Social groups: religious groups and communities Books

Book SynopsisSurah Yusuf, a chapter of the Qur'an (Koran), was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad at a critical juncture of his life. This was the time when he had gone through ten to eleven years of ridicule and rejection in Makkah, a time when he lost his wife and partner, Khadija, a time when he lost his dear uncle Abu Talib. Allah revealed this precious surah to strengthen the Prophet Muhammad’s heart. To remind him that he lives in the footsteps of the great prophets of the past and that Allah’s help and support is there. This surah is full of meaningful messages of patience, reliance on Allah and how to overcome hardship and betrayal. It was also educational, teaching the Prophet Muhammad the answers to queries that were posed to him by the local Jews and Muslims. Finally this surah was a timely morale booster for the Prophet and his companions in a time of need. Yasir Qadhi has clearly divided the surah into related themes, as per the revelations, so that the reader can easily understand and grasp the great wealth of knowledge relayed through this surah to all.

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThis is an important book, combining discussions of large-scale political events with insights into their impact on individual Muslims and Muslim communities. . . . Highly recommended. * Choice *This is an important book for scholars of modern Uzbekistan, and will be a worthwhile addition to student reading lists. It provides a fascinating journalistic account of an important period in modern post-Soviet politics, and will also appeal to general readers interested in the Central Asian region. For students and scholars of Islamist movements, there are also important insights into processes of religious revival and radicalization. -- David Lewis * The Russian Review *

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Book SynopsisThe complete, authoritative edition of Anne Frank''s writings, including her diary in both the ''A'' and ''B'' versions now in continuous form, her further writings and important contextual essaysAnne Frank: The Collected Works brings together for the first time Anne''s world-famous diary, in both the version edited for publication by her father and the more revealing original, together with her letters, essays and important contextual scholarship. Supported by the Anne Frank Foundation in Basel, Switzerland, set up by Otto Frank to be the guardian of Anne''s work, this is a landmark publication marking the anniversary of 90 years since Anne''s birth in 1929. Anne Frank is one of the most recognized and widely read figures of the Second World War. Thousands of people visit the Anne Frank House on the Prinsengracht in Amsterdam each year to see the annex where Anne and her family hid from the Germans before eventually being deported to Auschwitz in 1944.Trade ReviewA magisterial edition ... one of the virtues of The Collected Works is that it allows readers to track the evolution of the diary across its different incarnations ...The Complete Works thus gives a greatly enriched picture, and, as one reads its pages, one cannot help thinking of what Anne might have become. -- Bart van Es, Author of 'The Cut Out Girl' * The Guardian *An astonishing volume contextualising the significance of writing for Anne’s spiritual and practical survival, and inscribing her words in time. * New Statesman *Reveal[s] the German-born Frank as a complex human being, as much aware of her own flaws as of those around her * Wall Street Journal *Anne rewrote her diary with the intention of having it published as a book, entitled The Secret Annexe (Het Achterhuis). While working on her diary, she also wrote some short stories, as well as memories of her school life, and sketches of her family and friends. Published for the first time in The Collected Works, they show a fledgling talent […] We will never know how her writing would have developed. But the diary […] is a remarkable literary achievement. * Times Literary Supplement *Table of ContentsMessage and Legacy: Preface by The Anne Frank Fonds, Basle I THE WRITINGS OF ANNE FRANK THE DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL Foreword The Diary of A Young Girl TALES AND EVENTS FROM THE SECRET ANNEXE Introduction Personal Reminiscences, Daydreams and Essays Fables and Short Stories FURTHER WRITINGS Letters Verses in Friendship Books The Favourite Quotes Notebook The Egypt Book II PHOTOS AND DOCUMENTS III BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT Mirjam Pressler: Anne Frank's Life Mirjam Pressler: The History of Anne Frank's Family Gerhard Hirschfeld: The Contemporary Historical Context Francine Prose: The Publication History of Anne Frank's Diary IV APPENDIX Diary Versions A and B Editorial Note Family Tree: The Franks Chronology Table Further Reading About the Translators Picture Acknowledgements Editorial Note About the Anne Frank Fords

