Social groups: religious groups and communities Books

Book Synopsis[Multiple options] Nothing visible is worth watching. It's in the hidden parts of the city where everything can be seen. Just playing, or acting out? The answer falls on where you stand: above board or underground. Many Iranians by law are forced to act their parts...so then why is theater so dangerous? Theater is a threat when reality is contained.Trade Review"Last Scene Underground offers a thought-provoking and powerful story about our collective attempts to re-imagine the world. Writing with an inspiring combination of creativity and criticality, Roxanne Varzi has crafted an exceptionally memorable portrait of Iran, bringing both Tehran and its young people to life." -- John L. Jackson, Jr. * University of Pennsylvania *"Literary romance and ethnography are joined in perfect dialogue in Last Scene Underground. Roxanne Varzi has written a rare, powerful book that is both a whirlwind story of how it feels to be young and idealistic during the time of the Green Movement, and a pointed reckoning with the state of censorship in Iran today." -- Nahid Rachlin * author of Persian Girls *"Amazing and wonderful! Roxanne Varzi brings together her own Iranian heritage, excellent ethnographic research, and deep insights—all in a gripping read. In opening a new genre, the ethnographic novel, Varzi conveys the emotions, desires, creativity, and frustrations of so many young people in Iran." -- Mary Elaine Hegland * author of Days of Revolution: Political Unrest in an Iranian Village *"Varzi plays the role of what the anthropologist Renato Rosaldo has called a positioned observer, trying to make sense of life long after the ethnographer's duty of detailed description has been completed. Clifford Geertz has described creative ethnographers such as Varzi as novelists manqué, and she captures what I elsewhere have theorized as ethnographic surfeit. This surfeit is what remains after an ethnographer has paid dues to the science of empirical social knowledge. What is left is not quite hard data, but nonetheless an invaluable remainder of insight, affect, conversation, and emotion; an entire sensorium, which even if the ethnographer wants to, will not let her go." -- Ather Zia * 3:AM Magazine *"This beautifully written book captures the predicament of every Iranian artist who is conflicted between one's own creative imagination, personal and social responsibilities, and political reality." * Shirin Neshat *

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Book Synopsis[Multiple options] Nothing visible is worth watching. It's in the hidden parts of the city where everything can be seen. Just playing, or acting out? The answer falls on where you stand: above board or underground. Many Iranians by law are forced to act their parts...so then why is theater so dangerous? Theater is a threat when reality is contained.Trade Review"Last Scene Underground offers a thought-provoking and powerful story about our collective attempts to re-imagine the world. Writing with an inspiring combination of creativity and criticality, Roxanne Varzi has crafted an exceptionally memorable portrait of Iran, bringing both Tehran and its young people to life." -- John L. Jackson, Jr. * University of Pennsylvania *"Literary romance and ethnography are joined in perfect dialogue in Last Scene Underground. Roxanne Varzi has written a rare, powerful book that is both a whirlwind story of how it feels to be young and idealistic during the time of the Green Movement, and a pointed reckoning with the state of censorship in Iran today." -- Nahid Rachlin * author of Persian Girls *"Amazing and wonderful! Roxanne Varzi brings together her own Iranian heritage, excellent ethnographic research, and deep insights—all in a gripping read. In opening a new genre, the ethnographic novel, Varzi conveys the emotions, desires, creativity, and frustrations of so many young people in Iran." -- Mary Elaine Hegland * author of Days of Revolution: Political Unrest in an Iranian Village *"Varzi plays the role of what the anthropologist Renato Rosaldo has called a positioned observer, trying to make sense of life long after the ethnographer's duty of detailed description has been completed. Clifford Geertz has described creative ethnographers such as Varzi as novelists manqué, and she captures what I elsewhere have theorized as ethnographic surfeit. This surfeit is what remains after an ethnographer has paid dues to the science of empirical social knowledge. What is left is not quite hard data, but nonetheless an invaluable remainder of insight, affect, conversation, and emotion; an entire sensorium, which even if the ethnographer wants to, will not let her go." -- Ather Zia * 3:AM Magazine *"This beautifully written book captures the predicament of every Iranian artist who is conflicted between one's own creative imagination, personal and social responsibilities, and political reality." * Shirin Neshat *

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Book SynopsisIn recent years, members of minority religions and atheists have rightly taken advantage of Supreme Court decisions that open up government funding, institutions, and property to participate in public life alongside the Christian majority. Jay Wexler argues for the importance of this movement and travels around the country to meet some of the people on its front line.Trade Review"Timely, trenchant, and tremendously engaging, Our Non-Christian Nation is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the contemporary battles over religion's role in our national politics and culture." -- Phil Zuckerman * author of Living the Secular Life *"In this brilliantly erudite and hugely entertaining romp through recent religious and legal history, Jay Wexler shows why, as our country becomes more religiously diverse, non-Christians need to get their voices heard and Christians need to help repair the wall between church and state. A marvelous read." -- Michael Shermer * Skeptic magazine *"What would it mean to take seriously the idea of religious diversity in the public sphere? Jay Wexler tells the stories of Wiccans, Muslims, and other religious and non-religious groups outside the mainstream who show what existing constitutional doctrine means in practice. The picture he paints provokes us to think differently about what that doctrine should be." -- Mark Tushnet * Harvard Law School *"In this fine book, Jay Wexler urges humanists, atheists, Satanists, and members of minority religious traditions to take advantage of a fascinating new phenomenon: the opening of public space to a variety of beliefs and institutions. His compelling account of 'belief' in public life will be of interest to the deeply religious as well as those who cringe at the very thought of religion. I highly recommend it." -- Anthony B. Pinn * author of Humanism: Essays on Race, Religion and Cultural Production *"A zesty, opinionated assessment of how non-Christians should actually behave....With curiosity and openness, Wexler performs the action that he advocates: that is, making heard a 'cacophony' of voices in public life so that different viewpoints get brought to the fore." -- Dan Friedman * Los Angeles Review of Books *"A fascinating read, and a wonderfully hopeful one...For anyone who feels marginalized as a pagan, nonbeliever, or just not a Christian, it's a manifesto for effective and often hilarious resistance." -- Houston Chronicle"Wexler...has made a timely, at times funny, and compelling piece of reportage looking at a variety of religious groups, as well as a strong argument for the importance of a pluralistic society." -- The Boston Globe"[T]his book was written for the general public, which often struggles to understand the jurisprudence surrounding religious freedom. Even professors of religious studies often need help in this area....Wexler's writing makes this book ideal for getting undergraduates interested in these issues." -- Joseph Laycock * Journal of the American Academy of Religion *"[An] artfully presented, quite accessible, guide to major legal issues faced by minority faiths in America...recommended for all interested in such topics." -- James T. Richardson * Nova Religio *"Wexler's greatest strength is his ability to describe current case law in readily digestible terms, making his work an ideal resource for undergraduates interested in religion and American politics. . .[T]his work can serve as an ideal entry point into important classroom conversations regarding the place of religions, especially minorities, in American law, as well as how both public and legal discourses have shaped the role of religion in American life." -- Savannah Finver * Religious Studies Review *Table of ContentsContents and AbstractsIntroduction chapter abstractThis chapter presents the main themes, issues, and arguments of the book. After an opening vignette describing the efforts of the Satanic Temple to erect a veterans monument in a small Minnesota town, the chapter introduces the First Amendment, particularly the Establishment Clause and the concept of separation of church and state as set out by the Supreme Court. It traces demographic changes in the country's religious makeup that have rendered the nation far less Christian and more secular than at previous times in its history. After a discussion of the issue of defining religion, the chapter sets forth the book's primary argument—namely, that a religiously diverse public square is preferable to one dominated by Christianity. One: Mummies, Monuments, and Monotheism: Religious Displays as Government Speech chapter abstractThis chapter discusses the constitutional doctrine of government speech under the First Amendment as it relates to the erection of religious monuments on public property. It does so, first, by describing and evaluating cases concerning the constitutionality of various Ten Commandments monuments under the Establishment Clause, and particularly the case of Van Orden v. Perry, which upheld such a monument on the grounds of the Texas Capitol. The chapter goes on to discuss the ultimately unsuccessful efforts of the small religious group known as the Summum, located in Salt Lake City, to have a Utah town erect a monument to its "Seven Aphorisms" in a park next to the community's Ten Commandments monument. The author's trip to visit the Summum and understand its mummification practices is described. Two: Pagans, Pentacles, and Pluralism: Religious Displays in the Public Forum chapter abstractThis chapter contrasts the government speech doctrine discussed in chapter 1 with the more minority-friendly First Amendment free speech doctrine known as the designated public forum. Under this doctrine, if the government designates a part of its property for private speech, including religious speech, it may not exclude speech on the basis of the viewpoint that is expressed by that speech. After explaining the doctrine, the chapter describes the successful efforts of Pagans and Wiccans, under the leadership of Wiccan priestess Selena Fox and through litigation brought by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, to get the Department of Veterans Affairs to allow Pagans buried in national cemeteries to have pentacles displayed on their headstones. The chapter also describes the author's visit to Fox's Circle Sanctuary in Wisconsin to participate in a Veterans Day event. Three: Secularism, Statehouses, and School Boards: Prayers and Invocations before Government Bodies chapter abstractThis chapter investigates the historical practice of prayer-giving before legislatures and other government bodies, as well as the Supreme Court's treatment of the practice in, most recently, the case of Town of Greece v. Galloway. Under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, the Court has held that legislative prayer and other religious invocations before government bodies are constitutional so long as the government has a policy of antidiscrimination—i.e., it will not discriminate on the basis of religion when inviting or allowing people to pray before meetings. The chapter investigates specifically the invocation given before the monthly town meeting of the Town of Greece (New York) by an Atheist who had previously sued the town unsuccessfully. The author's trip to witness this invocation is described. Four: The Satanic Temple: Taking It to a Whole 'Nother Level chapter abstractThis chapter takes an in-depth look at the key player in the phenomenon described in the book, namely the Satanic Temple. The chapter provides a brief history of Satanism, including a discussion of the Romantic Satanists, a literary movement in the eighteenth century that was the first to recover the symbol of Satan as a positive figure. The chapter also discusses the rise of the Church of Satan in the Bay Area in the 1960s, as well as the so-called Satanic Panic of the 1980s, in which people were wrongly accused of crimes committed in the name of Satan. The chapter then relates the history and doctrine of the Satanic Temple and describes its efforts to give legislative invocations and place monuments on public property (including its nine-foot-tall bronze monument to Baphomet). Five: Muslims, Money, and Middle Schools: Government Funding of Religion chapter abstractThis chapter investigates the issue of government funding of religion. After a brief foray into the Establishment Clause in this area, including a discussion of the important voucher school case Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, the chapter describes how some minority religious groups such as the Unification Church and the Church of Scientology have received public funding for their programs. The chapter also relates how Christian legislators in several states have objected to the inclusion of Islamic schools in their proposed voucher programs and then investigates these Islamic schools through the author's trip to the Al-Iman School in North Carolina. Six: Atheists, the Antichrist, and After-School Clubs: Religious Activities in the Public Schools chapter abstractThis chapter concerns the activities of religious groups in the public schools, one of the most controversial issues in church-state law, given the importance of these schools to the formation of future citizens. At the outset, the chapter explains the First Amendment law governing this area, including cases about teaching alternatives to evolution in the biology curriculum. Next, the chapter examines a series of cases in which the Supreme Court has held that if public schools open their facilities to after-school clubs, they may not exclude religious clubs, such as Good News Clubs, from using those facilities. After laying out the law, the chapter then examines efforts by Atheists, the Satanic Temple, and others to distribute religious literature and to start their own after-school clubs in the public schools. Conclusion: Conclusion chapter abstractThe concluding chapter begins with a brief recap of the four key descriptive points that the book has advanced and then proceeds to argue that the movement to increase minority participation in American public life is one that should be celebrated and continued. Specifically, the chapter argues that a religiously cacophonous public square is preferable to an entirely Christian one because it is more consistent with American ideals of free expression and diversity of ideas as enshrined in the First Amendment, because it may promote a more educated citizenry with regard to religion, and because this improved education may result in greater social peace. The chapter also considers potential counter-arguments and pitfalls of encouraging an increased role for religion in the public square, including the possibility that anti-liberal or parody organizations will seek to participate in public life.