Judaism Books

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 book explores the relationship between these two religions through the prism of gender.Trade Review"The 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 Michigan"A 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 SynopsisFinalist for the 2021 National Jewish Book Award in American Jewish StudiesHonorable Mention, 2021 Saul Viener Book Prize, given by the American Jewish Historical SocietyReveals nostalgia as a new way of maintaining Jewish continuityIn 2007, the Museum at Eldridge Street opened at the site of a restored nineteenth-century synagogue originally built by some of the first Eastern European Jewish immigrants in New York City. Visitors to the museum are invited to stand along indentations on the floor where footprints of congregants past have worn down the soft pinewood. Here, many feel a palpable connection to the history surrounding them.Beyond the Synagogue argues that nostalgic activities such as visiting the Museum at Eldridge Street or eating traditional Jewish foods should be understood as American Jewish religious practices. In making the case that these practices are not just cultural, but are actually religious, RTrade ReviewGross seeks to expand how we understand the practice of American Judaism to include Jewish nostalgia, and argues that any notions of American Jewish religiosity being in ‘decline’ are false; it’s rather how we understand American Judaism that needs to be expanded. * Alma Magazine *Gross demonstrates how nostalgia does much of the same work as religion and can therefore be properly understood as religious itself ... Gross compellingly points to a Jewish life that seems to have been flourishing already for members of at least four generations of American Jews. She gives her readers tools to ask a vital question: where to look to discover robust Jewish life as it is occurring all around us. * Moment Magazine *Gross’ assessment of the way institutional Judaism dismisses activities that aren’t officially Jewish is well-argued and comprehensive ... and her book challenges prevailing orthodoxies of American Jewish life with respect and purpose. * Jewish Exponent *A stunning and timely volume on heritage production and material nostalgia that is sure to be an instant classic on American Jewishness. This is groundbreaking scholarship at multiple levels of analysis: for its compelling reconfigurations of American Jewish religious practice—and for its elegant expansion of American religion’s affective parameters. A must read! -- Sally M. Promey, editor of Sensational Religion: Sensory Cultures in Material PracticeBrilliant and innovative, Beyond the Synagogue is a game changer. Each chapter draws us in, deepening our understanding of how objects and places participate in nostalgia. Gross’s book is destined to change the way we think about how and where Jews ‘do’ religion. -- Laura Arnold Leibman, author of The Art of the Jewish FamilyThis studious and careful book is brave and beautiful in equal measure. I defy anyone who reads it to be left unmoved by the power of what Gross records. Beyond the Synagogue proves definitively that studying religion requires thinking about what people feel in the present as they think again about pasts they can't stop retelling. -- Kathryn Lofton, author of Consuming ReligionIn this vivid and convincing work, Rachel Gross creatively expands what counts as religious practice. Museum spaces, deli menus, genealogical enterprises, and children’s toys—Gross explores them all as revealing facets of American Jewish memory, the materials of both nostalgia and ongoing religious expression. She powerfully evokes the longing for remembrance, for a palpable reconnection with the past, contained within seemingly ordinary objects and activities. -- Leigh E. Schmidt, Washington University in St. LouisBeyond the Synagogue breaks important methodological ground in the study of American Jewish religion, especially by drawing key theoretical insights from the field of American religion. * American Religion *The freshness of Gross's argument… and the liveliness of her writing, is certain to attract both scholars and general readers with an interest in secular Judaism and American Jewish culture. * Contemporary Jewry *

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Book SynopsisCelebrated sex expert and bestselling author Dr. Ruth Westheimer bridges the gap between sex and religion in this provocative exploration of intimacy in the Jewish faithIn this light-hearted, lively tour of Jewish sexuality, Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer and Jonathan Mark team up to reveal how the Jewish tradition is much more progressive than popular wisdom might lead one to believe. Applying Dr. Ruth's acclaimed brand of couples therapy to such Biblical relationships as Abraham and Sarah, and Joseph and Potiphar's wife, the authors enlist Biblical lore to explore such topics as surrogacy, incest, and arranged marriages. They offer a clearer understanding of the intertwining relationships between sexuality and spirituality through incisive investigations of the Song of Songs, Ruth, Proverbs, Psalms, and some of the bawdier tales of the Prophets. One chapter provides a provocative new perspective on the Sabbath as a weekly revival, highlighting not only its spiritual nature, but also its maTrade ReviewAmerica's favorite sex therapist probably best known for making the word orgasm a TV talk show favorite, collaborates with Jewish Week editor Mark in a more significant accomplishment—a thoughtful study of the roles of sexuality in Judaica. * Booklist *

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Book SynopsisCelebrated sex expert and bestselling author Dr. Ruth Westheimer bridges the gap between sex and religion in this provocative exploration of intimacy in the Jewish faithIn this light-hearted, lively tour of Jewish sexuality, Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer and Jonathan Mark team up to reveal how the Jewish tradition is much more progressive than popular wisdom might lead one to believe. Applying Dr. Ruth's acclaimed brand of couples therapy to such Biblical relationships as Abraham and Sarah, and Joseph and Potiphar's wife, the authors enlist Biblical lore to explore such topics as surrogacy, incest, and arranged marriages. They offer a clearer understanding of the intertwining relationships between sexuality and spirituality through incisive investigations of the Song of Songs, Ruth, Proverbs, Psalms, and some of the bawdier tales of the Prophets. One chapter provides a provocative new perspective on the Sabbath as a weekly revival, highlighting not only its spiritual nature, but also its maTrade Review"America's favorite sex therapist probably best known for making the word orgasm a TV talk show favorite, collaborates with Jewish Week editor Mark in a more significant accomplishment—a thoughtful study of the roles of sexuality in Judaica." * Booklist *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Ogren offers an insightful revisionist take on how esoteric Jewish texts shaped American religious thought in the 17th and 18th centuries ... Historians of American Judaism must take a look." * Publishers Weekly *"Ogren has authored a tour de force with this well-written and captivating volume that reexamines the role of religion in the period leading up to American independence. A must for readers interested in an often untold perspective on the history and religious identity of the United States." * STARRED Library Journal *"This learned and ambitious study reevaluates the role of Kabbalah in shaping early American religious sensibilities and sheds important new light upon the Kabbalistic interests of such key figures as the Mathers, George Keith, Judah Monis, and Ezra Stiles. A path-breaking contribution." -- Jonathan D. Sarna, Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History, Brandeis University"Anyone interested in the history of the colonial period and the development of spirituality in America, as well as in the impact of Kabbalah on Christian intellectuals, will welcome Brian Ogren’s remarkable book. This is a fascinating, thorough, and compelling study of a very important topic and I highly recommend it." -- Yaakov Ariel, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill"Radically changes our understanding of the intellectual links between colonial American Puritanism, identity formation, and the esoteric literature of rabbinic scholarship, the mysticism of the Kabbalah, Zohar, and Sefer Yetzirah. Ogren is the foremost scholar to trace the influence of kabbalistic literature and Jewish thought . . . drawing on archival resources few have bothered to examine. This is an intellectual feast of the first order and a credit to American religious historiography." -- Reiner Smolinski, Georgia State University"Offers a groundbreaking, often breathtaking story, based on first-rate scholarship, about the relation between forms of Kabbalist thought and major figures and ideas in early America. It is a gripping, thoughtful, and often surprising account that will provoke a reconsideration of the intellectual sources of American ideals and of early modern thought more generally." -- Christia Mercer, Gustave M. Berne Professor of Philosophy, Columbia University"The book offers intriguing insights into American History and the History of Religion between 1680 and 1780 and adds innovatively to our understanding of American identity." * Religious Studies Review *"Ogren's analysis of the use and impact of Kabbalah on early religious thought in the New World is remarkable… [T]here is little doubt that Kabbalah and the Founding of America will shape the future study of early Protestant Christian theology and its ties to Jewish thought traveling between the Old World and the New." * Reform Jewish Quarterly *"Ogren takes no shortcuts when it comes to scholarly analysis of his texts and the endless complexities of kabbalistic thought. In the end, his book is about finding Judaism and Jewish thought precisely where it was not supposed to be, and then rethinking both Judaism and Protestantism in response." * The American Jewish Archives Journal *