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Yehudah Mirsky’s remarkable new intellectual biography . . . is a must-read as an elixir to the monochromatic times in Israel we are living through now."—Aubrey L. Glazer, The Times of Israel"Yehudah Mirsky’s superb new biography of the great 20th century Jewish philosopher and mystic is a huge achievement. He gives a gripping, panoramic narrative of the arc of Rav Kook’s life, from childhood in a small White Russian village to becoming the first Chief Rabbi of Mandate Palestine, against a vividly rendered backdrop of the tumultuous history of Kook’s times."—Julian Sinclair, Jewish Chronicle"Superb . . . gripping, panoramic . . . vividly rendered . . . Combines scholarly balance with wonder . . . All this in clear, elegant and at times beautiful English."—The Jewish ChronicleWon the Choice Award as runner-up for the 2016 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, given to the best work of Jewish nonfiction published within the past two years. The Rohr and Choice prizes are coordinated and administered under the auspices of the Jewish Book Council. The Choice Award is given biennially. The author receives $25,000.Finalist for the 2016 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature“Moving, invaluable, and indispensable . . . As a biography, Rav Kook: Mystic in a Time of Revolution is literature in its own right; and as a historical document, it startles with revelation after revelation.”—Cynthia Ozick "I am overwhelmed. There is a complete-ness to this book, as if Yehudah Mirsky has been able to pour all his knowledge of Judaism into it. If anything can be called spiritual, it is the writing style of this book. It reads like a life work - not just of the subject but of the author. It reveals a beautiful soul."—Robert D. Kaplan, author of In Europe’s Shadow: Two Cold Wars and a Thirty-Year Journey Through Romania and Beyond "Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, was one of the most important Jewish religious thinkers of modern times - and indisputably the most influential in Israel - yet biographic studies of him in any language, and English studies in general, have been sorely lacking. Yehudah Mirsky’s volume instantly becomes the go-to life and thought of this revolutionary, conservative, radical, traditional, messianic, reality affirming, richly dialectical thinker. The book is written with authority and clarity and is a pleasure to read. Mirsky writes with literary grace and sensitivity, nuance and complexity without losing clarity and focus. Mirsky’s mastery of traditional texts enriches his deep reading of Kook's writings even as his rigorous academic method enables his scholarly lucidity, on Kook’s extraordinary life and oeuvre and the complex afterlife of his teachings. All this and more are captured by Mirsky with restraint, understatement, irony and wisdom."—Rabbi Irving (Yitz) Greenberg, theologian, past professor of Jewish Studies at City College of the City University of New York; President Emeritus of CLAL: The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership"Yehudah Mirsky’s lively and clarifying book presents this great-souled rabbi in all his startling richness, and responsibly introduces its readers to one of the most influential and misread figures in modern Jewish thought. This is a significant contribution to the history of Jewish ideas – and also to contemporary debates about the Jewish religion and the Jewish state, because the best and the worst of Israeli Judaism may be traced back to the dissonant strains, by turns tolerant and jingoist, in Kook’s profoundly original writings."—Leon Wieseltier"This volume is the most extensive personal and intellectual biography of Rav Kook in English—and, to use Rav Kook’s beloved imagery, it sheds a great deal of light. Rich in insights and studded with previously neglected or unknown historical details, the book moves through Rav Kook’s life and writings in a way that both makes his ideas accessible and provides a sorely needed context for the various stages of his thought. Mirsky does not shy away from critique. Both scholars and the general public will profit immensely from this book."—David Shatz, Professor of Philosophy, Yeshiva University, editor Torah u-Madda Journal

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Book SynopsisResonating as profoundly today as when it was first published to widespread critical acclaim a decade ago, God’s Crucible is a bold portrait of Islamic Spain and the birth of modern Europe from one of our greatest historians. David Levering Lewis’s narrative, filled with accounts of some of the most epic battles in world history, reveals how cosmopolitan, Muslim al-Andalus flourished—a beacon of cooperation and tolerance—while proto-Europe floundered in opposition to Islam, making virtues out of hereditary aristocracy, religious intolerance, perpetual war and slavery. This masterful history begins with the fall of the Persian and Roman empires, followed by the rise of the prophet Muhammad and five centuries of engagement between the Muslim imperium and an emerging Europe. Essential and urgent, God’s Crucible underscores the importance of these early, world-altering events whose influence remains as current as today’s headlines.

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Book SynopsisThis is the first full treatment of Jewish childhood in the Roman world. It follows minors into the spaces where they lived, learned, played, slept, and died and examines the actions and interaction of children with other children, with close-kin adults, and with strangers, both inside and outside the home. A wide range of sources are used, from the rabbinic rules to the surviving painted representations of children from synagogues, and due attention is paid to broader theoretical issues and approaches. Hagith Sivan concludes with four beautifully reconstructed ''autobiographies'' of specific children, from a boy living and dying in a desert cave during the Bar-Kokhba revolt to an Alexandrian girl forced to leave her home and wander through the Mediterranean in search of a respite from persecution. The book tackles the major questions of the relationship between Jewish childhood and Jewish identity which remain important to this day.Table of ContentsPart I. Theories: 1. Theorizing the Jewish child; 2. Vagaries of childhood: from cradles to graves; 3. Bringing up boys; 4. Daughters: delight or dissension?; 5. Burdened at birth: the misbegotten and the malformed; Part II. Children in the Synagogue: 6. Visualizing the bible; 7. The painted children of the Dura Europos Synagogue; Part III. Autobiographies: 8. Sukkot in a cave (CE 135); 9. Passover in the port of Rome (Ostia c. CE 175); 10. Sabbath in Tiberias (c. 300); 11. The birth of a wandering Jewess (c. CE 415–435); Conclusion: the invention of Rabbinic childhood.

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Book SynopsisIn-depth study of diverse Shi'a groups, from Iraq to Aghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon and Senegal, and their relations with Iran. Contributors include Olivier Roy, Alessandro Monsutti, Joseph Alagha, Kinda Chaib, Thierry Zarcone, Mara A. Leichtman, Pierre-Jean Luizard, Peter Harling and Mariam Abou Zahab.

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Book SynopsisThis book makes the bold claim that intellectual sophistication was born worldwide during the middle centuries of the first millennium bce. From Axial Age thinkers we inherited a sense of the world as a place not just to experience but to investigate, envision, and alter. A variety of utopian visions emerged and led to both reform and repression.Trade ReviewWith eighteen leading multidisciplinary scholars, this volume covers enormous ground in the transformative beginnings for civilizations that shared cultural origins in the mid-first millennium BC in Europe and Asia. Extending the insight of existential philosopher Karl Jaspers regarding the 'Axial Age' and its later evolution to 'multiple modernities,' The Axial Age and Its Consequences, superbly edited by Hans Joas and Robert Bellah, is a must-read for contemporary comparative-historical sociological analyses in our own global age. -- Edward A. Tiryakian, author of For Durkheim: Essays in Historical and Cultural SociologyThe Axial Age, the epic moment around the 6th century BCE which saw the intellectual outburst that engendered the major world religions, has enjoyed an upsurge of scholarly attention in the past generation. Great themes demand great voices, and editors Bellah and Joas have assembled a remarkable choral ensemble for a score organized to address fundamental questions about Axiality and its comparative manifestations, destructive possibilities, current status, and implications for the future. I can think of no compendium in the past generation that measures up to the quality and significance of this volume. -- Donald Levine, University of ChicagoHighly recommended for readers of Bellah's Religion in Human Evolution and students of religious philosophy and evolutionary sociology. -- Brian Odom * Library Journal *

