity, their students, and interested general readers. -- Judith R. Baskin,Philip H. Knight Professor of Humanities, University of Oregon

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Book SynopsisUnifies for the first time the results of various excavations of the Galilean city. Here, archaeologists and historians of the Second Temple Period work together to understand the site and its significance to profile Galilee and the region around the lake in the Early Roman period.Trade Review"Such a thorough report on Magdala has been needed for some time and now that the excavations have progressed so far, it can be produced. I am confident that archaeologists, New Testament scholars, and scholars of early Judaism will find this volume attractive and informative." David Fiensy, Professor of New Testament, Kentucky Christian University

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Book SynopsisWhile for many today the idea of an embodied God seems simplistic - even pedestrian - Christoph Markschies reveals that in antiquity, the educated and uneducated alike subscribed to this very idea. More surprisingly, the idea that God had a body was held by both polytheists and monotheists.Table of Contents1. The Body of God after Antiquity 2. The Body of God in the Judeo-Christian Bible and the Early Christian Theologians 3. The Body of God and Divine Statues in Antiquity 4. The Bodies of Gods and the Bodies of Souls in Late Antiquity 5. The Body of God and Late Antique Jewish Mysticism 6. The Body of God in Late Antique Christian Theology 7. The Body of God and Antique Christology Conclusion: Settled Conceptions of God?

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Book SynopsisSurprisingly little scholarly attention has been focused on inheritance as a unique and crucial concept for Israelite and Jewish religious life and belief. This paucity of attention extends to Matthew's Gospel, where inheritance terms appear on four occasions. Daniel Daley argues that these passages play a vital role in Matthew's overall narrative.Table of Contents 1. Introduction: Matthew and Jewish Tradition 2. Inheritance in the Hebrew Bible 3. Inheritance in the Second Temple Period: Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha 4. Inheritance in the Second Temple Period: The Qumran Scrolls 5. Inheritance in the Gospel of Matthew 6. Conclusion: Matthew and the Promise of Discipleship

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Book SynopsisReligion, Redemption, and Revolution closely examines the intertwined intellectual development of one of the most important Jewish thinkers of the twentieth century, Franz Rosenzweig, and his friend and teacher, Christian sociologist Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy. The first major English work on Rosenstock-Huessy, it also provides a significant reinterpretation of Rosenzweig's writings based on the thinkers' shared insights — including their critique of modern Western philosophy, and their novel conception of speech.This groundbreaking bookprovides a detailed examination of their ‘new speech thinking’ paradigm, a model grounded in the faith traditions of Judaism and Christianity. Wayne Cristaudo contrasts this paradigm against the radical liberalism that has dominated social theory for the last fifty years. Religion, Redemption, and Revolution provides powerful arguments for the continued relevance of Rosenzweig and Rosenstock-Huessy's

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Book SynopsisA new afterword to this edition, The Duty to RememberBut What? tackles difficult issues of guilt and innocence on the individual and societal levels. Zygmunt Bauman explores the silences found in debates about the Holocaust, and asks what the historical facts of the Holocaust tell us about the hidden capacities of present-day life. He finds great danger in such phenomena as the seductiveness of martyrdom; going to extremes in the name of safety; the insidious effects of tragic memory; and efficient, scientific implementation of the death penalty. Bauman writes, Once the problem of the guilt of the Holocaust perpetrators has been by and large settled... the one big remaining question is the innocence of all the restnot the least the innocence of ourselves.Among the conditions that made the mass extermination of the Holocaust possible, according to Bauman, the most decisive factor was modernity itself. Bauman''s provocative interpretation counters the tendency to reduce the Holocaust

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Book SynopsisThe Salvation of Israel investigates Christianity''s eschatological Jew: the role and characteristics of the Jews at the end of days in the Christian imagination. It explores the depth of Christian ambivalence regarding these Jews, from Paul''s Epistle to the Romans, through late antiquity and the Middle Ages, to the Puritans of the seventeenth century. Jeremy Cohen contends that few aspects of a religion shed as much light on the character and the self-understanding of its adherents as its expectations for the end of time. Moreover, eschatological beliefs express and mold an outlook toward nonbelievers, situating them in an overall scheme of human history and conditioning interaction with them as that history unfolds.Cohen''s close readings of biblical commentary, theological texts, and Christian iconography reveal the dual role of the Jews of the last days. For rejecting belief and salvation in Jesus Christ, they have been linked to the false messiahtheTable of ContentsIntroduction Part I: All Israel Will Be Saved 1. Paul and the Mystery of Israel's Salvation 2. The Pauline Legacy: From Origen to Pelagius 3. The Latin West: From Augustine to Luther and Calvin Part II: The Jews and Antichrist 4. Antichrist and the Jews in Early Christianity 5. Jews and the Many Faces of Antichrist in the Middle Ages 6. Antichrist and Jews in Literature, Drama, and Visual Arts Part III: At the Forefront of the Redemption 7. Honorius Augustodunensis, the Song of Songs, and Synagoga Conversa 8. Jewish Converts and Christian Salvation: Pablo de Santa María, Bishop of Burgos 9. Puritans, Jews, and the End of Days Afterword