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Book SynopsisReveals how young American Jewish children come to develop their views about IsraelIsrael has long occupied a prominent place in the lives and imaginations of American Jews, serving as both a symbolic touchstone and a source of intercommunal conflict. In My Second-Favorite Country, Sivan Zakai offers the first longitudinal study of how American Jewish children come to think and feel about Israel, tracking their evolving conceptions from kindergarten to fifth grade. This work sheds light on the perception of Israel in the minds of Jewish children in the US and provides a rich case study of how children more generally develop ideas and beliefs about self, community, nation, and world. In contrast to popular views of America's youth as naive or uninterested, this book illuminates both the complexity of their thinking and their desire to be included in conversations about important civic and political matters. Zakai draws from compelling empirical data to prove that children spend considerTrade Review"Featuring impressive data and compelling prose, My Second-Favorite Country is the first longitudinal study of American Jewish children that is outside of the framework of heritage tourism. . . . Will certainly make a lasting impression in the field of Jewish Studies." -- Ari Y. Kelman, Stanford University"Exceptionally well-crafted and fascinating. By illustrating Jewish-American children’s grappling with identity and community, Zakai has provided a necessary and long overdue contribution to Jewish Studies." -- Theodore Sasson, Middlebury College"Rich in anecdotes, featuring children sharing their thoughts in their own words, My Second-Favorite Country serves as important testimony that conveys the need to listen to children on the topic of Israel. By arguing for making Israel part of what Jewish children know versus just a place they have positive feelings about, Zakai charts a course forward for helping them become authentically attached to Israel." * Contemporary Jewry *"In My Second-Favorite Country: How American Jewish Children Think About Israel, Sivan Zakai offers a novel suggestion for how to approach Israel education: let’s listen carefully to students’ sense-making. Zakais’ book is a must-read for educators who see it as their responsibility to help students make sense of the world in which they live, in which we all live, and in which we all may have a lasting impact." * Reading Religion *

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Book SynopsisReveals how young American Jewish children come to develop their views about IsraelIsrael has long occupied a prominent place in the lives and imaginations of American Jews, serving as both a symbolic touchstone and a source of intercommunal conflict. In My Second-Favorite Country, Sivan Zakai offers the first longitudinal study of how American Jewish children come to think and feel about Israel, tracking their evolving conceptions from kindergarten to fifth grade. This work sheds light on the perception of Israel in the minds of Jewish children in the US and provides a rich case study of how children more generally develop ideas and beliefs about self, community, nation, and world. In contrast to popular views of America's youth as naive or uninterested, this book illuminates both the complexity of their thinking and their desire to be included in conversations about important civic and political matters. Zakai draws from compelling empirical data to prove that children spend considerTrade Review"Featuring impressive data and compelling prose, My Second-Favorite Country is the first longitudinal study of American Jewish children that is outside of the framework of heritage tourism. . . . Will certainly make a lasting impression in the field of Jewish Studies." -- Ari Y. Kelman, Stanford University"Exceptionally well-crafted and fascinating. By illustrating Jewish-American children’s grappling with identity and community, Zakai has provided a necessary and long overdue contribution to Jewish Studies." -- Theodore Sasson, Middlebury College"Rich in anecdotes, featuring children sharing their thoughts in their own words, My Second-Favorite Country serves as important testimony that conveys the need to listen to children on the topic of Israel. By arguing for making Israel part of what Jewish children know versus just a place they have positive feelings about, Zakai charts a course forward for helping them become authentically attached to Israel." * Contemporary Jewry *"In My Second-Favorite Country: How American Jewish Children Think About Israel, Sivan Zakai offers a novel suggestion for how to approach Israel education: let’s listen carefully to students’ sense-making. Zakais’ book is a must-read for educators who see it as their responsibility to help students make sense of the world in which they live, in which we all live, and in which we all may have a lasting impact." * Reading Religion *"Zakai (Jewish education, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Los Angeles) has written an important study about how Jewish American children attending Jewish day schools relate to Israel." * CHOICE *

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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 SynopsisTrade ReviewQueer Judaism refuses simple narratives that pit queer lives against religion. Instead, it beautifully examines how LGBT activists in Israel work within Orthodox Judaism to give their lives and identities meaning, even as they struggle within this tradition to make space for themselves. Avishai’s brilliant, moving ethnography sets a new standard for scholarship in religion and sexuality. It’s a must read. -- Anthony Petro, author of After the Wrath of God: AIDS, Sexuality, and American ReligionAn engaging book about people whose proud, public existence became possible over a very short time. Pushing beyond old notions of reconciling conflicting identities, Avishai illustrates how actors gently seized a political and cultural moment and organized to articulate the meaning their lives derived from existing at the intersection of orthodox religion and `unorthodox’ sexuality. Ultimately, Queer Judaism is a story of how queerness can foster life and growth in institutions, culture, and individuals—and its limits. -- Dawne Moon, author of God, Sex, and Politics: Homosexuality and Everyday TheologiesDrawing on interviews with dozens of gay religious Israeli Jews and activists, experiences at Orthodox LGBTQ events and time researching and reading message boards, Avishai traces the history of gay activism in Israel’s religious worlds and the rapid transformation in attitudes and advocacy. -- Amy Spiro * The Times of Israel *Queer Judaism includes excerpts from numerous interviews that show the heartbreak of those who have not been accepted by their families and/or community. However, these are the same people who are creating a new version of Orthodoxy simply by living their lives and expecting acceptance. Their use of Jewish texts has also helped them become more actively engaged in Judaism. Queer Judaism will inspire and challenge readers as it shows the active development of religious change in Israel. * The Reporter *

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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 SynopsisTrade Review"In this impressive book, Taragin-Zeller skillfully articulates a new way to think about religiously inspired decision-making that goes beyond established tropes concerning piety and duty, and focuses in a sensitive and sophisticated way on how couples think in nuanced and flexible, albeit often anguished, ways about reproductive planning. Fascinating and poignant." -- Simon Coleman, Chancellor Jackman Professor of Religion, University of Toronto"Taragin-Zeller’s remarkable ability to bridge many fields will be celebrated by diverse scholars in anthropology, gender studies, religion, and politics, and by those curious about the powerful intersections of intimate desires and the state." -- Nurit Stadler, author of Yeshiva Fundamentalism: Piety, Gender, and Resistance in the Ultra-Orthodox World"This beautiful book illuminates matters at the heart of contemporary Israel and its timely struggles over nationhood. Taragin-Zeller skillfully brings to life everyday uncertainties around family-making among religious people and, in doing so, contributes invaluable insights on timeless questions of subjectivity and ethics." -- Ayala Fader, Fordham University

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Book SynopsisWINNER, 2024 Jordan Schnitzer Book Award- Social Sciences, Anthropology, and Folklore Category, given by the Association for Jewish StudiesAn intimate account of Orthodox family planning amid shifting state policies in IsraelIn recent years, Israeli state policies have attempted to dissuade Orthodox Jews from creating large families, an objective that flies in the face of traditional practices in their community. As state desires to cultivate a high-income, tech-centered nation come into greater conflict with common Orthodox familial practices, Jewish couples are finding it increasingly difficult to actualize their reproductive aims and communal expectations. In The State of Desire, Lea Taragin-Zeller provides an intimate examination of the often devastating effects of Israel's steep cutbacks in child benefits, which are aimed at limiting the rapid increase in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish population. Taragin-Zeller takes the reader beyond Orthodox taboos, capturing how cracks in religiousTrade ReviewIn this impressive book, Taragin-Zeller skillfully articulates a new way to think about religiously inspired decision-making that goes beyond established tropes concerning piety and duty, and focuses in a sensitive and sophisticated way on how couples think in nuanced and flexible, albeit often anguished, ways about reproductive planning. Fascinating and poignant. -- Simon Coleman, Chancellor Jackman Professor of Religion, University of TorontoTaragin-Zeller’s remarkable ability to bridge many fields will be celebrated by diverse scholars in anthropology, gender studies, religion, and politics, and by those curious about the powerful intersections of intimate desires and the state. -- Nurit Stadler, author of Yeshiva Fundamentalism: Piety, Gender, and Resistance in the Ultra-Orthodox WorldThis beautiful book illuminates matters at the heart of contemporary Israel and its timely struggles over nationhood. Taragin-Zeller skillfully brings to life everyday uncertainties around family-making among religious people and, in doing so, contributes invaluable insights on timeless questions of subjectivity and ethics. -- Ayala Fader, Fordham University

