Social groups: religious groups and communities Books

Book Synopsis“My dear children, I write this for you in case your dear children or grandchildren come to you one of these days, knowing nothing of their family. For this reason I have set this down for you here in brief, so that you might know what kind of people you come from.” These words from the memoirs Glikl bas Leib wrote in Yiddish between 1691 and 1719 shed light on the life of a devout and worldly woman. Writing initially to seek solace in the long nights of her widowhood, Glikl continued to record the joys and tribulations of her family and community in an account unique for its impressive literary talents and strong invocation of self. Through intensely personal recollections, Glikl weaves stories and traditional tales that express her thoughts and beliefs. While influenced by popular Yiddish moral literature, Glikl’s frequent use of first person and the significance she assigns her own life experience set the work apart. Informed by fidelity to the original Yiddish text, this authoritative new translation is fully annotated to explicate Glikl’s life and times, offering readers a rich context for appreciating this classic work.

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Book SynopsisFor almost two centuries, followers of the Baha'i faith, Iran's largest religious minority, have been persecuted by the state. They have been made scapegoats for the nation's ills, branded enemies of Islam and denounced as foreign agents. Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979 Baha'is have been barred from entering the nation's universities, more than two hundred have been executed, and hundreds more imprisoned and tortured. Now, however, Iran is at a turning point. A new generation has begun to question how the Baha'is have been portrayed by the government and the clergy, and called for them to be given equal rights as fellow citizens. In documenting, for the first time, the plight of this religious community in Iran since its inception, Fereydun Vahman also reveals the greater plight of a nation aspiring to develop a modern identity built on respect for diversity rather than hatred and self-deception.Trade Review‘The sheer scope, breadth, and depth of this history of religious persecution of the beleaguered Babis and Baha’is of Iran is masterful, impressive, and instructive, especially as to its contribution to present-day thought and implications for the future… 175 Years of Persecution is essential reading for any serious study of religious persecution in the Middle East (especially in Iran) and is a valuable contribution to human-rights literature.’ * Reading Religion *‘An exceptional book written in an exceptional time in the modern evolution of an ancient nation… a comprehensive and heart-breaking, infuriating but incisive, eloquent yet scholarly account of a virulent, obsessive hatred that has profoundly shaped the construction of Iran’s modern identity. It is a masterful weaving of abstract historical events with intimate stories of suffering, demonstrating how the choices made by the wielders of power shape the lives of ordinary people going about their lives.’ * Iran Press Watch *‘175 Years of Persecution offers a lucid academic account of the lives of the Baha’is under such intolerable conditions… This book is a must-read for all interested in modern Iran.’ -- Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi, Professor of History, University of Toronto‘Vahman, a very learned specialist in Iranian studies, offers a significant addition to our understanding of modern Iranian history… Important reading.’ -- Roy Mottahedeh, Gurney Research Professor, Harvard University, and author of The Mantle of the Prophet‘Fereydun Vahman’s book 175 Years of Persecution provides, in accessible narrative vignettes, a sweeping account of the persecution of Iran’s Baha’i community. Many articles and reports have documented the persecutions, but usually focusing on a chronologically and geographically confined space, often with a clinical approach. However, like Dee Brown’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee on the genocidal campaign against Native Americans, or James Allen’s Without Sanctuary, a visual history of lynching in the American south, here we have a work that brings the human impact to the fore. Vahman weaves together a larger story from individual, mob, or state-sponsored acts of murder, arson, gravesite desecration, imprisonment, dismissal from jobs, deprivation of pensions and education, etc. In clear and readable prose suitable for students, activists, and the general public, this book memorably describes the beleaguerment of the Baha’i community in Iran since its inception and makes it clear why the situation of Baha’is has been described as a bellwether of the prospects for true political rights and civil society for the entire Iranian polity.’ -- Franklin Lewis, Associate Professor of Persian Language & Literature, University of ChicagoTable of ContentsForeword Acknowledgements Introduction: The “Enigma” of the Baha’i Religion in Iran PART ONE: Persecution During the Qajar and Pahlavi Dynasties, 1844–1979 Chapter 1: Why Were the Babi and Baha’i Faiths Suppressed in Iran? Chapter 2: The Violent Repression of the Babis and Baha’is during the Qajar Period Chapter 3: The Baha’is during the Reign of Reza Shah Pahlavi Chapter 4: Baha’is in the Reign of Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi Chapter 5: The Shahrud Incident Chapter 6: Eighty-One Stab Wounds: The Murder of Dr Berjis in Kashan Chapter 7: True Crime: The Incident at Abarqu Chapter 8: The Events of 1955: Hojjat al-Islam Falsafi, the Ramadan Broadcasts, and the Military Occupation of the Baha’i Center PART TWO: The Islamic Republic in Confrontation with the Baha’i Faith Chapter 9: Baha’i Persecution during the Last Days of the Shah’s Regime Chapter 10: The Baha’is—the First Victims of Oppression in the Islamic Republic Chapter 11: The Persecution of Baha’is under Bazargan and the Revolutionary Council Chapter 12: The Presidencies of Banisadr and Raja’i Chapter 13: Arrests and Executions of the Baha’i Assemblies, 1981–85 Chapter 14: The Destruction of Baha’i Holy Sites and Community Resources Chapter 15: After Ayatollah Khomeini: The Escalation of Persecution Chapter 16: Efforts at Reform under President Khatami Chapter 17: Escalating Repression under President Ahmadinejad (2005–13) Chapter 18: An Obsession with Conspiracy Theories in the Islamic Republic Chapter 19: Systematic Humiliation: Being Labeled Ritually Unclean (Najes) Chapter 20: The Perspectives of Iran’s Grand Ayatollahs on the Baha’i Faith Chapter 21: The Appeals of International Organizations and the Iranian Diaspora Epilogue Postscript Appendix Glossary Select Bibliography Notes Index

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Book SynopsisThe Arab revolutions of 2011 were a transformative moment in the modern history of the Middle East, as people rose up against long-standing autocrats throughout the region to call for 'bread, freedom and dignity'. With the passage of time, results have been decidedly mixed, with initial success stories like Tunisia contrasting with the emergence of even more repressive dictatorships in places like Egypt, with the backing of several Gulf states. Focusing primarily on Egypt, this book considers a relatively understudied dimension of these revolutions: the role of prominent religious scholars. While pro-revolutionary ulama have justified activism against authoritarian regimes, counter-revolutionary scholars have provided religious backing for repression, and in some cases the mass murder of unarmed protestors. Usaama al-Azami traces the public engagements and religious pronouncements of several prominent ulama in the region, including Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Ali Gomaa and Abdullah bin Bayyah, to explore their role in either championing the Arab revolutions or supporting their repression. He concludes that while a minority of noted scholars have enthusiastically endorsed the counter-revolutions, their approach is attributable less to premodern theology and more to their distinctly modern commitment to the authoritarian state.Trade Review‘[An] important study, the first comprehensive account of its kind.’ -- Asian Affairs‘Compelling.’ -- Middle East Policy'Al-Azami's book should be of great help to those interested in the religious dimensions of the Arab Spring debates. It provides important insights into the modes of argument and analysis of contemporary political discourse that is explicitly Islamic.' -- The Middle East Journal'Ten years after the Arab Spring, little attention has been given to the important role of religious scholars. Al-Azami's excellent book provides an extensive analysis of a myriad of discourses and political alliances. A must-read for researchers of modern Islam and Middle East studies.' -- Heba Raouf Ezzat, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Ibn Haldun University'Literature on the Arab Spring is vast, but a novel perspective and original dimension is rare. Al-Azami's book accomplishes both. He succinctly illustrates that the Arab Revolutions were also an epistemological battle, in which the ulama played a pivotal role. A quintessential read.' -- Wadah Khanfar, former director general of Al Jazeera Media Network and President of the Al Sharq Forum'A comprehensive account and analysis of how the events of the Arab Spring unfolded among the ranks of the ulama. Indispensable for anyone wanting to understand the fault lines which will dominate the Muslim world for years to come.' -- Jonathan A. C. Brown, Professor of Islamic Civilization, Georgetown University

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Book SynopsisThe Qur’an is full of parables. Each one, when its meaning is unpacked and understood, offers wisdom and guidance. Surah Kahf, chapter 18 from the Qur’an, is particularly thought provoking, and Muslims are advised to read it at least once a week. But why? And what can we gain from it? In this book Yasir Qadhi leads us through Surah Kahf, unfolding the lines, stories and symbols that have inspired people for over a thousand years: the people of the cave, Prophet Musa’s momentous encounter with Khidr, the two men and their gardens, and Gog and Magog. And surely We have explained matters to people in the Qur’an in diverse ways, using all manners of parables. (Qur’an 18:54) Through Yasir Qadhi’s unmistakeable voice, modern Muslims may glimpse some of the Qur’an’s profound meaning. Say: “If the sea were to become ink to record the Words of my Lord, indeed the sea would all be used up before the Words of my Lord are exhausted…” (Qur’an 18:109)

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Book SynopsisThe Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) established complete equality between men and women, with both having their respective special functions. This volume draws on the features of the Muslim Woman pertaining to marriage in accordance to the Qur’an and Sunnah drawing upon specific examples of incidents as well as different prominent female figures in Islam during the Prophet’s lifetime. It shows that much of what we imagine to be Islamic rules are no more than social or cultural tradition. It is short and concise and approaches wronged popular thinking in a good-natured manner all the while correcting much of what has been misinterpreted by culture and tradition. This book is well-sourced and given the topic, beneficial for all Muslims to pick up at some point in their lives.Table of ContentsChapter 1: The Islamic View of Marriage Chapter 2 Proposal and Engagement Different ways of making a marriage proposal Seeing the woman The importance of the engagement period Manners to observe The condition of compatibility Is love permissible before the engagement? Chapter 3 The Dowry Chapter 4 The Marriage Contract Essentials to be observed in the marriage contract Chapter 5 The Couple’s Equal Rights One: The Right of Care Care: The Basic Comprehensive Right Chapter 6 The Couple’s Equal Rights Two: Complimentary Rights Marriage Termination The man’s right of divorce The woman’s right of termination by khulꜤ Chapter 7 Dealing with Marital Disagreements Chapter 8 More than One Wife