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Book SynopsisAnother Modernity is a rich study of the life and thought of Elia Benamozegh, a nineteenth-century rabbi and philosopher whose work profoundly influenced Christian-Jewish dialogue in twentieth-century Europe. Benamozegh, a Livornese rabbi of Moroccan descent, was a prolific writer and transnational thinker who corresponded widely with religious and intellectual figures in France, the Maghreb, and the Middle East. This idiosyncratic figure, who argued for the universalism of Judaism and for interreligious engagement, came to influence a spectrum of religious thinkers so varied that it includes proponents of the ecumenical Second Vatican Council, American evangelists, and right-wing Zionists in Israel. What Benamozegh proposed was unprecedented: that the Jewish tradition presented a solution to the religious crisis of modernity. According to Benamozegh, the defining features of Judaism were universalism, a capacity to foster interreligious engagement, and the political power and mythical allure of its theosophical tradition, Kabbalah—all of which made the Jewish tradition uniquely equipped to assuage the post-Enlightenment tensions between religion and reason. In this book, Clémence Boulouque presents a wide-ranging and nuanced investigation of Benamozegh's published and unpublished work and his continuing legacy, considering his impact on Christian-Jewish dialogue as well as on far-right Christians and right-wing religious Zionists.Trade Review"Another Modernity offers a brilliant portrait of Elia Benamozegh, a fascinating and largely hidden gem of modern Jewish thought. Clémence Boulouque deftly captures the Italian rabbi's singular approach to mysticism, universalism, and the role of Judaism in the modern world; she is the ideal scholar to bring Benamozegh out of an undeserved obscurity." -- Jessica Maya Marglin * University of Southern California *"Clémence Boulouque brilliantly succeeds in elucidating previously neglected aspects of the work of a rabbi and philosopher who lived at the crossroads of irreconcilable worlds, yet provided a broad and consistent version of Judaism that was at once traditional and modern. This intelligent, well-informed, well-written book is an important step towards comprehending the multi-faceted thought of Elia Benamozegh." -- Alessandro Guetta, INALCO * Paris *"Boulouque['s] work gives a detailed description of Benamozegh['s] character and analyzes various aspects of his thought, from political to kabbalistic, with a very rich bibliography... The book is written smoothly, and succeeds to give a complete vision of Benamozegh's thought, analyzing different perspectives, but above all gives a vast overview of what modernity is and how Benamozegh dealt with it, in a different way from classical models." -- Andrea Yaakov Lattes * Sephardic Horizons *Table of ContentsContents and Abstracts1The Moroccan World of a Livornese Jew chapter abstractChapter 1 explores how the fortunes of Livorno, Benamozegh's place of birth and of lifelong residence, where his parents had settled after leaving Morocco, shaped his understanding of diversity, his assertive engagement with the Christian world, and his feeling of alienation from a place once vibrant, but by his time relegated to the commercial and intellectual margins of Europe. His Moroccan background exemplifies the importance of commercial and rabbinic networks in the Mediterranean and accounts for his view of Kabbalah as an essential part of the Jewish tradition in an age when it had generally fallen out of favor among the enlightened figures of Judaism. 2An Italian Jewish Patriot in the Risorgimento chapter abstractChapter 2 delves into Benamozegh's coming of age under the Risorgimento and the way it exposed him to the thinking of its Christian thinkers and ideologues, such as Gioberti and Mazzini. It uncovers how some of his tropes regarding Israel as a nation, articulating patriotism with a universalist and divine mission, were drawn from these towering Italian figures. His redefinition of the interaction between Jews and the nation, and his opposition to the religious rejection of modernity, exemplified by the Pope, are all best understood against the backdrop of the Risorgimento, of which he was a witness and participant. 3The Banned Author and the Oriental Publisher chapter abstractChapter 3 examines how the utter disgrace of a rabbinic ban (herem) affected Benamozegh. In a very rare and harsh measure, his Hebrew biblical commentary was banned and burned in 1865 in Aleppo because it contained too many references to sources outside the Jewish tradition. The herem discouraged Benamozegh from any further major enterprise in Hebrew. However, he kept a presence, as a publisher, in the Mediterranean and his endeavors deserve significant attention: it was the largely Hebrew catalogue of his printing press, with a distribution and network of authors spanning the Maghreb and the Mashriq, that functioned as his commitment to an Oriental modernity. 4Expanding His Readership: Benamozegh's Turn to French chapter abstractChapter 4 examines Benamozegh's turn to a French audience and the affinities of his themes with the main French thinkers of this era, such as Renan, Leroux, or Michelet. The right tone for persuading his readers and the question of the audience he targeted turned out to be stumbling blocks as he tried to refashion himself as an intellectual but, sometimes bombastically, strove to convince secular readers of the need to reassess the significance of religion in order to confront the challenges of modernity. After penning a scathing Jewish and Christian Ethics, his apology for the universal values of Judaism culminated in his posthumous crowning achievement, Israel and Humanity. 5The Afterlives of a Posthumous Manuscript chapter abstractChapter 5 is a study of the fate of Israel and Humanity, Benamozegh's posthumous manuscript, and the controversies that surround the editorial changes made by Benamozegh's Christian disciple, Aimé Pallière, who was entrusted with its publication by the Livornese rabbi's family and turned the 1,900-page manuscript into the 735-page first edition published in 1914. Yet no previous scholarship had ever compared Benamozegh's original manuscript to the one published by Pallière in 1914. This book fills this lacuna and provides further insights into the inner world of Benamozegh and his influences. 6Situating Benamozegh in the Debate on Jewish Universalism chapter abstractChapter 6 situates Benamozegh in the debate about universalism in his time, and about the universalism of Judaism found in the works of Spinoza, Kant, and Mendelssohn. The claim of Jewish universalism, an index of Judaism's adequation with the modern world, must be measured against the competing claims of philosophy, Christianity, and Reform Judaism. Benamozegh also sought to establish the universalism of Judaism based on its antecedence in religious history, thus grounding himself in a sort of modern historicism that he resisted when it came to biblical criticism. He also strove to establish Judaism as a delicate articulation between reason and feelings, which rested on the nascent fields of psychology or anthropology and thus on a more scientific universalism. 7Normativity and Inclusivity in Modernity: The Role and Limits of the Noahide Laws chapter abstractChapter 7 turns to Benamozegh's interpretation of the Noahide Laws, central to his system. Based on rational revelation but with edicts resembling natural law, they convey both internal and external normativity. This ancient legislation functions as a theological construct that sits well with one of modernity's features: the imperative of locating normativity within itself. Additionally, Benamozegh contended, the legislation shows that Judaism is not ethnocentric in nature and manifests its inclusivism. Yet, in his defense of Noahism as a solution for the crisis of Christianity, he turned a blind eye to the laws' arguably hierarchical nature which can be taken as indicating minimal universalism. 8Cosmopolitanism and Universalism: The Political Value of Judaism in an Age of Nations chapter abstractChapter 8 examines the logic of Benamozegh's universalism through his treatment of the role of nations. As a witness and vocal supporter of the Italian Risorgimento and the advent of nation-states, Benamozegh had emphasized the political acumen of Judaism and its relevance to modern, nation-based societies. In his view, universalism could only be achieved through the particularism of nations—not in the abstract manner he believed had been promoted by Pauline Christianity, focused on individuals, which could not elicit any true religious belonging. 9Universalism in Particularism: Benamozegh's Legacies, between Levinas and Religious Zionism chapter abstractChapter 9 demonstrates that the notion of Jewish universalism through particularism is one of Benamozegh's notable contributions, which he predicated on Noahism but also on the role of the nations in Judaism. The French philosopher Levinas is often credited with this concept, which he furthered when he posited a "universalist particularism," an inclusivism that has nevertheless lent itself to conflicting legacies. This chapter probes the tenets of Benamozegh's system and the turn to an ethnocentric reading of Jewish particularism by thinkers such as Léon Askénazi, Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook, and the religious-Zionist movement in contemporary Israel. 10Kabbalah: Reason and the Power of Myth chapter abstractChapter 10 describes how Benamozegh penned his defense of Kabbalah as a marker of modernity in a counterintuitive fashion: as both science and myth. First, he redefined Kabbalah as a form of knowledge: by calling it theosophy, and thus imbuing it with scientific overtones, he presented a version of Kabbalah compatible with reason—a far cry from what common enlightened views of it would have been. At the same time, by highlighting its mythical qualities as well, he also sought to show the need for human narratives that go beyond reason. 11Beyond Dualism: Kabbalah and the Coincidence of Opposites chapter abstractChapter 11 is devoted to Benamozegh's presentation of Kabbalah as a vehicle for understanding and achieving religious unity and progress. His use of kabbalistic hermeneutics, predicated on the key concepts of coincidence of opposites, of berur (clarification) and of illuy (elevation), aimed (a) to suspend commonly held binaries such as science and faith, East and West, worldliness and transcendence, and (b) to prove Kabbalah's affinity with nineteenth-century conceptions of assimilation and of progress. 12Kabbalah as Politics chapter abstractChapter 12 examines Benamozegh's reading of Kabbalah as capable of underwriting a political project that involved the remaking of a secretive, esoteric tradition into a public, exoteric conversation. Benamozegh claimed Kabbalah as a centerpiece of Jewish thought that should help to revisit Western culture in order to reform its materialistic tendencies, thus pushing against the Orientalism tropes of his time. This stance foreshadows one of the turning points in the reception of Kabbalah in the twentieth century, exemplified by the works of such thinkers as Yehuda Ashlag, Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, and Léon Askénazi, in which its themes and concepts can be used as a political discourse. 13Religious Enmity and Tolerance Reconsidered chapter abstractChapter 13 examines Benamozegh's theoretical constructs, by which he tried to neutralize the notion of religious enmity—a category, he argued, that was created by Christianity and which was bound to foster ontological hostility. In his quest for religious coexistence, he emphasized the concept of interdependence and rejected that of tolerance, which he viewed as an insufficient proposition; it was but a variation on pragmatism or utilitarianism. The chapter also probes Benamozegh's Jewish theology of other religions, and its universalism predicated on the unifying quality of Judaism, against the typology of pluralism and inclusivism. 14"The Iron Crucible" and Loci of Religious Contact chapter abstractChapter 14 focuses on the meaning and loci of religious encounters in the Bible and in the Jewish tradition, and analyzes the concept of "iron crucible," the metaphor Benamozegh used for the complexity of religious assimilation. This metaphor, which refers to the Israelites' sojourn in Egypt, designates a place where identities intermingled and where the Jewish religion was refined through its contact with paganism—but also where, paradoxically, this blending did not preclude a sense of hierarchy in this assimilation process. This concept is a crucial aspect of Benamozegh's system, whereby the greater the proximity, the greater the tension across religious traditions. 15Self-Assertion and a Jewish Theology of Religions chapter abstractChapter 15 details Benamozegh's worldview and the inextricable link between theology and the politics of identity underlying it. The Jewish theology of other religions that he proposed mostly reimagined a relationship with Christianity, one where the tradition of a minority, namely Judaism, could be used to overcome the flaws of the dominant culture. But its tone also raises questions regarding the nature and purpose of religious dialogue: self-reformation or reformation of other religions. Because of its confident (and at times triumphant) tone, it is also a statement about Jewish self-perception in modernity and corresponds to a more assertive turn in Jewish thought at the turn of the century. 16Modes of Interreligious Engagement: From Theory to Social Practices chapter abstractChapter 16 examines the theory and practices of interreligious rapprochement, encounters, and dialogue in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Retracing the stages of such endeavors prior to the Second World War helps refine the categories used to describe these modes of interaction and to consider how they have applied to intellectual efforts and social practices, including the Second Vatican Council in 1965, against the conceptual legacy of Benamozegh. Because Benamozegh's work aimed to bring about religious unity, and because he found a disciple in Aimé Pallière and a posthumous audience for his calls to promote coexistence, assessing the implementation of this prescriptive and convoluted thought is a necessary conclusion of this study.