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Book SynopsisFinalist for the 2021 National Jewish Book Award in American Jewish StudiesHonorable Mention, 2021 Saul Viener Book Prize, given by the American Jewish Historical SocietyReveals nostalgia as a new way of maintaining Jewish continuityIn 2007, the Museum at Eldridge Street opened at the site of a restored nineteenth-century synagogue originally built by some of the first Eastern European Jewish immigrants in New York City. Visitors to the museum are invited to stand along indentations on the floor where footprints of congregants past have worn down the soft pinewood. Here, many feel a palpable connection to the history surrounding them.Beyond the Synagogue argues that nostalgic activities such as visiting the Museum at Eldridge Street or eating traditional Jewish foods should be understood as American Jewish religious practices. In making the case that these practices are not just cultural, but are actually religious, RTrade ReviewGross seeks to expand how we understand the practice of American Judaism to include Jewish nostalgia, and argues that any notions of American Jewish religiosity being in ‘decline’ are false; it’s rather how we understand American Judaism that needs to be expanded. * Alma Magazine *Gross demonstrates how nostalgia does much of the same work as religion and can therefore be properly understood as religious itself ... Gross compellingly points to a Jewish life that seems to have been flourishing already for members of at least four generations of American Jews. She gives her readers tools to ask a vital question: where to look to discover robust Jewish life as it is occurring all around us. * Moment Magazine *Gross’ assessment of the way institutional Judaism dismisses activities that aren’t officially Jewish is well-argued and comprehensive ... and her book challenges prevailing orthodoxies of American Jewish life with respect and purpose. * Jewish Exponent *A stunning and timely volume on heritage production and material nostalgia that is sure to be an instant classic on American Jewishness. This is groundbreaking scholarship at multiple levels of analysis: for its compelling reconfigurations of American Jewish religious practice—and for its elegant expansion of American religion’s affective parameters. A must read! -- Sally M. Promey, editor of Sensational Religion: Sensory Cultures in Material PracticeBrilliant and innovative, Beyond the Synagogue is a game changer. Each chapter draws us in, deepening our understanding of how objects and places participate in nostalgia. Gross’s book is destined to change the way we think about how and where Jews ‘do’ religion. -- Laura Arnold Leibman, author of The Art of the Jewish FamilyThis studious and careful book is brave and beautiful in equal measure. I defy anyone who reads it to be left unmoved by the power of what Gross records. Beyond the Synagogue proves definitively that studying religion requires thinking about what people feel in the present as they think again about pasts they can't stop retelling. -- Kathryn Lofton, author of Consuming ReligionIn this vivid and convincing work, Rachel Gross creatively expands what counts as religious practice. Museum spaces, deli menus, genealogical enterprises, and children’s toys—Gross explores them all as revealing facets of American Jewish memory, the materials of both nostalgia and ongoing religious expression. She powerfully evokes the longing for remembrance, for a palpable reconnection with the past, contained within seemingly ordinary objects and activities. -- Leigh E. Schmidt, Washington University in St. LouisBeyond the Synagogue breaks important methodological ground in the study of American Jewish religion, especially by drawing key theoretical insights from the field of American religion. * American Religion *The freshness of Gross's argument… and the liveliness of her writing, is certain to attract both scholars and general readers with an interest in secular Judaism and American Jewish culture. * Contemporary Jewry *

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Book Synopsis73rd National Jewish Book Awards FinalistCharts how changes to Jewish education in the nineteenth century served as a site for the wholescale reimagining of Judaism itselfThe earliest Jewish Sunday schools were female-led, growing from one school in Philadelphia established by Rebecca Gratz in 1838 to an entire system that educated vast numbers of Jewish youth across the country. These schools were modeled on Christian approaches to religious education and aimed to protect Jewish children from Protestant missionaries. But debates soon swirled around the so-called sorry state of feminized American Jewish supplemental learning, and the schools were taken over by men within one generation of their creation. It is commonly assumed that the critiques were accurate and that the early Jewish Sunday school was too feminized, saccharine, and dependent on Christian paradigms. Tracing the development of these schools from their inception through the firstTrade ReviewFills a major gap in the history of Jewish education in America. This is the first detailed study of the decades between the founding of the first Jewish Sunday School in 1838 and the development of the alternative model of the Talmud Torah during the earliest years of the 20th century. A significant contribution to the fields of religion, education, and history. -- Melissa R. Klapper, Rowan UniversityMeticulously researched and elegantly written. Featuring tremendous original historical research and vivid prose, this is an engaging and impressive addition to the study of religion in the United States and American Jewish history. -- Jodi Eichler-Levine, author of Painted Pomegranates and Needlepoint Rabbis: How Jews Craft Resilience and Create CommunityJewish Sunday Schools is an engrossing, cohesive history of the unsung, integral role of women in American Jewish religious education. * Foreword Reviews *This title offers a window into the formation of the American Jewish community. A very well-researched book of interest to anyone who ever attended or sent their child to a Jewish Sunday school. * Library Journal *Yares skillfully details early framings of nineteenth-century American Judaism while placing those framings within the context of American religion. Jewish Sunday Schools will provoke and inform those thinking about current issues in American Jewish education. -- Karla Goldman, author of Beyond the Synagogue Gallery: Finding a Place for Women in American Judaism

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Book SynopsisHow the Wise Men Got to Chelm is the first in-depth study of Chelm literature and its relationship to its literary precursors. When God created the world, so it is said, he sent out an angel with a bag of foolish souls with instructions to distribute them equally all over the worldone fool per town. But the angel's bag broke and all the souls spilled out onto the same spot. They built a settlement where they landed: the town is known as Chelm. The collected tales of these fools, or wise men, of Chelm constitute the best-known folktale tradition of the Jews of eastern Europe. This tradition includes a sprawling repertoire of stories about the alleged intellectual limitations of the members of this old and important Jewish community. Chelm did not make its debut in the role of the foolish shtetl par excellence until late in the nineteenth century. Since then, however, the town has led a double lifeas a real city in eastern Poland and as an imaginary place onto which questions of Jewish iTrade Review"Bernuth...provides a detailed and comprehensive examination of the evolution of some of the best-known Yiddish folk stories--those revolving around the comically foolish men of the town of Chelm--that places those tales in historical and cultural context." * Publishers Weekly *"[Von Bernuth] provides a comprehensive survey of all the collections of Chelm stories and their predecessors published since 1700, shows how the tales explored Jewish identity, community and history, and delivers a few punch lines." * The Jerusalem Post *"von Bernuth succeeds admirably in showing how the mythic locale allowed for the expression of various Jewish fantasies and anxieties over the past century and a half, and indeed continues to do so today." * Times Higher Education *"A beautifully-written work of meticulous scholarship. How the Wise Men Got to Chelm is the first book in any language to fully explore the humor and the seriousness in one of the most enduring and beloved legends of popular Jewish culture. Von Bernuth not only traces the origins of the fools of Chelm, but goes further to illuminate what these stories reveal about the intersections of European and Jewish cultures and the shifts in Jewish cultural development over a three hundred year period." -- Anita Norich,Tikva Frymer-Kensky Collegiate Professor, University of Michigan"This book is deeply learned, immensely sympathetic, and refreshingly free of cultural anxiety or chauvinism, Ruth von Bernuth squarely sets this famous genre within a milieu that is at once thoroughly Germanic and distinctively Jewish, and she carefully traces the continuities and transitions from early modern to twentieth-century expressions. Very wise indeed, this is a model analysis of the creative workings of not only Jewish but other diasporas as well." -- Jonathan Boyarin,Diann G. and Thomas Mann Professor of Modern Jewish Studies, Cornell University"Using the example of 'foolish' culture, von Bernuth shows that Jews shared the assumptions, themes and expressions of the general German culture, while lending that culture a Jewish inflection. Yet, social barriers persisted. Von Bernuth illuminates this paradoxical combination of cultural partnership and social alienation, showcasing the relationship between minority and majority groups. Her book is a milestone in both literary history and cultural studies." -- Moshe Rosman,author of How Jewish Is Jewish History?"One can only wonder what the Wise Men of Chelm would have said about a book like this. It has all the scholarship one could ask for but also an ability to home in on basic questions. It offers a sense of perspectiveand a sense of humor. It breaks the canonsit is fun to read and is a mine of information. It transforms a collection of stories that are usually dismissed as light reading for children into a powerful tool for understanding how different cultures learn from each otherand also maintain their identities. The author shares her knowledge generouslybut never forgets the basic humanity of the figures about whom she writes. The Men of Chelm would probably say: Start reading and see if you can stop!" -- Shaul Stampfer,Sandrow Professor of Soviet and East European Jewish History, Hebrew University"How the Wise Men Got to Chelmshows how these stories have changed over time to include debates about the efficacy of Zionism or communism, or to discuss the apparent silliness of Hasidic traditions." * Times Literary Supplement *