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Book SynopsisAn updated edition showcasing the social health of the least religious nations in the worldReligious conservatives around the world often claim that a society without a strong foundation of faith would necessarily be an immoral one, bereft of ethics, values, and meaning. Indeed, the Christian Right in the United States has argued that a society without God would be hell on earth. In Society without God, Second Edition sociologist Phil Zuckerman challenges these claims. Drawing on fieldwork and interviews with more than 150 citizens of Denmark and Sweden, among the least religious countries in the world, he shows that, far from being inhumane, crime-infested, and dysfunctional, highly secular societies are healthier, safer, greener, less violent, and more democratic and egalitarian than highly religious ones. Society without God provides a rich portrait of life in a secular society, exploring how a culture without faith copes with death, grapples with the meaning of life, and remainTrade ReviewZuckerman has been at the forefront of the growing field of Secular Studies for the best part of two decades. From Society Without God, it's easy to see why: beautifully written and engaging, drawing on both deep scholarship and an insightful mind. This is classic Zuckerman. -- Stephen Bullivant, Professor of Theology and the Sociology of Religion, St Mary's University, UK

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Book SynopsisThis work, written towards the end of Al-Ghazali's career as a philosopher, advances the idea that reason can serve as a connection between the devout and God. Exploring the boundary between philosophy and theology, it seeks to understand the role of reality in the perception of the spiritual.

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Book SynopsisWritten in prose but with a verse-like flavor, this book is a collection of maxims by Bediuzzaman Said Nursi. Very concisely articulated, these maxims expound on the key discussions of the Risale-I Nur collection; thus it is considered in a sense an index to the collection, which was written years later than this book.

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Book SynopsisPacked full of information, this book offers a unique and indispensable insight into the origins and operations of IS. Atwan, a well-known Arab journalist and expert on extremist groups, had exclusive access to militants close to IS and his findings are based on interviews with jihadists who were in the same cell as Baghdadi.Trade Review'This is a brave and important book. It lifts the lid on how Islamic State combines an ideology of 1,000 years ago with the use of 21st century information technology to spread its messages. If you want to understand what motivates those prepared to behead hostages and post the results on the internet, then this book is a must-read.' Gavin Esler; 'Abdel Bari Atwan is one of the leading analysts in the world on the modern Middle East. In his new book on ISIS he delivers a uniquely informed, crisply argued and excellent account of the world's most powerful terrorist organization.' Peter Bergen, author of Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for bin Laden from 9/11 to Abbottabad; 'Thank heavens we have writers such as Atwan - who knew the real Bin Laden better than any other journalist' Robert Fisk, Independent; 'An extraordinarily gifted, experienced and knowledgeable analyst of Arab affairs' Ann Leslie, Daily Mail; 'In this comprehensive and well-researched book, Abdel Bari Atwan, perhaps one of the Arab world's most distinguished commentators, has thrown considerable light on the IS phenomenon, explaining its origins, leadership and organisation ... Atwan's unique contribution is the detail he provides relating to the use of digital technology ... This outstanding book tells us how it all started.' Business Standard; 'Middle East expert Abdel Bari Atwan explains exactly how IS propagandists and recruiters use the necromancy of the "dark web" to overcome our attempts to stop them.' Hugh Prysor-Jones, The TabletTable of ContentsIntroduction; 1. Masters of the Digital Universe; 2. The Origins - Part One: Iraq; 3. The Origins - Part Two: The Taliban, al-Qa'ida and IS; 4. The Origins - Part Three: Syria; 5. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi: A Portrait of 'Caliph Ibrahim'; 6. Consolidation and Expansion; 7. Within Islamic State; 8. The Management of Savagery; 9. The Caliph's Foreign Fighters; 10. A Dangerous Game: The West's Attempts to Exploit Radical Islam; 11. Saudi Arabia, Wahhabism and Islamic State; Conclusion; Acknowledgements; Notes; Index