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Book SynopsisIn this rich intellectual history of the French-Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas's Talmudic lectures in Paris, Ethan Kleinberg addresses Levinas's Jewish life and its relation to his philosophical writings while making an argument for the role and importance of Levinas's Talmudic lessons. Pairing each chapter with a related Talmudic lecture, Kleinberg uses the distinction Levinas presents between "God on Our Side" and "God on God's Side" to provide two discrete and at times conflicting approaches to Levinas's Talmudic readings. One is historically situated and argued from "our side" while the other uses Levinas's Talmudic readings themselves to approach the issues as timeless and derived from "God on God's own side." Bringing the two approaches together, Kleinberg asks whether the ethical message and moral urgency of Levinas's Talmudic lectures can be extended beyond the texts and beliefs of a chosen people, religion, or even the seemingly primary unit of the self. Touching on Western philosophy, French Enlightenment universalism, and the Lithuanian Talmudic tradition, Kleinberg provides readers with a boundary-pushing investigation into the origins, influences, and causes of Levinas's turn to and use of Talmud.Trade Review"Can we read Levinas's work as wholly immanent to the history of philosophy, or must we see it as the worldly trace of a transcendent truth? Kleinberg explores this contest between history and revelation without presuming to declare the victor. A venturesome and ingeniously crafted book that confirms the author's leading role in modern European intellectual history." -- Peter Gordon * Harvard University *"A boundary-pushing, interdisciplinary work, challenging scholars and students to think through and with the audacity of Levinas's claim for alterity." -- Sarah Hammerschlag * University of Chicago *

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Book SynopsisIn this rich intellectual history of the French-Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas's Talmudic lectures in Paris, Ethan Kleinberg addresses Levinas's Jewish life and its relation to his philosophical writings while making an argument for the role and importance of Levinas's Talmudic lessons. Pairing each chapter with a related Talmudic lecture, Kleinberg uses the distinction Levinas presents between "God on Our Side" and "God on God's Side" to provide two discrete and at times conflicting approaches to Levinas's Talmudic readings. One is historically situated and argued from "our side" while the other uses Levinas's Talmudic readings themselves to approach the issues as timeless and derived from "God on God's own side." Bringing the two approaches together, Kleinberg asks whether the ethical message and moral urgency of Levinas's Talmudic lectures can be extended beyond the texts and beliefs of a chosen people, religion, or even the seemingly primary unit of the self. Touching on Western philosophy, French Enlightenment universalism, and the Lithuanian Talmudic tradition, Kleinberg provides readers with a boundary-pushing investigation into the origins, influences, and causes of Levinas's turn to and use of Talmud.Trade Review"Can we read Levinas's work as wholly immanent to the history of philosophy, or must we see it as the worldly trace of a transcendent truth? Kleinberg explores this contest between history and revelation without presuming to declare the victor. A venturesome and ingeniously crafted book that confirms the author's leading role in modern European intellectual history." -- Peter Gordon * Harvard University *"A boundary-pushing, interdisciplinary work, challenging scholars and students to think through and with the audacity of Levinas's claim for alterity." -- Sarah Hammerschlag * University of Chicago *

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Book SynopsisThis career-spanning anthology from prominent Jewish historian David Biale brings over a dozen of his key essays together for the first time. These pieces, written between 1974 and 2016, are all representative of a method Biale calls "counter-history": "the discovery of vital forces precisely in what others considered marginal, disreputable and irrational." The themes that have preoccupied Biale throughout the course of his distinguished career—in particular power, sexuality, blood, and secular Jewish thought—span the periods of the Bible, late antiquity, and the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. Exemplary essays in this volume argue for the dialectical relationship between modernity and its precursors in the older tradition, working together to "brush history against the grain" in order to provide a sweeping look at the history of the Jewish people. This volume of work by one of the boldest and most intellectually omnivorous Jewish thinkers of our time will be essential reading for scholars and students of Jewish studies.Trade Review"Over the course of his career, David Biale has distinguished himself for both his critical acumen and his capacious interests. Written in the contrarian spirit of "counter-history," these essays exemplify his singular passion for unsettling conventional ideas concerning the norms and boundaries of the Jewish past. A superb, thought-provoking collection."—Peter E. Gordon, author of Migrants in the Profane: Critical Theory and the Question of Secularization"David Biale has always been a trailblazer. This collection highlights the many ingenious roads he has opened for scholars of the Jewish past. Rigorous in method, delicate in touch, Biale sheds light on corners of history that others deemed marginal or taboo, inviting us to engage in an exploration of "counter-history" that remains directly at the field's heart."—Sarah Abrevaya Stein, co-editor of Wartime North Africa: A Documentary History 1934-1950"Intellectually exciting and apleasure to read, the essays in this collection are a fine introduction to many important thinkers in the Jewish tradition."—Bob Goldfarb, Jewish Book Council"Taking a constructivist approach, Biale'sexamination of historical contexts includes the Tanakh, the midrash, myth, politics, and more to arrive at a complex exploration of radicalism embedded within Jewish traditions. His genealogical methodology traces critical topics from their historical or textual origins to present understandings, exploring and connecting diverging exegeses along the way.... Recommended."—A. Lieberman, CHOICE"Throughout the essays in this compilation, Biale traces diverse voices that some might call counter-canonical or even 'heretical,' or as Biale puts it, 'feature inversions of convention or hidden traditions that challenge the canon.' ...For those familiar with Jewish history, these essays provide interesting perspectives and alternative views."—David Tesler, Association of Jewish Libraries ReviewsTable of ContentsIntroduction: Between Canon and Counterhistory 1. The God with Breasts: El Shaddai in the Bible 2. Korah in the Midrash: The Hairless Heretic as Hero 3. Counterhistory and Jewish Polemics against Christianity: The Sefer Toldot Yeshu and the Sefer Zerubavel 4. "The Torah Speaks the Language of Human Beings": Abraham Ibn Ezra's Radical Interpretation of the Bible 5. Between Melancholy and a Broken Heart: A Note on Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav's Depression 6. The Kabbalah in Nachman Krochmal's Philosophy of History 7. Masochism and Philosemitism: The Strange Case of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch 8. Historical Heresies and Modern Jewish Identity 9. Shabbtai Zvi and the Seductions of Jewish Orientalism 10. Leo Strauss: The Philosopher as Weimar Jew 11. Arendt in Jerusalem: Hannah Arendt on the Eichmann Trial 12. Gershom Scholem's "Ten Unhistorical Aphorisms on the Kabbalah": Text and Commentary 13. The Threat of Messianism: An Interview with Gershom Scholem (August 14, 1980) 14. Mysticism and Politics in Modern Israel: The Messianic Ideology of Abraham Isaac Ha-Cohen Kook 15. The End of Enlightenment? Epilogue: By the Waters of San Francisco: A Partial Autobiography

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Book SynopsisInteriority and Law presents a groundbreaking reassessment of a medieval Jewish classic, Baḥya ibn Paquda's Guide to the Duties of the Hearts. Michaelis reads this work anew as a revolutionary intervention in Jewish law, or halakha. Overturning perceptions of Baḥya as the shaper of an ethical-religious form of life that exceeds halakha, Michaelis offers a pioneering historical and conceptual analysis of the category of "inner commandments" developed by Baḥya. Interiority and Law reveals that Baḥya's main effort revolved around establishing a new legal formation—namely, the "duties of the hearts"—which would deal entirely with human interiority. Michaelis takes up the implications of Baḥya's radical innovation, examining his unique mystical model of proximity to God, which he based on an increasingly growing fulfillment of the inner commandments. With an integrative approach that puts Baḥya in dialogue with other medieval Muslim and Jewish religious thinkers, this work offers a fresh perspective on our understanding of the interconnectedness of the dynamic, neighboring religious traditions of Judaism and Islam. Contributing to conversations in the history of religion, Jewish studies, and medieval studies on interiority and mysticism, this book reveals Baḥya as a revolutionary and demanding thinker of Jewish law.Trade Review"Examining Duties of the Hearts afresh, Michaelis uncovers a much more audacious and radical Baḥyā than the pious image we know. This thoughtful, thoroughly researched, and well-argued book sheds new light on the dynamics that fashioned medieval Jewish thought."—Sarah Stroumsa, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem"Interiority and Law is a masterful achievement. Michaelis has disclosed the philological nuances of Baḥya's classic work with illuminating originality; and with phenomenological insight revealed the inherent spiritual imperatives of Jewish religious practice. This is a work to be studied and cherished by those interested in Jewish and Islamic thought, and their profound interconnections."—Michael Fishbane, University of Chicago"Interiority and Law presents a brilliant and original interpretation of Duties of the Hearts. In Michaelis's compelling reading, Baḥya extends legal normativity to the interior sphere. It is a wonderful and extraordinary contribution."—Moshe Halbertal, The Hebrew University of JerusalemTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Duties and Supererogatory Acts 2. Inner Duties 3. Proximity 4. The World to Come 5. Bāin and Tradition