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Book SynopsisThe Maldives is a small and beautiful archipelago south of India, more renowned for luxury resorts than experiments in democracy. It is a country of contradictions, where tourists sip cocktails on the beach while on nearby islands local women are flogged for extramarital sex and blackmarket vodka costs $140 a bottle. Until 2008 the Maldives also hosted Asia's longest-serving dictator, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. A former political prisoner, Mohamed Nasheed, an environmental activist, journalist, and politician, brought Gayoom's thirty-year autocracy to a sudden end, in the Maldives' first democratic elections. Young, progressive and charismatic, President Nasheed thrust the Maldives into the spotlight as a symbol of the fight against climate change and the struggle for democracy and human rights in one of the world's strictest Islamic societies. But dictatorships are hard to defeat, enduring in a country's institutions and the minds of people conditioned to autocracy over three decades. Democracy brought turmoil, protests, violence and intense political polarisation.The ousted dictatorship overthrew Nasheed's government in February 2012, supported by Islamic radicals and mutinying security forces. Amid Byzantine intrigue, the fight for democracy was just beginning.Trade Review'Little is published on the Maldives ... J.J. Robinson's new book is a rare, welcome contribution. A British-Australian who for several years edited Minivan News, easily the country's best newspaper, he reported close-up on matters to which few outsiders pay great attention.' * Economist *'It is putting it mildly to say that the real Maldives is nothing like the holiday paradise experienced by most of the beach tourists and scuba divers who visit the islands, and JJ Robinson's political history - one of very few to have been published on the Indian Ocean archipelago - tells us why.' * Financial Times *'Entertaining book, which is stuffed with heroes, villains, coups and countercoups, as well as plenty of sex, religion and corruption. It reads like a Carl Hiaasen novel.' * Literary Review *'Maldivians won't thank Robinson for this portrait, and yet it's horribly compelling...there's courage and defiance at the heart of this book...a sad and salutary tale, boldly told.' * The Spectator *'Too little attention has been paid to the Maldives as a country, rather than a luxury resort. As J.J. Robinson notes in this comprehensive, perceptive and readable account of it's recent politics, the island nation has been a bellwether of change, good and bad, across much of the Islamic World. Any one interested in south Asia, and the tensions in many other Muslim countries, should read this excellent book.' * Jason Burke, South Asia correspondent of the Guardian, and author of The New Threat From Islamic Militancy *'A compelling and frightening account of a young democracy betrayed by corruption and Islamic extremism - the Maldives may be a small country, but JJ Robinson's book has lessons that need to be learned worldwide.' * Mark Lynas, climate advisor to former President Nasheed *

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Book SynopsisIn Jewish Pride: Rebuilding a People, Ben M. Freeman, inspired by his experiences with LGBTQ+ pride, aims to educate, inspire and empower Jewish people to reject the shame of antisemitism imposed on Jews by the non-Jewish world as well as non-Jewish perceptions of what it means to be a Jew. Enabling them to begin the process of defining their own identities as proud Jews through Jewish experience, Jewish history and Jewish values. Jewish Pride is an urgent and essential read.

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Book SynopsisThe story of Jewish emancipation is not well-known, nor how Jews came to make such a significant contribution to the law and democracy in England. This book recounts how Jews first came to England, were expelled, returned, and eventually assumed their place in Parliament and on the bench in court. It tells of the first Jewish politicians, lawyers and judges who later occupied prominent roles as President of the Supreme Court, Lord Chief Justice, Master of the Rolls and Attorney-General. The turning point was an 1858 Act of Parliament which allowed Jews and others to take an oath compatible with their own religious beliefs (extending comparable benefits conferred on Catholics almost 70 years before). This opened the doors for the first unconverted Jewish MP, Lionel de Rothschild who won a seat in the House of Commons four times without until then being able to occupy it. The book surveys Jewish tradition from ancient times to the days when modern governments turned to Jewish lawyers in troubling moments - and it lists lawyers famous and less well-known: judges, politicians, the innovators, the experts, and the mavericks who helped build the system we have today.Trade Review'As this superb book shows... the Jewish contribution to English law has been enormous. How? Read the book.'-- The Law Society Gazette; ‘A brisk and cheerful anthology of the unique contribution made by scores of distinguished Jewish judges and lawyers to English law’-- Jonathan Goldberg QC, Jewish Chronicle; 'An interesting, well-researched, erudite and often humorous account... well-written, and clearly a labour of love.'-- Jacqueline Levene LLB (Hons), Honorary Secretary, UK Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists; 'This is a very good book and owing to Barrington Black's rather cheery style most readable'-- Brian P Block JP.Table of ContentsIntroduction; The Attraction of the Law; Oaths and Vows; Early Days in England; The Laws of England Concerning Jews; Conversion and Return; 'We May Give You the Laws, But ... '; The First Jewish Lawyers; Bar and Bench; Into the Twentieth Century; Judicial Appointments High and Low; Jewish Lawyers in Politics; The Doors Were Open to All; Some Notable Jewish Solicitors; Epilogue; Selected Bibliography; Index.

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Book Synopsis2021 International Book Awards - Religion: General - Award-Winner2021 International Book Awards - Spirituality; Inspirational - Award-Winner2021 International Book Awards - Social Change - FinalistRabbi Dosick has written more theological books than this one, but none wiser or more courageous. While his idiom here is Jewish, my liberal Catholic heart is cheering. Jon M. Sweeney, coauthor, Meister Eckhart's Book of the Heart, and translator, Francis of Assisi in His Own Words For many of us, it feels as if our world is breaking apart. Long-held, comfortable beliefs are being shattered, and we face unprecedented questions and challenges. How do we heal the harsh divisions of class, race, religion, and cultures that plague us? How do we vanquish sexism, rigid fundamentalism, unabashed nationalism, senseless hatred, and violent terrorism? How do we save our precious planet from the threats to its very existence? In this book is a bold, visionary, Spirit-filled blueprint for the redemption, transformation, and evolution of our emerging new world through radical loving and a day-to-day sense of the sacred. With age-old wisdom wrapped in contemporary garb, sweet, inspiring stories, keen insights, and gentle guidance, Radical Loving is a call to renewal and to Onenessa promise that Earth can be Eden once again.

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Book SynopsisThe Abadi Family saga begins when a modern-day Romeo and Juliet story between a Palestinian and a Jew ends in predictable tragedy. The family flees to America to mend, but encounters only more turmoil that threatens to tear the family apart.In the wake of the 1967 Six Day War, Tamar Abadi’s world collapses when her sister-in-law is killed in what appears to be a terror attack but what is really the result of a secret relationship with a Palestinian poet. Tamar’s husband, Salim, is an Arab and a Jew. Torn between the two identities, and mourning his sister’s death, he uproots the family and moves them to the US. As Tamar struggles to maintain the integrity of the family’s Jewish Israeli identity against the backdrop of the American “melting pot” culture, a Palestinian family moves into the apartment upstairs and she is forced to reckon with her narrow thinking as her daughter falls in love with the Palestinian son. Fearing history will repeat itself, Tamar''s determination to separate the two sets into motion a series of events that have the power to destroy her relationship with her daughter, her marriage, and the family she has worked so hard to protect. This powerful debut novel explores Tamar''s struggle to keep her family intact, to accept love that is taboo, and grapples with how exile forces us to reshape our identity in ways we could not imagine.

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Book SynopsisSidi Bou Said, Tunisia: on the night after the terrorist attack killing thirty-eight tourists on the nearby beach of Sousse, a woman sits facing the sea, and attempts to take stock. Personal tragedies soon resurface, the unexpected deaths of a dear friend - a fellow writer who died just weeks ago at sea, having forsaken the work that had given his life meaning - and of her father, a quiet man who had left all that he held dear in Tunisia to emigrate to France in his later years. Through childhood memories and the prism of modern French classics, the story of Tunisia's Jewish community is pieced together. Shifting from Tunisia to Paris to a Flaubertian village in Normandy, Colette Fellous embarks on a Proustian lyrical journey, in which she gives voice to loved ones silenced by death and to those often unheard in life. Her love letter and adieu to her native country becomes an archive - or refuge - for stories of human resilience.Trade Review`Colette Fellous' beautiful book, humming and dancing with sensual intelligence, newly vivid in Sophie Lewis's deft, delicate, agile version, takes change and translation as its very themes. It asks us to imagine leaving home, searching for a new home. That home may simply be language itself, a web of knotted meanings. However, if that web serves as a rope bridge slung between places and people, and the bridge is cut and falls, survival is put at stake. This Tilting World explores how, after such a rupture, one woman tries to re-compose the meanings of her life and thereby go on living.' (Michele Roberts). `Fragments: the result of dispersion, of destruction perhaps - but also the indispensable ingredients for a promise of reparation. This duality lies at the heart of the final volume of Colette Fellous's work of remembrance... merely giving shape to intimate material, from which to look out on the world, and welcome in the outside.... Faced with hopeless violence, the mind's eye keeps watch and goes on to foster the struggle for softness that Colette Fellous learnt from Barthes, so that the moment of hiatus is calm and bright - a redemption. This book probes our reaction in the face of a world in shreds.' (Le Monde Des Livres). `A bewitching, hallucinatory elegy to home and exile, love and death, memory and loss. In precise, haunting prose, Fellous evokes the places and relationships, smells and sounds that make up this jigsaw of memories, set against the violence of contemporary events in Tunisia and France.' (Natasha Lehrer). `Colette Fellous (...) has two homelands: her birthplace, Tunisia, and her language, French. Between them is an arc, a tension, an energy: that of a double belonging which does not alienate but provides an opening.' (Le Monde). `[Fellous] enchants with her way of capturing emotions, sensations, moments, and people. She elegantly opens the doors to the past.' (Livres Hebdo). `...a reflection-sensitive and honest-on our present, this impossible present, this threshold between yesterday and a complex future, where we "see how our own lives have been entirely created by political history despite our thinking that they were ours alone, that they were `personal'".' (Diacritik). `Beyond the sadness and the loss, is a great seductive energy - we are drawn by a wish to live and to learn - and Fellous's inimitable way of regarding the world.' (Madame Figaro for Un amour de frere). `Without nostalgic yearning, lithe and fluid in her way of capturing the coruscating nature of words, Fellous weaves past and present into a labyrinth of a book in which she shares her passions: writing, tuning herself to the world and untangling with relish the threads of reality and of thought.' (Le Magazine Litteraire for La preparation de la vie). `Like a true disciple of Barthes, Colette Fellous works in fragments which she stiches together with infinite delicacy, inlaying the fabric of the text with black and white photographs, embroidering its surface with precious details; a sensual constellation of memories, colours and scents... The self as a fragment becomes an art, elegant and sensitive, as Colette Fellous returns to the vestiges of the past.' (Les Inrockuptibles for La preparation de la vie).