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Book SynopsisThe first book to draw a blueprint for defeating al-Qaeda on ideological rather than military grounds.Trade ReviewMichael W. S. Ryan's illumination of the ideology and strategy of al-Qaeda as seen in the writings of its key theoreticians is unique and valuable. This is an important and insightful book that provides both new information on al-Qaeda and new commentary on its strategy and how to defeat it. -- Bruce Riedel, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution Osama bin Laden is dead, al-Qaeda 'prime' in Pakistan is decimated, and yet the anti-Western jihad continues as extremism erupts in Yemen, Libya, Syria, Algeria, and elsewhere. Unless we can match our tactical successes with strategic progress, we seem condemned to endless war. Thankfully, Ryan shows us a way forward in his thoughtful, non-polemic analysis of this enemy's doctrine and motivation-the essential first step in combating not just its actions but also its ideas. This book is a blueprint for taking our fight to the next level. -- General Michael Hayden, former director of the CIA A highly readable account of the evolution of al-Qaeda's strategic thinking. Drawing upon existing scholarship and new primary sources, Ryan offers not only a lucid expose of al-Qaeda's key strategic thinkers and their works but also new insight into the logic and rationale informing al-Qaeda's violent campaigns. -- Brynjar Lia, Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, author of Architect of Global Jihad: The Life of Al-Qaeda Strategist Abu Mus'ab Al-Suri Knowledge of the enemy is essential in any conflict, and Ryan delivers. His analysis of al-Qaeda's theology, strategy, tactics, and ability to marshal support even among people who disapprove of its methods is timely, well written,deeply researched, and ultimately reassuring. -- Thomas W. Lippman, author of Saudi Arabia on the Edge An outstanding and unique contribution that examines al-Qaeda's strategy against the US... Highly recommended. ChoiceTable of ContentsNote on Transliteration Acknowledgments Introduction 1. The Historical Roots of al-Qaeda's Ideology 2. The Leadership Inspires a New Strategy 3. Jihad as Revolution 4. An Action Plan for Savagery 5. The Jihadist Legacy of Abu Mus'ab al-Suri Conclusion: What It All Means Appendix 1: Translation of "Revolutionary Wars" Appendix 2: Translation of "Fourth-Generation Warfare" Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisAn illuminating new biography of the connoisseur who changed the art world and the way we see artTrade Review"A highly sympathetic and graceful portrait of Bernard Berenson, the art connoisseur and dealer who remade himself into a work of art, priced and priceless, which he protected, cultivated, and even at times bartered: Rachel Cohen's Bernard Berenson is an illuminating tale of this self-transformation, its successes and pitfalls, told with stalwart compassion."--Brenda Wineapple, author of Ecstatic Nation: Confidence, Crisis, and Compromise, 1848-1877 -- Brenda Wineapple"An insightful, richly detailed account of Bernard Berenson’s brilliant transformation from an immigrant Jew and son of a tin peddler into a connoisseur of Italian Renaissance painting and a dealer in secret partnership with Joseph Duveen. With the keen gaze that Berenson brought to a picture, Rachel Cohen analyzes his high-wire act of self-invention against the glittering, aristocratic, anti-Semitic world of art collecting."--Cynthia Saltzman -- Cynthia Saltzman"Cohen draws a psychological portrait of a man guided by passionate aesthetic ideals and tortured by the compromises in the world of commerce that he felt compelled to make. . . . If you live in an American city, there's a good chance that you can go to a museum today and see an exquisite Sienese Madonna, or a Venetian Holy Family, or a Florentine portrait. You have Berenson—and his collector-acolytes—to thank."—Hugh Eakin, Wall Street Journal -- Hugh Eakin * Wall Street Journal *"The most dynamic biography yet of the groundbreaking art historian Bernard Berenson...Cohen investigates Berenson’s contradictions, metamorphoses, and dramatically unconventional life with vivacious authority. . . . Cohen deftly channels the sweeping intensity of Berenson’s aesthetic ecstasy, hard-won expertise, surprising adventures, and vital legacy.”—Booklist, Starred Review * Booklist, Starred Review *"In her remarkable biography, Cohen approaches Berenson's life as a panorama full of artifice and profundity, whose brilliant flashes of color are inextricable from its substrates of shadow. The book leaves an indelible impression, not merely in the way it catalogues Berenson's accomplishments and failings, but also in its dissection of the struggle between desire and alienation that characterizes American art—and life—to this day."—Thomas Micchelli, Bookforum -- Thomas Micchelli * Bookforum *Book of the Week“[As] Rachel Cohen, the author of this elegantly written biography. . . .nicely puts it, Berenson was ‘a person whose capacity for metamorphosis approached that of a moth.’”—Martin Gayford, The Sunday Telegraph -- Martin Gayford * The Sunday Telegraph *“Rachel Cohen’s unobtrusively and thoroughly well written short volume skilfully negotiates the contradictory sides of Berenson’s character – the aesthete and the huckster; the man who lived only for art and the man who very much liked to surround himself with the appurtenances of wealth.”—Sam Leith, The Spectator -- Sam Leith * The Spectator *“Rachel Cohen has written an admirable short life...[and] a touching portrait”—James Stourton, Literary Review -- James Stourton * Literary Review *"Berenson's extraordinary and colorful life—from his humble birth in Lithuania, to Harvard and thence to his august and influential position as a critic and art historian, to the renowned splendor of his Florentine villa I Tatti—makes a rich and compelling subject. Ms. Cohen's remarkable book affords the occasion also for rumination upon self-invention and authenticity, upon the making of the man, and of taste, too."—Claire Messud, Wall Street Journal -- Claire Messud * Wall Street Journal *“Rachel Cohen who has written an extremely thoughtful and readable biography of Berenson”—Charles Saumarez-Smith, Apollo Magazine -- Charles Saumarez-Smith * Apollo Magazine *Chosen as a highly recommended book by the Boston Authors Club in 2014. -- Honorable Mention * Boston Authors Club *"An absorbing new biography."—Jewish Daily Forward * Jewish Daily Forward *‘This book proves to be a remarkably balanced treatment of a profoundly complicated and compelling life.’—Robert Simon, Burlington Magazine -- Robert Simon * Burlington Magazine *"An irresistibly readable and accessible account of this complicated character, who could be by turns brilliant and petty, generous toward others and scornful of himself, an inveterate philanderer and a staunch husband."—Ann Landl, ARTnews -- Ann Landl * ARTnews *Shortlisted for the 2015 Jewish Quarterly Wingate Prize 2014 -- Wingate Prize * Jewish Quarterly *