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Book SynopsisThe most famous of all medieval Jewish thinkers, Moses Maimonides is known for his monumental contributions to Jewish law, theology and medicine, and for an influence that extends into the wider world. His remarkable work, The Guide for the Perplexed, is notoriously difficult to interpret, since Maimonides aimed it at those already versed in both philosophy and the rabbinic tradition and used literary techniques to test his readers and force them to think through his arguments. Daniel Davies explores Maimonides’ approaches to issues of perennial and universal concern: human nature and the soul, the problem of evil, the creation of the world, the question of God’s existence, and negative theology. He addresses the unusual ways in which Maimonides presented his arguments, contextualising Maimonides’ thought in the philosophy and religion of his own time, as well as elucidating it for today’s readers. This philosophically rich introduction is an essential guide for students and scholars of medieval philosophy, philosophy of religion, theology and Jewish studies.Trade Review‘A welcome addition to general expositions of Maimonides’ thought. Much more than an introduction, this book is a deeply philosophical encounter with some of the major themes of Maimonides’ writings, one that is thoroughly conversant with classical and contemporary perspectives. Daniel Davies offers original interpretations of thorny issues, sensible approaches to scholarly disputes, and a steady guide for beginning and advanced readers of Maimonides.’Charles Manekin, University of Maryland‘Many discussions of Maimonides concentrate on interpretation and methodology. But Davies goes to the heart of Maimonides as a philosopher, expounding with great clarity his most powerful arguments and original positions.’John Marenbon, University of Cambridge‘Authored by one of the world’s top Maimonides scholars, this outstanding and comprehensive book is one of the best gateways into the world of the thinker who single-handedly created Jewish philosophy. A unique literary and scholarly achievement, this is one of the best works of Jewish philosophy of recent times.’Yitzhak Y. Melamed, Johns Hopkins UniversityTable of ContentsAcknowledgements 1 Biography and Introduction2 Life and Humanity3 The Problem of Evil4 Creation and Infinity5 The Nature of Belief in God’s Existence6 Necessary Existence and Divine Attributes7 Diverse Interpretations and Disputed Instructions: Reading the Guide for the Perplexed Further ReadingNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisCircumventing the Law probes the rabbinic logic behind the use of loopholes, the legal phenomenon of finding and using gaps within law to achieve otherwise illegal outcomes. The logic of ha’aramah, a subset of rabbinic legal circumventions mostly defined as a tool for private life, underpins both well-known circumventions, such as selling leaven before Passover, and lesser-known mechanisms, such as designating an animal intended for sacrifice “blemished” before birth to allow it to be slaughtered for food instead. Elana Stein Hain traces the development of these loopholes over time, revealing that rabbinic literature does not consistently accept or reject loopholes. Instead, rabbinic Judaism applies categories of evasion (prohibited), avoidance (permitted), and avoision (contested) to loopholes on a case-by-case basis. The intended outcome of a given loophole determines its classification, as does the legal integrity of the circumventive process in question. Yet these understandings of loopholes are not static—instead, rabbinic attitudes toward loopholing change over time. Early works display an objective, performative understanding of the self and of intention, but evolve over time to reflect more subjective and intimate understanding of the self and intention. This evolution redefines what legal integrity means in Jewish legal philosophy. Circumventing the Law brings readers through the Second Temple period to the modern era to see how loopholing has evolved over millennia. With a focus on late antiquity, Stein Hain explores tannaitic literature, the Palestinian Talmud, and contemporaneous Greco-Roman and Persian thought to show that when warranted, Jewish rhetoric and philosophy around understandings of loopholes was a unique phenomenon that relied on changes in understanding the definition of integrity itself, a key finding for scholars of Jewish Studies and of religious and of secular law writ large.Trade Review"More than a historical and comparative phenomenology of rabbinic legal ‘loopholes,’ this conceptually sophisticated and beautifully written volume offers a fascinating exploration of the role of values, intention, and subjectivity in classical rabbinic jurisprudence and exposes the paradoxical faithfulness behind the circumvention of divine law." * Christine Hayes, author of What's Divine About Divine Law: Early Perspectives *"Elana Stein Hain offers a provocative and persuasive reading of early rabbinic techniques for circumventing the law that immeasurably enriches our understanding of the early rabbinic worldview and invites readers to reconsider how our varying understandings of human nature shape legal rules from within." * Suzanne Last Stone, Yeshiva University *

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Book SynopsisThis book explores the question: How did the rabbis of the first two centuries CE approach bodies that are born with variant genitals—bodies that they could not identify as definitely male or female? The rabbis had constructed a system in which every behavior was governed by one’s sex/gender, posing a conundrum both for people who did not fit into that model and for the rabbinic enterprise itself. Despite this, their texts contain dozens of references to intersex. And the Sages Did Not Know examines the rabbis’ legal texts and concludes that they had multiple approaches to intersex people. Sarra Lev analyzes seven different rabbinic responses to this conflict of their own making. Through their rulings on how intersex people should conduct themselves in multiple circumstances, the early rabbis treat intersex people as unidentifiable males or females, as indeterminate, as male, as non-gendered, as sui generis, as part-male/part-female, as a sustainable paradox, and, finally, as a way for them to think about gender, having nothing to do with intersex people themselves. This is the first such work that concentrates primarily on the potential effects of these rabbinic texts on intersex persons themselves rather than focusing on what the texts offer readers whose interest is rabbinic approaches to sex and gender or gender diversity. Although the rabbinic texts do not include the voices of known intersex people, these materials do offer us a window into how one small group of people approached intersex bodies, and how those approaches were both similar to and different from those we recognize today.Trade Review"With this meticulous and erudite study of the early rabbinic texts about the figure of the nonbinary body, the androginos, Sarra Lev offers a compelling case for using the late ancient material in the contemporary conversation about intersex embodiment. Lev beautifully weaves together the rabbinic legal discourse with contemporary intersex voices, thereby crafting a space of possibility for a different future for these late ancient Jewish texts. A critical contribution toward contending with the Jewish and—by implication—with the U.S. binary sex/gender system of law." * Charlotte Elisheva Fonrobert, Stanford University *

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Book SynopsisElementary Biblical Hebrew: An Introduction to the Language and its History gives students a general overview of the language and focuses on its main characteristics. The text avoids a heavy-handed academic approach and instead emphasizes the basics of general understanding.Students are exposed to commentaries and word studies that provide a strong linguistic foundation while introducing Biblical Hebrew's primary components. Chapters include strategies and hints for learning the language, as well as activities and exercises that allow for application.The second edition features a new preface, fresh translation keys for Chapters 7 and 8, and new vocabulary words in Chapters 3 through 8.Elementary Biblical Hebrew takes an ancient language and places it in an engaging, relevant context to make it come alive for students. The text is enriched with charts, illustrations, and full-colour photography. It is an excellent choice for courses in the language, as well as introductory or survey courses on the Old Testament.