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Book SynopsisThis tale of great achievements and great disappointments offers a fresh perspective on the interplay between scholarship and political sentiment in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Lazăr Șăineanu (1859-1934), linguist and folklorist, was a pioneer in his native Romania, seeking out the popular elements in culture along with high literary ones. He was among the first to publish a study of Yiddish as a genuine language, and he uncovered Turkish features in Romanian language and customs. He also made an index of hundreds of Romanian folktales. Yet when he sought Romanian citizenship and a professorship, he was blocked by powerful figures who thought Jews could not be Romanians and who fancied the origins of Romanian culture to be wholly Latin. Faced with anti-Semitism, some of his friends turned to Zionism. Instead he tried baptism, which brought him only mockery and shame. Hoping to find a polity to which he could belong, Șăineanu moved with his family to Paris in 1900 and became Lazare Sainéan. There he made innovative studies of French popular speech and slang, culminating in his great work on the language of Rabelais. Once again, he was contributing to the development of a national tongue. Even then, while welcomed by literary scholars, Sainéan was unable to get a permanent university post. Though a naturalized citizen of France, he felt himself a foreigner, an “intruder,” into his old age.Trade Review"Davis quotes Sainéan’s own assessment of his situation at the end of his long career: ‘indeed, here, in regard to social relations, I am always still “the intruder”’. One of the virtues of her book is that she does not seek to hide her subject’s foibles—including a somewhat thin-skinned insistence on his own rightness, a certain defiant self-regard, a pragmatism that didn’t always do him much good. Rather, Davis goes constantly in search of more complex motives behind Sainéan’s scholarly preoccupations and life choices: this renders us a very human figure, whose story serves as a litmus for the atmosphere of the times through which he lived." (The review is complemented by the author's response.) https://reviews.history.ac.uk/review/2472 -- Alex Drace-Francis * Reviews in History *Table of ContentsNote on Transliteration ACKNOWLEDGMENTS INTRODUCTION PART ONE: ROMANIA Early Years: Studies and Friendships The Field of Linguistics 1. FIRST PUBLICATIONS The Science of Judaism: Advancing Emancipation Semasiology Paris, Gaston Paris, and the Jours D’emprunt Leipzig and the neogrammarians 2. RESEARCH ON YIDDISH The Dialectological Study of Judeo-German Spreading The Word on Yiddish B.p. Hasdeu, anti-semitism and jewish relations 3. UNIVERSITY LECTURES AND NEW BOOKS V. A. Urechiǎ and the first rejection of naturalization Favorable Reviews and Marriage 4. BASMELE ROMANE The Basmele Wins a Prize Second Defeat of Request For Naturalization Self-Defense and Studies in Folklore 5. THE DICŤIONAR UNIVERSAL Non-Zionist Jew and His Circle of Friends Paris, London: Gaster and Zionism Paris: Nordau and Zionism The Rejection of Zionism, The Dreyfus Affair Baptism And Its Consequences 6. THE ORIENTAL INFLUENCE ON THE ROMANIAN LANGUAGE AND CULTURE Șǎineanu and Other Jews The Last Months: Publication and Defeat Repairing And Describing His Life: The Philological Career PART TWO: FRANCE The New Emigré 7. LIVING AND MAKING A LIVING; SOME TRANSLATIONS Judeo-German for The French Scholar 8. THE POPULAR LANGUAGES OF FRANCE Rabelais Les Sources Indigènes and Disappointment 9. SUMMING UP Languages And “The People” In The 1920s and 1930s Two Jewish Critics on Sainéan’s Life Abbreviations Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisYiddish culture was an important part of the cultural landscape of Eastern Europe from the Baltic Sea to the Danube, connecting the scattered Ashkenazi Jewry, the overwhelming majority of the Jews living in this geographical area.In the newly created Greater Romania, the Jewish component included more than half a million individuals still speaking Yiddish. Building on pre-war trends, the new nation-state faced an antisemitism problem since its inception. This continued in the period that followed, culminating in the horrors of the Holocaust, which destroyed most of the Yiddish-language community. Most survivors were discouraged from continuing to use a language that reminded them of a painful past. This volume examines the socio-cultural mechanisms responsible for restructuring the Yiddish cultural life after the changes brought about by the end of World War I and the creation of Greater Romania. It describes how this process evolved until the political regimes banned the activity of Yiddish theaters, press and, ultimately, the usage of Yiddish, thus making cultural life impossible.The four authors identify the main institutions, individuals and projects that promoted Yiddish cultural life in interwar Romania. They also trace the impact of Yiddish within Romanian society through joint projects, events, and initiatives. Special attention is given to Yiddish theater, which played a key role both within the community and in its interaction with the Romanian-speaking public.

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Book SynopsisJewish law forbids carrying objects between private or public areas on the Sabbath. However, rabbinic authorities deemed carrying permissible within a physical enclosure called an eruv. This book explores the rabbinic debates surrounding the creation of such enclosures in North American cities and examines the evolution of American Orthodox communities from the late nineteenth century through the 1960s. The earliest debates reflect a community with low religious observance and weak ties to local government that relied on European rabbis for authority. By the mid-twentieth century, these rabbinic disputes reveal an established, religiously observant community forming its own traditions.Trade Review“This book is rather accessible given the topic’s dense legal history. … Mintz does an excellent job of going through the history of eruvin, what concerns different communities had, and how those communities did or did not tackle those issues. … The laws of eruv are too often relegated to Hebrew Halakhic texts, that Building Communities has merit in possessing even if it were not as accessible as it is.”— Andrew Lillien, AJL News & Reviews“Adam Mintz’s excellent work, Building Communities: A History of the Eruv in America, is a splendid example of how halakhic texts can be employed and interpreted to better inform us of widespread historical matters. … While the author discusses the legal-halakhic issues that challenged rabbinic scholars in those cities, he deftly highlights the larger practical matters that shaped and often divided these communities. … Adam Mintz has written a highly informative work that presents the reader with a wide range of halakhic sources and analysis, while offering insight into their historical significance. The work is a notable contribution to the history of halakha and the experience of Orthodox Jewish life in America.”— Moshe D. Sherman, Tradition“In this well-researched and erudite book, Adam Mintz, a distinguished pulpit rabbi and scholar, provides an invaluable survey and guide to the history of eruv establishment from the Mishna to the modern era…Mintz briefly discusses the dramatic expansion of community eruvim throughout the USA, as well as the bitter opposition these structures frequently provoked in communities with predominantly non-Jewish and non-Orthodox residents. This opposition has been described piecemeal in articles dealing with events in towns such as Palo Alto, California; Tenafly, New Jersey; and Westhampton, Long Island. Following on Mintz’s excellent book, a subsequent more book length study of the further development of these communities is merited and would be of interest to readers of Contemporary Jewry.”— Philip Fishman, Contemporary Jewry“More than 200 American Jewish communities boast an eruv, permitting observant Jews to carry within its boundaries on the Sabbath. In this long-awaited volume, Adam Mintz explains the early history of the eruv in America, focusing on St. Louis, New York, and Toronto, including the fierce halachic disputes surrounding these projects and their relation to earlier eruv projects in Europe. Learned, readable and comprehensive, the book makes an important contribution to the history of American Orthodoxy and will be welcomed by all students of the eruv.”— Jonathan D. Sarna, University Professor and Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History, Brandeis University“Adam Mintz's study on Eiruv in America provides a sweeping view of the history of this important aspect of Sabbath observance and a detailed study of early attempts to construct Eiruvin in North America. His work puts the resurgence of this aspect of the development of Orthodox life in the late 20th century into a completely new perspective. Mintz shows that study of the modern history of Jewish law can contribute greatly to understanding the development of orthodoxy in America.”— Lawrence H. Schiffman, Judge Abraham Lieberman Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, New York University“In this well-researched and erudite book, Adam Mintz, a distinguished pulpit rabbi and scholar, provides an invaluable survey and guide to the history of eruv establishment from the Mishna to the modern era…Mintz briefly discusses the dramatic expansion of community eruvim throughout the USA, as well as the bitter opposition these structures frequently provoked in communities with predominantly non-Jewish and non-Orthodox residents. This opposition has been described piecemeal in articles dealing with events in towns such as Palo Alto, California; Tenafly, New Jersey; and Westhampton, Long Island. Following on Mintz’s excellent book, a subsequent more book length study of the further development of these communities is merited and would be of interest to readers of Contemporary Jewry.”— Philip Fishman, Contemporary JewryTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. History of the Eruv2. The St. Louis Eruv3. The East Side of Manhattan Eruv4. The Toronto Eruv5. The Manhattan Eruv, 1949–1962ConclusionBibliography

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Book SynopsisIn this volume, Bible Studies scholar Yitzhak (Itzik) Peleg offers an educational, values-based approach to the cycle of Jewish holidays—festivals and holy days—as found in the Jewish calendar. These special days play a dual role: they reflect a sense of identity with, and belonging to, the Jewish people, while simultaneously shaping that identity and sense of belonging. The biblical command “And you shall tell your son” (Exodus 13:8) is meant to ensure that children will become familiar with the history of their people via the experience of celebrating the holidays. It is the author’s claim, however, that this command must be preceded by another educational command: “And you shall listen to your son and your daughter.” The book examines the various Jewish holidays and ways in which they are celebrated, while focusing on three general topics: identity, belonging, memory. Throughout the generations, observance of the holidays has developed and changed, from time to time and place to place. These changes have enabled generations of Jews, in their various communities, to define their own Jewish identity and sense of belonging. Trade Review“[T]his book caters to Jewish people of all backgrounds and different levels of observance. The book places a great emphasis on the fact that the common denominator that unites us as a Jewish people is our love of the Bible, our tradition, and the preservation of our rich heritage for generations to come. … Peleg conveys in his book that both integration and balance between tradition and renewal will make the Jewish holidays relevant to more and more Jews, both younger and older. By embracing and celebrating the holidays that have been passed down to us generation after generation, the book speaks of the connection between Jews among themselves, as well as that between Jews and their past.” — Joseph Scutts, The Jerusalem ReportTable of ContentsIntroduction Holidays as an Educational Tool throughout the Generations (Ledorotaichem): Examples Holidays as Tools for Shaping Jewish Identity Holidays as Building a Sense of Belonging to Our People Remembrance in the Holidays as Shaping Identity and a Sense of Belonging to the Jewish People The Memory of the Holocaust as Shaping Identity and Belonging Developments and Changes in the Holidays throughout the Generations and in How We Relate to Them Passover as a Reflection (Mise en Abyme) of the Jewish Holidays Lessons from Our Journey through the Jewish Calendar from a Child’s Overview Epilogue: How Should We Celebrate Independence Day? BibliographyIndex of the Jewish Holidays

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Book SynopsisHow do individuals and communities navigate religious diversity?