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Book SynopsisOn December 18, 1499, the Muslims in Granada revolted against the Christian city government's attempts to suppress their rights to live and worship as followers of Islam. Although the Granada riot was a local phenomenon that was soon contained, subsequent widespread rebellion provided the Christian government with an excuseor justification, as its leaders saw thingsto embark on the systematic elimination of the Islamic presencefrom Spain, as well as from the Iberian Peninsula as a whole, over the next hundred years. Picking up at the end of his earlier classic study, Islamic Spain, 1250 to 1500 which described the courageous efforts of the followers of Islam to preserve their secular, as well as sacred, culture in late medieval SpainL. P. Harvey chronicles here the struggles of the Moriscos. These forced converts to Christianity lived clandestinely in the sixteenth century as Muslims, communicating in aljamiado Spanish written in Arabic characters. More broadly, Muslims in Spain, 150

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Book SynopsisBetween Dignity and Despair draws on the extraordinary memoirs, diaries, interviews, and letters of Jewish women and men to give us the first intimate portrait of Jewish life in Nazi Germany. Kaplan tells the story of Jews in Germany not from the hindsight of the Holocaust, nor from the vantage of the persecutors, but from the bewildered and ambiguous perspective of Jews trying to navigate their daily lives in a world that was becoming more and more insane. Answering the charge that Jews should have left earlier, Kaplan shows that far from seeming inevitable, the Holocaust was impossible to foresee precisely because Nazi repression occurred in irregular and unpredictable stepsuntil the massive violence of Novemer 1938. Then the flow of emigration turned into a torrent, only to be stopped by the war. By that time Jews had been evicted from their homes, robbed of their possessions and their livelihoods, shunned by their former friends, persecuted by their neighbors, anddriven inTrade Review"This is a devastatingly powerful book. By vividly illustrating how the Holocaust began with seemingly inconsequential acts of humiliation, Kaplan offers readers a message of contemporary relevance."--The New York Times Book Review "Fascinating....Kaplan works at the intersection of Holocaust history and women's studies."--The Philadelphia Inquirer "An exceptional Holocaust study."--Kirkus Reviews "An innovative and suggestive exploration of a surprisingly neglected piece of Jewish history."--Publishers Weekly "Kaplan's gendered approach is of considerable methodological interest. She distinguishes between the experience of Jewish women and men because, in her words, being male or female mattered. Kaplan makes an interesting distinction between the fate of Jewish men and women."--Review Essays "An excellent description of the life--and death--of Jews in the Third Reich. It is especially compelling for the period after Kristallnacht."--Marvin Schwartz, University of Massachusetts, Amherst "My students got a lot out of this book. They said that it made them understand what it felt like to be Jewish in the 1930s. The 'social history' was easy to digest, and the book is clear in its goals and objectives."--Chet Defonso, Northern Michigan University "Pioneering....Kaplan's book is provoking when she writes about women's perspectives, attitudes and feelings."--Los Angeles Times Book Review "An intimate portrait of Jewish life in Nazi Germany. Relying on a host of memoirs, letters and interviews, she paints a deeply moving picture of German Jewry. She pays particular--though not exclusive--attention to women's voices. Well aware the Holocaust history, by underemphasizing women, has transformed the male experience into the universal experience, Kaplan is intent on telling a more nuanced story....This is a devastatingly powerful book. By vividly illustrating how the Holocaust began with seemingly inconsequential acts of humiliation, Kaplan offers readers a message of contemporary relevance."--The New York Times Book Review "An intimate reconstruction, built from memoirs, letters, and interviews, of endless humiliations, from stupid to atrocious."--The New York Times Book Review, A Notable Book of 1998 "Marion A. Kaplan's Between Dignity and Despair insists on gender as an indispesable category of analysis in understanding the Holocaust....Especially fascinating is Kaplan's chapter on 'The Daily Lives of Jewish Children.' Kaplan also writes well on the pressures applied to 'mixed families,' in which Jews were married to 'Aryans.'"--The Philadelphia Inquirer "This is a significant milestone in Jewish women's history and a substantial contribution to the history of the Third Reich and the Holocaust....Kaplan...writes with enormous sensitivity and many passages...are intensely moving. This study which utilizes many original and neglected sources, fills a gap....[It] will appeal to more than an audience of historians."--Award citation for the Fraenkel Prize of the Wiener Library, London (written by Prof. David Cesarani, Director, Institute of Contemporary History and Wiener Library, London) "A gripping account of the everyday life of Jews under conditions of isolation and persecution, focusing especially on the responses of women, as gathered from memoirs and letters. An empathetic reconstruction of the ambiguities of that ever-darkening life where the end was unimaginable. A work of humane scholarship, nuanced and written with lucid restraint, free of simplistic answers, by a seasoned historian. An essential corrective to so much ignorant misinterpretation about Jewry and Nazism."--Fritz Stern, Professor Emeritus, Columbia University "Of all the descriptions of Jewish life in Germany during the Nazi era, this is probably the most complete as well as the most poignant and sensitive one. Marion Kaplan has written an outstanding book."--Saul Friedlander, Professor of History at Tel Aviv University and UCLA "Writing compassionately from a gender perspective, Kaplan provides us with an intimate account of what it meant to be a Jewish woman, man, or child forced to react to Nazi brutality. Gender roles were often reversed and even children played heroic roles in their families. Thus Kaplan investigates not the perpetrators nor the organized response of German Jewry to Nazi persecution but the inner sanctum Jewish life. In a unique way she gives us the victims eye view of Nazi barbarism, the tormenting personal feelings and the voices of Jews struggling for escape and survival as the noose tightened around them."--Monika Richarz "Exceptional...[A] major addition to Holocaust studies."--Kirkus Reviews "An innovative and suggestive exploration of a surprisingly neglected piece of Jewish history."--Publishers Weekly "In her vivid new book Marion Kaplan takes us inside the German Jewish family as the Hitler regime went about destroying their world. She shows us the surprising dynamics of Jewish life as men and women made different assessments of the urgency of their situation. Her subtle and insightful appraisal gives us a new way of examining the old and vexed question: `Why didn't they leave?' Kaplan then follows the history of those who remained, telling through their own words the bewildering and horrifying events that led to the destruction of the German Jewish community. Her recreation of those last years is unforgettable."--Peter Gay