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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 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 SynopsisFinalist, 2018 National Jewish Book Award for Modern Jewish Thought and Experience, presented by the Jewish Book CouncilWinner, 2019 Jordan Schnitzer Book Award, in the Jewish Literature and Linguistics Category, given by the Association for Jewish StudiesA fascinating glimpse into the world of the coffeehouse and its role in shaping modern Jewish cultureUnlike the synagogue, the house of study, the community center, or the Jewish deli, the café is rarely considered a Jewish space. Yet, coffeehouses profoundly influenced the creation of modern Jewish culture from the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries. With roots stemming from the Ottoman Empire, the coffeehouse and its drinks gained increasing popularity in Europe. The otherness, and the mix of the national and transnational characteristics of the coffeehouse perhaps explains why many of these cafés were owned by Jews, why Jews became their most devoted habitués, and how cafés acquired Trade Review"[H]ugely entertaining and intimidatingly well researched, with scarcely a café in which a Jewish writer raised a cup of coffee from Warsaw to New York left undocumented." -- Adam Gopnik * The New Yorker *"Shachar Pinsker masterfully documents the impact of café life on Jewish culture throughout the civilized world. . . . A Rich Brew is aptly named. Engagingly illustrated with many contemporary photos and cartoons, it offers a deep dive into the café world of six cities that gave birth to modern Jewish thought and culture." * Moment Magazine *"A Rich Brew evokes the sense of lingering in a timeless café, savoring the flavor and scent of good coffee and the conversation that goes along with it." * The Jewish Week *"Pinsker . . . believes that cafés in six cities created modern Jewish culture. Its the kind of claim that sounds as if it might be a game-changer, and there are enough grounds and gossip in A Rich Brew to keep this customer engrossed from cup to cup." * The Wall Street Journal *"Pinsker makes clear the vital role literary cafes played in 19th- and 20th-century Western Jewish culture in this smart volume." * Publishers Weekly *"Pinsker takes the reader on a journey across the important centers of modern Jewish culture: Odessa, Warsaw, Vienna, Berlin, New York and Tel Aviv, using a host of different sources and making for a captivating read." * The Forward *"This meticulously researched book pays tribute to an electrifying network of cafes that once incubated modern Jewish culture." -- Hadassah"Weaving stories of writers, artists, activists, and revolutionaries in the cafes of Odessa, Warsaw, Vienna, Berlin, New York City, and Tel Aviv, Pinsker takes us on a journey from Moses Mendelssohn’s philosophical writings in Berlin’s Gelehrtes Kaffehause in 1755 to the funeral of the last Yiddish-speaking café owner in 1979 Tel Aviv, 'attended by a crowd of thousands.'" -- Marginalia Review of Books"A captivating tale of Jewish intellectual life, fueled by caffeine and good company in cities across the world." -- Metropole"Shachar Pinskers absorbing new work of nonfiction, A Rich Brew, uses the café as a vehicle both to describe the development of modern Jewish culture and to delve into the topics that drove its progression." * Jewish Book Council *"Pinsker packs his history with titillating behind-the-scenes snapshots of a cast of fascinating and enigmatic Jewish figures in cafés throughout history . . . makes for engaging, as well as nostalgic, reading, and begs the question: what has replaced the café in contemporary Jewish life?" * In geveb *"Pinsker’s greatest strength is in assembling evocative descriptions, both of individual cafés, and of cafés as a species of urban space. He expertly weaves together real-life accounts of cafés, including many in the journalistic-literary genre of the feuilleton, and their fictional depiction in the work of some of the most important Jewish writers of the 19th and 20th centuries." -- Reading Religion"Shachar Pinsker concocts a rich and pleasing brew of material culture, history, sociology, and text analysis to explore the roots of modern Jewish culture as we know it today. Describing the café as a 'thirdspace,' a liminal zone between the intimate and the public spheres, Pinsker follows the emergence of Jewish culture from the synagogue and the traditional house-of-study and its recreation as a modern, urban, secular intellectual heritage. Masterfully constructed and beautifully written, A Rich Brew is an illuminating and pleasurable read." -- Ruby Namdar,author of The Ruined House"A Rich Brew is an innovative work of Jewish cultural and literary history that illuminates how the café served as a laboratory that nourished Jewish writers, artists, and intellectuals in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. From the European cafes of Odessa, Warsaw, Vienna, and Berlin, to New York and Tel Aviv Jaffa, Pinsker charts a new account of the public spaces of Jewish culture and the new literary and cultural forms that where imagined there." -- Allison Schachter, author of Diasporic Modernisms: Hebrew and Yiddish Literature in the Twentieth Century"Shachar Pinsker, in part building on research he did for his admirable first book, Literary Passports, has produced a scrupulously documented and finely instructive account of the role of cafes in modern Jewish culture. A Rich Brew, providing apt discussions of many long-forgotten or unknown texts and a generous sampling of photographs of the sundry cafes, should be of considerable interest both for historians and students of modern Jewish literature." -- Robert Alter, Emeritus Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature, University of California, Berkeley"The best part of this book is that it offers a new cultural history of Jewish modernity by utilizing literary studiesusing examples of poetry and prose written in and about cafés, it gives voice to artists who populated these cafés." -- Anna Shternshis, University of Toronto"A Rich Brew is an enjoyable, well-written book, accessible to a wide audience. Pinsker does a fine job introducing the reader to the larger historical contexts, especially of each individual city under examination; offers clear overviews of representative Jewish literary and artistic personalities; and, most importantly, brings to life the many (but now defunct) cafés that stand at the heart of his narrative." * AJS Review *"A great strength of A Rich Brew is the attention given to precisely what is absent from [Jürgen] Habermas’s text: the physical spaces of cafés and their relationship to the bourgeois public sphere. It is marvelous to see how much a literary historian learned about places (and people) from his close scrutiny of literature and art." * Sociological Forum *"The focus on examining individual cities is one of the book’s strongest points, as each chapter is a mini-historiography of class, religion, ethnicity, and gender. More than anything, however, A Rich Brew is an examination of the role of nostalgia for home in shaping everything from café discussions to creative output to historical reflection." * Digest: A Journal of Foodways & Culture *"[Pinsker] has uncovered a vibrant, far-flung network of neighborhood cafes that were patronized by Jewish writers with a taste for coffee, conversation, and difference." * Sociological Forum *"A Rich Brew takes us on a spectacular tour of urban Jewish cafés across several continents, invigorating our sense of Jewish modernity in the making." * The American Historical Review *"The power of this book is not merely in reminding the reader of the lost world of Jewish cafés but in showing how comparative analysis illuminates what is common and what is unique about Jews as a social group and the institutions they create." * American Jewish History *

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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 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 SynopsisIn Jews, Judaism, and Success, Robert Eisen attempts to solve a long-standing mystery that has fascinated many: How did Jews become such a remarkably successful minority in the modern Western world?Eisen argues that Jews achieved such success because they were unusually well-prepared for it by their religion – in particular, Rabbinic Judaism, or the Judaism of the rabbis. Rooted in the Talmud, this form of Judaism instilled in Jews key values that paved the way for success in modern Western society: autonomy, freedom of thought, worldliness, and education. The book carefully analyses the evolution of these four values over the past two thousand years in order to demonstrate that they had a longer and richer history in Jewish culture than in Western culture. The book thus disputes the common assumption that Rabbinic Judaism was always an obstacle to Jews becoming modernized. It demonstrates that while modern Jews rejected aspects of Rabbinic Judaism, they also reTable of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments Translations of Texts and Transliterations Abbreviations Introduction: The Mystery of Jewish Success Part One. The Cultural Hypothesis Revisited: An Overview 1. Western Culture, Jewish Culture, and Four Key Values 2. Secular Jews (and Other Jews) Part Two. The Cultural Hypothesis Revisited: The Core Argument 3. Human Autonomy I: Sin, Grace, and Salvation 4. Human Autonomy II: Religious Authority 5. Human Autonomy III: Reason and Philosophy 6. Freedom of Thought and Expression 7. Valuing Life in This World I: 100–1000 CE 8. Valuing Life in This World II: 1000–1800 CE 9. Education I: 100–1500 CE 10. Education II: 1500–1950 CE Part Three. Final Matters 11. Conclusions Epilogue: Lessons for Jews, Lessons for Everyone Notes Bibliography Index

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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 SynopsisHair, Headwear, and Orthodox Jewish Women comments on hair covering based on an ethnographic study of the lives of Orthodox Jewish women in a small non-metropolitan synagogue. It brings the often overlooked stories of these women to the forefront and probes questions as to how their location in a small community affects their behavioral choices, particularly regarding the folk practice of hair covering. A kallah, or bride, makes the decision as to whether or not she will cover her hair after marriage. In doing so, she externally announces her religious affiliation, in particular her commitment to maintaining an Orthodox Jewish home. Hair covering practices are also unique to women's traditions and point out the importance of examining the women, especially because their cultural roles may be marginalized in studies as a result of their lack of a central role in worship. This study questions their contribution to Orthodoxy as well as their concept of Jewish identity and the ways in whicTrade ReviewIn this brilliant ethnography, Amy Milligan lets us listen in to personal conversations and see women in and out of worship to ask a profound question about the maintenance of tradition in a non-traditional environment. She opens doors to places we have not looked before—beneath hair coverings and in women’s study groups—to make us reassess the meaning not only of orthodox practice, but of identity driven by women’s worldview. Her groundbreaking book on a hairy subject will surely change the way we think, and talk about, not just Jews but the expressive body of tradition. -- Simon J. Bronner, Pennsylvania State UniversityHair, Headwear, and Orthodox Jewish Women: Kallah’s Choice is an important contribution to the fields of Jewish studies, gender studies, and American studies. Through her multi-disciplinary approach, Milligan reveals the symbolic power of hair and hair covering as a tool for negotiating the complexity of Jewish identity among Jewish women in small-town America. While hair covering is often read as a repressive practice in traditional communities, Milligan shows how the choice to cover or not to cover one’s hair is perceived among the women she interviews as an expression of power to define their own status in a complicated religious landscape. This very readable ethnography is complemented by a careful analysis that draws on a wide range of theoretical tools, including insights from gender studies, cultural psychoanalysis, anthropology, and American studies. -- Andrea Lieber, Dickinson CollegeAs the novel The Red Tent (1997), by Anita Diamant, depicted little-known Jewish women's roles in biblical times, so this intriguing, factual work provides many subtleties within Judaism as practiced by women in the contemporary US. A five-page glossary of mostly Hebrew and Yiddish terms is also helpful. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. * CHOICE *Table of ContentsPrologue Chapter 1: A Hairy Subject: Approaches to Hair and Hair Covering Chapter 2: Covering Jewish Women: The Congregational Context Chapter 3: Splitting Hairs: The Struggle for Community Definition in a Small Town Orthodox Synagogue Chapter 4: Wearing Many Hats: The Hair Covering Practices of the Orthodox Jewish Women at Degel Israel Synagogue Chapter 5: Letting Their Hair Down: Orthodox Women at Degel Israel Synagogue Who Choose Not to Cover Their Hair Chapter 6: Flipping Their Wigs for Judaism: Non-Orthodox Women Who Choose to Cover Their Heads Chapter 7: The Long and Short of It: A Psychoreligious Interpretation of Hair Covering Epilogue