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Book SynopsisWhat is between us and the Christians is a deep dark affair which will go for another hundred generations . . .” (Amos Oz, Judas) Among the great social shifts of the post–World War II era is the unlikely sea-change in Jewish Christian relations. We read each other’s scriptures and openly discuss differences as well as similarities. Yet many such encounters have become rote and predictable. Powerful emotions stirred up by these conversations are often dismissed or ignored. Demonstrating how such emotions as shame, envy, and desire can inform these encounters, Holy Envy: Writing in the Jewish Christian Borderzone charts a new way of thinking about interreligious relations. Moreover, by focusing on modern and contemporary writers (novelists and poets) who traffic in the volatile space between Judaism and Christianity, the book calls attention to the creative implications of these intense encounters. While recognizing a long-overdue need to address a fundamentally Christian narrative underwriting twentieth century American verse, Holy Envy does more than represent Christianity as an aesthetically coercive force, or as an adversarial other. For the book also suggests how literature can excavate an alternative interreligious space, at once risky and generative. In bringing together recent accounts of Jewish Christian relations, affect theory, and poetics, Holy Envy offers new ways into difficult and urgent, conversations about interreligious encounters. Holy Envy is sure to engage readers who are interested in literature, religion, and, above all, interfaith dialogue.Table of ContentsPreface | vii Acknowledgments | xix 1 Holy Envy: Writing in the Jewish Christian Borderzone | 1 2 Lives of the Saints: Mina Loy and Gertrude Stein | 27 3 Hiding in Plain Sight: Louis Zukofsky, Shame, and the Sorrows of Yiddish | 54 4 Unholy Envy: Karl Shapiro and the Problem of “Judeo-Christianity” | 80 5 The Certainty of Wings: Denise Levertov and the Legacy of Her Hebrew-Christian Father | 108 6 Coda: Holy Insecurity | 133 Notes | 143 Works Cited | 151 Index | 163

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Book SynopsisScholars tend to call them 'rites of passage'. Most people prefer to speak of them as life cycle events or milestones. Jews like to speak of simchas, when there's something (a birth, bar or bat mitzvah, or wedding, for example) to celebrate. Whatever we call them and however we commemorate them, these are key moments for individuals and for the families and communities of which they are a part. This volume offers new insights into rituals as old as the Hebrew Bible and as new as the twenty-first century in contexts as familiar as the American Midwest and as exotic as Karaism. In the process, they examine and frequently affirm some of the rituals that have traditionally been associated with these events. At the same time, readers are invited to cast a critical eye on the ways in which these customs have developed in recent years. The authors, who include congregational leaders as well as scholars, also affirm the need to expand or enhance existing ceremonies to include groups whose needs have not traditionally been addressed. These groups include women and children with disabilities. In this way, the articles in this volume are of practical value for those seeking to transform their own religious experiences or those of their community.

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Book SynopsisA Knight at the Opera examines the remarkable and unknown role that the medieval legend (and Wagner opera) Tannhäuser played in Jewish cultural life in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The book analyzes how three of the greatest Jewish thinkers of that era, Heinrich Heine, Theodor Herzl, and I. L. Peretz, used this central myth of Germany to strengthen Jewish culture and to attack anti-Semitism. Readers will see how Tannhäuser evolves from a medieval knight to Peretz's pious Jewish scholar in the Land of Israel. The book also discusses how the founder of Zionism, Theodor Herzl, was so inspired by Wagner's opera that he wrote The Jewish State while attending performances of it. A Knight at the Opera uses Tannhäuser as a way to examine the changing relationship between Jews and the broader world during the advent of the modern era, and to question if any art, even that of a prominent anti-Semite, should be considered taboo.

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Book SynopsisAuthor of more than thirteen books and several volumes of poetry, screenwriter, and director, Edith Bruck is one of the leading literary voices in Italy, attracting increasing attention in the English-speaking world not least for her powerful Holocaust testimony, which is often compared with the work of her contemporaries Primo Levi and Giorgio Bassani. Born in Hungary in 1932, she was deported with her family to the concentration camps of Auschwitz, Dachau, Christianstadt, Landsberg, and Bergen-Belsen, where she lost both her parents and a brother. After the war, she traveled widely until 1954 when she settled in Rome. She has lived there ever since. This important new study is motivated by a desire to better understand and situate Bruck's art as well as to advance (and, when necessary, to revise) the critical discourse on her considerable and eclectic body of work. As such, it underscores and analyzes the intermedial nature of her contributions to contemporary Italian culture, which should no longer be understood merely in terms of her willingness to revisit the subject of the Holocaust on the printed page or the silver screen. It also includes previously unpublished interviews with the author. The book will be of broad interest to scholars and students of Jewish (especially Holocaust) studies, Italian literature, film studies, women's studies, and postcolonial culture."This is the first comprehensive scholarly analysis of the work produced by a main contemporary author of Italian Holocaust literature, focused on Bruck's overall artistic production (novels, poetry, film, and TV productions). It will offer scholars and students alike a new interpretive perspective and a valuable source of reference for their studies." Gabriella Romani, Seton Hall University.

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Book SynopsisFound in Translation is at once a themed volume on the translation of ancient Jewish texts and a Festschrift for Leonard J. Greenspoon, the Philip M. and Ethel Klutznick Professor in Jewish Civilization and professor of classical and Near Eastern studies and of theology at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. Greenspoon has made significant contributions to the study of Jewish biblical translations, particularly the ancient translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, known as the Septuagint. This volume comprises an internationally renowned group of scholars presenting a wide range of original essays on Bible translation, the influence of culture on biblical translation, Bible translations' reciprocal influence on culture, and the translation of various Jewish texts and collections, especially the Septuagint. The volume editors have painstakingly planned Found in Translation to have the broadest scope of any current work on Jewish biblical translation to reflect Greenspoon's broad impact on the field throughout an august career.

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Book SynopsisThis book provides an introduction to Judaism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries for all students of Judaism and world religions, and covers major movements that have been developed. Written by a leading teacher and researcher, each chapter features a clear and authoritative introduction to its subject, accompanied by a reading by a specialist in the particlular field.Trade Review"This volume, however, is superb.....this volume is sufficiently thought-provoking to be on every Jewish studies student's table." Times Educational Supplement "Neusner's new book is a pleasure to read. The reader can enjoy observing a penetrating analytical mind at work on the phenomena of modern judaism, developing a way of looking at its historical and social problems that will make sense to the beginning student, even if he or she is not Jewish, and still have validity for the seasoned historian of religion and culture." William Nichols, Judaism "It is certainly an important book which should be debated and become required reading for students of contemporary Judaism." Graham Harvey, Reviews in Religion and TheologyTable of ContentsAcknowledgements. Letter to the Student. Introduction: What do we mean by "Judaism" And By "Modern Times"?.Part I: The Nineteenth Century: .1. The Challenge of the Secular Age: Segregation or Integration and Three Integrationist Judaisms.2. Reform Judaism.3. Orthodox Judaism.4. Conservative Judaism.Part II: The Twentieth Century:. 5. The Challenge of the "Post-Christian" Century and the Response of Three "Post-Christian" Judaisms. 6. Zionism.7. Jewish Socialism and Yiddishism.8. American Judaism of Holocaust and Redemption. Epilogue.9. What do we learn about religion from Judaism in Modern Times?.Index.

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Book SynopsisI, You, and the Word “God” introduces the approach of lyrical ethics, inspired by Emmanuel Levinas’s ethical-phenomenological philosophy. Through the optics of lyrical ethics, the reader discovers how the ancient erotic poems of the Song of Songs bear ethical and theological significance for contemporary readers. Levinas’s intertwined concepts—oneself qua sensibility, otherness perceived through responsibility, and transcendence embodied in one’s love for the other—reveal themselves as lyrical colors woven into the fabric of Song 4:1–7, 5:2–8, and 8:6. More importantly, Levinas’s understanding that poetic language breaks the tautology of logocentric discourse and gestures to the outside of consciousness provides the theoretical ground for the listener to solicit meaningfulness from the Song. Through this lyrical reading of the selected poetic units, the book demonstrates that the traditional interpretive methods of representative description, narrative paraphrase, and thematic distillation fail to encounter the otherness of poetry. In contrast, lyrical ethics pays attention to that which transcends consciousness: the awakening of the reader’s subjectivity, the saying underlying the said, the sound of the sense, and the invisibility of the visible. The Song so caressed reveals in human love the purposelessly purposive encounter with God.Table of ContentsPreface and AcknowledgmentsAbbreviationsGeneralReference WorksIntroduction1. TheorySubjectivity: The Rise of Lyrical EthicsLevinasian Lyrical EthicsLevinas and the Writing of DifferenceWriting as Encounter2. Oneself as Awakened Sensibility (Song 4:1–7)A Snapshot of Song 4:1–7DelightTouchApproachDesireEnding Invitation3. Restlessness and Responsibility for the OtherListening beside the SaidDe-Coring: Between Intrigue and InterruptionExposedness beyond WoundingPatienceIn Other Words, or Words of the OtherAppendix4. "The Human Form Divine"The Trace of GodDetour on Human Finitude"The Question Mark in This Said"The Moment the Word "God" Is HeardSo to SpeakBibliographyIndexesIndex of AuthorsIndex of Scripture