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisDespite the UK's long history of racial injustice, people from minoritised groups have fought back, engaging in advocacy, activism, and every-day acts of resistance to create positive change.This anthology is a prize-winning collection of these stories, spanning generations, cultures, and communities. They tell of subtle everyday acts of resistance like cooking traditional dishes from recipes passed down from grandparents displaced from their homelands, challenging microaggressions in the workplace, and sending care packages to relatives in occupied states. They also highlight bold and defiant rebellions such as building a successful business from scratch and against the odds, making perilous journeys, and fighting unlawful deportation.The fabric of these stories is made up of resistance, but also of belonging. They explore the complexities of feeling caught between identities as well as the joyful freedom found in reclaiming and rediscovering who you are.Full of humanity and bravery, this inspiring and unique kaleidoscope of journeys speaks to how nuanced and personal resistance against racism can be.Trade ReviewFocusing on "everyday" people and the oppression they face and deal with in different areas of their lives, rather than just a general populace, was refreshing and allowed you to feel deeply connected with the writers. This is filled with personal stories written by a variety of people, showcasing profound vulnerability, courage, and strength. Many valuable perspectives were given, and multiple hard topics were broached, including ones that I had very little knowledge of, like the UK deportation schemes and transracial adoption. Even with the stories mainly being sad and frustrating, the authors managed to infuse a sense of hope and encouragement to stand proud of yourself no matter your background, as well as stressing the importance of helping others. -- NetGalley reviewerIt is these everyday individual stories that make up the fabric of society which do not get read by most and often fall through the cracks. In a society and time where change is not enough, inclusion is not enough, and diversity is not enough, we need to see, hear, and feel a transformational change. The stories presented here are just the tip of the embedded problem, but I am hopeful that their impact will contribute towards bringing about a collective resistance to social injustice and racism. -- Dr Arun Verma, Inclusion, Intersectionality and Impact Specialist, Editor of Anti-Racism in Higher Education: An Action Guide for Change

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Book SynopsisUnique anthology celebrating British women writers from a Muslim heritage. Writers include literary heavyweights such as Adhaf Soueif, Leila Aboulela and Kamila Shamsie, as well as young emerging artists leading the way on the UK's spoken word scene. Extensive PR campaign planned for publication.Trade ReviewEmma Watson's Jan/Feb 2019 choice for her online feminist book club, Our Shared Shelf; A Guardian Best Book of the Year 2017; 'A lively, varied anthology...Strong, impassioned voices speak out from the pages.' The Guardian; 'There is a strong sense of empowerment within these pages, empowerment of womanhood and individual identity...This anthology is strikingly relevant today. Not only that, it is one that is sorely needed...I recommend this book most highly.' The Bookbag , 5 star review. '...a beautiful and haunting collection, with its evocative and sharp writing...The Things I Would Tell You provides a vital but fleeting glimpse into the lives of the unheard and is the perfect place to start for those looking to diversify their reading list.' For Book's Sake, 4 star review; 'Outstanding collection...The scope of the book is vast: in setting, style and experience. The facts, alternative perspectives, harsh realities and the breadth of geography within the collection doesn't just expose the extreme limitation of the depiction of British Muslims, it depicts and voices their multicultural, multifaceted identity.' The List, 4 star review; 'Like last year's successful essay collection The Good Immigrant, The Things I Would Tell You gives a platform to people who don't find it easy to get published. Ranging from poetry to essays to short stories to a play, this collection showcases the variety of work British Muslim women are producing, touching on identity, belonging, religion, mental health, memory, love and more. My personal favourites include short stories Cutting Someone's Heart Out With a Spoon and Noor, by Chimene Suleyman and Kamila Shamsie respectively, and Imtiaz Dharker's poem The Right Word.' Stylist Magazine, Best Books of April; 'Exploring love, politics, violence, home, history, family, war, occupation, patriarchy, Brexit - this rich collection paints a vivid and complex picture of the lives, concerns, creativity and realities of Muslim women living in the UK today. The book is indeed important, and timely.' openDemocracy; 'At times sensual, humorous, piercing and heartbreaking, The Things I Would Tell You is an absorbing read. It is also important, and never more relevant than now.' The Skinny, 4 star review; 'The Things I Would Tell You is fiercely independent. It hasn't kowtowed to expectation; allowing Muslim women the space to tell their own stories in whichever way they wish. Like many Muslim women I know, it resolutely stands on its own two feet.' The Asian Writer; `The first story I read moved me to tears, the poems made me up my game and the essays were a much needed education' Hollie McNish, Guardian Best Book of the Year 2017; `With a title like Don't Panic, I'm Islamic, how can you resist? Using short stories, cartoons, photography and more, 34 contributors from around the world answer the essential questions ... provocative, subversive and creative.' Phoenix MagTable of ContentsIntroduction 7; Fadia Faqir, Under the Cypress Tree 15; Amina Jama, Home, to a Man and other poems 30; Chimene Suleyman, Cutting Someone's Heart Out with a Spoon 37; Us 44; Aliyah Hasinah Holder, Sentence and other poems 48; Kamila Shamsie, The Girl Next Door 55; Imtiaz Dharker, The Right Word and other poems 74; Triska Hamid, Islamic Tinder 81; Nafeesa Hamid, This Body Is Woman 85; Ahdaf Soueif, Mezzaterra 96; Seema Begum, Uomini Cadranno 114; Leila Aboulela, The Insider 117; Shazea Quraishi, Fallujah, Basrah and other poems 154; Shaista Aziz, Blood and Broken Bodies 161; Miss L, Stand By Me 166;Aisha Mirza, Staying Alive Through Brexit: Racism, Mental Health and Emotional Labour 170; Hibaq Osman, The Things I Would Tell You and other poems 175; Azra Tabassum, Brown Girl and other poems 185; Selma Dabbagh, Take Me There 191; Last Assignment to Jenin 196; Asma Elbadawi, Belongings and other poems 205; Samira Shackle, My Other Half 209; Sabrina Mahfouz, Battleface 218; Hanan al-Shaykh, An Eye That Sees 238; Biographies 247; Credits 255

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewParting Ways succeeds in its main task: to intervene in the political discourse and voice a Jewish concern about the State of Israel and its relation to the other. Studies in Religion It is a profoundly difficult vision that Butler articulates, and one unlikely to find ready adherence among those already at war; but it is a great one. Its genuine promise deserves a hearing - and more than that, to gather those whom expulsion has scattered in a renewed hope for an end to war. Theory & EventTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction: Self-Departure 1: Impossible 2. Unable to Kill: Levinas Contra Levinas 3. Walter Benjamin and the Critique of Violence 4. Flashing Up: Benjamin's Messianic Politics 5. Is Judaism Zionism? Or 6. Quandaries of the Plural: Cohabitation and Sovereignty in Arendt 7. Primo Levi for the Present 8. "What Shall We Do Without Exile?": Said and Darwish Address the Future Notes Index

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Book SynopsisEditors: Jan. 1902-Jan. 1905, J.S. Bassett; Apr. 1905-Jan. 1919, W.H. Glasson (with Edwin Mims, Apr. 1905-July 1909; W.P. Few, Oct. 1909-Jan. 1919); Apr. 1919- W.K. Boyd, W.H. Wannamaker.Trade ReviewWinner of the 2016 Clifford Geertz Prize in the Anthropology of Religion, Society for the Anthropology of Religion "In crisp prose, Mahmood convincingly shows that secularism's promise for equal protection under the law for all religious believers has deeply shaped the modern world, despite the ways in which secularism itself thwarts this hope. This book challenges Western perceptions of the Middle East while deeply questioning the ability of secularism to live up to its promises."--Publishers Weekly "Stunning... Through a careful and brilliant analysis, Mahmood convincingly shows that far from a solution to the problem of interreligious strife, political secularism and modern secular governance are in fact intimately entwined to the exacerbation of religious tensions in the Middle East."--New Books in Islamic Studies "Thoroughly researched and ambitious in scope, Mahmood's latest study is an essential contribution to our understanding of secularism, minority relations and the study of religion in plural societies."--Baerd Kaertveit, Times Higher Education "In Religious Difference in a Secular Age: A Minority Report, Saba Mahmood has produced a valuable account both of how the idea of separating religion from politics came to be central to the development of the 'religiously neutral' state in Europe ... and of how that idea became politically important in the postcolonial Middle East... Her detailed analysis of the rich historical and ethnographic material she has assembled reinforces the conclusion that instead of regarding the secular state as the solution to discrimination against religious minorities, it must itself be understood as part of the problem."--Talal Asad, The Immanent Frame "Exemplary."--James Chappel, Boston Review "This discussion of Coptic Christians in Egypt offers a timely critique of contemporary notions of secularism. Mahmood demonstrates how perspectives that are largely Protestant result in ill-fitting assumptions about secularism, but shows the importance of honoring the limits of this approach rather than rejecting it altogether... Mahmood's presentation of Coptic Christian struggles highlights why the secular remains a contentious and relevant site for inquiry."--Choice "Mahmood has written an extremely well-researched book with a stimulating theoretical framework."--Vivian Ibrahim, Middle East Journal "A complex and ambitious intellectual tour de force... Mahmood's central thesis is strong and backed by ethnography. She has successfully pointed to the failure of societies, both in the West and the East, to accommodate minorities."--Akbar Ahmed, American Anthropologist "Mahmood's Religious Difference in a Secular Age masterfully combines the study of two topics in identity politics with advanced literatures--secularism and minority rights--to create an original and engaging volume about the promises and limits of political secularism."--Kristin Fabbe, Journal of Church and StateTable of ContentsACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix NOTE ON TRANSLATION AND TRANSLITERATION xiii Introduction 1 Part I Chapter 1. Minority Rights and Religious Liberty: Itineraries of Conversion 31 Chapter 2. To Be or Not to Be a Minority? 66 Part II Chapter 3. Secularism, Family Law, and Gender Inequality 111 Chapter 4. Religious and Civil Inequality 149 Chapter 5. Secularity, History, Literature 181 Epilogue 208 BIBLIOGRAPHY 215 INDEX 229