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Book SynopsisThis book is an exploration and interpretation of the diverse symbols and images that represent the sacred presence of God in the Book of Psalms. These images of sacred spaces and objects represent diverse conceptions of the sanctuary or sacred spaces, objects and texts that mediate God's presence and bridge the gap between the ineffable nature of God as transcendent and beyond human comprehension and as immanently and intimately present in human experience. I explore the multivalent ways in which images of sacred spaces and objects facilitate prayer and contemplation. This book represents a valuable contribution to the study of Psalms and biblical theology, spirituality and prayer.Trade Review[Dunn] has provided a useful resource for further study of metaphoric approaches to the Psalms. * Journal for the Study of the Old Testament *Dunn takes up an important subject in the Psalter and astutely discusses its many variations and nuances. * Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology *In a very helpful interpretive move, Steven Dunn broadens the definition of “sanctuary” beyond the Temple to include references to multiple “‘places’ where God is encountered.” For Dunn, “places” include the Temple, but also other spaces, objects, creational phenomena, and more. As he persuasively demonstrates, this approach makes the Book of Psalms something like a “literary sanctuary” that invites and facilitates ongoing experiences of God’s presence and power by readers in every generation. It is encouraging to see such careful interpretive work put in to the service of contemporary spirituality and discipleship. -- Clint McCann, Eden Theological SeminaryAccessibly written and scholarly informed, Steven Dunn's study captures the heart and soul of the Psalter: God's "sanctuary" presence, a paradoxical presence that is both concealed and conveyed in the Psalms. Remarkably wide-ranging, Dunn's treatment reveals in new ways the Psalms' relevance for contemporary practice. -- William P. Brown, Columbia Theological SeminaryTable of Contents1. A Survey of “Sanctuaries” in the Psalms 2. God’s Sacred Shadow and Divine Concealment in the Psalms 3. Enthroned in Heaven and on Earth 4. The Mysterious Cloud Chariot 5. Where is God? Finding God in Silence and Absence

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Book SynopsisThis collection introduces the reader to third-generation Holocaust narratives, exploring the unique perspective of third-generation writers and demonstrating the ways in which Holocaust memory and trauma extend into the future.Trade ReviewThis collection considers works written by grandchildren, great nieces and nephews, and other relatives about family members who lived during the Hitler years. The term third generation raises some issues. In speaking about the literature of the Holocaust, “the literature of the first generation” meant the testimony of those who lived through the horrors of the Third Reich, those who either survived the death camps (Primo Levi, Ellie Wiesel, Imre Kertesz, et al.) or lived in hiding in the ghettos or as partisan fighters. It did not include those who lived safely through the Nazi years in protected areas or foreign countries. When critics and scholars begin to use terms such as 3G literature and introduce expressions such as 1.5G, 2G, 2.5G, and 3G, one senses that 3.5G and 4G loom in the future; lost is the emphasis on the quality of the story, novel, memoir, biography, film, or research being produced. Generational criticism privileges familial relationships. At its worse, it exploits the experiences of others. Important in this regard is critique of how writers far removed from the Holocaust preserve memory and provide witness to a past they never experienced. The best of these essays do that well, and this book is valuable for doing that service. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty. * CHOICE *A valuable, searching collection of Third Generation views of the Holocaust, views still proximate to that event and yet increasingly distanced from it. The accounts selectively presented here are both reflective and provide intimate detail, and Aarons' skill in editing brings out with great clarity the effect of time's passage on memory, art, and trauma in the aftermath of the Holocaust. -- Berel Lang, Professor of Philosophy Emeritus, SUNY at AlbanyVictoria Aarons once again firmly establishes that the post-Holocaust universe is her domain. With great sensitivity, editorial skill and insight, she has unearthed the generational consequences of a crime that was beyond description, and yet so many writers were compelled to do that very thing. -- Thane Rosenbaum, Thane Rosenbaum, author of "The Golems of Gotham," "Second Hand Smoke," and "Elijah Visible"In this important and visionary new book on third-generation Holocaust narratives, Victoria Aarons assembles a sturdy architectonic of memory's afterimage. Through a "visible bridge"—the continued outpouring of exceptionally well-written and international memoirs and fiction on the Holocaust—the essays affirm that memory is a structure that leaves third-generation survivors, and those coming later, with no alibi against witnessing. In her remarkably lucid introduction, Aarons reminds us that while some of us witness, all of us are companions on a (still) unfinished search. -- Holli Levitsky, Loyola Marymount University, affiliated professor of the University of HaifaTable of Contents1. A Special Kind of Kinship: On Being a ‘3G’ Writer, Erika Dreifus 2. Memory’s Afterimage: Post-Holocaust Writing and the Third Generation, Victoria Aarons 3. A Visible Bridge: Contemporary Jewish Fiction and the Return to the Shoah, Avinoam Patt 4. Story-telling, Photography, and Mourning in Daniel Mendelsohn’s The Lost, Paule Lévy 5. Life After Death: A Third Generation Journey in Jérémie Dres’ We Won't See Auschwitz, Alan Berger 6. The “generation without grandparents”: Witnesses and Companions to an Unfinished Search, Malena Chinski 7. Avatars of Third-Generation Holocaust Narrative in French and Spanish, Alan Astro 8. Measure for Measure: Narrative and Numbers in Holocaust Textual Memorials, Jessica Lang 9. Against Generational Thinking in Holocaust Studies, Gary Weissman 10. Simon and Mania, Henri Raczymow, translated by Alan Astro Preface: Henri Raczymow, Writer of the Second-and-a-Half Generation in France, Alan Astro

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Book SynopsisThis book examines the antisemitism that flourished outside of Vienna, in Austrian provinces such as Styria, Carinthia, Vorarlberg, Upper Austria, and Tyrol, focusing in particular on gender bias and its relationship to antisemitism. The 1904 arrest and bigamy trial of Frau von Hervay, the Jewish wife of District Captain Franz von Hervay of a Styrian provincial town (Mürzzuschlag), is closely examined to shed light on the relationship between Jews and non-Jews and attitudes towards women and sexuality in the small cities and towns of the Austrian provinces. The case demonstrates that antisemitism influenced popular perceptions of Jews and women at the local level and that it targeted women as well as men. This book provides an in-depth study of an episode of Austrian history that had a significant impact on the development of Austrian law; the role of religious institutions; perceptions of Jews, women, and sexuality; conceptions of Austrian bureaucracy and the need for reform; and the Trade ReviewRose takes the reader deep inside prewar rural Austria; her analysis suggests that the “Hervay Affair” is a prism through which we can begin to understand a myriad of contemporary issues at play, including church, legal, and political reform, as well as contemporary antisemitism and misogyny. For those interested in exploring those issues, Rose’s microstudy offers many avenues for further research. What emerges from these pages is a substantive and provocative portrait, elegant and thorough, and a delight to read. * American Historical Review *Alison Rose’s fascinating account of the life, arrest, and trial of a rogue Jewish woman from turn-of-the-century rural Austria sheds new light on the vexed history of hatred of the Jews in Austrian history. She deftly explores this neglected episode to show how antisemitism then and there was riddled with hatred of women in general and Jewish women in particular. The book helps us see the highly personal dimensions to ideologies usually seen as intellectual abstractions and brings into clear focus the complicated roots of hatred in this important historical setting. -- Deborah Hertz, University of California at San DiegoA deeply researched and well-written study on Austrian antisemitism. It will profoundly enrich our knowledge of a dark chapter of Austrian Jewish history. -- Klaus Hödl, Center for Jewish Studies, University of Graz and affiliated professor, University of HaifaAlison Rose impressively reconstructs the almost forgotten Hervay-Affair. She sheds new light onto the life and persecution of Leontine von Hervay. The book is an important contribution to the history of Antisemitism and gender in Austria. -- Dieter J. Hecht, Austrian Academy of SciencesTable of Contents1. Setting the Stage: Jews, Gender, and Antisemitism in the Austrian Provinces 2. “The Hervay Affair” 3. Press Coverage 4. Legal and Literary Interpretations