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Book SynopsisThe Bible says that YHWH alone is God and that there is none like him—but texts and artwork from antiquity show that many gods looked very similar. In this volume, scholars of the Hebrew Bible and its historical contexts address the problem of YHWH’s ancient look-alikes, providing recommendations for how Jews and Christians can think theologically about this challenge.Sooner or later, whether in a religion class or a seminary course, students bump up against the fact that God—the biblical God—was one among other, comparable gods. The ancient world was full of gods, including great gods of conquering empires, dynastic gods of petty kingdoms, goddesses of fertility, and personal spirit guardians. And in various ways, these gods look like the biblical God. Like the God of the Bible, they, too, controlled the fates of nations, chose kings, bestowed fecundity and blessing, and cared for their individual human charges. They spoke and acted. They experienced wrath and delight. They inspired praise. All of this leaves Jews and Christians in a bind: how can they confess that the God named YHWH was (and is) the true and living God, in view of this God’s profound similarities to all these others?The essays in this volume address the theological challenge these parallels create, providing reflections on how Jews and Christians can keep faith in YHWH as God while acknowledging the reality of YHWH’s divine doppelgängers. It will be welcomed by undergraduates studying religion; seminarians and graduate students of Bible, theology, and the ancient world; and adult education classes.Trade Review“A thoughtful book that addresses the strong similarities and differences between Israel's main deity, Yahweh, and other deities in ancient Israel and beyond (especially the Moabite god Chemosh). Readers will benefit from glimpsing the volume's authors attempting to treat the fraught question of Yahweh's apparent lack of uniqueness. The volume additionally discusses a number of related theological problems, including Christian supersessionism. A rich work.”—Mark S. Smith,Helena Professor of Old Testament Literature and Exegesis, Princeton Theological SeminaryTable of ContentsEditor’s PrefaceAcknowledgmentsList of AbbreviationsPart 1. The Problem at LargeChapter 1. God and the Gods: History of Religion as an Approach and Context for Biblical TheologyPatrick D. Miller Jr.Chapter 2. Canaan—Israel—Christianity:The Case for a Vertical EcumenismOthmar Keel, translated by Armin SiedleckiChapter 3. More Than One God? Three Models for Construing the Relations Between YHWH and the Other GodsBob BeckingChapter 4. Who Is Like You Among the Gods? Some Observations on Configuring YHWH in the Old TestamentJ. Andrew DearmanChapter 5. Why Should the Look-Alikes Be a Problem?Robert GoldenbergPart 2. Chemosh as a Case StudyChapter 6. Theological Approaches to the Problem of God’s Ancient Look-AlikesCollin CornellChapter 7. Chemosh Looks Like YHWH, but That’s OkayJosey Bridges SnyderChapter 8. YHWH and Chemosh: An Investigation of Look-Alike Gods Using the Moral Foundations TheoryM. Patrick GrahamChapter 9. YHWH, Chemosh, and the Rule of FaithBrent A. StrawnChapter 10. Is There a Counterpart in the Hebrew Bible to New Testament Anti-Semitism?Jon D. LevensonPart 3. Other Case StudiesChapter 11. Miqreh and YHWH: Fate, Chance, Simultaneity, and ProvidenceStephen B. ChapmanChapter 12. “Can a Woman Forget Her Nursing Child?” Divine Breastfeeding and the God of IsraelChristopher B. HaysChapter 13. Bulls and Horses, Gods and Goddesses: The Religious Iconography of Israel’s NeighborsP. M. Michèle DaviauList of ContributorsIndex of AuthorsIndex of ScriptureSubject Index

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Book SynopsisThis Companion explores the history, doctrines, divisions, and contemporary condition of Judaism. Surveys those issues most relevant to Judaic life today: ethics, feminism, politics, and constructive theology Explores the definition of Judaism and its formative history Makes sense of the diverse data of an ancient and enduring faith Trade Review‘The Blackwell Companion to Judaism is a formidable attempt, in a series of learned and elegant essays, to tackle the many questions concerning Judaism. The organization is commendably lucid. The style throughout is accessible to a wide readership, without sacrifice to standards of accuracy and analysis.’ —Times Literary Supplement ‘Where the Companion scores highly over other similar works is that the editors have been able to elicit contributions that contain the latest scholarship or position on each subject, so that the contemporaneity and the quality of each is perfectly dovetailed. This will be the benchmark by which future examples of the genre will be measured.’ —The Expository Times ‘I am excited at the prospect of the publication of this book, in that it promises to display the lifelong fruits of research and mature insights of a master scholar on Judaism.’ —Kenneth Hart Green, University of Toronto "[T]he contributors place Judaism in historical context, elaborate on its principal doctrines, introduce forms of modern and contemporary Judaism, and shed light on special topics in understanding contemporary Judaism, such as ethics, women theopolitical aspects, secular forms of Jewishness, and Zionism." —Journal of Contemporary Religion "Comparative, comprehensive and highly readable, Matthewes' book provides an overview of religious ethics in three traditions without sacrificing the specificity of each ethical system. The author effortlessly enlightens the reader as to how Judaism, Christianity and Islam deals with highly relevant topics such as family, love, sexuality, lying, war, capital punishment and many more themes in a provocative and graceful manner." —Ebrahim Moosa, Duke UniversityTable of ContentsContributors viii Preface xii Part I: The History of Judaism 1 1 Defining Judaism 3 Jacob Neusner 2. The Religious World of Ancient Israel to 586 BCE 20 Marvin A. Sweeney 3. Judaism and the Hebrew Scriptures 37 Philip R. Davies 4. Second Temple Judaism 58 Frederick J. Murphy 5. The Formation of Rabbinic Judaism, 70-640 C.E 78 Guenter Stemberger 6. The Canon of Rabbinic Judaism 93 Jacob Neusner 7. Judaism and Christianity in the Formative Age 112 Bruce D. Chilton 8. Judaism in the Muslim world 131 Sara Reguer 9. Judaism in Christendom 142 David R. Carr 10. Philosophy in Judaism: Two Stances 162 Daniel Breslauer 11. Jewish Piety 181 Tzvee Zahavy Part II: The Principal Doctrines of Judaism 191 12. The Doctrine of Torah 193 Jacob Neusner 13. The Doctrine of God 212 Alan J. Avery-Peck 14. The Doctrine of Israel 230 Jacob Neusner 15. The Doctrine of the Messiah 247 William Scott Green and Jed Silverstein 16. The Doctrine of Hebrew Language Usage 268 David Aaron Part III: Modern and Contemporary Judaisms 289 17. Reform Judaism 291 Dana Evan Kaplan 18. Orthodox Judaism 311 Benjamin Brown 19. Conservative Judaism: The Struggle Between Ideology and Popularity 334 Daniel Gordis 20. New Age Judaism 354 Jeffrey K. Salkin Part IV: Special Topics in Understanding Judaism 371 21. Ethics of Judaism 373 Elliot N. Dorff 22. Women in Contemporary Judaism 393 Judith R. Baskin 23. Judaism as a Theopolitical Phenomenon 415 Daniel J. Elazar 24. Contemporary Jewish Theology 441 Neil Gillman 25. Secular Forms of Jewishness 464 Paul Mendes-Flohr 26. Judaism and Zionism 477 Yosef Gorney 27. The "Return" to Traditional Judaism at the End of the Twentieth Century: Cross Cultural Comparisons 495 M. Herbert Danzger Abbreviations 512 Index 515

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Book SynopsisA fascinating analysis of why there are no female mystics in medieval Judaism