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Book SynopsisA penetrating study of the Holocaust in UkraineTrade ReviewThe introduction to the volume asks several open questions and makes clear that the intention of the book is to lay the ground for further research on the Shoah in Ukraine within the framework of Holocaust studies. . . This reflects both the circumstance that research on the Shoah in Ukraine as a whole is still only beginning, and the marginalized status of Holocaust remembrance in Ukraine, too. To give the memory of the victims and the acknowledgement of collaboration on Ukrainian soil a future frame, a Ukrainization of the discourse, the aim of the volume being discussed here, is definitely appropriate. * H-Judaic *This book is groundbreaking, but as the co-editors admit in their Introduction, 'a comprehensive history of the Holocaust in the Ukraine as a whole still has not been written'. . . . Thanks to its rich documentation and clearly written, nuanced contributions, The Shoah in Ukraine is an innovative and interdisciplinary contribution that serves as an essential step in that direction by drawing on history, memory studies, and political science. * German Studies Review *[This] volume is a significant contribution to our understanding of the Holocaust as it took place in Ukraine. * Harvard Ukrainian Studies *The Shoah in Ukraine sheds light on the critical themes of perpetration, collaboration, Jewish-Ukrainian relations, testimony, rescue, and Holocaust remembrance in Ukraine. * Shofar *A useful introduction to a very complex topic, but it also highlights the work remaining for scholars in Ukraine and elsewhere and the continuing need for further international scholarly collaboration.Vol. 68.3 July 2009 -- Sean Martin * Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio *Deserving special note are Timothy Snyder's chapter on Volhynian Jewry for its elegant and diligent use of both general and Jewish sources; and Karel C. Berkhoff 's sensitive analysis of the various testimonies of Dina Pronicheva, who survived the nightmarish Babi Yar massacre. Omer Bar-Tov concludes the book with an overview of how the Jewish facets of Eastern Galicia's history are systematically ignored and erased by Ukrainians in whose historical consciousness there is no room for how Jews lived and were murdered in a region that was a center of Jewish culture and religion.Summer 5769/2009 * Jewish Book World *An excellent volume that approaches the Holocaust in Ukraine from a variety of angles. . . . Highlights the complexity of the 'Final Solution' in Ukraine.April 2009 -- Jeff Rutherford * Wheeling Jesuit University *Bitter memories and the specter of the Holocaust continue to haunt Jewish-Ukrainian relations. . . . Only a full admission of the disturbing facts of the past and a full respect for the perpetuation of the memory of the former Jewish communities may at least partly exorcise the guilt and open a new page [in their] mutual relations. Perhaps this book may serve as one of the guiding lights in this direction. * Jerusalem Post *[This] collection contains an interesting mix of general overviews and more specific case studies written by the experts in their field. . . . [I]t is very helpful to have these different approaches in one volume, which represents an excellent introduction to the questions surrounding the Holocaust in Ukraine. Vol. 89, No. 2, April 2011 * Slavonic and East European Review *Written by experts in their fields and accompanied by excellent maps and illustrations, all chapters and the editors' introduction are of very high quality. . . . this volume lays the groundwork for all further study of the Holocaust in Ukraine.Vol. 24.1 2010 -- Helmut Langerbein * University of Texas at Brownsville *This is a really important Holocaust anthology, and essential reading for all scholars and students in serach of the most up-to-date research and interpretation of the Nazi—and indeed subaltern—killing fields in the Ukraine. Vol. 13:3 * Journal of Genocide Research *It represents easily the most detailed and sophisticated survey of the Holocaust in Ukraine that we possess... [A] major contribution to Holocaust historiography.2010, Volume 24 * Jewish History *[This book] . . . represents a major contribution to Holocaust historiography.Jan. 9, 2010 online -- Dan Stone * Royal Holloway, University of London, London, UK *Rarely have I read an anthology that is of such consistently high quality. . . . The writing is almost uniformly excellent and the production by Indiana University Press is of the highest quality. . . . The editors have produced a riveting volume that should attract wide scholarly and general audiences.Spring 2010 * Slavic Review *This collection is a worthy enterprise that offers new insights into the Holocaust on the territory of contemporary Ukraine. . . . The investigation of the Holocaust in Ukraine, as well as in Belarus to the north where some 900,000 Jews died, is finally under way.Feb. 2010 -- DAVID R. MARPLES * University of Alberta *Table of ContentsList of MapsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction / Ray Brandon and Wendy Lower1. The Murder of Ukraine's Jews under German Military Administration and in the Reich Commissariat Ukraine / Dieter Pohl2. The Life and Death of Western Volhynian Jewry, 1921-1945 / Timothy Snyder3. Shades of Grey: Reflections on Jewish-Ukrainian and German-Ukrainian Relations in Galicia / Frank Golczewski4. Transnistria and the Romanian Solution to the "Jewish Problem" / Dennis Deletant5. Annihilation and Labor: Jews and Thoroughfare IV in Central Ukraine / Andrej Angrick6. "In him lies the weight of the entire administration": Nazi Civilian Rulers and the Holocaust in Zhytomyr / Wendy Lower7. Soviet Ethnic Germans and the Holocaust in the Reich Commissariat Ukraine, 1941-1944 / Martin Dean8. Jewish Losses in Ukraine, 1941-1944 / Alexander Kruglov9. Dina Pronicheva's Story of Surviving the Babi Yar Massacre: German, Jewish, Soviet, Russian, and Ukrainian Records / Karel C. Berkhoff10. White Spaces and Black Holes: Eastern Galicia's Past and Present / Omer BartovMap SourcesSelected Supplemental BibliographyContributorsIndex