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Book SynopsisRorty and the Prophetic interrogates and provides a constructive assessment to the American neo-pragmatist philosopher Richard Rorty's critiques of Jewish ethics. Rorty dismisses the public applicability of Jewish moral reasoning, because it is based on the will of God through divine revelation. As a self-described secular philosopher, it comes as no surprise that Rorty does not find public applicability within a divinely-ordered Jewish ethic. Rorty also rejects the French Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas's ethics, which is based upon the notion of infinite responsibility to the Face of the Other. In Rorty's judgment, Levinas's ethics is gawky, awkward, and unenlightening. From a Rortyan perspective, it seems that Jewish ethics simply can't win: either it is either too dependent on the will of God or over-emphasizes the human Other. The volume responds to Rorty's criticisms of Jewish ethics in three different ways: first, demonstrating agreements between Rorty and Jewish thinkersTable of ContentsIntroduction by Jacob L: GoodsonPart 1: Social Hope and Solidarity: Bringing Jewish Philosophy and Rorty’s Neo-pragmatism TogetherChapter 1: Rorty, my Atheist Rabbi? Between Irony and Social Hope by Akiba LernerChapter 2: Prudence in the Twenty-first Century: Moving Beyond the Morality-Prudence Distinction with Maimonides and Rorty by Jacob L: GoodsonChapter 3: Charlottesville Pragmatism: Richard Rorty’s Neo-pragmatism and Peter Ochs’s Rabbinic Pragmatism by Gary SlaterPart 2: Politics and Prophecy: Finding Common Ground in Jewish Theology and Rorty’s Secular LiberalismChapter 4: The Grounds of Prophecy: Richard Rorty and the Hermeneutics of History by Samuel Hayim BrodyChapter 5: Messianism as a Conversation Stopper? Ironic Utopianism and Pragmatist Jewish Politics by Elliot RatzmanChapter 6: How to Read Rorty as a Political Theologian: And Why We Should by Stephen MinisterPart 3: Conversation and Cruelty: Putting Rorty’s Philosophy in Conversation with Emmuel Levinas’s Jewish EthicsChapter 7: All in the Details: Rorty and Levinas on Language, Cruelty, and Togetherness by Megan CraigChapter 8: Two Faces of Heteronomy: Autonomy and Cruelty in Rorty and Levinas by Brad Elliott StoneChapter 9: “A Faith without Triumph”: Levinas, Rorty, and Prophetic Pragmatism by J: Aaron SimmonsChapter 10: Rabbinic Reasoning and a Rortyan Ethic: Narrative, Pragmatism, and Solidarity by Hannah HashkesConclusion: Rorty and Heidegger’s Nazism by Brad Elliott Stone

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Book SynopsisGendered Testimonies of the Holocaust: Writing Life begins with the premise that writing proves virtually synonymous with survival, bearing the traces of life and of death carried within those who survived the atrocities of the Nazis. In reading specific testimonies by survivor-writers Paul Celan, Charlotte Delbo, Olga Lengyel, Gisella Perl, and Dan Pagis, this text seeks to answer the question: How was it possible for these survivors to write about human destruction, if death is such an intimate part of the survivors' survival? This book shows how the works of these survivors arise creatively from a vigorous spark, the desire to preserve memory. Testimony for each of these writers is a form of relation to oneself but also to others. It situates each survivor's anguish in writing as a need to write so as to affirm life. Writing as such always bears witness to the life of the one who should be dead by now and thus to the miracle of having survived. This book's claim is that the act of wTrade ReviewSchweitzer (comparative literature, Shenandoah Univ.) reflects on the poetry and prose Paul Celan, Charlotte Delbo, Olga Lengyel, Gisella Perl, and Dan Pagis wrote as testimony to the suffering of women and children who died in German concentration camps in WW II. Drawing on writings of Derrida, Levinas, Lyotard, and Freud, Schweitzer examines, as she writes in the epilogue, the relations “between the subject and other, and the text and its other." In the context of the Holocaust, she argues, "writing [is] survival ... an affirmation of life.” In Celan’s poem “Sprich auch Du,” Schweitzer shows the pivotal role of language as a constructive agent, an advancer of Nazi Germany’s anti-Semitic ideology. In looking at sadistic infanticide experiments, the author makes palpable the suffering inflicted on the minds and bodies of the mothers who were forced to abort their unborn without any palliative mediation. Though Schweitzer focuses in particular on the female, this volume illuminates the enormity of the atrocity Nazi's perpetrated on its victims, regardless of gender, sexual, artistic, ethnic, religious, or intellectual identity... Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. * CHOICE *This book provides a useful articulation of gendered analysis in life writing.... Schweitzer successfully brings together an analysis of the testimonial work of Holocaust survivors, both male and female; poets and prose writers. She rightly and persuasively concludes that ‘each survivor’s testimony attests to an unconditional affirmation of life after survival undeniably linked to the act of writing’. * European History Quarterly *This sensitive and affirming work offers profound insights into the complexities and possibilities of survival. In exquisite readings of texts that emerge from the Holocaust, Petra Schweitzer shows us how writing and survival are inextricably linked, and how the specificity of one historical event can teach us about the struggles with survival that extend beyond it. At the heart of Schweitzer’s intense and compelling book is ultimately an affirmation of life from the very heart of death, an affirmation life, and of writing, in an era of catastrophic history. -- Cathy Caruth, Cornell University, author of Literature in the Ashes of History and Unclaimed Experience: Trauma, Narrative and HistoryGendered Testimonies of the Holocaust: Writing Life is a deeply personal yet theoretically nuanced encounter with some of the most unforgettable texts of Holocaust literature. Pagis, Célan, Delbo, Lengyel, Perl…. Schweitzer’s postmemorial witness conveys both the fragility and resilience of these testifying voices, in which trauma has been refracted through poetic imagination, lyric sensibility, and ethical commitment. The author reveals that the source of their enduring power is the trace of the maternal, the gentle breath of feminine presence in the texts penned by survivors, which envelops and cradles their broken bodies and wounded words, carrying the unbearable memories out of the darkest shadows and into the unconditional affirmation of life. -- Dorota Glowacka, University of King's College, CanadaTable of Contents1. A Mother’s Testimony as a Dwelling Place—Dan Pagis 2. Remembrance of the M/other/tongue—Paul Celan 3. The Maternal Function of Giving Testimony—Charlotte Delbo 4. Embodied Existence of Mothers—Gisella Perl and Olga Lengyel

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Book SynopsisHalakha and the Challenge of Israeli Sovereignty examines the issues surrounding national, political, and religious sovereignty from the vantage point of halakha and its evolution. The work analyzes the efforts of the interpretative communities who adhered to halakhathe rabbinical authoritiesas well as other groups who endeavored to help or to change it: the Jewish jurists in Eretz Israel who sought to integrate sections of halakha into the Jewish collective; and the religious academics who wanted more meaningful recognition of halakha in non-halakhic values. The assessment extends from the beginning of the Jewish national movement in the last two decades of the 19th century to the first two decades of the State of Israel, when weighty problems arose that required a halakhic response to the challenge of sovereignty.In this, the volume sheds light on the pliable nature of the concept of halakha, particularly in conjunction with its application to the notion of sovereignty.Trade ReviewWith the emergence of Zionism and the quest for a Jewish state, a series of issues involving a confrontation between modern Jewish sovereignty and traditional Jewish law, Halakha, developed. Asaf Yedidya's focuses on a number of the major issues and has written a book containing his fine analyses that is a significant contribution to the historical and social scientific study of Halakha -- Chaim I. Waxman, Hadassah Academic College; Rutgers University (Emeritus)This fascinating book sheds light on one of the challenging issues of modern Jewish life-the meeting between Zionism and Halakha. This includes the dilemmas and conflicts within the State of Israel concerning the place of Halakha in its life, and the place of Israel in the Halakhic world. It is well-written, sources-rich and highly informative, putting subjects and personalities into their historic context. -- Justice Professor Elyakim Rubinstein, Deputy President (Ret.), The Supreme Court Of IsraelTable of ContentsIntroduction Chapter One: The Halakha in the Face of Modernity and Zionism Chapter Two: The Shmita Debate of 5649 (1888–9) Chapter Three: “Government in the Spirit of the Talmud”: The Pioneering Discussion of Zeev Jawitz Chapter Four: The Balfour Declaration and the Pioneering Debate on Halakha and the Challenge of Sovereignty Chapter Five: The Age of Jurists Chapter Six: The Rabbinical Debate on the Eve of the Establishment of the State of Israel and in its Early Years Chapter Seven: The Younger Generation of Zionist Rabbis Faces the Challenge of Sovereignty Chapter Eight: Religious Academics and the Challenge of Sovereignty Epilogue Bibliography About the Author