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Book SynopsisAn academic insider's account of the Islamist social movement Kurdish HizbullahTrade Review'An excellent ethnographic analysis of the impact of Islamism within the Kurdish movement in Turkey, a must read for those especially interested in the interaction of religion and ethnic identity in the Middle East' -- Fatma Müge Göçek, Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies, The University of Michigan'With deep personal knowledge, Mehmet Kurt offers us an unrivalled insight into the world view of those involved in this important Kurdish Islamic movement. He shows how deeply and broadly embedded Hizbullah is, and how it may well help shape the future' -- David McDowall, author of A Modern History of the Kurds'The first major anthropological study of Turkey's Hizbullah, the most important Kurdish Islamist movement' -- Martin van Bruinessen, Professor of the Comparative Study of Contemporary Muslim Societies, Utrecht UniversityTable of ContentsPreface to the English Translation Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Historical Overview of Hizbullah 2. The 'Grounded' Dimensions of Hizbullah as Islamist Organisation and Social Movement 3. The Construction of Social Memory in the Stories and Novels of Hizbullah Conclusion Appendix: The Text of the Written Interview with Hizbullah Officials Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThis fascinating account reveals the potential force-and the potential limitations-of devotion in people's lives and religious imagination.Trade ReviewMatovina's work is... breath-taking. -- Jose Angel Gutierrez Journal of American Studies Associaton of Texas 2006 Matovina has produced a solid piece of history that will be of interest to and enjoyed by professional historians and laypeople alike. -- Anthony Quiroz Journal of American History 2006 A well-written and insightful evaluation. -- Kathleen Garces-Foley Journal of American Ethnic History 2006 Gaudalupe... is shown in various lights - in all her glory, and at times her mystery is even slightly unveiled. -- Georgie Ann Weatherby Catholic Studies 2007 A focused, well-researched, and generous book that captures well the various ways that Guadalupan devotion has been expressed and transformed over time... This study undoubtedly represents a high point in this ongoing endeavor. -- Chris Tirres Journal of the American Academy of Religion 2007 This is clearly a substantial work of scholarship and a major contribution to Mexican American religious history... It deserves wide readership and acclaim. -- Roberto R. Trevino American Historical Review 2007 Beautifully written to evoke the very practices being studied, Matovina's painstaking work on communal identity provides evidence that group traditions and identities are 'made, not born.' -- Paula Kane Religion and American Culture 2006 Guadalupe and Her Faithful is one of those rare texts that bridge the academy, the church, pastors, grassroots devotees, and a wider public... This book increases appreciation and knowledge of the growing Latino population and its religious traditions. -- Virgilio Elizondo Spiritus: Journal of Christian Spirituality 2007 Timothy Matovina's Guadalupe and her Faithful is a significant contribution to Guadalupan scholarship... Matovina taps into the corazon of the matter with his coverage of the religious and popular aspects of the devotion to La Virgen de Guadalupe. -- Tey Marianna Nunn Pacific Historical Review 2007 Very engaging story... An excellent contribution to Mexican American history and Latino spirituality. -- Gilberto M. Hinojosa Southwestern Historical Quarterly 2007 This study beautifully combines history, theology, and sociology in looking at Catholic worship in the Latino religious community surrounding San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio, Texas. -- Linda B. Hall Americas 2007 In Guadalupe and Her Faithful we have a well researched and readable examination of a vibrant faith community. -- Jesus F. de la Teja Catholic Historical Review 2007 A book that everyone... must read. It should be available in libraries across the nation, because any research on the Guadalupan legacy among Catholics, Hispanic or otherwise, would be incomplete without reference being made to Matovina's work. -- Patrick Foley Hispanic American Historical Review 2008 A well-researched and value addition to the literatures on popular Mexican and Chicano religiosities. -- Matthew Butler Ecclesiastical History This book belongs with other works that signal a welcome trend in scholarship where popular religion is, at last, no longer dismissed with condescension and scorn but deemed worthy or respect and study. -- Ramon Luzarraga American Catholic Studies 2008Table of ContentsPrefaceIntroduction: An Evolving TraditionChapter 1. "Nuestra Madre Querida"Chapter 2. Patroness of la Frontera, 1731–1836Chapter 3. Defender of Dignidad, 1836–1900Chapter 4. Companion in el Exilio, 1900–1940Chapter 5. Celestial Mestiza, 1940–2003Epilogue: The Future of Guadalupan DevotionNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisThis lively and irreverent memoir explores the settings where Yiddish - a language of song, rebellion, and eternal longing - has thrived: in the cabaret and cafe, the kitchen and classroom, the literary salon and mystical commune, the partisan brigade and on pilgrimage to Poland.Trade ReviewDavid G. Roskies's passionate narrative of a brilliant family is more than a memoir of rupture and renewal-it is a history of a civilization, its languages, its lost cities, its living songs." - Cynthia Ozick, recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Award, and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize"Yiddishlands' is a richly transcendent piece of writing that salvages many episodes of personal, family, and social history, not only in the Old Country but in modern Montreal and the numerous other places (hence the plural title)." - Jewish News Weekly of Northern California"David Roskies is the only one of his generation who can map the Yiddish literary world after the war with personal stories, vivid portraits of the key players, and extraordinary acumen and wit. Yiddishlands is a tour de force." - Hana Wirth-Nesher, professor of English and American studies and director of the Goldreich Family Institute for Yiddish Language, Literature, and Culture at Tel Aviv University

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Book SynopsisPivots away from commonplace accounts of the origins of Jewish politics and focuses on the ongoing activities of actors instrumental in the theological, political, diplomatic, and philanthropic networks that enabled the establishment of new Jewish communities in Palestine and the United States.Trade ReviewDr. Silver's innovative study explores the tripartite matrix of ‘preaching, emissary work, and [Zionist] pioneering. He marshals a remarkable breadth and depth of knowledge to inject the field with a fresh and nuanced analysis of the internal dynamics and interplay of the modern Jewish experience vis-À-vis gentile society." - Mark A. Raider, editor of The Essential Hayim Greenberg: Essays and Addresses on Jewish Culture, Socialism, and Zionism

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Book SynopsisThere are few instances of a contemporary Western European society more firmly welded to religion than Ireland is to Catholicism. For much of the twentieth century, to be considered a good Irish citizen was to be seen as a good and observant Catholic. Today, the opposite may increasingly be the case. The Irish Catholic Church, once a spiritual institution beyond question, is not only losing influence and relevance; in the eyes of many, it has become something utterly desacralized. In this book, Hugh Turpin offers an innovative and in-depth account of the nature and emergence of "ex-Catholicism"—a new model of the good, and secular, Irish person that is being rapidly adopted in Irish society. Using rich quantitative and qualitative research methods, Turpin explains the emergence and character of religious rejection in the Republic. He examines how numerous factors—including economic growth, social liberalization, attenuated domestic religious socialization, the institutional scandals and moral collapse of the Church, and the Church's lingering influence in social institutions and laws—have interacted to produce a rapid growth in ex-Catholicism. By tracing the frictions within and between practicing Catholics, cultural Catholics, and ex-Catholics in a period of profound cultural change and moral reckoning, Turpin shows how deeply the meanings of being religious or non-religious have changed in the country once described as "Holy Catholic Ireland."Trade Review"Turpin weaves regression models together with detailed accounts of individual and institutional agency, and with turns of phrase both humorous and profound, to produce our most holistic account of secularization to date. An interdisciplinary gem of a book."—Jonathan Lanman, Queen's University, Belfast"This is not only the best, most insightful book on the situation of religion and secularization in contemporary Ireland—it is one of the best, most insightful books written on secularization in general that I have read in a long time. Sharp, engaging, informative, thoughtful, and fascinating—this book is a must for anyone wanting to understand the evaporation of religion in the Western world."—Phil Zuckerman, Pitzer College"Turpin tells the fascinating story of what ordinary people think and feel about the disintegration of Catholic hegemony in Ireland. The book is enthralling: deeply researched, full of insights and exceptionally well written, it deserves all the praise and prizes that will come its way, if there is any justice in this world."—David Voas, University College London"Prior to Turpin's research, there had been no systematic, in-depth studies of those who could be classified as nones in the Republic of Ireland.Unholy Catholic Irelandis a first and important step in what I hope and anticipate will become a topic of further research – by Turpin and by other scholars. Based on both qualitative and quantitative research, it lays a strong foundation for future studies."—Gladys Ganiel, Slugger O'Toole"This study is to be warmly welcomed. It is written beautifully and makes a significant contribution to the field of the study of Irish Catholicism—and its rejection. Believers and non-believers alike will learn much from Turpin's findings, which invite us to reconsider the complexities of Irish religion and irreligion anew."—Salvador Ryan, The Irish Independent"Unholy Catholic Ireland brings a fresh and rich analysis to the study of Irish Catholicism, especially in the wake of decades of scandals. As such, it will appeal to students of Catholicism but especially, and more generally, those interested in better understanding religious change. And its methodological approach—combining the 'deep' insight of ethnographic work with the 'wide' analysis of social surveys—will serve as a guidepost for social scientists studying secularizing processes in other societies."—Brian Conway, Contemporary Sociology"Hugh Turpin provides the most comprehensive description and analysis of this conundrum [at the heart of Catholic Ireland]. This is an innovative, insightful, well-written book."—Tom Inglis, Journal of Contemporary ReligionTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Secularization, the Desacralization of the Church, and the Emergence of Ethno-Catholic "Nones" 2. "Hostages of Catholicism": Quantifying the Nature and Scale of the Rejection of the Church 3. "For Emergency Use Only": The Waning of Religious Socialization 4. "A Load of Shite": Hidden Cultures of Catholic Unbelief 5. "This Is Our Rising": Secularization as a Second Struggle for "Irish Freedom" 6. "Awakening from Conscription": Ex-Catholicism as Anti-Nostalgic Moralized Authenticity 7. "Blessed Are Those Who Are Persecuted Because of Righteousness": Coping with a Spoiled Religious Identity Epilogue: "Anyone Else Not Bothered?"

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Book SynopsisGreek Jewry has a unique history in Europe. Greek Judaism is possibly the oldest faith on the continent. The Hellenized Romaniotes, the Sephardim from the western Mediterranean and the Ashkenazim from central Europe created a mosaic of communities across the country, each one with its own fascinating history and tradition. Thessaloniki, the ? Jerusalem of the Balkans? , Ioannina, the capital of the Romaniotes, Larissa, Volos, Patra, Crete, Corfu, Rhodes, Athens, and many others. These Jewish communities, together but also individually, are an integral part of the Greece? s rich history. This pioneering book presents a unique detailed historical overview of the history of Greek Jews from antiquity to the present day, including the period of the Shoah when nearly 90% of the community was annihilated. Beyond this historical landscape, the book also highlights the contributions of Greek Jews to the economic, cultural, intellectual and political life of the country, and reveals the golden times and the darkest days in the coexistence between Jews and Christians in Greece.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“[A] richly detailed study that aims not only to recast our understanding of the modern Jewish predicament but of the modern predicament as a whole.”—Daniel Lazare, The Nation“To come across a daring, original, sweeping work of history in this age of narrow specialization is not just a welcome event; it is almost a sensation.”—Walter Laqueur, Los Angeles Times“Brilliant. . . . The Jewish Century is history on a majestic scale. . . . The clarity of analysis is extraordinary.”—Noah Efron, Jerusalem Report“Fascinating. . . . One of the most innovative and intellectually stimulating books in Jewish studies in years.”—Publishers Weekly“Brilliant and provocative.”—Rachel Polonsky, Standpoint “A masterly work.”—Marc Dollinger, Journal of American History