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Once again, Naomi Seidman has given us a beautifully written book that is equally illuminating about traditional texts and contemporary performances. The Marriage Plot is a foundational work for anyone interested in Jewish literary and cultural studies, in questions about gender and translation, and in understanding how Jews 'fell in love with love' in the mid-19th century." -- Anita Norich * University of Michigan *"Naomi Seidman has written a provocative and important study that deftly theorizes Jewish secular modernity through the lens of sexuality. Moving beyond the paradigms of queer and postcolonial studies, The Marriage Plot locates a changing sexual world that articulated its own sexual and gender norms through an erotic recovery of Jewish tradition. In her lively and insightful readings of the modern Jewish canon, Seidman shows that the secularization of Jewish cultural life was far from a straightforward narrative of sexual progress and liberation for men and women." -- Allison Schachter * Vanderbilt University *"Seidman is a nimble, curious, omnivorous reader, with whom it is a pleasure to spend time. She moves freely among Hebrew and Yiddish texts and is well-versed in social history. We are prepared to extend credit to her big ideas because we trust the quality of her exegesis of small examples. She uses critical theory rather than being used by it, and she always writes with a clarity that signals a genuine desire to communicate with her readers. She is, moreover, among the small number of scholars who are happy to acknowledge that their original insights have been built upon the research of others.The Marriage Plot joins a growing number of literary, historical, and philosophical investigations of our post-secular age. It is, in many senses, the story of all of us." -- Alan Mintz * Jewish Review of Books *"In Naomi Seidman's The Marriage Plot Or, How Jews Fell in Love with Love, and with Literature it is this problematic relationship between literature and life, between novels and autobiography, that gives new purchase on the modernisation of Jewish culture, first in eastern Europe during the Haskalah (the Jewish Enlightenment of the nineteenth century) and later in America...[T]he story she fashions cannot help but extend beyond the generic concerns of its model, implicating short stories, psychoanalytic case studies, plays, and stand-up comedy to produce as rich a literary history of the Jews as there has ever been." -- Marc Mierowsky * The Cambridge Quarterly *"[T]he most daring innovation of Naomi Seidman's The Marriage Plot: Or, How Jews Fell in Love with Love, and with Literature is its ardent determination to recuperate romantic love, to demonstrate its centrality to the Jewish literary tradition as we have come to understand it today. This she does in a marvelously detailed and convincing fashion." -- Naomi Taub * H-Judaic *"It is a valuable study for all those interested in the intersection of Jewish Studies, Literary Studies, and Gender Studies. Seidman, an expert in Jewish literature, meticulously analyzes a wide selection of texts in order to discover patterns characteristic for the development of Jewish romantic life in the 19th and 20th century... Seidman's book has a strong critical value, as she questions common assumptions about a linear development of the emancipation of love." -- Irad Ben Isaak * Kult_Online *"In this remarkable work, Seidman illustrates how the Haskalah, the so-called Jewish Enlightenment, led European Jews into modernity by engineering a sexual revolution through the composition of a literature that appropriated the European romantic model and retooled it to transform the Jewish bourgeois family radically....It is one of the strengths of this book that the romantic feelings and revolutionary spirit The Marriage Plot deals with are mirrored in Seidman's elegant and passionate writing style." -- F. K. Clementi * CLIO: A Journal of Literature, History, and the Philosophy of History *"The Marriage Plot takes up modern Jewish literature across language (Hebrew, Yiddish, English) and genre (novel, short story, theater, film). On this broad canvas, Seidman shows not just how poetry transmutes love but how love first changes Jewish life and culture—and how Jewish cultural productions then change American and European ideas of love." -- Joshua Logan Wall * American Literature *Table of ContentsContents and AbstractsIntroduction: Plotting Jewish Marriage chapter abstractThe introduction describes the ways that East European Jews simultaneously encountered European literary genres and new models of marriage, romance, sexual practices and gender roles in the middle of the nineteenth century. Because novels were so closely associated with romantic love, these had a particular effect on their traditional but modernizing readers. The introduction also distinguishes the approach of the book from other trends in Jewish Studies, particularly Queer Studies approaches to the study of Jewish gender. 1A Sentimental Education chapter abstractThis chapter traces the nineteenth-century beginnings of modern Hebrew and Yiddish romantic literature and its connection with emerging trends in organizing marriage and sexuality in nineteenth-century East Europe. The chapter analyzes the immense impression made by the first Hebrew novel, Mapu's 1853 The Love of Zion, in the realm of Jewish sexuality, questioning the power of literature to transform lives. The chapter ends by discussing the debates that arose toward the end of the nineteenth century, which focused on the mismatch between European literary conventions and Jewish social realities, and on the question of what constitutes the particularity of Jewish sex and marital arrangements. 2Matchmaking and Modernity chapter abstractThis chapter analyzes the role of arranged marriage in Jewish literature through the figure of the marriage broker, first as the enemy of true love and then, in later works, as its enabler or even mystical embodiment. Nineteenth-century memoirs decry the intrusions and deceptions of matchmakers, and urge the replacement of arranged marriage with romantic choice. While Jewish literature in some sense served as this replacement—with the author "arranging" matches between characters—literary works also rescued and even invented the matchmaker. In Sholem Aleichem's Menachem Mendl, the matchmaker is given Yiddish literary voice, while in Bernard Malamud's The Magic Barrel, the matchmaker finds a place in modern America, and Jewish American literature, as a recognizable "type," and a figure of erotic fascination in his own right. 3Pride and Pedigree chapter abstractThis chapter presents a genealogy of lineage in Jewish marriage, another aspect of traditional marital negotiations derided in Haskalah polemic. Pedigree finds a surprising afterlife even in those literary works that champion erotic attraction in the construction of a marriage partnership. At first performing the conservative-bourgeois function of maintaining class boundaries in a post-traditional society that ostensibly espouses the class-neutral ideology of romantic love, pedigree takes on a far wider range of meanings in modern Jewish literature. Along with the mystical eroticism that links romance with intergenerational ties, lineage has a long afterlife in the realist novel, both narrating the generational disruptions of modernity and serving as narrative cure. In the late twentieth century, the literary tracing of lineage reemerges in Tony Kushner's Angels in America, finding genealogical expression for even the post-genealogical phenomenon of queer kinship in the era of AIDS. 4The Choreography of Courtship chapter abstractThis chapter describes the role of literature in constructing a modern Jewish ideology of heterosexual romance through its articulation of new notions of romantic time, on the one hand, and gender complementarity, on the other. While traditional marriages had collapsed the time between puberty and marriage, attraction and consummation (while expanding the historical perspective of a match by including ancestors in the arrangements), the novel introduced new romantic temporalities in the rhythms of sexual maturation, attraction, and (deliciously delayed) consummation. These models of romance depended on strictly delineated gender roles, which the novel served to map and inculcate. Twentieth-century Jewish cultural productions form a counter-discourse to the gender complementarity on which European romance rested, featuring cross-dressed, anti-romantic heroines who resist and denaturalize European gender conventions. And in Erica Jong, readers encountered a full-fledged (Jewish) argument against the erotic tempos set out in literary romance. 5In-laws and Outlaws chapter abstractThis chapter follows the process of "nuclearization," in which the move to romantic, companionate marriage reduced the role of parents and extended family in the construction of modern family. Reading Sholem Aleichem's Tevye the Dairyman not through its usual focus—the move from arranged marriage to romantic love—but rather through what this move entails—the end of the system whereby marriage is produced by and produces broad kinship networks, this chapter argues that the stories reproduce in submerged form the traditional practices whereby a father-in-law chooses a groom for his daughter. In the final section of the chapter, I explore the "aunt-niece" relationship in Grace Paley's story "Goodbye and Good Luck," which presents the persistence and cultural productivity of alternative models of kinship at the margins of Jewish American literature and society. 6Sex and Segregation chapter abstractexplores the structure of sexual segregation through its literary expressions. Among the evils of traditional Jewish society denounced by the Haskalah was the strictness of its sexual segregation, which left no room for social interaction or erotic discovery between the sexes. In the twentieth century, however, writers discovered erotic pleasures in what earlier generations had seen as repressive social structures. S.Y. Agnon, in "The Tale of the Scribe," Sholem Asch, in God of Vengeance, and Dvora Baron, in "Fedke," stage love affairs within sexually segregated spaces, while Singer's "Yentl, the Yeshiva Boy" makes an explicit case for the superiority of romances that proceed through the (homosocial and agonistic) camaraderie of Torah learning over those conducted according to Western conventions. Afterword: After Marriage chapter abstractThe epilogue, which touches on the work of Freud, Philip Roth, and Erica Jong, argues that Jewish writers played a crucial role in the twentieth-century desublimation of Eros, stripping the "erotic sublime" of its mystification and grounding sexuality in the "natural" bodily realities that characterize many varieties of Jewish sexual discourse. For the sublime notion of the "soul mate," Freud, Roth and Jong suggest that sexual partners are easily interchanged—an ideology that, in its "conservative" form, also underpins arranged marriage. While Jewish sexual modernity begins with the adoption of European literary conventions, by the end of the twentieth century, modern Jewish culture had come to play a critical role (in both senses) in European sexual discourse. In the sexual ideologies expressed in twentieth-century Hebrew, Yiddish and Jewish American literature, the modern religion of romantic love met first its most profound challenge and ultimately its heretical overthrow.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"A distinguished ethnographer, Pascal Menoret excavates the Islamic Awakening in Saudi Arabia with great empathy and understanding. Once again, he demonstrates his ability to penetrate a world often associated with radicalism, bigotry, intolerance and violence, bringing us face to face with the men of the movement, and their rise and demise in the Saudi state." -- Madawi al-Rasheed * London School of Economics, author of Salman's Legacy: The Dilemmas of a New Era in Saudi Arabia *"Pascal Menoret is an intrepid field researcher who gained unique access to communities in Saudi Arabia either closed to or ignored by other Western scholars. His insights into how the physical geography of Riyadh has shaped the development of its various social mobilizations are provocative and enlightening. This book is a fascinating read." -- F. Gregory Gause III * Texas A&M University, author of The International Relations of the Persian Gulf *"There is no doubt that this study will be invaluable to anyone interested in Middle East studies with a focus on Islamic activism, youth recruitment and mobilization, spatial politics and the intersection of urban planning, activism, and state repression. This original work is a much-needed intervention that advocates for the urgency and need for activism that 'may resurface when the conditions are ripe'" -- Jonas Elbousty * International Journal of Middle East Studies *Table of ContentsContents and Abstracts1Part I: The Islamic Awakening chapter abstractThe Islamic Awakening is a political movement created in schools, colleges, and mosques by educators, preachers, and clerics. This part looks at how everyday Saudis become activists, and what type of repression they encounter when organizing and protesting in public. 2Part II: Saudi Suburbia chapter abstractThe Islamic Awakening emerged in the sprawling landscape of the Saudi suburbs, created in the 1960s and 1970s by princes and developers with the help of European urban planners. This part looks at the making of Saudi suburbia and examines the victory of Islamic Awakening candidates in the municipal elections of 2005. 3Part III: Awareness Groups and Summer Camps chapter abstractThe electoral victory of 2005 was the result of the mobilization of myriads of Islamic Awakening groups in local mosques, schools, and summer camps. This part analyzes the everyday structures of the Awakening: a high school Islamic group and the annual summer camps of the movement. It looks at how political repression targets everyday Islamic activism. 4Part IV: Leaving Islamic Activism Behind chapter abstractAs a result of the increased crackdown on Islamic movements, young activists have either tried to reform the Islamic Awakening from within or taken their distances with the movement. This part looks at the consequences of repression on individual mobilization, and analyzes the current state of the Islamic movement in Saudi Arabia.

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Book SynopsisTwo Covenants serves to expand the definition of the American South by focusing on the contributions of Jews to the culture. While concerned with established concepts such as ethnicity and region, McGraw raises many questions that illustrate the complexity of southern Jewishness and also considers literary representations.