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Book SynopsisThis book frames the fascinating life and influential works of the Hungarian Orientalist, Arminius Vambéry (18321913), within the context of nineteenth century identity politics and contemporary criticisms of Orientalism. Based on extensive research, the book authoritatively presents a comprehensive narrative of Arminius Vambéry's multiple identities as represented in Hungary and in Great Britain. The author traces Vambéry's development from a marginalized Jewish child to a recognized authority on Hungarian ethnogenesis as well as on Central Asian and Turkish geopolitical developments. Throughout the book, the reader meets Vambéry as the Hungarian traveler to Central Asia, the British and Ottoman secret agent, the mostly self-taught professor of Oriental languages, the political pundit, and the highly sought after guest lecturer in Great Britain known for his fierce Russophobe pronouncements. The author devotes special attention to the period that transformed Vambéry from a linguisticaTrade ReviewArminius Vambéry is one of the most fascinating figures in modern Jewish history, and David Mandler has provided us with a magnificent depiction of his remarkable life as a traveler to Muslim lands, a linguist, and the toast of nineteenth-century London high society. -- Susannah Heschel, Dartmouth CollegeDavid Mandler's exceptionally fine book is a critical biography of Arminius Vambéry, a polymath linguist, traveler, and diplomatic adviser in nineteenth-century Europe. The book offers a human story of this linguistic genius as he grew up in segregated areas of Austria-Hungary but came to know Sultans and Queen Victoria. It also provides an intellectual history of Vambéry's development of Middle Eastern studies and linguistics, placing him very interestingly in relation to later Orientalists. Dr. Mandler also gives us a compelling story of Vambéry's importance in nineteenth-century diplomatic and literary relations. This is a sophisticated work that should make a name for Vambéry and for his author—in Vambéry's case restoring him to his nineteenth-century brilliance and importance. -- John Maynard, New York UniversityThis book challenges and refines Edward Said’s thesis in Orientalism by demonstrating the fundamental role played in the field by the Jewish Hungarian Orientalists Arminius Vambéry and Ignác Goldziher. Their Eastern European origins—in the context of a cultural milieu set on the borders of Europe and Asia in which Islamic and Christian traditions were in certain ways quite closely intertwined—meant that their Orientalist scholarship was not constructed in the absence of the human and social reality that it described, nor was it consciously or unconsciously motivated in terms of an over-riding imperial politics. Dr. Mandler’s important book thus transforms the widespread view that sees Orientalism simply as the West’s construction of the East, and it demonstrates the importance of Hungarian scholarship for European Islamic Studies. -- Robert J. C. Young, New York UniversityBy digging into Hungarian-language sources, David Mandler has revealed a much more nuanced picture of the ‘oriental’ Orientalist Arminius Vambéry. Mandler does a fine job of correcting previous indictments of Vambéry’s ‘charlatanism’ (including that of the great Arabist Ignác Goldziher) and shows us a Vambéry who was, for his day, a well-informed and sympathetic Islamist and an insightful liberal commentator on European political and religious affairs. -- Suzanne Marchand, Louisiana State UniversityTable of ContentsChapter 1: Arminius Vambéry, the Self-Made Man: The Journey from Destitute Hungarian Jew to Celebrated Central Asian Expert in British Public Discourse Chapter 2: Hungarian, Explorer, Russophobe, and Eastern Brother: Vambéry in British Public Discourse Chapter 3: Vambéry and the Great Goldziher: Negotiating Jewishness, Zionism, Hungarianness, and Each Other Conclusion Appendix: Bram Stoker’s Arminius: Vambéry in Dracula

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Book SynopsisUnique in the literature on Jewish camping, this book provides an in-depth study of a community-based, residential summer camp that serves Jewish children from primarily rural areas. Focused on Camp Ben Frankel (CBF), established in 1950 in southern Illinois, this book focuses on how a pluralist Jewish camp constructs meaningful experiences of Jewish family and Judaism for campersand teaches them about Israel. Inspired by models of the earliest camps established for Jewish children in urban areas, CBF's founders worked to create a camp that would appeal to the rural, often isolated Jewish families in its catchment area. Although seemingly on the periphery of American Jewish life, CBF staff and campers are revealed to be deeply entwined with national developments in Jewish culture and practice and, indeed, contributors to shaping them. This research highlights the importance of campers' experiences of traditional elements of the Jewish family (an experience increasingly limited to time Trade Review[Rothenberg] paints an engaging picture of what actually does happen at camp....Rothenberg’s book should be on the reading list of anyone interested in research about Jewish summer camp. * Journal Of Jewish Education *[Rothenburg] does an excellent job of analyzing how the experience of small town Jews is central to the ways in which the camp creates a Jewish world.... Rothenberg is most effective as the ethnographer with a strong grounding in the history of the region and the camp. She walks the reader through the life of the camp with a light, and...elegant touch. * Reading Religion *Unique in the literature on Jewish camping, this book provides an in-depth study of a community-based, residential summer camp that serves Jewish children from primarily rural areas. . . This research highlights the importance of campers’ experiences of traditional elements of the Jewish “family”. . . this study sheds light on how a small, rural, community camp contributes in significant ways to our understanding of American Jews, their Judaism, and their Zionism. * Israel Book Review *Over the last two decades we have gathered important empirical evidence to demonstrate the effectiveness of summer camp in instilling Jewish identities for Jewish youth. The magic of Rothenberg’s eloquent and well-written ethnography is that it reveals the inner workings of how camps actually do it! -- Randal F. Schnoor, York University, co-author of Back to School: Jewish Day School in the Lives of Adult JewsA wistful and nostalgic academic reflection on Camp Ben Frankel by the author, who is an alumna, that puts this small “Reconformadox” camp in the context of the American Jewish camp experience. A lovely and interesting read. -- Mara Cohen Ioannides, President, Midwest Jewish Studies AssociationMoving the analysis of Jewish summer camps beyond the well-trod campgrounds covered by earlier studies, Serious Fun places the experience of small town Jews at the center. By looking where others have not, Rothenberg offers new insight into how Jewish summer camps create a feeling of family and develop a folk Judaism of their own. -- Shaul Kelner, Vanderbilt UniversityTable of Contents1. “Nothing Jewish Should Be Unfamiliar” 2. “Camp is My Jewish Family” 3. “A More Spiritual Jew” 4. “Israel Must Live”

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Book SynopsisThis book explores two kinds of universalist thought that circulated among Jews in the Greco-Roman world. The first, which is founded on the idea that all people may worship the One True God in an engaged and sustained manner, originates in biblical prophetic literature. The second, which underscores a common ethic that all people share, arose in the second century bce. This study offers one definition of Jewish universalism that applies to both of these types of universalist thought: universalist literature presumes that all people, regardless of religion and ethnicity, have access to a relationship with the Israelite God and the benefits promised to those loyal to this God, without demanding that they participate in the Israelite community as a Jew. This book opens with an exploration of four types of relationships between Israelites and non-Israelites in biblical prophetic literature: Israel as Subjugators, Israel as Standard-Bearers, Naturalized Nations, and Universalized Worship. Trade ReviewThis thoughtful and well-crafted book is a must-read for anyone seeking a roadmap through the much-vexed questions surrounding Biblical and late Second Temple conceptions of Jewish universalism. Simkovich first defines universalism and then systematically works through several distinct but often intertwined manifestations of it. With clarity and erudition, the author illuminates the complexity of key Biblical and post-Biblical texts and demonstrates that the same text could have both universalistic and particularistic reflexes. -- Joel S. Kaminsky, Morningstar Family Professor of Jewish Studies, Smith CollegeThis is a fascinating study, in which the author connects the dots between late Biblical and Prophetic and Jewish-Hellenistic writings in order to draw a picture of an emerging Jewish universalism in antiquity. -- Gerbern S. Oegema, McGill UniversityTable of ContentsIntroduction: The Problem of Jewish Universalism Part I: Biblical Prophetic Literature: Four Eschatological Relationships Between Israelites and Non-Israelites Chapter One: Three Models of Particularist Relationships in Prophetic Literature Chapter Two: Nation Alongside Nation in the Universal Worship of God Part II: Relationships Between Israelites and Gentiles Built on Biblical Models in the Greco-Roman Period, 334 bce–118 ce Chapter Three: Particularist Relationships in the Late Second Temple Period Chapter Four: The Universalized Worship Model in the Second Temple Period Part III: A Life in Common: The Rise of Ethical Universalist Literature in the First Century bce Chapter Five: Philo’s “Radical Allegorizers” Chapter Six: Ethical Universalism in the Late Second Temple Period Part IV: Summary and Implications of the Argument Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThis new book by historian David Ohana analyzes Zionism and the Israeli state as a theological ideology. The book pursues this provocative end by showing the dialectical tension between Judaism and Zionism. How has Zionism molded perceptions and images that were formed in the Jewish past, and to what extent were these Jewish themes reflected, modified, and crystallized in the national culture of the State of Israel?Nationalizing Judaism covers constituent topics such as Messianism, Utopianism, territorialism, collective memory, and political myths along with the critics that threatened to undermine Zionist appropriations and constructs. Thus, in addition to the 1942 Million Plan and territorial redemptionist views, the book discusses fundamental critiques of Messianism penned by the historians Gershom Scholem and Jacob Talmon and de-territorial perceptions of the Levant by the writer and the essayist Jacqueline Kahanoff.Nationalizing Judiasm closes with the nationalization of the deserTrade ReviewBuilding upon his previous studies on Nietzschean inflections of early Zionist thought, the esteemed Israeli historian David Ohana deftly analyzes how Zionism has deployed traditional Jewish religious concepts and values to further nation building and patriotic commitments. He thus echoes the Cassandran chorus that bemoans the alliance of religion and nationalism as a grave threat both to Judaism and the Zionist project. -- Paul Mendes-Flohr, University of Chicago Divinity School, professor emeritus, The Hebrew University of JerusalemPursuing his analysis of aspects of the Israeli identity explored in his previous books (The Origins of Israeli Mythology, and The Shaping of Israeli Identity), David Ohana insightfully scrutinizes here the Zionist appropriation of the Jewish past to build its historical continuity. Putting into practice the Michael Shudson’s axiomatic formula “The Present in the past versus the past in the present,” Ohana provides in seven chapters a fascinating reading of the main elements of Judaism including the Land, messianism, the sacrifice of Isaac, and the Great Revolt of Bar Kokhba as they have been incorporated into the Israeli agenda. -- Sylvie Anne Goldberg, École des hautes études en sciences socialesTable of ContentsIntroduction I.Nationalizing Utopia: The Million Plan: Theological Vision and the Salvation Plan II.Nationalizing Messianism: How was messianism secularized? III.Nationalizing Myths: Israeli, All Too Israeli: Akkedah, Nimrod, Herod IV.Nationalizing Trauma: The Restorative Memory of Bar Kokhba Revolt V.Nationalizing Land: Gershom Scholem’s Children and the “Canaanite Messianism” VI.Nationalizing Space: Anti-Messiah: Towards a Levantine Space VII.Nationalizing Memory: National Funeral, Sacred Grave