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Book SynopsisOnce upon a time in the city of Tunis, a flirtatious young girl was drawn into Lilith''s dangerous web by glancing repeatedly at herself in the mirror. It seems that a demon daughter of the legendary Lilith had made her home in the mirror and would soon completely possess the unsuspecting girl. Such tales of terror and the supernatural occupy an honored position in the Jewish folkloric tradition. Howard Schwartz has superbly translated and retold fifty of the best of these folktales, now collected into one volume for the first time. Gathered from countless sources ranging from the ancient Middle East to twelfth-century Germany and later Eastern European oral tradition, these captivating stories include Jewish variants of the Pandora and Persephone myths and of such famous folktales as The Fisherman and His Wife, The Sorcerer''s Apprentice, and Bluebeard, as well as several tales from the Middle Ages that have never before been published. Focusing on crucial turning points in life--birth, marriage, and death--the tales feature wandering spirits, marriage with demons, werewolves, speaking heads, possession by dybbuks (souls of the dead who enter the bodies of the living), and every other kind of supernatural adversary. Readers will encounter a carpenter who is haunted when he makes a violin from the wood of a coffin; a wife who saves herself from the demoness her husband has inadvertently married by agreeing to share him for an hour each day; and the age-old tale of Lilith, Adam''s first wife, who refused to submit to him and instead banished herself from the Garden of Eden to give birth to the demons of the world. Drawn from Rabbinic sources, medieval Jewish folklore, Hasidic texts, and oral tradition, these stories will equally entrance readers of Jewish literature and those with an affection for fantasy and the supernatural.Trade ReviewImagine an American Hans Christian Andersen, conceive of the Brothers Grimm living in Missouri, and you will approximate Howard Schwartz, a fable-maker and fable-gatherer seduced by the uncanny and the unearthly. In Lilith's Cave, he once again reaches into a magical cornucopia of folklore and fantasy and spreads before us, in enchanting language, the marvels and shocks of dybbuks, ghosts, demons, spirits, and wizards. * Cynthia Ozick *Howard Schwartz continues to mine the rich vein of Jewish story with marvelous results....These engrossing tales travel the breadth and depth of Jewish tradition, encompassing not only the holy and enlightened, but the other side of the Jews' fears and longings as well. * Jane Yolen, editor of Favorite Folktales from Around the World *Howard Schwartz is a leader in a generation of Jews devoted to rebuilding that which was nearly destroyed a few mere decades ago. He sifts through the ashes and finds sparks and fragments of a spiritual world which offers us light and sustenance. Contained within these tales is an authentic voice of the Jewish people. Howard Schwartz is therefore like an angel: he is a messenger between worlds, bringing gifts from one to another. * Arthur Kurzweil, editor-in-chief, Jewish Book Club *A collection of fifty captivating stories....Fascinating....An excellent translation, a scholarly introduction, and a good system of cross-reference ensure that this book will become a classic in its genre. * The Jerusalem Post *The selections for this collection afford a fascinating vision of life beyond the Yenne Velt, the 'Other World'....Both a scholarly investigation into a valuable repository of human history and an engaging journey into the shadowy world of our ancestors' fears. * Midstream *Howard Schwartz is an excellent teller of tales and an erudite editor....The writing and choice of tales is lively, thoughtful, and emotionally engaging. * Genesis 2 *Howard Schwartz...possesses two of the most marvelous gifts one can receive: he is both a born storyteller and a wise scholar in the realm of Jewish mystical folklore and tales of the supernatural. * St. Louis Jewish Light *These fifty Jewish tales of the supernatural, dug up...and retold by our leading tale-recycler, will delight fans of goose pimples. * Sh'ma *A delightful collection of tales of Jewish ghosts, demons, magic, holy and powerful rabbis, and seductive demonesses, Lilith's Cave could be great bedside reading for the coming winter nights. * Gnosis Magazine *The light and the dark interpenetrate here, as in life, and are caught in the dazzling patterns of Shulevitz's masterly illustrations....Schwartz provides nourishment for both male and female souls, and passes on tales collected from grandmothers, rabbis, and tailors. * Shaman's Drum *Enjoyable, whether in the literary-poetic versions of Howard Schwartz or in the oral-person voice of Pninnah Schram....As readers and lovers of folktales in general and of Jewish lore in particular, we can only praise the authors for making available, on a large scale, some hidden treasures of Jewish wisdom. * Jewish Folklore & Ethnology Review *Brings all the dark imagery of Jewish folklore alive. It presents a world of fearsome illusion. * Jewish Journal *Howard Schwartz has carved himself a special place by selecting and rewriting stories drawn from Jewish folk materials....A book to dip into and think about...entertaining and often intriguing. * St. Louis Post-Dispatch *See GABRIEL'S PALACE or ELIJAH'S VIOLIN for The Sagarin Review quote

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Recent decades have seen the yeshiva recreated as an institution for all Jewish men, and in some places for Jewish women as well. Yet in its origin the yeshiva was an elite institution, for men who were prepared to devote themselves to years of Torah study. The most outstanding of the yeshivas were found in Lithuania, and the period between the two World Wars saw important developments in these schools, developments that continue to reverberate in Orthodox society. Ben-Tsiyon Klibansky has made great use not merely of the memoir literature and academic sources, but has immersed himself in archives in order to offer us the first scholarly study of the yeshivas during the interwar years. For those seeking to understand where the yeshivas came from, how they functioned, what ideals guided them, and how unfortunately they came to their end in Eastern Europe, there is no better guide than Klibansky."—Marc B. Shapiro, Weinberg Chair in Judaic Studies, University of Scranton"Through a thorough and rigorous study of numerous sources, Ben Tsiyon Klibansky demonstrates that interwar Poland, rightly characterized as an age of decline to Orthodox Judaism, was an age of thriving to one of its major institutions: the Yeshiva. The complete destruction of the Lithuanian yeshivas in World War II, first by the Soviet occupation and then by the Nazi Holocaust, put an end to this thriving institution, but, as Klibansky concludes, they remained a source of inspiration to the renewed yeshivas of the postwar period."—Benjamin Brown, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem"Nowadays the term "Lithuanian Yeshiva" is used for a type of yeshivas that emerged in Lithuania in the nineteenth century and developed a special "school" of learning and a code of living and dressing, which is still existent. Yet, knowledge about yeshivas in Lithuania itself, especially in the twentieth century up till and into the Holocaust, is unknown. Ben-Tsiyon Klibansky's The Golden Age of the Lithuanian Yeshivas bridges this lack in knowledge and uncovers in a fascinating way and based on in-depth research the general picture of this period as well as its particulars. Klibansky successes in depicting and analyzing the renewal and vitality of the Yehiva world vis-à-vis the deep political, social, religious and cultural changes of the first decades of the twentieth century, and by doing so also re-emphasizes the enormous loss to Jewry, Judaism and Yiddishkeit caused by the Holocaust."—Dan Michman, Head, The International Institute for Holocaust Research, Yad Vashem; Professor (Emeritus) of Modern Jewish History, Bar-Ilan Universit"Few institutions influenced the world of European Jewry as did the yeshivas. The fact that the yeshiva framework was 'emulated' in the United States, Israel, England, France, and elsewhere by newly coalescing traditionalist communities is proof of its lasting significance. At the same time, few institutions were so misunderstood as were the yeshivas. The pious attempts that were written to describe how they functioned missed the key points – usually out of ignorance. Klibansky's magnum opus transforms our understanding of how the traditionalist Jews created structures to maintain adherence. It is no less significant in explaining what the self-conscious modernists in Europe were responding to. In short, it is one of those transformative works that are basic texts for both understanding a world that was destroyed and a new world that was created."—Shaul Stampfer, Sandrow Professor of Soviet and East European Jewish History (emeritus), Hebrew University of Jerusalem"Ben-Tsiyon Klibansky has stepped into a historiographical void of the interwar East European Jewish experience with his The Golden Age of the Yeshivas, a study of all facets of the Lithuanian yeshiva world: leadership, student body, curriculum, economics, and self-image. Through a rare combination of historical empathy and judicious use of sources, Klibansky has reconstructed the interwar Lithuanian yeshivas in all their panoramic commonalities and granular specificities. In so doing, he has parsed the central paradox of the phenomenon of a golden age of the Lithuanian yeshivas, set against the background of Jewish secularization, educational practicality, and political and economic crisis."—Joshua Karlip, Herbert S. and Naomi Denenberg Associate Professor of Jewish History, Yeshiva UniversityTable of ContentsIntroductionSection I: Consolidation and Expansion1. The Renewal of the Yeshiva World after the First World War2. Expansion Trends in the Yeshiva WorldSection II: Aspects of the Yeshiva World3. Economy4. Studies5. Leadership6. The TalmidimSection III: The Beginning of the End7. Return to Wandering8. Under Soviet RuleEpilogueBrief BiographiesGlossaryBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisEye-opening accounts of heroic resistance to religious extremism.Trade Review"Her [Karima Bennoune's] reporting is diligent, passionate and convincing." -- The Economist"Bennoune offers a compelling, meticulously researched account..." -- Guardian Weekly"Bennoune has written a very necessary book indeed, and it is to be hoped that it will find the widest audience possible." -- Times Higher Education"Should be required reading." -- The Washington Post

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Book SynopsisRaisah and the Boat Trip takes readers on an adventure at sea, learning that it is a gift to mankind.Trade ReviewThis story follows Raisah and her family on a special boat trip. It is lyrical in text. Each page spread has one side where different parts of the journey are described followed by a Qur'anic ayat that coincides with the trip. When we have so many books that try to stay away from 'preachy' content, I truly appreciate what this book has to offer. We need Islamic books that aren't afraid to cite religious texts as a way to incorporate them into the story. This book can be a great tool to discuss the marvelous creations of Allah Almighty and encourage the little ones to be more observant of their surroundings. I'm so glad we have this book in our collection! - MuslimKidsBookNookI've seen this book reviewed and promoted on social media. It is about a family's trip out on a boat interwoven with what they see and ayats from the Quran. There are seven ayats from the Quran included in the 28-page book and the surah number and ayat are sourced. It can be read as a simple straightforward story, or the interspersed ayats can be paused for and discussed. As a teacher, librarian, and parent, you are going to reach for this book quite often. It is a book that can be used in storytimes about Allah's creation, the ocean, science, experiences, and the signs that help us know Allah swt. And for that reason, I wish the book was larger. It is great for bedtime.. - Islamic School Librarian

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Book SynopsisPresenting a history of Israel through 100 cartoons, Colin Shindler offers an original, visually exciting and accessible way to help understand Israel's complex past, including the Israel-Palestine conflict. Richly illustrated with an image for ever year from 1949-2020, Shindler offers new perspectives on Israel's past, politics, and people.Trade Review'A leading expert on the history and politics of Israel, Professor Shindler has endeavoured something unique in this engaging book. Through 100 cartoons and accompanying commentary that draws on his extensive understanding of the issues, Shindler provides an illuminating and very welcome addition to the literature on Zionism and Israel.' Rory Miller, Georgetown University in Qatar'Professor Shindler uses the medium of cartoons to reflect on the major issues that have faced Israel. Selecting just one cartoon for each year out of many thousands is no easy task, but Shindler's selections and commentary highlight the key issues and personalities in a way which no other previous political analysis has attempted.' David Newman, Ben-Gurion University'Professor Shindler has added a new dimension to his highly esteemed body of writing on Jewish and Israeli history. Cartoons and caricatures offer vividness and insights to conventional historiography. This is an instructive and entertaining new book.' Itamar Rabinovich, Former Israeli Ambassador to the United States'It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Colin Shindler's outstanding collection of cartoons, with comments and timelines, sheds light on the Palestinian Arab/Israeli conflict. This innovative format makes it an outstanding teaching resource and a must-read for those interested in gaining greater insight into this conflict.' Suzanne D. Rutland, University of Sydney'In this excellent academic study on contemporary Israel's history, carefully selected images are not merely illustrations, but they reflect the atmosphere of a certain time, convey multiple meanings, and signal the power of interpretations. They encourage readers to reflect on emotions, the ever-present but oft-forgotten driver of human activities.' Joanna Dyduch, Jagiellonian UniversityTable of ContentsIntroduction: Jews: caricatures, cartoons, comics; Zionism: Ideology and the building of the state; Before Israel: The road to 1948; A history of Israel: 1949-2020; The 1950s; The 1960s; The 1970s; The 1980s; The 1990s; The 2000s; The 2010s; Collections of works of early Israeli cartoonists.