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Book SynopsisAn emotionally powerful, poetic Yiddish novel, available in English for the first time, that expands our understanding of Holocaust literature and testimony. Flames from the Earth is an autobiographical novel written by Isaiah Spiegel, one of the most revered Yiddish authors to survive the Holocaust.Table of Contents Translator's Introduction List of Books by Isaiah Spiegel Flames from the Earth Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 ​Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18​ Translator's Afterword Acknowledgments Notes

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Book SynopsisTaking the reader into the heart of one of the fastest-growing religious movements in North America, Sabina Magliocco reveals how the disciplines of anthropology and folklore were fundamental to the early development of Neo-Paganism and the revival of witchcraft. Magliocco examines the roots that this religious movement has in a Western spiritual tradition of mysticism disavowed by the Enlightenment. She explores, too, how modern Pagans and Witches are imaginatively reclaiming discarded practices and beliefs to create religions more in keeping with their personal experience of the world as sacred and filled with meaning. Neo-Pagan religions focus on experience, rather than belief, and many contemporary practitioners have had mystical experiences. They seek a context that normalizes them and creates in them new spiritual dimensions that involve change in ordinary consciousness.Magliocco analyzes magical practices and rituals of Neo-Paganism as art forms that reanimate the cosmoTrade Review"Magliocco impressively corrals the diverse writings and experiences of U.S. neo-pagans into this highly readable and deeply researched ethnographic study. . . . Highly recommended." * Choice *Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Ethnography of Magic and the Magic of Ethnography PART I. ROOTS AND BRANCHES Chapter 1. The Study of Folklore and the Reclamation of Paganism Chapter 2. Boundaries and Borders: Imagining Community PART II. RELIGIONS OF EXPERIENCE Chapter 3. Making Magic: Training the Imagination Chapter 4. Ritual: Between the Worlds Chapter 5. "The Juice of Ritual": Pathways to Ecstasy PART III. BEYOND EXPERIENCE: RELIGION AND IDENTITY Chapter 6. The Romance of Subdominance: Creating Oppositional Culture Chapter 7. "The Heart Is the Only Nation": Neo-Paganism, Ethnic Identity and the Construction of Authenticity Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisHow are martyrs made, and how do the memories of martyrs express, nourish, and mold the ideals of the community? Sanctifying the Name of God wrestles with these questions against the background of the massacres of Jews in the Rhineland during the outbreak of the First Crusade. Marking the first extensive wave of anti-Jewish violence in medieval Christian Europe, these Persecutions of 1096 exerted a profound influence on the course of European Jewish history.When the crusaders demanded that Jews choose between Christianity and death, many opted for baptism. Many others, however, chose to die as Jews rather than to live as Christians, and of these, many actually inflicted death upon themselves and their loved ones. Stories of their self-sacrifice ushered the Jewish ideal of martyrdom—kiddush ha-Shem, the sanctification of God''s holy name—into a new phase, conditioning the collective memory and mindset of Ashkenazic Jewry for centuries to come, during the HolTrade Review"A major contribution to the study of medieval Jewish history." * Robert Chazan, New York University *"This is an important book, beautifully written and cogently argued. Some of Cohen's readings are daring indeed and will surely arouse dissent. Long live debate!" * American Historical Review *"The sufferings of the Rhineland Jews in 1096 were commemorated in three Hebrew narratives, which Professor Jeremy Cohen reexamines in this beautifully written book. . . . The cumulative effect of Cohen's analysis is overwhelming." * Catholic Historical Review *"The slaughter of the Jews in the Rhineland in 1096 is one of the better-known events of the First Crusade. Cohen analyzes the texts of the Jewish accounts of these massacres in light of the martyrdom tradition of Masada, well-known at that time, and the contemporary Christian cult of self-sacrifice. . . . Recommended." * Choice *"Cohen's fresh reading of the chronicles opens up a new vista to these complicated sources." * Journal of Jewish Studies *"This is a beautifully written and thought-out work that raises valuable questions and draws unprecedented attention to important features of these texts; it is sure to provoke fruitful discussion" * Journal of Religion *Table of ContentsPreface List of Abbreviations for Primary Sources Introduction: The Persecutions of 1096 PART I. PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS 1. To Sanctify the Name of God 2. The First Crusade and Its Historians 3. Points of Departure PART II. MARTYRS OF 1096 4. Last Supper at Xanten 5. Master Isaac the Parnas 6. Mistress Rachel of Mainz 7. Kalonymos in Limbo 8. The Rape of Sarit Afterword Notes Bibliography of Secondary Sources Index

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Book SynopsisIn September 1791, two years after the Revolution, French Jews were granted full rights of citizenship. Scholarship has traditionally focused on this turning point of emancipation while often overlooking much of what came before. In Rites and Passages, Jay R. Berkovitz argues that no serious treatment of Jewish emancipation can ignore the cultural history of the Jews during the ancien régime. It was during the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that several lasting paradigms emerged within the Jewish community—including the distinction between rural and urban communities, the formation of a strong lay leadership, heightened divisions between popular and elite religion, and the strain between local and regional identities. Each of these developments reflected the growing tension between tradition and modernity before the tumultuous events of the French Revolution.Rites and Passages emphasizes the resilience of religious tradition during Trade Review"Although the French National Assembly granted Jews citizenship in 1791, this magisterial book argues that the meanings of this revolutionary watershed must be understood through much longer-running discussions and complex variations among French Jews. . . . This detailed volume . . . should interest a wide range of scholars in religious and civic history." * Choice *"A formidable achievement that deserves to be read by all historians of modern Jewry and of the French Revolution. Berkovitz has laid out a fertile path for future exploration, and scholars will no doubt be indebted to him for many years to come." * Jewish History *"A rich work of scholarship that tells with great erudition the unique story of French Jewish modernization." * Journal of Religion *"A remarkable achievement. . . . Berkovitz has produced an erudite and persuasive work and a model of interdisciplinary scholarship. A major contribution to the study of European Jewry, Rites and Passages is equally relevant to the study of French history, cultural history, and the relationship between religion and modernity." * Ronald Schechter, H-France Review *Table of ContentsIntroduction PART I. LEADERSHIP, COMMUNITY, AND RITUAL IN THE ANCIEN RÉGIME 1. Communal Authority and Leadership 2. Secularization, Consumption, and Communal Controls 3. Ritual and Religious Culture in Alsace-Lorraine PART II. REVOLUTION, RÉGÉNÉRATION, AND EMANCIPATION 4. The Ordeal of Citizenship, 1782-1799 5. Religion, State, and Community: The Impact of Napoleonic Reform 6. The "Jewish Question" During the Bourbon Restoration PART III. TRANSFORMATIONS IN JEWISH SELF-UNDERSTANDING 7. Scholarship and Identity: La Science de Judaïsme 8. Rabbinic Authority and Ritual Reform 9. Patrie et Religion: The Social and Religious Implications of Civic Equality Conclusion Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisBarbara Fuchs examines the paradoxes in the construction of Spain in relation to its Moorish heritage through an analysis of Spanish literature, costume, language, architecture, and chivalric practices from 1492 to 1609.Trade Review"Fuchs has drawn from a wide array of sources to produce a rich, well-researched, and absorbing book that crosses disciplinary boundaries. Exotic Nation is a first-rate contribution to the field of early modern studies." * Sixteenth Century Journal *"Barbara Fuchs gives us a lively and illuminating look into the many ways in which Moorishness remained a vivid presence in early modern Spanish culture. Theoretically sophisticated, but rooted in the careful examination of the texts of quotidian life, Exotic Nation takes the reader beyond Orientalism into a profound rethinking of the relationship of early modern Spain to other European nations and of the role of Jewish, African, and Moorish elements in Spain's own self-construction. Essential reading for anyone interested in the ways in which excluded others can become central to a nation's most profound understandings and representations of itself in the everyday domains of architecture, popular literature, dress, and festivity, Exotic Nation is a beautifully written and lucidly argued book on a topic of great importance." * Jean E. Howard, Columbia University *"Fuchs admirably achieves her ambitious dual goal: to elucidate the paradoxical uses of Moorishness in the early modern construction of Spanish national identity, both internally, by Spaniards themselves, and externally, by other Europeans. Her thesis that Spain's Moorishness is both quotidian and exotic is quite dazzling. Exotic Nation will have a major impact on studies of early modern Spain." * Barbara Weissberger, author of Isabel Rules: Constructing Queenship, Wielding Power *Table of Contents1. The Quotidian and the Exotic 2. In Memory of Moors: History, Maurophilia, and the Built Vernacular 3. The Moorish Fashion 4. Playing the Moor 5. The Spanish Race Postscript Moorish Commonplaces Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThere emerged in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries a new Jewish elite, notes Moshe Idel, no longer made up of prophets, priests, kings, or rabbis but of intellectuals and academicians working in secular universities or writing for an audience not defined by any one set of religious beliefs. In Old Worlds, New Mirrors Idel turns his gaze on figures as diverse as Walter Benjamin and Jacques Derrida, Franz Kafka and Franz Rosenzweig, Arnaldo Momigliano and Paul Celan, Abraham Heschel and George Steiner to reflect on their relationships to Judaism in a cosmopolitan, mostly European, context.Idel—himself one of the world''s most eminent scholars of Jewish mysticism—focuses in particular on the mystical aspects of his subjects'' writings. Avoiding all attempts to discern anything like a single essence of Judaism in their works, he nevertheless maintains a sustained effort to illumine especially the Kabbalistic and Hasidic strains of thought these figures woulTrade Review"A brilliant and often illuminating exposition and critique of the role that Jewish mysticism has played in much of twentieth-century Western thought. Idel uncovers the many ways in which external sources, rather than traditional texts and practices, have informed accounts of Jewish mysticism." * Jewish Review of Books *Table of ContentsPreface Introduction I. INTELLECTUAL CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF JUDAISM 1. Arnaldo Momigliano and Gershom Scholem on Jewish History and Tradition 2. Eric Voegelin's Israel and Revelation 3. George Steiner: A Prophet of Abstraction II. SCHOLEM'S CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF KABBALAH 4. The Function of Symbols in Gershom Scholem 5. Hieroglyphs, Mysteries, Keys: Scholem Between Molitor and Kafka 6. Subversive Catalysts: Gnosticism and Messianism in Scholem's View of Jewish Mysticism III. KABBALAH IN SOME TWENTIETH-CENTURY THINKERS 7. Franz Rosenzweig and Kabbalah 8. Abraham Abulafia, Gershom Scholem, and Walter Benjamin on Language 9. Jacques Derrida and Kabbalistic Sources 10. Paul Celan's "Psalm": A Revelation Toward Naught IV. UNDERSTANDING HASIDISM 11. Martin Buber and Gershom Scholem on Hasidism 12. Abraham Heschel on Mysticism and Hasidism 13. White Letters: From R. Levi Isaac of Berdichev to Postmodern Hermeneutics List of Abbreviations and Sources Notes Index