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Book SynopsisThis scholarly collection examines the origins, history, and contemporary nature of Chinese Judaism in the community of Kaifeng. These essays, written by a diverse, international team of contributors, explore the culture and history of this thousand-year-old Jewish community, whose synthesis of Chinese and Jewish cultures helped guarantee its survival. Part I of this study analyzes the origin and historical development of the Kaifeng community, as well as the unique cultural synthesis it engendered. Part II explores the contemporary nature of this Chinese Jewish community, particularly examining the community's relationship to Jewish organizations outside of China, the impact of Western Jewish contact, and the tenuous nature of Jewish identity in Kaifeng.Trade Review"Never has so much been written about so few," the editors of this diverse collection of articles concerning the Kaifeng (China) Jewish community concede. The 12 chapters (some by specialists, others by amateurs; some original, others reprinted; some new, others dated) range from antiquity to the present and vary greatly in quality. Most were previously delivered at conferences of the Sino-Judaic Institute. Valuable recent scholarship by Xu Xin and Lihong Song, among others, receives little notice here, while a "fictionalized" biography of Zhao Yingcheng and a political screed against supposed "right-wing messianic Zionist organizations" currently operating in China are printed in full. Still, the best articles—the discussion of recent interactions with Western Jews (including Israelis)—and the recommended reading list make this volume a useful addition to the already considerable literature on the subject. For specialized collections. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. * CHOICE *A Millennium of Adaptation and Endurance—with these words Anson H. Laytner and Jordan Paper capture exactly why a small community of Chinese Jews in old Kaifeng attracts so much interest. These Jews lasted a thousand years, adapted their Judaism to China, and thus preserved it; they endured. In this important study, twelve scholars explore many aspects of this fascinating encounter between two of the oldest living civilizations. -- Shalom Salomon Wald, Jewish People Policy InstituteThis volume breaks new ground in the burgeoning field of Sino-Judaic Studies. Here, for the first time, is an authoritative collection of essays by major scholars piecing together the puzzle of the Kaifeng Jews—arguably one of the most resilient Jewish communities in the world. Spanning over nine centuries of both Chinese and Jewish history, this volume illuminates afresh questions about acculturation, social customs, and religious rituals that enabled a small minority to thrive and to pass down across the generations a kernel of generative identity, which is both genuinely Chinese and deeply Jewish. Drawing upon a wide variety of sources (ancient and modern, oral testimonies and journalistic accounts) this volume provides a fascinating read for the general public and researchers alike. -- Vera Schwarcz, Wesleyan UniversityThis volume offers new insights and unparalleled perspectives regarding some of the most recent and pressing developments of the Kaifeng Jewish community, which has existed for over a millennium. In this seminal collection, the contributors unveil the Jewry of Kaifeng, from ancient times to the current crisis. Clear, persuasive, and thought-provoking, this book is a must read for anyone seeking to understand the unique role of the Kaifeng Jews in the history of Jewish diaspora. In short, this study is an invaluable contribution to the existing literature. -- Xu Xin, Nanjing UniversityThis collection is a magnificent and accurate examination of the epic story of the Chinese Jews of Kaifeng, as told by the topics leading scholars. This up-to-date book is a valuable addition to this most fascinating yet little-known community. Readers will be most appreciative and indebted to the two outstanding editors of this volume. -- Rabbi Marvin Tokayer, author of The Fugu Plan: The Untold Story of the Japanese and the Jews during World War IITable of ContentsIntroduction, Jordan Paper and Anson Laytner Part I: Past Chapter 1: Radhanites, Chinese Jews, and the Silk Road of the Steppes, Nigel Thomas Chapter 2: Eight Centuries in the Chinese Diaspora: The Jews of Kaifeng, Erik Zürcher Chapter 3: Kaifeng Jews: Sinification and the Persistence of Identity and History, Irene Eber Chapter 4: The Confucianization of the Chinese Jews: Interpretations of the Kaifeng Stelae Inscriptions, Andrew H. Plaks Chapter 5: The Old Testament and Biblical Figures in Chinese Sources, Donald Daniel Leslie Chapter 6: The Issue of the Jewishness of Chinese Jewish Magistrates, Jordan Paper Chapter 7: Zhao Yingcheng from Fact to Fiction: The Story of “The Great Advisor,” Moshe Yehuda Bernstein Part II: Present Chapter 8: A History of Early Jewish Interactions with the Kaifeng Jews, Alex Bender Chapter 9: Delving into the Israelite Religion of Kaifeng: The Patriotic Scholar Shi Jingxun and his Study of the Origins of the Plucking the Sinews Sect of Henan, Xianyi Kong Chapter 10: Identity Discourse and the Chinese Jewish Descendants, Mathew Eckstein Chapter 11: Messianic Zionism, Settler Colonialism, and the Lost Jews of Kaifeng, Mohammed Turki al-Sudairi Chapter 12: Between Survival and Revival: The Impact of Contemporary Western Jewish Contact on Kaifeng Jewish Identity, Anson Laytner

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Book SynopsisModern Spain and the Sephardim: Legitimizing Identities addresses the legal, political, symbolic, and conceptual consequences of the development of a new framework of relations between the Spanish state and the descendants of the Jews expelled from the Iberian kingdoms in 1492 from its beginnings in the nineteenth century to its unexpected consequences during World War II. This book aims to understand and explain the unchallenged idea of the Sephardim as a mix of Spaniard and Jew that emerged in Spain in the second half of the nineteenth century. Maite Ojeda-Mata examines the processes that led to this ambivalent conceptualization of Sephardic identity, as both Spanish and Jewish, and its consequences for the Sephardic Jews.Trade ReviewStarting from two small and local cultural spaces, the Sant Antoni market in Barcelona and the Jewish community of Melilla, this anthropological study takes its readers on a journey that has its origins in the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492. What might appear as a story long past, turns out to be of the highest relevance for a discussion of contemporary Spanish and European identities. The book discusses the relationship between Spain and the Sephardic Jewish diaspora since the nineteenth century, including the attitude of the Franco regime during World War II, and reaches out to the present day when Spain—hesitatingly—offers citizenship to Jews of Spanish origin. Based on thorough archival research both in Spain and its former colony Morocco, Maite Ojeda-Mata’s work offers an innovative insight into the important role of Jewish/non-Jewish relations for the development of European memory and identity. -- Joachim Schlör, University of SouthamptonJewish, Spanish, or both? Ojeda-Mata reveals the ambivalent images of the Sephardim and its political consequences in contemporary Spain, challenging dominant ideas about identity in a very well documented piece of historical anthropology. -- Josep Lluís Mateo Dieste, Universitat Autònoma de BarcelonaAn in-depth, well-documented, and well-argued work of critical research that challenges the poor and uncritical accounts on the idea of Sephardic identity in modern Spain. It is packed with a lot of data and information from several archival and ethnographic sources, which are carefully analyzed and critically interpreted. It is essential reading that is already a classic in the field. -- Eloy Martin Corrales, Universitat Pompeu FabraA fascinating and superb book of obvious interest not only to scholars interested in Jewish studies but also to those who study the construction of the social and political categories of ‘Jewish,’ ‘Sefardi,’ ‘race,’ and ‘nation’ from a historical and anthropological perspective. -- Alexandre Coello de la Rosa, Universitat Pompeu FabraTable of ContentsIntroduction: On Legitimizing Identities 1. The Legacy of Modernity for the Jews in Spain 2. The Sephardim and Spanish Colonialism in Morocco and the Eastern Mediterranean 3. Sephardic Jews in Spain 4. The Management of Socio-Religious Differences 5. Persecution and Expulsion during the Early Years of the Franco Dictatorship 6. Spain and the Sephardim during World War II 7. Epilogue: The 2015 Law Granting Spanish Citizenship to Sephardic Jews of “Spanish Origin” Conclusion

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