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Book SynopsisHow denial sustains the liberal imagination of a progressive and democratic Israel. The question that this book aims to answer might seem simple: how can a violent project of dispossession and discrimination be imagined, felt, and profoundly believed in as though it were the exact oppositean embodiment of sustainability, multicultural tolerance, and democratic idealism? Despite well-documented evidence of racism and human rights abuse, Israel has long been embraced by the most liberal sectors of European and American society as a manifestation of the progressive values of tolerance, plurality, inclusivity, and democracy, and hence a project that can be passionately defended for its lofty ideals. Tolerance Is a Wasteland argues that the key to this miraculous act of political alchemy is a very specific form of denial. Here the Palestinian presence in, and claim to, Palestine is not simply refused or covered up, but negated in such a way that the act of denial is itself denied. The effects of destruction and repression are reframed, inverted into affirmations of liberal virtues that can be passionately championed. In Tolerance Is a Wasteland, Saree Makdisi explores many such acts of affirmation and denial in a range of venues: from the haunted landscape of thickly planted forests covering the ruins of Palestinian villages forcibly depopulated in 1948; to the theater of pinkwashingas Israel presents itself to the world as a gay-friendly haven of cultural inclusion; to the so-called Museum of Tolerance being built on top of the ruins of a Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem, which was methodically desecrated in order to clear the space for this monument to human dignity.Tolerance Is a Wasteland reveals the system of emotional investments and curated perceptions that makes this massive project of cognitive dissonance possible.Trade Review"Tolerance is a Wasteland: Palestine and the Culture of Denial is an incisive and provocative treatise on the culture of denial that informs a series of contemporary affects, practices, and relations about Israel and Zionism." * Ethnic and Racial Studies *"This is a book as much about the martial politics that structure liberalism as it is about Zionism and the settler colonial project in Palestine. Makdisi unravels the productive and destructive forces that normalize this project as part of global politics. Hence, the book is as much about us—the inheritors of liberalism sitting in Europe and North America—as it is about Palestine or the Israeli state." * International Affairs *"Readers familiar with and sympathetic to critiques of Israel’s history of displacement and coercive control of the non-Jewish population of Palestine can appreciate the author’s approach." * CHOICE *"An immensely satisfying book. . . . powerful and necessary." * Arab Studies Quarterly *Table of ContentsContents Preface Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Sustainability 2. Democracy 3. Diversity 4. Tolerance Conclusion Postscript Notes Index

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Book SynopsisWhen thinking of intrepid travelers from past centuries, we don't usually put Muslim women at the top of the list. And yet, the stunning firsthand accounts in this collection completely upend preconceived notions of who was exploring the world. Editors Siobhan Lambert-Hurley, Daniel Majchrowicz, and Sunil Sharma recover, translate, annotate, and provide historical and cultural context for the 17th- to 20th-century writings of Muslim women travelers in ten different languages. Queens and captives, pilgrims and provocateurs, these women are diverse. Their connection to Islam is wide-ranging as well, from the devout to those who distanced themselves from religion. What unites these adventurers is a concern for other women they encounter, their willingness to record their experiences, and the constant thoughts they cast homeward even as they traveled a world that was not always prepared to welcome them. Perfect for readers interested in gender, Islam, travel writing, and global history, Trade ReviewCompiled by editors Siobhan Lambert-Hurley, Daniel Majchrowicz and Sunil Sharma, Three Centuries of Travel Writing by Muslim Women showcases writings from 45 Muslim women — acquired through an extensive selection of writings in 10 languages, including Arabic, Turkish, Urdu, Punjabi, Indonesian, English and others. . . . What emerges is a group of women writers who were not afraid to voice their thoughts in the presence of authority figures and unfavourable circumstances. Three Centuries of Travel Writing by Muslim Women Writers is an enduring testament to just a few of the countless fascinating stories documented by women travellers throughout the ages. -- Fehmida Zakeer * The National News *This anthology will be of interest to anyone working on travel, colonial history, Muslim women, and comparative literature, Islamic Studies. It will also be an excellent resource in many courses that cover a range of topics be it religious piety, feminism, travel, travel writing, and much more. -- Shobhana Xavier * New Books Network *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsA Note on Translation, Transliteration and SyntaxIntroduction: Muslim Women, Travel Writing and Cultures of Mobility, by Siobhan Lambert-Hurley and Daniel MajchrowiczPart I: Travel as Pilgrimage1. The Widow of Mirza Khalil: A Bereaved Wife Seeks Solace2. Nawab Sikander Begum: A Queen's Impressions of Mecca3. Mehrmah Khanom: Adventures on the Road to Iraq4. Hajiyeh Khanom Alaviya Kermani: Iran to Mecca by Way of Bombay5. Sakineh Soltan Khanom Esfahani Kuchak: Iraq Diary6. Nawab Sultan Jahan Begum: The Long March to Medina7. Ummat al-Ghani Nur al-Nisa: Notes from Mecca and the Levant8. Begum Sarbuland Jang: Seeking Sisterhood in Damascus9. Rahil Begum Shervaniya: Life Aboard a Pilgrim Ship10. Nur Begum: Poems from a Punjabi Pilgrim11. Zainab Cobbold: At Home in the Hijaz with a British Convert12. Fatima Begum: An Indian Haji Observes her Fellow Pilgrims13. Qaisari Begum: The Long Road to Mecca14. Begum Hasrat Mohani: Letters from a Pilgrimage to Iraq15. Mahmooda Rizvi: Three Months in IraqPart II: Travel as Emancipation and Politics16. Melek Hanim: A Turk among the Greeks17. Huda Shaarawi: A European Summer on the Eve of War18. Zeyneb Hanoum: A Turkish Désenchantée in Europe19. Selma Ekrem: Alone in New York City20. Şükûfe Nihal Başar: Three Days in Finland21. Halide Édib: A Turkish Nationalist in Colonial India22. Amina Said: An Egyptian Feminist at an Indian Conference23. Shareefah Hamid Ali: Representing India at the United Nations24. Suharti Suwarto: Ten Indonesian Women in the Soviet UnionPart III: Travel as Education25. Atiya Fyzee: Living and Learning in London26. Maimoona Sultan: To Turkey by Train through a Child's Eyes27. Sediqeh Dowlatabadi: An Iranian Feminist Travails in France28. Begum Habibullah: With Three Boys at an English Boarding School29. Iqbalunnisa Hussain: At the University of Leeds30. Muhammadi Begum: Oxford Diary31. Herawati Diah: A Journalist in the Making32. Mehr al-Nisa: An Indian Nurse in Ohio33. Zaib-un-nissa Hamidullah: Sixty Days in AmericaPart IV: Travel as Obligation and Pleasure34. Princess Jahanara: Mystical Meetings in Kashmir35. Dilshad: A Prisoner is Taken to Khoqand36. Sayyida Salamah bint Said/Emily Ruete: A Lover's Flight from Zanzibar37. Taj al-Saltanah: Life and Death in Qajar Iran38. Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain: A Pleasure Trip to the Himalaya39. Nazli Begum: On Grand Tour with the Nawab of Janjira40. Safia Jabir Ali: Touring Europe on Business41. Sughra Humayun Mirza: Meeting the Caliph in Switzerland42. Sughra Sabzvari: An Indian Family in Iran43. Shaista Suhrawardy Ikramullah: Life in England on the Brink of War44. Shams Pahlavi: A Shah's Daughter in Exile45. Nyonya Aulia-Salim: An Indonesian Tours America by MotorGlossaryContributorsIndex

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Book SynopsisSeparated by a narrow stretch of swamp-like waters, and distinguished by the colour of their skin, the Black Jews and the White Jews have been locked in a rancorous feud for centuries. Only now, when their combined number has diminished to fewer than fifty and they are on the threshold of extinction, have the two remaining Jewish communities in south India begun to realise that their destiny, and their undoing, is the same. Living in Cochin alongside this last generation, Edna Fernandes tells their story from the illustrious arrival of their ancestors from the court of King Solomon, through their long heyday of wealth, tolerance and privilege to their present twilight existence, as synagogues crumble into disuse and weddings become a thing of the past, leaving only funerals.Trade ReviewA touching, investigative account ... Fernandes movingly captures the sombre, embattled mood of this population in countdown mode * Sunday Times *Fernandes' material is fascinating ... The story of these Jews is so compelling and the author's reporting of it so assiduous ... Indeed, she has unearthed gems * The Economist *

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Book SynopsisMedina Tenour Whiteman stands at the margins of whiteness and Islam. An Anglo-American born to Sufi converts, she feels perennially out of place—not fully at home in Western or Muslim cultures. In this searingly honest memoir, Whiteman contemplates what it means to be an invisible Muslim, examining the pernicious effects of white Muslim privilege and exploring what Muslim identity can mean the world over—in lands of religious diversity and cultural insularity, from Andalusia, Bosnia and Turkey to Zanzibar, India and Iran. Through her travels, she unearths experiences familiar to both Western Muslims and anyone of mixed heritage: a life-long search for belonging and the joys and crises of inhabiting more than one identity.Trade Review‘A sincere and nuanced reflection on race, identity and the author’s experiences as a white Muslim. … [with] beautiful prose and equally beautiful analogies.’ -- The New Arab'Whiteman shows considerable insight, sensitivity, and perception to many of the issues she introspectively ponders over at great length ... a wonderfully interesting and rewarding book, writing in an engaging and compelling style.' * Muslim World Book Review *‘A remarkably balanced, well-researched account of the Muslim world, with nine pages of resource material expanded upon at the back of the book. Each chapter in her book is a mini travelogue comprising of life and historical events crafted with eloquent writing and sharp-witted humour.’ -- The Daily Star'An important contribution to the conversation about diversity that deserves to be widely read. A rare perspective--peaceful, balanced, lucid and attractive. It might well be a glimpse into the future of a British Islam, confident in its identity, at ease with its setting.' -- Leila Aboulela, author of 'Bird Summons', 'Minaret' and 'The Translator''Medina Tenour Whiteman has approached a unique, complicated branch of Muslim identity with sensitivity and nuance. This book shows that faith is more than adherence to ritual--it is also a means to find oneself.' -- Hussein Kesvani, author of 'Follow Me, Akhi''A bold and beautifully written memoir of searing honesty and warmth. Whiteman gracefully grapples with the complex layers of identity, whiteness and culture as she maps out the landscape of her life, all the while drawing in history and belief in her uniquely eloquent style.' -- Remona Aly, journalist and broadcaster