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Book SynopsisThe Trump presidency has resulted in a fundamentally disruptive moment in this nation's political culture. Not only were there different policy options and directions, but the cultural artifacts of politics changed because of how this president dramatically challenged the existing norms of political behavior and action. As we have shifted from a period of American liberalism to a time of political populism, deep fissures are dividing Americans in general and Jews in particular.The Impact of the Presidency of Donald Trump on American Jewry and Israel unpacks President Donald Trump's distinctive and unique relationship with the American Jewish community and the State of Israel. Addressing the various dimensions of his personal and political connections with Jews and Israel, this publication is designed to provide an assessment of how the Trump presidency has influenced and altered American Jewish political behavior. Writers from different backgrounds and political orientations bring a broad range of perspectives designed to examine various aspects of this presidency, including Trump's particular impact on Israel-US relations, his special connection with Orthodox Jews, and his complex and uneven relationship with Jewish Republicans.For liberal American Jews, these four years represented a fundamental revolution, overturning and challenging much that a generation of activists had fought to achieve and protect. For Trump's supporters, it afforded them an opportunity to advance their priorities, while joining the forty-fifth president in changing the American political landscape. The ""Trump effect"" will extend well beyond his four-year tenure, creating an environment that has fomented the politics of hate and exposed a deeply embedded presence of anti-Semitism. How Americans understand this moment in time and the ways society will adapt can be reflected through the prism of the Jewish encounter with Trumpism that this volume seeks to explore.Table of Contents FOREWORD EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION Consonance or Dissonance: American Jewry in a Post-Trump Era, by Gary Phillip Zola Donald Trump and the Jews: Bad for America, Bad for the Jews, Wonderful for the Netanyahu-Led Government of Israel and Potentially Dangerous to Israel's Future, by Michael Berenbaum Trump: Friend Extraordinaire to Israel and the Jewish People, by Morton A. Klein and Elizabeth A. Berney, Esq. The Jewish Community and Younger Generations: Challenges, Opportunities, and Long-Term Impacts of the Trump Era, by Adam Basciano and Shanie Reichman The American Jewish Community: A Divergence of Political Perspectives, by Saba Soomekh Orthodox Jews and Trump, by Gilbert N. Kahn Seeing Mar-A-Lago from Jerusalem: Perceptions of President Trump in Israel, by Ehud Eiran How the Jewish Press Saw, by Rob Eshman Why Donald Trump's Vision Repelled American Jews, by Mark Mellman They Said It Couldn't Be Done: Historic Achievements of President Donald Trump, by Matthew Brooks and Shari Hillman Trump and the Jews: What Did We Learn?, by Dan Schnur Reflections on Donald Trump's Presidency and American Jewry, by Steven F. Windmueller ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS ABOUT THE USC CASDEN INSTITUTE

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Book SynopsisThis book explores shared religious practicesamongJews, Christians, and Muslims, focusing primarily on the medieval Mediterranean. It examines the meanings members of each community ascribed to the presence of the religious other at "their" festivals or holy sites during pilgrimage. Communal boundaries were often redefined or dissolved during pilgrimage and religious festivals. Yet, paradoxically, shared practices served to enforce communal boundaries, since many of the religious elite devised polemical interpretations of these phenomena which highlighted the superiority of their own faith.Such interpretations became integral to each group's theological understanding of self and other to such a degree that in some regions, religious minorities were required to participate in the festivals of the ruling community. In all formulations, otherness remained an essential component of both polemic and prayer.

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Book SynopsisSongs of Sonderling is the story of Jacob Sonderling's unique contributions to Jewish liturgical music. Rabbi Sonderling was many things: a descendant of Chassidic rebbes, a rationalist, a Reform rabbi, a Zionist, an army chaplain, a celebrated orator, an artistic soul. From his early career at the Hamburg Temple and German Army service in World War I, to his wandering years in the Eastern United States and founding of the Society for Jewish Culture–Fairfax Temple in Los Angeles, Sonderling cultivated a unique aesthetic vision of Judaism, a "five-sense appeal."Jonathan L. Friedmann and John F. Guest document and analyze Sonderling's experience and expression of Judaism through music. Rabbi Sonderling's vision yielded liturgical commissions from exiled Viennese Jewish composers who arrived in Los Angeles in the 1930s and 1940s. Through these musical settings, activities at the Fairfax Temple, and involvement with the Los Angeles campus of the Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, Sonderling made an indelible mark on the city's Jewish community and the wider musical world.Songs of Sonderling focuses on the commissions Sonderling made from 1938 to 1945: Ernst Toch's Cantata of the Bitter Herbs, Arnold Schoenberg's Kol Nidre, Erich Wolfgang Korngold's A Passover Psalm and Prayer, and Eric Zeisl's Requiem Ebraico. Through musical analyses and an examination of Sonderling's career in Los Angeles, Friedmann and Guest contribute to the study of Jewish liturgical music, to Jewish history in the American West, to Jewish identity in the twentieth century, and to Jewish diaspora writ large.

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Book SynopsisSince the early 1950s, local and regional historical societies have been an important part of the American Jewish landscape, providing community outreach, housing archives, fostering research, and publishing historical studies. This book charts the development, undertakings, successes, shortcomings, and possible future of local and regional Jewish historical societies in the United States. The lead chapter, by Joel Gereboff, explores the challenges of constructing and presenting Jewish history and what disparities exist between amateur historians and professionals in regards to standards, tools, methods, analysis, and contextualization. Following an overview of key players, major themes, representative organizations, and recurring critiques, the chapter proposes ways to address the essential question: Can Jewish history on the local and regional levels be more inclusive, better integrated with broader trends of Jewish and general history, and improved according to scholarly norms and expectations of social history? Following this are six chapters by leaders of local and regional Jewish historical societies: George M. Goodwin of the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association; Jonathan L. Friedmann of the Western States Jewish History Association; Mark K. Bauman of the Southern Jewish Historical Society; Catherine Cangany of the Jewish Historical Society of Michigan; Jeanne Abrams of the Rocky Mountain Jewish Historical Society; and Lawrence Bell of the Arizona Jewish Historical Society. The selected societies cover major regions of the country—Northeast, Midwest, South, Southwest, and West—and, as such, are representative of the broader phenomenon of American Jewish historical societies. These chapters are followed by a chronologically arranged appendix listing American Jewish historical societies, their mission statements, and their publications. Historical grounding is imperative for an understanding of community and self. Equally essential is the type of information that makes up that history, as well as how that information is recounted and interpreted. No individual or community exists in isolation; human history is complex, multilayered, and interwoven. While all history may be local, it does not exist in a vacuum—this volume illuminates that concept and situates it within the Jewish historical landscape. Trade ReviewThe case studies in this book cover a range of Jewish historical societies with different organizational histories, priorities, and institutional affiliations. They demonstrate a variety of approaches to the tensions, laid out so expertly by Gereboff and Friedmann, between critical assessment and communal celebration. Together with the very useful listing of all of the (known) Jewish historical societies and their missions in the appendix, the essays in this volume provide an interesting, well-documented, and thoughtful discussion of these significant but understudied societies." —Ellen Eisenberg, co-author of Jews of the Pacific Coast: Reinventing Community on America’s Edge

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Book SynopsisWhat is the role of Judaism and Jewish existence in America? And what role does America play in matters Jewish? This anthology considers these questions and offers a look at how the diverse body of Jewish thought developed within the historical and intellectual context of America. In this volume, editors Michael Marmur and David Ellenson bring together the distinctive voices of those who have shaped the bold and shifting soundscape of American Jewish thought over the last few generations. The contributors tackle an array of topics including theological questions; loyalty and belonging; the significance of halakhic, spiritual, and ritual practice; secularization and its discontents; and the creative recasting of Jewish peoplehood. The editors are careful to point out how a plurality of approaches emerged in response to the fundamental ruptures and challenges of continuity posed by the Holocaust, the establishment of the state of Israel, and the civil rights movement in the twentieth century. This volume also includes a wide swath of the most distinctive currents and movements over the last eighty years: post-Holocaust theology, secular forms of Jewish spirituality, ultra-orthodoxy, American neo-orthodoxy, neo-Hasidism, feminism and queer theory, diasporist critiques of Zionism, and Zionist militancy. This collection will serve as both a testament to the creativity of American Jewish thought so far, and as an inspiration for the new thinkers of its still unwritten future.