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Book SynopsisIntends to ask why the Jews have aroused such hatred for three thousand years. This title considers whatever in the Jewish character might be to blame for antisemitism. It looks outward to those nations among which the Israelites dispersed, examining the different faces of antisemitism from Greco-Roman antiquity to the end of the 19th century.

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Book SynopsisIn non-democratic regimes around the world, non-state organizations provide millions of citizens with medical care, schooling, childrearing, and other critical social services. Why would any authoritarian countenance this type of activism? Under what conditions does the private provision of social services generate political mobilization? And in those cases, what linkage does the provision of social services forge between the provider and recipient?In Winning Hearts and Votes, Steven Brooke argues that authoritarians often seek to manage moments of economic crisis by offloading social welfare responsibilities to non-state providers. But providers who serve poorer citizens, motivated by either charity of clientelism, will be constrained in their ability to mobilize voters because the poor depend on the state for many different goods. Organizations that serve paying customers, in contrast, may produce high quality, consistent, and effective services. This type of provisiTrade Review"Steven Brooke’s book will sit comfortably on the shelf next to several recent classics in the political science literature by Egyptian specialists, and will be discussed alongside those by many." -- Daniel Corstange, Assistant Professor of Political Science and International and Public Affairs, Columbia University"Winning Hearts and Votes is a tour de force. Steven T. Brooke’s historical research is sublime, and he makes important and concrete interventions on a number of topics to students and researchers within political science and the field of Egypt studies. This book will be the definitive account on this topic for years to come." -- Joshua Stacher, Associate Professor of Political Science, Kent State University"In his study of the Egyptian Islamic Medical Association, Steven Brooke asks why authoritarian regimes allow non-state actors to provide services and how service delivery builds support for the Islamist opposition. This highly engaging book breaks new ground on a critically important topic." -- Melani Cammett, Clarence Dillon Professor of International Affairs, Harvard University"In this dazzling study of healthcare provision by a religiously conservative party in Egypt, Steven Brooke convinces us that service provision does not buy votes so much as it buys esteem. This is a model of empirical sophistication and precision and brings the Egyptian case into dialogue with broader literature on political parties and clientelism. This is comparative politics of the first rank." -- Tarek Masoud, Harvard University, and author of Counting IslamTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Note on Transliteration 1. Social Services and Political Mobilization in Nondemocratic Regimes 2. Middle-Class Provision, Reputation, and Electoral Success 3. Rebuilding the Brotherhood Brand 4. Inside the Islamist Advantage 5. The Political Geography of Islamist Social Service Provision 6. Electing to Serve 7. Mohammed Morsi's Machine 8. The Politics of Social Service Provision Appendix Notes Works Cited Index

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Book Synopsis"Encourages us to see historic Christianity as but one expression of a universalistic potential in Jewish monotheism... In a fruitful career not yet nearly over, Border Lines, the culmination of many years of work, may well remain Daniel Boyarin's masterpiece."-Jack Miles, CommonwealTrade Review"Encourages us to see historic Christianity as but one expression of a universalistic potential in Jewish monotheism. . . . In a fruitful career not yet nearly over, Border Lines, the culmination of many years of work, may well remain Daniel Boyarin's masterpiece." * Jack Miles, Commonweal *"Boyarin's book challenges the ordinary usage of the terms 'Judaism' and 'Christianity' and juxtaposes the formation of orthodoxy as it is formulated within rabbinic tradition and among Christians of the patristic period. His bold thesis will no doubt prove controversial and important." * Elaine Pagels, author of Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas *"Boyarin proposes that by constructing the categories of religious orthodoxy and heresy, second-century Gentile Christians created the concept of religion which pervades the Western world to this day. The work is intensely provocative and innovative and is destined to take its proper place as a modern classic among Boyarin's previous works." * Shofar *Table of ContentsPreface: Interrogate My Love List of Abbreviations Chapter 1. Introduction PART I. MAKING A DIFFERENCE: THE HERESIOLOGICAL BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY AND JUDAISM Chapter 2. Justin's Dialogue with the Jews: The Beginnings of Orthodoxy Chapter 3. Naturalizing the Border: Apostolic Succession in the Mishna PART II. THE CRUCIFIXION OF THE LOGOS: HOW LOGOS THEOLOGY BECAME CHRISTIAN Chapter 4. The Intertextual Birth of the Logos: The Prologue to John as a Jewish Midrash Chapter 5. The Jewish Life of the Logos: Logos Theology in Pre- and Pararabbinic Judaism Chapter 6. The Crucifixion of the Memra: How the Logos Became Christian PART III. SPARKS OF THE LOGOS: HISTORICIZING RABBINIC RELIGION Chapter 7. The Yavneh Legend of the Stammaim: On the Invention of the Rabbis in the Sixth Century Chapter 8. "When the Kingdom Turned to Minut": The Christian Empire and the Rabbinic Refusal of Religion Concluding Political Postscript: A Fragment Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE 2016 JEWISH BOOK COUNCIL AWARD FOR CONTEMPORARY JEWISH LIFE AND PRACTICEAn inspiring and accessible guide, drawn from Jewish wisdom, for building the inner qualities necessary to work effectively for social justice.The world needs changing—and you’re just the person to do it!  It’s a matter of cultivating the inner resources you already have. If you are serious about working for social justice and change, this book will help you bring your most compassionate, wise, and courageous self to the job. Bringing positive social change to any system takes deep self-awareness, caring, determination, and long-term commitment. But polarization, the slow pace of change, and internal conflicts among activists and organizations often leads to burnout and discouragement among the very people needed to make a difference. Changing the World from the Inside Out distills centuries of Jewish wisdom about cultivating and refining the inner life into an accessible program for building the qualities necessary to accomplish sustainable change. Through explorations of deep motivation, inner-drive, and traits like trust and anger, this book engages the reader in a journey of self-development and transformation, demonstrating that sustainable activism is indeed a spiritual practice. Jaffe offers accessible and meaningful guidance for this journey—with exercises, contemplations, and discussion points that can be used individually or in a group.