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Book SynopsisOrientalism is the term applied to scholarship that reduces Islam and Muslims to stereotypes of ignorance and violence in need of foreign control. It has been used to rationalize Europe''s colonial domination of most of the Muslim world and continued American-led interventions in the post-colonial period. In the past 30 years it has been represented by claims that a monolithic Islam and equally monolithic West are distinct civilizations, sharing nothing in common and, indeed, involved in an inevitable clash from which only one can emerge the winner. Most recently, it has appeared in Alt Right rhetoric. Anti-Muslim sentiment, measured in public opinion polls, hate crime statistics, and legislation, is reaching record levels. Since John Esposito published his first book nearly 40 years ago, he has been guiding readers beyond such politically charged stereotypes. The essays in this volume highlight the contributions of scholars from a variety of disciplines who, like -- and often inspired by -- John Esposito, recognize the misleading and politically dangerous nature of Orientalist polarizations. They present Islam as a multi-faceted and dynamic tradition embraced by communities in globally interconnected but substantially diverse contexts over the centuries. The contributors follow Esposito''s lead, stressing the profound commonalities among religions and replacing Orientalist discourse with holistic analyses of the complex historical phenomena that affect developments in all societies. In addition to chapters focusing on diversity among Muslims and interfaith relations, this collection includes chapters assessing the secular bias at the root of Orientalist scholarship, and contemporary iterations of Orientalism in the form of Islamophobia.Trade ReviewFew scholars have so thoroughly contested the stereotyping of Islam and Muslims typical of the Orientalist tradition, so it is fitting that this volume celebrating his scholarly achievements should contain so many original perspectives on contemporary Muslim movements. The authors do not shy away from controversies, as with the brutality of the ISIS so-called Caliphate, but they carefully set such movements in social and historical context. This is an essential book for understanding the contemporary Muslim world, which interrogates the glib assumptions of so much writing about this key region. * Juan Cole, Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History, University of Michigan *This volume is a worthy recognition of John Esposito's striking contributions over four decades to correcting the misperceptions and distortions in the public and policy apprehension, as well as the scholarly study, of Islam. Fittingly, it demystifies Islam by taking both the pull of first principles and the contestation over interpretations seriously. In so doing, it aptly highlights the possibilities of Scriptural manipulation and the variety of modern practice, but also the potential of religion to evolve and to elevate the human condition. * James Piscatori, Co-author of Islam Beyond Borders: The Umma in World Politics *Each of the authors applies Esposito's visionary identification of the flawed 'secular fundamentalist' approach of Western scholarship on political Islam to case studies that range from ISIS to interfaith dialogue and from Southeast Asia to Southside Chicago. This book brings into sharp relief the ways in which an awareness of the historic roots and contemporary shoots of Orientalism and Islamophobia are key to understanding culture and society on the level of the global, the local, and the individual. * Anne K. Rasmussen, author of Author, Women, the Recited Qur'an, and Islamic Music in Indonesia *Among his many academic accomplishments, John Esposito is especially esteemed for advancing the study of Islam as practiced and understood by Muslims the world over and for demonstrating its intrinsic importance as one of the three monotheistic faiths. In their articles, the contributors to this celebratory volume poignantly testify to Esposito's success in these endeavors. * Charles E. Butterworth, Emeritus Professor of Government & Politics, University of Maryland *Table of Contents1. Introduction Tamara Sonn SHAPING THE DISCOURSE: Countering the Secular Bias 2. 'After Enlightenment, Return to the Marketplace: The Scholar's Responsibility for a Broken World Karen Armstrong 3. The Secular Bias and the Study of Religious Politics: On John Esposito, Michael Walzer, and Political Islam Nader Hashemi DIVERSITY IN ISLAM: Whose Islam? 4. The Islamic Reformist Mosaic in Muslim Southeast Asia Khairudin Aljunied 5. Looking for the Caliphate in All the Wrong Places: ISIS and Its Reading of Scripture Asma Afsaruddin 6. How Islamic Is ISIS? Sohail H. Hashmi ISLAM AND PLURALISM: Interfaith Relations 7. Building Muslim-Buddhist Understanding: The Parallels of Taqwa/Allah Consciousness in the Qur'an and Satipatthana/Mindfulness in Anapanasati Sutta Imityaz Yusuf 8. Televangelizing Muslims: Christian Satellite Television and Its Impact on Muslim-Christian Relations in Jordan Jordan Denari Duffner ORIENTALISM 2.0: Islamophobia 9. The Social Construction of The Racial Muslim Sahar Aziz 10. Anti-Catholicism, Islamophobia, and White Supremacy in the United States Scott C. Alexander 11. Islam and Exceptionalism in the Western Policy Imagination Peter Mandaville 12. Pluralism, Authority, and Islamophobia: Shari`a and Its Discontents in North America Mohammad Fadel John L. Esposito: Select Bibliography Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisIn many low-income neighborhoods in El Salvador, two groups have significant influence over the public sphere: gangs and evangelical churches. Members of both groups often belong to the same families, use similar organizational strategies, and engage each other in local marketplaces. Pastors and gang leaders compete for power within communities while informally sharing community governance. Entanglements even occur within formal organizations: Gang members can be found in churches and faith-based organizations, while an evangelical presence exists within prisons and other gang-controlled spaces. Blood Entanglements shows the importance of religion in gang-controlled neighborhoods in El Salvador through extensive empirical data and the personal stories of people who live there. Stephen Offutt uses the notion of entanglement to explain how and why evangelicals have such frequent and often intimate interactions with gangs, which are groups that many evangelicals believe are evil. Entanglement, he shows, also sheds light on how evangelicals engage with Latin American society and social problems more generally. The book concludes with policy recommendations for reducing gang prevalence and violence in areas with a prominent evangelical presence.Trade ReviewIn El Salvador, the country with highest murder rate on the planet, criminal gangs and evangelicals, mostly pentecostals, are the two most influential groups in towns and cities across the violence-plagued nation. This book, on the complex relations between the MS-13 and 18th Street gangs on one hand and evangelical communities on the other, is the most nuanced and insightful study to date on the topic. It belongs on the top shelf of readers interested in global Christianity, gang violence, and Latin American studies. * R. Andrew Chesnut, author of Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint *Like street gangs, religious traditions have always adapted to changing surroundings. Stephen Offutt's fascinating account of the overlapping social worlds of gangs and churches in El Salvador sheds light on the dynamic relationships between evangelicals and violence on Central America's urban margins. A must read for anyone interested in the place of lived religion in the Global South. * Robert Brenneman, author of Homies and Hermanos: God and the Gangs in Central America *Table of ContentsIntroduction Ch 1 Evangelicals & Gangs: Inverted Images Ch 2 Shared Cosmologies Ch 3 Ties that Bind: Family Networks Ch 4 Competing for Local Authority Ch 5 Unusual Alliances in Community Governance Ch 6 Economic Engagements Ch 7 Infiltrated Organizations Conclusion Appendix I: Methodology Works Cited

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Book SynopsisAuthor Magdalena Waligorska offers not only a documentation of the klezmer revival in two of its European headquarters (Kraków and Berlin), but also an analysis of the Jewish / non-Jewish encounter it generates.Trade ReviewThe book is highly enriching, presenting an inspiring methodology, sophisticated analysis, and a clear and justified conclusion. It offers a significant contribution to ethnography, anthropology, culture studies, Jewish studies, and more. * Marina Ritzarev, Slavic and East European Journal *This book is exceptionally readable considering the complexity of the heavily nuanced subject area ... This book is a good read not only for social science scholars ... but also anyone interested in cultural history. * Philip Palmer *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements ; Introduction ; 1 Klezmer Music and Its Traditions in Krakow and Berlin ; 2 Appropriated Music ; 3 Meeting the Other, Eating the Other: Klezmer as a Contact Zone ; 4 The Grammars of Vernacular Klezmer ; 5 Klezmer and the Politics of Remembering ; 6 People In-Between ; 7 Triangles of Relief. Klezmer and the Negotiation of Identities ; Conclusion ; Bibliography ; List of Interviews ; Index

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Book SynopsisThe Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Religion draws on the expertise of an international team of scholars providing both an entry point into the sociological study and understanding of religion and an in-depth survey into its changing forms and content in the contemporary world. The role and impact of religion and spirituality on the politics, culture, education and health in the modern world is rigorously discussed and debated. The study of the sociology of religion forges interdisciplinary links to explore aspects of continuity and change in the contemporary interface between society and religion. Using a combination of theoretical, methodological and content-led approaches, the fifty-seven contributors collectively emphasise the complex relationships between religion and aspects of life from scientific research to law, ecology to art, music to cognitive science, crime to institutional health care and more. The developing character of religion, irreligion and atheism and the impacTrade ReviewThis handsome book... is particularly welcome and should find a place in every well-stocked library, both academic and other... I particulary like the mix of experienced and younger scholoars who have been brought together in this volume and applaud the successful attempt to escape from a study of religion informed by Western, primarily Christian, notions of religion. A further question follows from this. Seriously confronting the realities of religion in the twenty-first century makes new demands on social science, which itself emerged from a similar (i.e., Western) context. To what extent, then, can these demands be met within the parameters of the sociology of religion as we know this? Peter Clarke's meticulously edited volume not only underlines the question, but indicates a way forward. He is to be warmly congratulated. * Grace Davie, Theology *The contributors of these chapters have been chosen from an impressive pool of top international academics in the field. Not only has the editor done a great job in finding leading academics to write on the most topical issues, but also all the contributors have written a very informative piece, using the most recent data and theories. All the chapters are a delight to read...This is an impressive volume that will delight the student as much as the erudite in the field. All the academic libraries should order this volume as it will soon become an essential reference to any subject in the sociology of religion. It is a must for anyone who calls himself/herself a sociologist of religion to have a copy of this book on his/her bookshels. * Adam Possamai, Australian Religion Studies Review *Table of ContentsI: THEORY: CLASSICAL, MODERN AND POSTMODERN; I: METHOD; III: RELIGION AND RELATED SPHERES: MORALITY, SCIENCE, IRRELIGION, ART AND SEXUALITY; IV: RELIGION AND THE STATE, THE NATION, THE LAW; V: GLOBALISATION AND ITS RELIGIOUS EFFECTS; VI: STANDARD OR MAINSTREAM RELIGION; VII: THE REPRODUCTION AND TRANSMISSION OF RELIGION; VIII: NEW RELIGION, NEW SPIRITUALITY AND IMPLICIT RELIGION; XI: ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL ISSUES; X: TEACHING THE SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book Synopsis

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