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Book SynopsisIn Becoming the People of the Talmud, Talya Fishman examines ways in which circumstances of transmission have shaped the cultural meaning of Jewish traditions. Although the Talmud''s preeminence in Jewish study and its determining role in Jewish practice are generally taken for granted, Fishman contends that these roles were not solidified until the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries. The inscription of Talmud—which Sefardi Jews understand to have occurred quite early, and Ashkenazi Jews only later—precipitated these developments. The encounter with Oral Torah as a written corpus was transformative for both subcultures, and it shaped the roles that Talmud came to play in Jewish life.What were the historical circumstances that led to the inscription of Oral Torah in medieval Europe? How did this body of ancient rabbinic traditions, replete with legal controversies and nonlegal material, come to be construed as a reference work and prescriptive guide toTrade Review"A vital addition to any Jewish studies library in America." * Jewish Book World *"Talya Fishman's ambitious new study . . . indicates the sweep of the issues that are a significant part of Jewish cultural history from late antiquity through the High Middle Ages." * American Historical Review *"For every historian of intellectual history of the (Christian) High Middle Ages the book is a must." * Journal of Transcultural Medieval Studies *"An indispensable study, whose exemplary exposition of Jewish attitudes toward oral, written, and legal matters may well spark comparisons with other cultures, for Fishman has brilliantly shown that words can produce meaning through their epistemological categorization as oral or written, a categorization that itself remains undetermined by their actual mediatic support." * Law and History Review *"Becoming the People of the Talmud offers a unique and highly original contribution to our understanding of Jewish culture in the Middle Ages. The book indubitably places Talya Fishman in the vanguard of scholarly research." * Israel J. Yuval, Hebrew University of Jerusalem *Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1. The Place of Oral Matters in Geonic Culture Chapter 2. Oral Matters among Jews of Qayrawan and al-Andalus: Framing Sefarad Chapter 3. Framing Ashkenaz: Cultural Landmarks of Medieval Northern European Societies Chapter 4. Textualization of North European Rabbinic Culture: The Changing Role of Talmud Chapter 5. Medieval Responses to the Textualization of Rabbinic Culture Chapter 6. Rhineland Pietism and the Textualization of Rabbinic Culture in Medieval Northern Europe Epilogue Glossary Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisStephen J. Shoemaker investigates contradictory traditions about the end of Muhammad's life in the Islamic and non-Islamic sources of the seventh and eighth centuries.Trade Review"[Shoemaker] develops [previous ideas] substantially, discusses them in the light of recent publications, and also offers highly instructive parallels with the situation in (and scholarship on) early Christianity. . . . [He] has done a very good job of highlighting the issues and giving them sophisticated and thorough discussion, and [The Death of a Prophet] is a worthwhile addition to the fast-expanding body of material on Islamic origins." * Journal of the American Oriental Society *"A work of utmost importance, and one that has profound implications for our understanding of how Islam began." * Fred Donner, University of Chicago *Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1. "A Prophet Has Appeared, Coming with the Saracens": Muhammad's Leadership during the Conquest of Palestine According to Seventh- and Eighth-Century Sources Chapter 2. The End of Muhammad's Life in Early Islamic Memory: The Witness of the Sira Tradition Chapter 3. The Beginnings of Islam and the End of Days: Muhammad as Eschatological Prophet Chapter 4. From Believers to Muslims, from Jerusalem to the Hijaz: Confessional Identity and Sacred Geography in Early Islam Conclusion: Jesus and Muhammad, the Apostle and the Apostles Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"This fascinating and unique book is the result of Devaka Premawardhana'sjourney of nearly one year to explore the local response to the recent arrivalof Pentecostal churches in northern Mozambique . . . [A] rich and inspiring book, which should be read by anyone interested in African Studies and anthropology of Christianity." * African Studies Review *"Who would have thought that a book set in the middle of what is considered a quite remote location even in Mozambique-the Makhuwa area of Niassa Province-could so eloquently address important concerns relating to Pentecostalism and the enigma of change in Africa, in anthropology, and more generally? This gem of a book executes such a challenging task in highly original ways . . . [B]eautifully and compellingly written . . . Premawardhana has written a book that should-and will-have a broad impact." * Journal of Religion in Africa *"Literatures tied to themes of migration, refugees, religious conversion, and phenomenology are all brought to bear expertly. Analysis of the fluidity of rural Mozambicans' relationship to Pentecostal churches and teachings is enriched with sparing application of well-chosen theories. The author accomplishes this with nuance, and utmost respect for the human experiences that command his attention." * International Journal of African Historical Studies *"Beautifully and brilliantly written . . . an existential ethnography of the Makhuwa people of Northern Mozambique, a meditation on colonialism, globalization, modernity and the nature of Pentecostalism, a critique of cultural theory, and a fascinating narrative of 'snakebites and elephant invasions, chronic illnesses and recurring wars, disputes within families and conflicts with the state.'" * Nova Religio *"This book, no doubt, adds new, unique, and refreshing insight to the ever-growing research and publications on Pentecostalism. Not only does it examine Pentecostalism in a place where it had not been studied extensively, it does so by means of time-tested anthropological methods and theoretical frameworks. This unique approach and the vivid and enthralling narrative style make this book a must-read." * Journal of World Christianity *""Faith in Flux reminds us how intensive fieldwork and rich ethnography are not only what define anthropology but also what anthropologists draw on to challenge theoretical assumptions and make their voices heard in scholarly debates . . . Faith in Flux should be recommended not only to scholars of Christianity and Africanists but also to undergraduate and graduate students of anthropology."" * Anthropological Quarterly *"Premawardhana's book is a pleasure to read, as he seamlessly weaves the theoretical discussion into his intriguing vignettes. He discusses his own presence and reception with the people among whom he lived in a way that established credible ethnographic authority. Whether the reader is interested in constructions of conversion, Christianity and cultural adaptation, or the impact of transnational Pentecostalism in local communities, Premawardhana's work provides a valuable and detailed case study." * Pneuma *"Faith in Flux brilliantly realizes the potential of ethnography not only to illuminate other lifeworlds but to offer incisive critiques of current theoretical assumptions in religious studies and the social sciences. In lucid and enthralling prose, Devaka Premawardhana takes us deep into the world of the Makhuwa, offering new ways in which global Christianity, tradition, mobility, conversion, and social change may be understood." * Michael Jackson, author of How Lifeworlds Work: Emotionality, Sociality, and the Ambiguity of Being *"Faith in Flux is a beautifully written and theoretically novel book that focuses on a geographical area that has been severely neglected in the anthropological record. Devaka Premawardhana amply illustrates the idea that radical renewal is neither foreign to traditional societies nor necessarily a byproduct of globalization, modernization, or Pentecostal conversion." * Ilana van Wyk, University of Cape Town *"Intersecting the study of Pentecostalism, modernity, and globalization with insights from existential anthropology, especially bodily dispositions toward mobility, Faith in Flux is a book that will no doubt lead anthropologists of Christianity to view their own work in a new light. Devaka Premawardhana challenges scholars to rethink the idea of religious conversion as a profound rupture with the past." * Sonia Silva, Skidmore College *Table of ContentsIntroduction PART I. Othama—To Move Chapter 1. A Fugitive People Chapter 2. Between the River and the Road PART II. Ohiya ni Ovolowa—To Leave and to Enter Chapter 3. Border Crossings Chapter 4. Two Feet In, Two Feet Out PART III. Okhalano—To Be With Chapter 5. A Religion of Her Own? Chapter 6. Moved by the Spirit Conclusion Notes Works Cited Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisSelected by Choice magazine as an Outstanding Academic TitleUnveiling Eve is the first feminist inquiry into the Hebrew poetry and prose forms cultivated in Muslim and Christian Spain, Italy, and Provence in the eleventh through fourteenth centuries. In the Jewish Middle Ages, writing was an exclusively male competence, and textual institutions such as the study of scripture, mysticism, philosophy, and liturgy were men''s sanctuaries from which women were banished. These domains of male expertise—alongside belles lettres, on which Rosen''s book focuses—served as virtual laboratories for experimenting with concepts of femininity and masculinity, hetero- and homosexuality, feminization and virilization, transvestism and transsexuality. Reviewing texts as varied as love lyric, love stories, marriage debates, rhetorical contests, and liturgical and moralistic pieces, Tova Rosen considers the positions and positioning of female figures and female voices wiTrade Review"Rosen's discourse is dense but enlightening; in a clear and nuanced fashion she demonstrates the benefits to be gained through gender premises in literary pursuits. . . . Highly recommended."" * Choice *"Rosen wears her vast learning lightly and well. She brings to bear on the texts an enormous erudition in the various genres of Hebrew writing from medieval Spain which served as intertextual web for the poetry as well as Arabic literature, Latin and medieval European Romance literatures, and even the early European novel." * Daniel Boyarin, University of California, Berkeley *Table of ContentsPreface 1 No-Woman's-Land: Medieval Hebrew Literature and Feminist Criticism 2 Gazing at the Gazelle: Woman in Male Love Lyric 3 Veils and Wiles: Poetry as Woman 4 Poor Soul, Pure Soul: The Soul as Woman 5 Domesticating the Enemy: Misogamy in a Jewish Marriage Debate 6 Among Men: Homotextuality in the Maqama 7 Clothes Reading: Cross-Dressing in the Maqama 8 Circumcised Cinderella: Jewish Gender Trouble Afterword Notes Acknowledgments Index

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Book SynopsisMaking a significant contribution to the large debate over the transition from scriptural to scientific culture in Europe, this book also sheds light on the centrality of Jews to medieval and Enlightenment history.Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Introduction: Typology Never Lets Go Chapter One: Christians Mapping Jews: Cartography, Temporality, and the Typological Imaginary Chapter Two: Printing Excision: The Graphic Afterlife of Medieval Universal Histories Chapter Three: Graphic Reoccupation, the Faithful Synagogue, Foucault's Genealogy Chapter Four: Lachrymose History, the Typological Imaginary, and the Lacanian Enlightenment Chapter Five: Translating the Foreskin Notes Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisLooking to contexts ranging from premodern Spain and Italy to nineteenth-century Russia, Germany, and America, the contributors to this volume explore the ways the political and intellectual aspirations of successive historical presents have repeatedly reshaped the forms and narratives of Jewish cultural memory.Trade Review"An important contribution not only to Jewish studies but also to the larger study of historical memory." * American Historical Review *Table of ContentsForeword David B. Ruderman Introduction: Al-Andalus, Enlightenment, and the Renewal of the Jewish Past —Adam Sutcliffe and Ross Brann PART I. PHILOSOPHY, POETRY, AND CULTURAL EXCHANGE IN PREMODERN AL-ANDALUS AND ITALY 1. Aesthetic Models in Conflict: Classicist versus Ornamental in Jewish Poetics —Joseph Yahalom 2. The Uses of Exile in Poetic Discourse: Some Examples from Medieval Hebrew Literature —Esperanza Alfonso 3. Their Rose in Our Garden: Romance: Elements in Hebrew Italian Poetry —Dvora Bregman 4. The Crisis of Medieval Knowledge in the Work of the Fifteenth-Century Poet and Philosopher Moses da Rieti —Alessandro Guetta PART II. RENEWING TEXTS, CHANGING HORIZONS: THE JEWISH ENLIGHTENMENTS APPROPRIATION OF ANDALUSI IDEALS 5. Judah Halevis Kuzari in the Haskalah: The Reinterpretation and Re-imagining of a Medieval Work —Adam Shear 6. The Aesthetic Difference: Moses Mendelssohns Kohelet Musar and the Inception of the Berlin Haskalah —Jonathan Karp 7. Varieties of Haskalah: Sabato Moraiss Program of Sephardi Rabbinic Humanism in Victorian America —Arthur Kiron PART III: REFASHIONINGS OF THE JEWISH PAST IN THE ERA OF HASKALAH 8. Solomon Maimon and His Jewish Philosophical Predecessors: The Evidence of His Autobiography —Allan Arkush 9. Quarreling over Spinoza: Moses: Mendelssohn and the Fashioning of Jewish Philosophical Heroism —Adam Sutcliffe 10. Strategic Friendships: Jewish Intellectuals, the Abbé Grégoire, and the French Revolution —Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall 11. Heine and Haggadah: History, Narration and Tradition in the Age of Wissenschaft des Judentums —Jonathan Skolnik List of Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisGender and Jewish Difference from Paul to Shakespeare provides the first extended examination of the linkages of gender and Jewish difference in late medieval and early modern English literature, focusing on representations of Jews and women in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, selections from medieval drama, and Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice.Trade Review"This work brings insight and impeccable scholarship to bear on a demanding issue that retains contemporary relevance. Highly recommended." * Choice *"Lampert makes an important contribution to medieval Christian aesthetics in uncovering the supersessional thematic in the literary documents she treats, for the Old Law-New Law displacement construct she analyzes is doubtless present in many more works of art in various genres." * Speculum *"Gender and Jewish Difference from Paul to Shakespeare sets out several related and ambitious agendas-to link constructions of gender and Jewishness; to show how both figurations function to establish and sustain Christian identities; and to trace these constructions through sixteen centuries of biblical, theological, and literary texts." * The Medieval Review *Table of ContentsChapter 1. Introduction: Made, Not Born Chapter 2. The Hermeneutics of Difference Chapter 3. Reprioritizing the Prioress's Tale Chapter 4. Creating the Christian in Late Medieval East Anglian Drama Chapter 5. "O what a goodly outside falsehood hath!" Exegesis and Identity in The Merchant of Venice Conclusion Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisEric Zakim follows the literary and intellectual career of the powerful Zionist slogan to build and be built from its conceptual origin in reaction to the Kishinev