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Book SynopsisHasidism has attracted, repelled, and bewildered philosophers, historians, and theologians since its inception in the eighteenth century. In Hasidism: Writings on Devotion, Community, and Life in the Modern World, Ariel Evan Mayse and Sam Berrin Shonkoff present students and scholars with a vibrant and polyphonic set of Hasidic confrontations with the modern world. In this collection, they show that the modern Hasid marks not only another example of a Jewish pietist, but someone who is committed to an ethos of seeking wisdom, joy, and intimacy with the divine. While this volume focuses on Hasidism, it wrestles with a core set of questions that permeate modern Jewish thought and religious thought more generally: What is the relationship between God and the world? What is the relationship between God and the human being? But Hasidic thought is cast with mystical, psychological, and even magical accents, and offers radically different answers to core issues of modern concern. The editors draw selections from an array of genres including women’s supplications; sermons and homilies; personal diaries and memoirs; correspondence; stories; polemics; legal codes; and rabbinic response. These selections consciously move between everyday lived experience and the most ineffable mystical secrets, reflecting the multidimensional nature of this unusual religious and social movement. The editors include canonical texts from the first generation of Hasidic leaders up through present-day ultra-orthodox, as well as neo-Hasidic voices and, in so doing, demonstrate the unfolding of a rich and complex phenomenon that continues to evolve today.Trade Review“The editors have done an extraordinary thing. Succinctly framed by recent scholarship, they have nevertheless allowed some of the most consequential thinkers in the history of Hasidism to speak for themselves. Their selection is impressive, the translations are always lucid and sometimes strikingly beautiful. Mayse and Shonkoff have demonstrated the sheer phenomenological range of this movement and, significantly, made more space for Hasidic women’s voices than any previous collection. This will be the indispensable volume for teaching and research at every level. It deserves all the praise I can heap on it.” -- Don Seeman, Emory University“In this latest addition to the beloved Brandeis Library of Modern Jewish Thought, Mayse and Shonkoff address the distinctive modernity of Hasidic thought. In their inclusive vision, letters, memoirs, and responsa speak alongside homilies and works of theology. So, too, do they open the field of Hasidism to a strikingly diverse set of voices: women, neo-Hasidic thinkers, and ordinary Hasidim.” -- Naomi Seidman, author of Sarah Schenirer and the Bais Yaakov Movement“This dazzling collection will stimulate and enlighten its readers. In addition to displaying gems of famous Hasidic masters, the editors include women’s voices, memoirs, anti-Hasidic polemics, and theological responses to the Holocaust and the State of Israel. A superb resource for intellectual and spiritual exploration.” -- Daniel Matt, author of the multi-volume, annotated translation, The Zohar: Pritzker Edition“Mayse and Berrin Shonkoff have presented a historically contextualized cross-section of Hasidic literature, each with a brief introduction, including relevant annotations and notes. Especially welcome is the attention to gender, and the role of women, in Hasidic life and letters. An indispensable resource for those interested in Hasidism and its role in modern Jewish thought and a significant addition to the Brandeis Library of Modern Jewish Thought.” -- Shaul Magid, Professor of Jewish Studies, Dartmouth College"This source anthology spans Hasidic literature from the earliest generation of the mass spiritual movement through present-day writers, all occupied with a set of central questions. Principally: What is the relationship between God and the world and between God and humanity and the human individual? The final section is to be noted for its inclusion of more recent Hasidic women writers." * TraditionOnline *"Mayse and Shonkoff’s masterful collection of texts recognizes that there is a wealth of literature extending into the nineteenth, twentieth, and even twenty-first centuries. As such, it is the most comprehensive of all the anthologies published to date and the most diverse in terms of the different schools of Hasidism....this reviewer can only applaud the remarkable erudition and discernment of these two scholars..." * Journal of Modern History *"Students and scholars have long needed access to a diverse set of Hasidic sources in English translation that allows an experiential entry into its emplacement and re-orientation within the skeptical landscape of the very modern world that birthed it—this volume is thus a welcome contribution in filling that need....Clearly this volume has its heart set on expanding the horizons of Hasidism, for both students and scholars, practitioners, and those perplexed by this remnant that keeps shining on. By continuing to carry forward central question of Jewish modernity, this volume provides new lenses—from an array of genres, including women’s supplications; sermons and homilies; personal diaries and memoirs..." * Religious Studies Review *Table of ContentsForewordAcknowledgmentsIntroductionI. Emergence, Challenge, and Renewal (1736-1815)1. The Ba‘al Shem Tov: Disciples and Descendants2. Yiddish Supplications (Tkhines)3. Dov Ber of Mezritsh4. The Brody Proclamation of 17725. The Maggid’s Family6. Chernobil and Zhitomir7. Shmuel and Pinhas Horowitz, Levi Yitshak of Barditshev, and 'Uziel Meizels8. Hasidism in Lithuania, White Russia and Tiberias9. Nahman of Bratslav10. Beyond the Maggid’s Circle11. Early Hasidism in PolandII. Ascendancy and Dominance (1815-1881)12. Avraham Yehoshu‘a Heshel of Apt13. The Dynasties of Ruzhin and Talna14. Menahem Mendel Schneersohn15. Kalonymous Kalman Epstein of Krakow16. Hayim Halberstam and Sandz Hasidism17. Malka Rokeah of Belz and Eydel Rubin of Brody18. The Dynasties of Dinov, Zhidachov, and Komarno19. The Dynasties of Pshiskhe, Kotsk, Izhbits, Warka and GerIII. Decline, Renaissance, and Destruction (1881-1945)20. Ger in Warsaw: Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter21. Sokhachev and Ger22. Tsadok ha-Kohen of Lublin23. Munkatsh Hasidism24. Toledot Aharon25. Sholom Dov Ber Schneersohn26. The Hasidic Yeshivah27. Sarah Schenirer28. Three Hasidic Memoirs: Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn, Yitshak Nahum Twersky and Malka Shapiro29. The Belzer Rebbe’s Sermon and Holocaust Testimonies30. The Rebbe of PiasecznoIV. Renewal and Reconstruction (1945–present)31. Hasidic Theology and the Holocaust32. Zionist Hasidism33. Satmar Hasidism34. The Seventh Rebbe of Habad35. Zelda Schneurson Mishkovsky36. Slonim Hasidism in Jerusalem37. Voices of Contemporary Hasidic WomenIndex

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Book SynopsisHermann Cohen (1842–1918) was among the most accomplished Jewish philosophers of modern times—if not the single most significant. But his work has not yet received the attention it deserves. This newly translated collection of his writings—most of which are appearing in English for the first time—illuminates his achievements for student readers and rectifies lapses in his intellectual reception by prior generations. It presents chapters from Cohen’s Ethics of Pure Will, conflicting interpretations of Cohen by Franz Rosenzweig and Alexander Altmann, and finally the eulogy to Cohen delivered at graveside by Ernst Cassirer. Containing full annotations and selections that concentrate both on the philosophical core of Cohen’s writings and the politics of interpretation of his work at the time of his death and after, Hermann Cohen truly brings to light all of Cohen’s accomplishments.   Trade Review“This new collection is a great gift for our time. Hermann Cohen was Germany’s great philosopher of Judaism and champion of Kantian ethics at the turn of the twentieth century. He drew powerful affinities between Kant’s moral philosophy and Jewish ethics, emphasizing how both point towards perpetual peace. In our divided world today, struggling for a universal ethics, Cohen’s writings offer powerful reasons to hope and strive for a world of peace and wellbeing.” -- Jeffrey Sachs, Columbia University“This superb anthology of texts by and about Hermann Cohen shows how confronting his work is indispensable to understanding still-vital controversies about the heritage of Enlightenment philosophy, the compatibility of Judaism and modernity and the challenge it faced with the rise of existentialism and the "new thinking." This landmark collection, brilliantly introduced and curated by Samuel Moyn and Robert Schine, is more than a sweeping reappraisal of a thinker who both revived Kant's project and modernized Jewish philosophy. It is a timely invitation--even a compelling summons--to pursue a path all but forgotten and yet of paramount importance for our own times." -- Vivian Liska, University of Antwerp“It is difficult to overstate the importance of the task undertaken by Moyn and Schine in this book. For the first time ever, key chapters in Ethik des reinen Willens are available in English. This volume also collects and translates major essays by Ernst Cassirer, Franz Rosenzweig, and Alexander Altmann that have done so much to shape Cohen’s reception in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. With expert introductions and annotations, this book will be a landmark event in discussions of Cohen in the English-speaking world.” -- Robert Erlewine, Illinois Wesleyan University“This is the most comprehensive collection of Hermann Cohen’s writings currently available in English. Cohen’s Introduction to the Ethics of Pure Will is a gem in its own right. It brilliantly testifies to the enduring importance of Cohen’s ethics in its relation to religion and to law. The volume also features articles of Cohen on Kant and on the significance of Judaism for the progress of Religion. Cohen’s legacy is attested by Ernst Cassirer in the first place, but also by Franz Rosenzweig, whose famous Introduction to Cohen’s Jewish Writings appears here in full: a translation was long overdue. The volume will undoubtedly become an essential resource for those interested in nineteenth and twentieth century philosophy – and in modern Jewish thought.” -- Myriam Bienenstock, Université de ToursTable of ContentsIntroduction, Note on Translation, Part 1: The Ethics of Pure Will, Introduction, God, Part 2: Essays, Internal Connections of Kantian Philosophy to Judaism, The Social Ideal in Plato and the Prophets, The Significance of Judaism for the Religious Progress of Humanity, Autonomy and Freedom, Part 3: Coda, Franz Rosenzweig, “Introduction to Hermann Cohen’s Jewish Writings” (1924), Alexander Altmann, “Hermann Cohen’s Concept of Correlation” (1962), Ernst Cassirer, “Hermann Cohen: Words Spoken at His Grave on April 7, 1919”

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