pogroms of 1903, when it first served as an expression of settlement aspiration, until the end of pre-state national expansion in Palestine in 1938. Draining the swamps and making the desert bloom, the Jewish settlers imagined themselves as performing miracles on the land. By these acts, they were also meant to reinvent the very notion of what it was to be a Jew in the modern world. As Jewish settlers reshaped nature in the Holy Land by turning it from one thing into another, they too were newly constructed. Zakim argues that in the period leading up to the establishment of the state of Israel, the action of working the land and building its cities in order to transform both into something essentially Jewish increasingly came to mark a turn inward toward the reclamation of a Jewish subject tied to the very soil of PalestiTrade Review"A ambitious, scholarly study of the relationship between the meaning of the slogan, 'Livnot u lhibanot ba' ('To build and be built by / in it'-words from a popular Zionist folksong), and the actual development of the land and its people during the first four decades of the past century." * Association of Jewish Libraries Newsletter *"To Build and Be Built challenges the methodological certainties that have guided popular and academic understandings of the development of Zionist involvement in the land of Israel." * Lifestyles Magazine *Table of ContentsIntroduction. To Build and Be Built Chapter 1. Belated Romanticism Chapter 2. The Poetics of Malaria Chapter 3. The Hebrew Poet as Producer Chapter 4. The Landscape of a Zionist Orient Chapter 5. The Natural History of Tel Aviv Conclusion. The Land Bites Back Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisBringing together contributions by historians and literary scholars, Culture Front explores how Jews and their Slavic neighbors produced and consumed imaginative representations of Jewish life in chronicles, plays, novels, poetry, memoirs, museums, and elsewhere.Table of ContentsPreface —David B. Ruderman Introduction: A New Look at East European Jewish Culture —Benjamin Nathans and Gabriella Safran PART I. VIOLENCE AND CIVILITY 1. Jewish Literary Responses to the Events of 1648-1649 and the Creation of a Polish- Jewish Consciousness —Adam Teller 2. "Civil Christians": Debates on the Reform of the Jews in Poland, 1789-1830 —Marcin Wodziński PART II. MIRRORS OF POPULAR CULTURE 3. The Botched Kiss and the Beginnings of the Yiddish Stage —Alyssa Quint 4. The Polish Popular Novel and Jewish Modernization at the End of the Nineteenth and Beginning of the Twentieth Centuries —Eugenia Prokop-Janiec 5. Cul-de-Sac: The "Inner Life of Jews" on the Fin-de-Siècle Polish Stage —Michael C. Steinlauf PART III. POLITICS AND AESTHETICS 6. Yosef Haim Brenner, the "Half-Intelligentsia," and Russian-Jewish Politics, 1899-1908 —Jonathan Frankel 7. Recreating Jewish Identity in Haim Nahman Bialik's Poems: The Russian Context —Hamutal Bar-Yosef 8. Not The Dybbuk but Don Quixote: Translation, Deparochialization, and Nationalism in Jewish Culture, 1917-1919 —Kenneth Moss 9. Beyond the Purim-shpil: Reinventing the Scroll of Esther in Modern Yiddish Poems —Kathryn Hellerstein PART IV. MEMORY PROJECTS 10. Revealing and Concealing the Soviet Jewish Self: The Desk-Drawer Memoirs of Meir Viner —Marcus Moseley 11. The Shtetl Subjunctive: Yaffa Eliach's Living History Museum —Jeffrey Shandler List of Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisA thirteenth-century text purporting to represent a debate between a Jew and a Christian begins with the latter''s exposition of the virgin birth, something the Jew finds incomprehensible at the most basic level, for reasons other than theological: Speak to me in French and explain your words! he says. Gloss for me in French what you are saying in Latin! While the Christian and the Jew of the debate both inhabit the so-called Latin Middle Ages, the Jew is no more comfortable with Latin than the Christian would be with Hebrew. Communication between the two is possible only through the vernacular.In Vernacular Voices, Kirsten Fudeman looks at the roles played by language, and especially medieval French and Hebrew, in shaping identity and culture. How did language affect the way Jews thought, how they interacted with one another and with Christians, and who they perceived themselves to be? What circumstances and forces led to the rise of a medieval Jewish tradition in FrenTrade Review"Vernacular Voices marks Kirsten Fudeman as a scholar whose work should be followed closely and learned from. She has written a pathbreaking book that displays her linguistic expertise and her impressive methodological sophistication." * Elisheva Baumgarten, author of Mothers and Children: Jewish Family Life in Medieval Europe *"This study by a fine scholar on the topic of the role of the vernacular in medieval French Jewry is a fascinating and an enlightening volume. . . . A significant contribution to medieval Jewish history and to the study of the popular religion of the period." * Religious Studies Review *Table of ContentsNotes on Translations and Transcription and Typological Conventions List of Abbreviations Introduction: The Medieval French Jewish Community in Its Linguistic Context Chapter 1. Language and Identity Chapter 2. Speech and Silence, Male and Female in Jewish-Christian Relations: Blois, 1171 Chapter 3. Texts of Two Colors Chapter 4. Hebrew-French Wedding Songs: Expressions of Identity Epilogue Appendices 1. Hebraico-French Glosses and Texts 2. The Medieval Jewish Wedding Song 'Uri liqra'ti yafah, gentis kallah einoreie Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisIs there such a thing as a distinctive Jewish literature? The authors of the fifteen essays in this volume find the answer in a shared endeavor to use literary production and writing in general as the laboratory in which to explore and represent Jewish experience in the modern world.Table of ContentsPreface —David B. Ruderman Introduction: Intersections and Boundaries in Modern Jewish Literary Study —Sheila E. Jelen, Michael P. Kramer, L. Scott Lerner Chapter 1. Literary Culture and Jewish Space around 1800: The Berlin Salons Revisited —Liliane Weissberg Chapter 2. Joseph Salvador's Jerusalem Lost and Jerusalem Regained —L. Scott Lerner Chapter 3. The Merchant at the Threshold: Rashel Khin, Osip Mandelstam, and the Poetics of Apostasy —Amelia Glaser Chapter 4. Shmuel Saadi Halevy/Sam Lévy Between Ladino and French: Reconstructing a Writer's Social Identity —Olga Borovaya Chapter 5. I. L. Peretz's "Between Two Mountains": Neo-Hasidism and Jewish Literary Modernity —Nicham Ross Chapter 6. Neither Here nor There: The Critique of Ideological Progress in Sholem Aleichem's Kasrilevke Stories —Marc Caplan Chapter 7. Brenner: Between Hebrew and Yiddish —Anita Shapira Chapter 8. Eisig Silberschlag and the Persistence of the Erotic in American Hebrew Poetry —Alan Mintz Chapter 9. The Art of Sex in Yiddish Poems: Celia Dropkin and Her Contemporaries —Kathryn Hellerstein Chapter 10. Ethnopoetics in the Works of Malkah Shapiro and Ita Kalish: Gender, Popular Ethnography, and the Literary Face of Jewish Eastern Europe —Sheila E. Jelen Chapter 11. Eternal Jews and Dead Dogs: The Diasporic Other in Natan Alterman's The Seventh Column —Gideon Nevo Chapter 12. Inserted Notes: David Boder's DP Interview Project and the Languages of the Holocaust —Alan Rosen Chapter 13. Unpacking My Father's Bookstore —Laurence Roth Chapter 14. The Art of Assimilation: Ironies, Ambiguities, Aesthetics —Michael P. Kramer Chapter 15. Hebraism and Yiddishism: Paradigms of Modern Jewish Literary History —Anita Norich List of Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisThroughout the eighteenth century, an ever-sharper distinction emerged between Jews of the old order and those who were self-consciously of a new world. As aspirations for liberation clashed with adherence to tradition, as national, ethnic, cultural, and other alternatives emerged and a long, circuitous search for identity began, it was no longer evident that the definition of Jewishness would be based on the beliefs and practices surrounding the study of the Torah.In The Origins of Jewish Secularization in Eighteenth-Century Europe Shmuel Feiner reconstructs this evolution by listening to the voices of those who participated in the process and by deciphering its cultural codes and meanings. On the one hand, a great majority of observant Jews still accepted the authority of the Talmud and the leadership of the rabbis; on the other, there was a gradually more conspicuous minority of Epicureans and freethinkers. As the ground shifted, each individual was marked according Trade Review"A superb study. . . . Feiner lays out a more nuanced and persuasive case for locating the beginning of Jewish secularization in the second half of the 18th century, if not earlier." * Jewish Review of Books *"Feiner's contribution to the debate about the origins of Jewish modernity is profound. It is, in my view, the most significant contribution in recent decades to the literature on the decline of tradition prior to the age of political emancipation. Its great achievement is that it enlarges the stage of Jewish history, populating it with a wider cast of characters than has been the rule. It should be obligatory reading for all who wish to understand the forces that transformed European Jewish societies in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries." * Shofar *Table of ContentsPreface Introduction: Sins and Doubts —Suspicions Arise —Religion under Attack —Early Jewish Skepticism —Acculturation and Rebellion —Secularization Terminology PART I. LIBERTY AND HERESY, 1700-1760 1 Pleasures and Liberation from Religious Supervision —Insulting the Angels of God —Physical Gratifications 2 Temptations of Fashion and Passion —Life à la Mode: Temptations of the City —Temptations of Eros —Hedonism and Abandoning God 3 The Mystical Sect: Subversive Sabbateans —A New Torah to Permit the Forbidden: From Hayon to Eybeschütz —"I Will Trample on All the Laws": Antinomianism and Libertinism 4 The Rationalist Sect: Neo-Karaites and Deists —Freethinkers and the Threat of Reason —The Fool Says in His Heart That There Is No God: Skepticism and Jewish Identity PART II. A NEW WORLD, 1760-80 5 Providence Is Tested: Secularization on the Rise in the 1760s —Warning Bells Toll in Europe —To Remove the Shackles of the Commandments: Indifference and Laxity —Counterreaction: The Early Maskilim 6 The Supremacy of Nature: Deists on the Margins —A Generation without Religion: The 1770s —From the Second Spinoza to the Biological Epicurean —Religious Skeptics: The "Primitive Ebrew" and the Blasphemer 7 The Emergence of the New World For We Are All Made of Flesh: Fashionable Jews in Amsterdam and Hamburg —The Autonomous Individual: Fanny's and Henriette's Hairstyles PART III. THE OVERTURNED WORLD, 1780-90 8 Scandals and Rebellions —Religious Tolerance and Skepticism in Europe —The Sect of the Wicked Reveals Its Face —Trash Heap of the Ceremonial Laws: The Heterodox in Breslau and Berlin 9 Replacing Mosaic Laws with Laws of Freedom —The Sect of Germans Grows Stronger in Prussia —A Peek into Jewish Life in London —How to Reply to an Epicurean: Fears of Conservatives from Virginia to Lithuania PART IV. ANXIETIES AND CONFRONTATIONS, 1790-1800 10 On the Decline of Judaism: The Last Decade —Between Linitz and London: Irreligion and the Mysteries of Religion —Between Observance and Laxity: Rifts and Tensions —Epicureans on the Offensive: Provocations and Conflicts 11 Soon Our Faith Will Be Lost: Deists and Believers —Falsifications of the Rabbis: Deistic Texts —Transgressions Have Become Permissible: The Counter-War of the Congregation of Believers Summary: Free Jews and the Origins of Secularization Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisIn The Third Pillar, Geoffrey Hartman, one of the most influential scholars and teachers of English and Comparative Literature of recent decades, has brought together some of the most important and eloquent essays he has written since the 1980s on the major texts of the Jewish tradition.Trade Review"In the form, substance, intellectual brio, and imaginative reach of these essays, Geoffrey Hartman has no peer. And to say it (almost) otherwise: in learning and in originality, two characteristics that are only very rarely found paired, Geoffrey Hartman is matchless. You may read him solely as a scholar if you wish, but once you stir in the 'creative,' you will have something or someone else: a poet. In these essays, Hartman as innate poet speaks to readers: to readers of poetry, to discerners of bottomless ideas, to you and to me." * Cynthia Ozick *Table of ContentsPreface PART I. BIBLE Chapter 1. The Struggle for the Text Chapter 2. The Blind Side of the Akedah Chapter 3. Numbers: Realism and Magic Chapter 4. Meaning and Music Chapter 5. The Poetics of Prophecy PART II. MIDRASH Chapter 6. Midrash as Law and Literature Chapter 7. Jewish Tradition as/and the Other Chapter 8. Angels in the Academy: The Drama of Commentary Chapter 9. Text, Spirit, and the Bat Kol PART III. EDUCATION Chapter 10. Who Is an Educated Jew? Chapter 11. Religious Literacy Chapter 12. On the Jewish Imagination Chapter 13. The Artist between Sacred and Profane Notes Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisA comprehensive and nuanced historical account of the role Jews played in the Russian Civil War. Oleg Budnitskii shows that Jews were not just victims of the bloody pogroms but also active participants in the anti-Bolshevik White movement as well as the establishment of the Soviet state.Trade Review"Budnitskii's excellent study will become the starting point for all future investigations of Russia's Jews between Reds and Whites." * Donald J. Raleigh, Kritika, in a review of the Russian edition *"Oleg Budnitskii, in this thoroughly researched, clearly written, and well-documented book, shows that the story of Jews in the Civil War years is much more complicated than simply being Red or White. . . . Rather than seeing pogroms as the outcome of ideological fights between Communists and anti-Communists in times of civil war, Budnitskii situates anti-Jewish violence in the broader context of war." * David Shneer, The Russian Review, in a review of the Russian edition *Table of ContentsList of Abbreviations Introduction Chapter 1. Jews in the Russian Empire, 1772-1917 Chapter 2. The Jews and the Russian Revolution Chapter 3. The Bolsheviks and the Jews Chapter 4. "No Shneerzons!" The White Movement and the Jews Chapter 5. Trump Card: Antisemitism in White Ideology and Propaganda Chapter 6. In the Shadow of the Holocaust: The Pogroms of 1918¬-1920 Chapter 7. Russian Liberalism and the "Jewish Question" Chapter 8. The "Jewish Question," White Diplomacy, and the Western Democracies Chapter 9. Battling Balfour: White Diplomacy, the Russian Orthodox Church, and the Problem of the Establishment of the Jewish State in Palestine Chapter 10. Jews and the Red Army Conclusion Notes Bibliography of Archival Sources Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisFictions of Conversion investigates the anxieties produced by the rapid and erratic religious, political, and cultural transformations in early modern England, which were often given shape in poetry, plays, and translations by the figure of the Jewish converso.Trade Review"Jeffrey Shoulson's smart, original book leads us to see hitherto unsuspected connections between early modern English concerns with "conversion" (both narrowly and broadly defined) and "the figure of Jew," encouraging others to follow the paths he has charted here." * AJS Review *"Fictions of Conversion is a timely and important book. Ambitious, beautifully written, and sweeping while not losing sight of historical context or of the telling detail, it offers a new analysis of a crucial topic, and connects that analysis to a number of compelling readings of literary works both familiar and less so." * Katherine Eggert, University of Colorado at Boulder *Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1. "The Jews Perverted and the Gentiles Converted": Confessions and Conversos Chapter 2. "Thy People Shall Be My People": Typology, Gender, and Biblical Converts Chapter 3. "The Meaning Not the Name I Call": Converting the Bible and Homer Chapter 4. Alchemies of Conversion: Shakespeare, Jonson, Vaughan, and the Science of Jewish Transmutation Chapter 5. Conversion and Enthusiasm: Radical Religion and the Poetics of Paradise Regained Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisIn histories of ancient Jews and Judaism, the Roman Empire looms large. For all the attention to the Jewish Revolt and other conflicts, however, there has been less concern for situating Jews within Roman imperial contexts; just as Jews are frequently dismissed as atypical by scholars of Roman history, so Rome remains invisible in many studies of rabbinic and other Jewish sources written under Roman rule.Jews, Christians, and the Roman Empire brings Jewish perspectives to bear on long-standing debates concerning Romanization, Christianization, and late antiquity. Focusing on the third to sixth centuries, it draws together specialists in Jewish and Christian history, law, literature, poetry, and art. Perspectives from rabbinic and patristic sources are juxtaposed with evidence from piyyutim, documentary papyri, and synagogue and church mosaics. Through these case studies, contributors highlight paradoxes, subtleties, and ironies of Romanness and imperial power.CTrade Review"Beginning with the editors' fundamental historiographical and programmatic essay, Jews, Christians, and the Roman Empire is the most important collection of studies on Jews in late antiquity I have ever seen. In fact, it is essential reading for all students of late antiquity. Especially admirable is the book's implicit argument that late antiquity was constituted not by a single seismic shift but by the slow accretion of small changes over time." * Seth Schwartz, Columbia University *"This volume opens up important new intellectual avenues for students of ancient religion and empire and will undoubtedly have a tremendous impact on multiple arenas of scholarly research. There is, simply, no work that tackles the intellectual question 'How do we integrate Judaism into the Roman Empire, and vice versa?' with such depth and breadth." * Andrew S. Jacobs, Scripps College *Table of ContentsList of Abbreviations Introduction: Rethinking Romanness, Provincializing Christendom —Annette Yoshiko Reed and Natalie B. Dohrmann PART I. RABBIS AND OTHER ROMAN SUBELITES Chapter 1. The Afterlives of the Torah's Ethnic Language: The Sifra and Clement on Lev 18.1-5 —Beth A. Berkowitz Chapter 2. The Kingdom of Edessa and the Creation of a Christian Aristocracy —William Adler Chapter 3. Law and Imperial Idioms: Rabbinic Legalism in a Roman World —Natalie B. Dohrmann Chapter 4. The Law of Moses and the Jews: Rabbis, Ethnic Marking, and Romanization —Hayim Lapin PART II. CHRISTIANIZATION AND OTHER MODALITIES OF ROMANIZATION Chapter 5. There Is No Place Like Home: Rabbinic Responses to the Christianization of Palestine —Joshua Levinson Chapter 6. Between Gaza and Minorca: The (Un)Making of Minorities in Late Antiquity —Hagith Sivan Chapter 7. Christian Historiographers' Reflections on Jewish-Christian Violence in Fifth-Century Alexandria —Oded Irshai Chapter 8. Narrating Salvation: Verbal Sacrifices in Late Antique Liturgical Poetry —Ophir Münz-Manor Chapter 9. Israelite Kingship, Christian Rome, and the Jewish Imperial Imagination: Midrashic Precursors to the Medieval "Throne of Solomon" —Ra'anan Boustan PART III. CONTINUITY AND RUPTURE Chapter 10. Chains of Tradition from Avot to the Avodah Piyutim —Michael D. Swartz Chapter 11. Change in Continuity in Late Legal Papyri from Palaestina Tertia: Nomos Hellênikos and Ethos Rômaikon —Hannah M. Cotton Chapter 12. The Representation of the Temple and Jerusalem in Jewish and Christian Houses of Prayer in the Holy Land in Late Antiquity —Rina Talgam Chapter 13. Roman Christianity and the Post-Roman West: The Social Correlates of the Contra Iudaeos Tradition —Paula Fredriksen Notes Select Bibliography of Secondary Sources List of Contributors Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisEuropean Jews, argues Iris Idelson-Shein, occupied a particular place in the development of modern racial discourse during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Simultaneously inhabitants and outsiders in Europe, considered both foreign and familiar, Jews adopted a complex perspective on otherness and race. Often themselves the objects of anthropological scrutiny, they internalized, adapted, and revised the emerging discourse of racial difference to meet their own ends.Difference of a Different Kind explores Jewish perceptions and representations of otherness during the formative period in the history of racial thought. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including philosophical and scientific works, halakhic literature, and folktales, Idelson-Shein unfolds the myriad ways in which eighteenth-century Jews imagined the exotic Other and how the evolving discourse of racial difference played into the construction of their own identities. Difference of a DTrade Review"A welcome addition. . . . This book focuses on the Jewish attitude toward race as it evolved in the so-called long eighteenth century, mostly during the Jewish Enlightenment of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries." * American Historical Review *"Iris Idelson-Shein gives us a window into a far richer and much more dynamic interplay between the Jewish and the non-Jewish world than what one finds in most scholarship on the Haskalah. She contextualizes her readings with exemplary rigor, breadth, and elegance. Idelson-Shein's prose truly sparkles, and each of the chapters is a sheer pleasure to read, full of narrative drive, stylistic sophistication, and conceptual subtlety. Difference of a Different Kind is a powerful book that delivers an original argument in a lucid and elegant manner." * Jonathan Hess, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill *"A substantial and well-researched study of the complexities of racial thinking in the European Jewish Enlightenment. Iris Idelson-Shein covers an extraordinary range of topics: rape, infanticide, the savage, hirsute peoples, miscegenation, children's books, issues of translation, and the formation of scientific racism." * Felicity Nussbaum, University of California, Los Angeles *Table of ContentsNote on Translations and Transliterations Introduction 1 An East Indian Encounter: Rape and Infanticide in the Memoirs of Glikl Bas Leib 2 "And Let him Speak": Noble and Ignoble Savages in Yehudah Horowitz's Amudey beyt Yehudah 3 Whitewashing Jewish Darkness: Baruch Lindau and the "Species" of Man 4 Fantasies of Acculturation: Campe's Savages in the Service of the Haskalah Epilogue. A Terrible Tale: Some Final Thoughts on Jews and Race Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisReorienting the East explores the Islamic world as it was encountered, envisioned, and elaborated by Jewish travelers from the Middle Ages to the early modern period. The first comprehensive investigation of Jewish travel writing from this era, this study engages with questions raised by postcolonial studies and contributes to the debate over the nature and history of Orientalism as defined by Edward Said.Examining two dozen Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic travel accounts from the mid-twelfth to the early sixteenth centuries, Martin Jacobs asks whether Jewish travelers shared Western perceptions of the Islamic world with their Christian counterparts. Most Jews who detailed their journeys during this period hailed from Christian lands and many sailed to the Eastern Mediterranean aboard Christian-owned vessels. Yet Jacobs finds that their descriptions of the Near East subvert or reorient a decidedly Christian vision of the region. The accounts from the crusader era, in particularTrade Review"An original, comprehensive, and clear account of medieval and early modern Jewish travel writing. Martin Jacobs discusses all known relevant Jewish writings from the period, giving the textual history of each and often comparing them to contemporary Christian and Muslim texts. Any reader of this book will come away not only with a clear picture of Jewish travel writing but also with a good introduction to the main concerns of contemporary scholarship on medieval and early modern travel writing more generally." * Iain Macleod Higgins, University of Victoria *"Impressive and unique. . . . A timely discussion of Jewish identity and reflections on self and 'other' in the premodern Islamic world. Jacobs clearly and cogently demonstrates the complexities of Jewish identity in the Mediterranean and the Islamic world." * Josef Meri, Centre of Islamic Studies, University of Cambridge *Table of ContentsMaps A Note on Translations and Transliterations List of Abbreviations Introduction PART I. TRAVELS AND TRAVEL NARRATIVES Chapter 1. Medieval Jewish Travelers and Their Writings Chapter 2. Travel Motivations: Pilgrimage and Trade Chapter 3. Levantine Journeys: Choices and Challenges PART II. TERRITORY AND PLACE Chapter 4. Facing a Gentile Land of Israel Chapter 5. Medieval Mingling at Holy Tombs Chapter 6. Marvels of Muslim Metropolises PART III. ENCOUNTERING THE OTHER Chapter 7. Ishmaelites and Edomites: Muslims and Christians Chapter 8. Near Eastern Jews: Brothers or Strangers? Chapter 9. Karaites, Samaritans, and Lost Tribes Chapter 10. Assassins, Blacks, and Veiled Women Conclusion Chronology of Travelers and Works Glossary Notes Selected Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisFaithful Republic is a collection of original essays that explores the relationship between religion and politics in the United States since the early twentieth century. Rather than focusing on the traditional question of the separation between church and state, this volume touches on many aspects of American political history.Trade Review"Faithful Republic is a magnificent collection, one that showcases the impressive scholarship of a new generation of American historians working at the intersection of religion and politics. Diverse in their topics but uniformly strong in their treatment, these essays represent the cutting edge of an important field." * Kevin M. Kruse, author of One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America *"The essays collected here are outstanding and bring to light some of the best scholarship on a topic in which new work is rapidly emerging and fundamentally changing. The research is excellent-the book is full of archival finds from all over the country-and the analyses are stimulating, often sparkling." * Paul Harvey, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs *Table of ContentsIntroduction —Andrew Preston, Bruce Schulman, and Julian E. Zelizer Chapter 1. "Against the Foes That Destroy the Family, Protestants and Catholics Can Stand Together": Divorce and Christian Ecumenism —David Mislin Chapter 2. American Jewish Politics Is Urban Politics —Lila Corwin Berman Chapter 3. Fighting for the Fundamentals: Lyman Stewart and the Protestant Politics of Oil —Darren Dochuk Chapter 4. A "Divine Revelation"? Southern Churches Respond to the New Deal —Alison Collis Greene Chapter 5. The Rise of Spiritual Cosmopolitanism: Liberal Protestants and Cultural Politics —Matthew S. Hedstrom Chapter 6. "A Third Force": The Civil Rights Ministry of Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. —Edward J. Blum Chapter 7. The Theological Origins of the Christian Right —Molly Worthen Chapter 8. More than Megachurches: Liberal Religion and Politics in the Suburbs —Lily Geismer Chapter 9. Knute Gingrich, All American? White Evangelicals, U.S. Catholics, and the Religious Genealogy of Political Realignment —Bethany Moreton Notes List of Contributors Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisIn 1818, with a single essay of vast scope and stunning detail, Leopold Zunz launched the turn to history in modern Judaism. Despite unending setbacks, he persevered for more than five decades to produce a body of enduring scholarship that would inspire young Jews streaming into German universities and alter forever the understanding of Judaism. By the time of his death in 1886, his vision and labor had given rise to a historical discourse and intellectual movement that devolved into vibrant sub-fields as it expanded to other geographic centers of Jewish life.Yet Zunz was a part-time scholar, at best, in search of employment that would leave him time to study. In addition to his pioneering scholarship, he was as deeply engaged in ending the political tutelage of German Christians as the civil disabilities of German Jews. And to his credit, these commitments did not come at the expense of his loyalty to the Jewish community, which he was ever ready to serve.Zunz once quipTrade Review"Schorsch deftly takes his readers on a journey through Zunz's scholarship, activism and apologia, but also shows how these endeavours complemented one another . . . [A] seminal biography that brings into sharper focus the complex life and career of Leopold Zunz." * European History Quarterly *"In this masterful biography, Ismar Schorsch brings to life arguably the greatest of the nineteenth-century pioneers of Jewish scholarship. The portrait of Zunz that emerges is of a deeply learned, courageous, and visionary scholar whose work remains the starting point for many areas of inquiry. We are indebted to Schorsch for this loving and critical appraisal of a true giant." * Jay M. Harris, Harvard University *"In this gripping and elegantly written book, Ismar Schorsch illuminates not only the contours of Leopold Zunz's remarkable life and scholarship but also what was politically and intellectually at stake in the academic study of Judaism in the nineteenth century. These are issues that endure beyond their original German context, and anyone interested in Jewish Studies, modern Judaism, or the challenges of modernity more generally will learn a tremendous amount from this thoughtful study." * Leora Batnitzky, Princeton University *"Using an abundance of archival sources absent from the existing literature, Ismar Schorsch presents not only a biography of the most important figure in the nineteenth-century development of the academic study of Judaism but also an unparalleled depiction of his historical context. The book expands our understanding of both Leopold Zunz and modern Jewish Studies." * Michael A. Meyer, Hebrew Union College *

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Book SynopsisBefore Fiddler on the Roof, before The Jazz Singer, there was Deborah, a tear-jerking melodrama about a Jewish woman forsaken by her non-Jewish lover. Within a few years of its 1849 debut in Hamburg, the play was seen on stages across Germany and Austria, as well as throughout Europe, the British Empire, and North America. The German-Jewish elite complained that the playwright, Jewish writer S. H. Mosenthal, had written a drama bearing little authentic Jewish content, while literary critics protested that the play lacked the formal coherence of great tragedy. Yet despite its lackluster critical reception, Deborah became a blockbuster, giving millions of theatergoers the pleasures of sympathizing with an exotic Jewish woman. It spawned adaptations with titles from Leah, the Forsaken to Naomi, the Deserted, burlesques, poems, operas in Italian and Czech, musical selections for voice and piano, a British novel fraudulently marketed in the UniteTrade Review"Deborah and her Sisters is the result of magnificent archival research. It is also clearly a labor of love: the author takes pleasure in the story he tells of a single play's journey, making the book a delight to read . . . Hess's volume is a must-read for those who work in nineteenth-century theater, performance, or especially Jewish Studies, but it also has much to offer a general Victorianist as a case study for the importance of theater in shaping ideas, effecting change, and challenging our settled contemporary notions of aesthetic merit by confronting what many Victorians themselves valued." * Victorian Studies *"An exuberant account of the transnational performance history of a forgotten blockbuster, this book sets a new standard for Jewish cultural studies. By carefully reconstructing the contexts in which Jewish and non-Jewish theater audiences came together to cry over a melodramatic tale of Jewish suffering, Jonathan M. Hess reveals the importance of philosemitism to the nineteenth-century liberal imagination." * Maurice Samuels, Yale University *"Deborah and Her Sisters presents a new and constructively critical approach to the study of philosemitism and to the study of representations of Jews and Jewishness in general. This is cultural studies at its best-in excavating and interpreting a largely forgotten and demonstrably significant theatrical blockbuster, Jonathan M. Hess forces us to rethink key methodological questions and to reevaluate our understanding of an era." * Martha B. Helfer, Rutgers University *

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Book SynopsisIslamist political parties and groups are on the rise throughout the Muslim world, constituting a new political Islam that is global in scope and yet local in action. Emmanuel Karagiannis explains how various Islamists have endorsed human rights, democracy, and justice to gain influence and mobilize supporters.Trade Review"Karagiannis' The New Political Islam is not only an informative reading. It addresses an issue of immediate interest in modern culture, namely an increasing tension between Western philosophy and Islam. Thus, even readers less interested in learning about Islamist groups around the world may be interested to discover how Islam changes and adjusts to the world of today. Furthermore, it is difficult to overestimate the influence of globalization on different countries. However, applying its principles to for the task of understanding the new Political Islam is innovative. In addition, understanding this religion is the best way to avoid the hostility of politicians depicting Islam as the enemy. The New Political Islam helps broaden the reader's horizons." * Political Theology. *"The New Political Islam examines the phenomenon of political Islam and its transformations using the lens of glocalization, a distinct strand of social theory focusing on the processes through which global ideas are adapted, applied, and transformed in local contexts . . . [T]his is a sophisticated, erudite, and illuminating book. It is a necessary read for anyone who wishes to explore the persistent relevance of political developments in the contemporary Islamic world." * Reading Religion *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"This study of the history of pro- and anti-Israel ideas among American Christians from the Colonial period to the present day challenges the stereotypes that often distort discussions of Christian Zionism and offers useful observations about one of the most important political forces in American life." * Foreign Affairs *"Significant and surprising. . . . [God's Country] not only traces the 200 years of scriptural interpretation and evangelical exhortation connecting Adams and Pence but also delves into 200 years of prior British Protestantism that shaped the outlook of the Revolutionary generation." * Commentary *"[A]n ambitious book . . . a highly readable overview of American Christian thought about Israel from the time of the Puritans to the modern period." * Journal of Church and State *"Goldman's book could not be more timely. If you want to understand how the Christian right, once known as anti-Semitic, can now be pro-Zionist, this is the book for you." * Alan Wolfe, Boston College *"God's Country tracks four centuries of a Bible-reading people's thoughts about the people of the Bible. Samuel Goldman tells a fascinating, surprising story." * Richard Brookhiser, author of Founders' Son: A Life of Abraham Lincoln *"A serious and substantial contribution to U.S. intellectual history. Samuel Goldman's careful reading of the relationship between American Protestants and a biblically grounded Zionism not only provides expert understanding of the deeply religious foundation of American Exceptionalism but also forces a reconsideration of the intellectual terrain." * Raymond Haberski, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis *"Drawing from an extensive body of literature that spans several disciplines, Samuel Goldman's God's Country describes the religious and political phenomenon of American Christian Zionism in ways that are accessible to scholars, students, and general readers alike. The book is the best overview we have of this complex and timely topic." * Michael Lienesch, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill *

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Book SynopsisIn Singing in a Foreign Land, Karen A. Weisman examines the uneasy literary inheritance of British cultural and poetic norms by early nineteenth-century Anglo-Jewish authors. Focusing on a range of subgenres, from elegies to pastorals to psalm translations, Weisman shows how the writers she studies engaged with the symbolic resources of English poetry—such as the land of England itself—from which they had been historically alienated.Weisman looks at the self-conscious explorations of lyric form by Emma Lyon; the elegies for members of the British royal family penned by Hyman Hurwitz; the ironic reflections on hybrid identities written by sisters Celia and Marion Moss; and the poems of Grace Aguilar that explicitly join lyric effusion to Jewish historical concerns. These poets were well-versed in both Jewish texts and mainstream literary history, and Weisman argues that they model an extreme example of Romantic self-reflexivity: they implicitly lament their oTrade Review"Singing in Foreign Land has many strengths and will appeal to many kinds of readers, including those with interests in Coleridge and other Romantic poets’ intertextual connections with Jewish writers; those seeking a more diverse view of British Romanticism; those seeking deep and intricate analyses of the major Anglo-Jewish writers of the period; and those with particular interests in Jewish-Christian literary relations...[An] intricate, complex, and wonderfully researched volume." * The Coleridge Bulletin *"Ground-breaking and beautifully written, Singing in a Foreign Land is an extraordinary contribution to our knowledge of religious diversity during the Romantic era. Karen A. Weisman is better equipped than any critic today to give us a fine-tuned picture of Romantic Jewish cultural production, one that refuses to see it as either merely oppositional or conformist." * Mark Canuel, University of Illinois at Chicago *"I know of no other book that covers this ground of Anglo-Jewish Romantic poetry. With her meticulous scholarship and skillful readings, Karen A. Weisman shows how Anglo-Jewish Romantic poets engaged with the inherited traditions of pastoral, elegy, and lyric in a way that has earned them a place in that very tradition." * Judith W. Page, University of Florida *Table of ContentsIntroduction. Hath Not a Jew Chapter 1. Emma Lyon's Spacious Firmament Chapter 2. Mourning, Translation, Pastoral: Hyman Hurwitz Chapter 3. The Early Efforts of Celia and Marion Moss Chapter 4. Grace Aguilar and the Demands of Lyric Coda. Amy Levy's Impossible Modernity Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisIn The Israeli Radical Left, Fiona Wright traces the dramatic as well as the mundane paths taken by radical Jewish Israeli leftwing activists, whose critique of the Israeli state has left them uneasily navigating an increasingly polarized public atmosphere. This activism is manifested in direct action solidarity movements, the critical stances of some Israeli human rights and humanitarian NGOs, and less well-known initiatives that promote social justice within Jewish Israel as a means of undermining the overwhelming support for militarism and nationalism that characterizes Israeli domestic politics. In chronicling these attempts at solidarity with those most injured by Israeli policy, Wright reveals dissent to be a fraught negotiation of activists'' own citizenship in which they feel simultaneously repulsed and responsible.Based on eighteen months of fieldwork, The Israeli Radical Left provides a nuanced account of various kinds of Jewish Israeli antioccupation aTrade Review"In her fine-grained ethnography, Fiona Wright offers a compelling account of the complexities and ambivalences that attend anti-occupation activism in Israel. Beyond its mooring in Israel and Palestine, The Israeli Radical Left is a powerful examination of the ways in which anticolonial politics can become intimately entangled with the colonial logic it opposes." * Rebecca L. Stein, Duke University *"How to act politically and responsibly in an environment that requires complicity with state-sanctioned oppression as part of everyday life may be the ethical dilemma of our time. Fiona Wright takes up the challenge of addressing it and makes major contributions to the fields of political anthropology and the anthropology of ethics. Read this book; it is extraordinary." * Jarrett Zigon, author of A War on People: Drug User Politics and a New Ethics of Community *"In a world increasingly driven by the search for purity in political struggles, Wright carefully and courageously focuses on the complicity and ambiguity intrinsic to ethics and politics. Examining the Israeli Radical Left, who reject the Israeli state while simultaneously being embedded in and affectively formed by it, she explores what politics means for those who desire equality and yet benefit from the privileges of inequality. This book takes the anthropology of ethics and politics into new, important terrain, opening a space for political hope in contamination." * Miriam Ticktin, The New School *"The Israeli Radical Left is a powerful book that offers a refreshing, profound, and important intervention in the literature on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Fiona Wright delves with great sensitivity and a keen critical eye into the imbrication of ethics and politics and the activists' own grappling with complicity as they try (and fail and try and fail and try) to shape the contours of their uncomfortable ethical-political engagement." * Lihi Ben Shitrit, University of Georgia *Table of ContentsA Note on Language Introduction Chapter 1. Performing Complicity Chapter 2. Love, Mourning, and Solidarity Chapter 3. Infiltrators, Refugees, and Other Others Chapter 4. The Violence of Vulnerability Chapter 5. Exiling the Self Conclusion Epilogue Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisWhether forced by governmental decree, driven by persecution and economic distress, or seeking financial opportunity, the Jews of early modern Europe were extraordinarily mobile, experiencing both displacement and integration into new cultural, legal, and political settings. This, in turn, led to unprecedented modes of social mixing for Jews, especially for those living in urban areas, who frequently encountered Jews from different ethnic backgrounds and cultural orientations. Additionally, Jews formed social, economic, and intellectual bonds with mixed populations of Christians. While not necessarily effacing Jewish loyalties to local places, authorities, and customs, these connections and exposures to novel cultural settings created new allegiances as well as new challenges, resulting in constructive relations in some cases and provoking strife and controversy in others.The essays collected by Francesca Bregoli and David B. Ruderman in Connecting Histories show that wTrade Review"Connecting Histories compels historians to think beyond the boundaries of their narrowly defined fields while also demonstrating the value of context that comes from the close study of lives, texts and rituals. Two leading historians of early modern Jewry, Francesca Bregoli and David Ruderman, have compiled an impressive collection of essays that force the reader to consider both the global and local aspects of Jewish history." * European History Quarterly *"Covering a wide range of experience in the Jewish world in terms of geography, economics, class, religious proclivities, languages, and genres, Connecting Histories should be required reading for scholars of early modern Jewish history." * Matt Goldish, The Ohio State University *

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Book SynopsisEstablished in 1969, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is an intergovernmental organization the purpose of which is the strengthening of solidarity among Muslims. Headquartered in Jeddah, the OIC today consists of fifty seven states from the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The OIC''s longevity and geographic reach, combined with its self-proclaimed role as the United Nations of the Muslim world, raise certain expectations as to its role in global human rights politics. However, to date, these hopes have been unfulfilled. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation and Human Rights sets out to demonstrate the potential and shortcomings of the OIC and the obstacles on the paths it has navigated.Historically, the OIC has had a complicated relationship with the international human rights regime. Palestinian self-determination was an important catalyst for the founding of the OIC, but the OIC did not develop a comprehensive human rights approach in its Trade Review"A well designed and executed volume,The Organization of Islamic Cooperation and Human Rights offers a balanced and wide-ranging overview of both important rights issues-such as freedom of expression and the rights of the child-and the varied domains of the OIC's activities, from its participation in the United Nations to its role in resolving conflicts and facilitating foreign aid." * Jack Donnelly, University of Denver *"The Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC), whose member states encompass a quarter of the world's population, is an increasingly important albeit problematic actor in the human rights arena. This volume is a treasure trove of information and reflection on the OIC's human rights practices and policies and an indispensable guide for anyone interested in the international politics of human rights, the role of international human rights institutions, and the relation of Islam to human rights." * Jamie Mayerfeld, University of Washington *"This volume offers a comprehensive accounting of the OIC as a player in the global rights regime. The editors have assembled an impressive roster of well-known and respected contributors who have done thoughtful and careful research on the major topics involving the intersection of human rights and the OIC." * Haider Ala Hamoudi, University of Pittsburgh School of Law *"Exploring the origins and theoretical foundations, as well as the structure and characteristics, of the OIC, this ambitious volume is a timely resource for those who want to acquire a deeper understanding of Muslim politics and human rights." * Emmanuel Karagiannis, King's College, London *Table of ContentsIntroduction —Marie Juul Petersen and Turan Kayaoglu PART I. FOUNDATIONS Chapter 1. Setting the Scene —Anthony Tirado Chase Chapter 2. The Human Rights Agenda of the OIC: Between Pessimism and Optimism —Mashood A. Baderin Chapter 3. The OIC's Human Rights Regime —Turan Kayaoglu PART II. INTERVENTIONS: RIGHTS AND VALUES Chapter 4. The OIC's Human Rights Policies in the UN: A Problem of Coherence —Ann Elizabeth Mayer Chapter 5. The OIC and Freedom of Expression: Justifying Religious Censorship Norms with Human Rights Language —Heini í Skorini Chapter 6. Competing Perceptions: Traditional Values and Human Rights —Moataz El Fegiery Chapter 7. The Position of the OIC on Abortion: Not Too Bad, Ugly, or Just Confusing? —Ioana Cismas Chapter 8. The OIC and Children's Rights —Mahmood Monshipouri and Turan Kayaoglu PART III. INTERSECTIONS: CONFLICTS AND COOPERATION Chapter 9. The OIC and Conflict Resolution: Norms and Practical Challenges —Hirah Azhar Chapter 10. Fragmented Aid: The Institutionalization of the OIC's Foreign Aid Framework —Martin Lestra and M. Evren Tok Chapter 11. Governance of Refugees in the OIC —Zeynep Şahin Mencütek Chapter 12. The OIC and Civil Society Cooperation: Prospects for Strengthened Human Rights Involvement? —Marie Juul Petersen Contributors Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Penned by one of the most prominent writers in the field of Hasidic research, Ariel Evan Mayse’s newest book is a comprehensive work...In this important book, Mayse teaches us a fascinating lesson in perception of Jewish language, and undoubtedly in one of its most significant manifestations in the thought of R. Dov Ber of Mezritsh. " * Tradition *"[T]he first in-depth attempt to elucidate the linguistic theology of Rabbi Dov Ber...[Speaking Infinites] offers a new model that translates theological and metaphysical principles into the praxis of human speech, consequently rethinking classical typologies of devotional life...By elucidating the devotional and ethical implications of the Maggid’s theology, Speaking Infinities closes a gap between Hasidism and the broader intellectual and spiritual world to which Hasidism remains largely a mystery." * Journal of Religion *"Ariel Evan Mayse beautifully captures the complexity and subtlety of Rabbi Dov Ber's thought and illustrates its rich implications. For the first time, the eros and pathos of a seemingly dour and reserved writer are revealed in their compelling array." * Jonathan Garb, The Hebrew University *Table of ContentsPreface A Note on Transliteration and Style Introduction Part I. Foundations Chapter 1. The Life of the Maggid Chapter 2. Sacred Words Chapter 3. From Speech to Silence Part II. The Divine Word Chapter 4. Letters, Creation, and the Divine Mind Chapter 5. The Nature of Torah and Revelation Part III. The Devotional Life Chapter 6. Study and the Sacred Text Chapter 7. The Languages of Prayer Epilogue. Moving Mountains Appendix. The Sources: A Bibliographic Excursus Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Reviewit is impossible to describe or adequately praise the breadth and depth of Jutte’s scholarship and erudition. He has collected data and examples from the widest possible number of sources, with Hasidic legends and Yiddish proverbs nestling comfortably next to quotes from Josephus and advertisements from nineteenth-century German newspapers. * Journal of Medieval Religious Cultures *The overriding impression left on the reader is wonder over the novel aspects of Judaism Jütte has managed to reveal, matched with astonishment at the breadth and depth of his scholarship and of the vast range of source material he has uncovered...The Jewish Body focuses on the most fundamental aspect of life on earth – the human body – in relation to the Jewish religion and practice, an angle of Judaism perhaps too little considered in the past. Jütte’s work is highly original in concept and encyclopedic in scope. It will instruct, amuse and entertain in equal measure. * The Jerusalem Post *A work of exemplary scholarship over a number of languages and cultures, The Jewish Body is a summa summarum of the various debates on body history, race, gender, ethnicity, and nationalism. * Sander Gilman, Emory University *This is a masterful study of all aspects of the notion of the ‘Jewish body’ across the millennia, from biblical to modern times…[T]his is a remarkable, comprehensive, and exceedingly learned work. * Choice *Table of ContentsTranslator's Note Introduction Chapter 1. The Biological Body Chapter 2. The (Un)covered and Altered Body Chapter 3. The Sex of the Body Chapter 4. The Intact Body Chapter 5. The Ailing Body Chapter 6. The Body in Need Chapter 7. The Mortal Body Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisIn Biblical Women and Jewish Daily Life in the Middle Ages, Elisheva Baumgarten seeks a point of entry into the everyday existence of people who did not belong to the learned elite, and who therefore left no written records of their lives. She does so by turning to the Bible as it was read, reinterpreted, and seen by the Jews of medieval Ashkenaz. In the tellings, retellings, and illustrations of biblical stories, and especially of those centered around women, Baumgarten writes, we can find explanations and validations for the practices that structured birth, marriage, and death; women''s inclusion in the liturgy and synagogue; and the roles of women as community leaders, givers of charity, and keepers of the household.Each of the book''s chapters concentrates on a single figure or a cluster of biblical women—Eve, the Matriarchs, Deborah, Yael, Abigail, and Jephthah''s daughter—to explore aspects of the domestic and communal lives of Northern French and GermTrade Review"Ingenious scholarship...Much of Biblical Women will likely resonate with modern readers, including for the ways it illuminates some of our own concerns...Baumgarten’s clear-eyed and painstaking attention to her subjects is an act of true kindness for these long-vanished people. Her book [helps readers] care about them, their lives, and their moral imaginations purely for their own sakes, as all good social history should." * Jewish Review of Books *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"[This book] shows just how much we have missed, and how valuable a fresh perspective on a seemingly well-trodden set of texts can be. . . . In its unassuming way, it urges us to reassess some of our most established habits when reading rabbinic literature, and to be much more courageous, methodologically and analytically, in reading Talmudic texts as literature." * Mira Balberg, in a review of the Hebrew edition *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Blood Inscriptions is a superb contribution to the growing literature on the blood libel in Europe in the modern era. The book is a tour de force of historical research and reasoning that leaves no stone unturned and merits a wide audience...Kieval’s analysis sheds light on the inner workings of the conspiratorial mindset and demonstrates how people may not believe in cabals but nonetheless find them politically expedient." * Quest: Issues in Contemporary Jewish History *"Hillel Kieval’s Blood Inscriptions examines the turn-of-the-century resurgence and decline of anti-Jewish murder libels...[and] sheds new light on the interplay between elite and non-elite knowledge in a new media environment and the role modern state institutions played in responding to and resisting social pressures." * Isis *"Kieval’s cogent new book examines the sudden spate of trials propelled by ritual murder accusations between 1882 and 1902 in Central Europe. This work, the culmination of two decades of research, draws upon interrogation protocols, medical examination reports, trial records, press accounts, polemical tracts, apologetic responses, contemporary reappraisals, and other Czech, German, Hebrew, and Hungarian documents in archives across Europe, Israel, and the United States...Blood Inscriptions is a worthy addition to the extensive scholarship on these trials specifically and on ritual murder accusations more generally." * Central European History *"Blood Inscriptions offers a nuanced and compelling assessment of how and why a medieval religious canard found a receptive home among rational, enlightened, and secular Europeans." * Robert Weinberg, Swarthmore College *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"In a highly personalized way, Amos Morris-Reich unpacks five important episodes where Jewish history and the history of photography come together. For Morris-Reich, photography has changed the world not only by endowing it with better and more accessible images, but also by changing the way people think about certain things—and Jews have been particularly subject to these changes." * Michael Berkowitz, University College London *Table of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1. Utopia and Photography circa 1900: Albert Kahn and the Archives of the Planet Chapter 2. The Boundaries of Photographic Intention: Helmar Lerski’s “Failed” Project Chapter 3. Album of an Extinct Race: Eugen Fischer and Photography Chapter 4. Photography for Its Own Sake: Robert Frank and The Americans Chapter 5. Photography and Rupture: S. An-sky, Solomon Yudovin, and the Documentation of Russian Jewry Conclusion. Photography and Democracy Notes Index

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