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Book SynopsisThis is the first book to tell the story of the Jews of Lebanon in the twentieth century. It challenges the prevailing view that Jews everywhere in the Middle East were second-class citizens, and were persecuted after the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. The Jews of Lebanon were just one of Lebanon's 23 minorities with the same rights and privileges, and subject to the same political tensions. The author discusses the Jewish presence in Lebanon under Ottoman Rule; Lebanese Jews under the French mandate; Lebanese Jewish identity after the establishment of the State of Israel; the increase of the community through Syrian refugees; the Jews' position in the first civil war; their involvement in the exfiltration of Syrian Jews; the beginning of their exodus after the 1967 War; the virtual extinction of the Jewish community as a result of the prolonged 1975 second civil war and the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon; and finally the community's memory of their Lebanese past.Trade Review"An outstanding sociopolitical history of the Jewish community of Lebanon. Highly recommended..." -- Choice"Dr Schulze succeeds in placing the Jewish community in the broader context of Lebanese and Middle Eastern politics, and makes a highly significant and substantive contribution to the study on minorities in the Middle East." - From the foreword by Professor Avi Shlaim, St Antonys College, OxfordTable of ContentsForeword by Avi Shlaim; Introduction; Jewish life in the Arab Middle East; Jewish life in Lebanon; A literary survey; A Voyage through History; The historical legacy; Lebanon under Ottoman Rule; The Lebanese Jewish community; Culture, education and religion; Lebanese Jews under the French Mandate: Liberty, Fraternity and Equality; Grand Liban and the mandate; Merchants and financiers; Inter-communal relations and community life; The Lebanese Zionist project and contacts with the Yishuv; The Palestine question; World War II and the Vichy regime; Lebanese and Israeli Independence: Questions of Identity; Lebanese independence and the National Pact; The Jewish community and the political situation, 1943-1948; Two women remember: a privileged life in Lebanon; The establishment of the State of Israel; Jewish refugees and unavoidable changes; Syrian refugees; The First Civil War: Conflict of Identities; Dual loyalties; The Jewish community and the political situation, 1949-1957; Community life, 1943-1958; The first Lebanese civil war; Political and cultural identification; The Beginning of the Exodus; The Chehabist miracle'; Jewish emigration; The Six-Day War and beyond; The Cairo Agreement: the road to disintegration; The second civil war; The Israeli Invasion and Beyond: Renaissance or Decline?; Operation Peace for Galilee; Renaissance in Beirut; The war continues, 1985-1989; The end of the civil war; Conjectures, Considerations, and Conclusions; A Sentimental Journey; The community in history; The Arab-Israeli conflict; A history of Lebanon; Index.

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Book SynopsisThe blessed days, nights, and months are each a distinctive sign of Islam. They are celebrated by Muslims all around the world in due respect to their unique worth and sanctity that make them distinct from the rest of the year. Although the worth and sanctity of these special times have essentially been shaped by the Islamic tradition from the seventh century onwards, most of these dates have their origins far back in history.

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Book SynopsisBetween 1935 and 1938 the celebrated photographer Roman Vishniac explored the cities and villages of Eastern Europe, capturing life in the Jewish shtetlekh of Poland, Romania, Russia, and Hungary. This book is devoted to a subject Vishniac especially loved, and one whose mystery and spontaneity he captured with particular poignancy: children.

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Book SynopsisA History of the Jewish People presents a total vision of Jewish experiences and achievementsreligious, political, social, and economicin both the land of Israel and the diaspora throughout the ages. It has been acclaimed as the most comprehensive and penetrating work yet to have appeared in its field.Trade ReviewThis ambitious history by six Hebrew University scholars seeks to encompass the full range of the Jewish experience in nationhood and exile. It is an impressive work…considering the necessary compression—5,000 years and a scattering of settings virtually worldwide covered in just over 1,100 pages—the work is an achievement of consequence. -- Robert Kirsch * Los Angeles Times *Here is a work that triumphantly makes available the fruits of a wealth of learning and scholarship that will surely establish new standards for the presentation of research. * Times Literary Supplement *This huge collection of essays by ‘leading scholars at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem’ brings to ultimate expression the ‘peoplehood-and-history’ theory of Jewish historiography. -- Jacob Neuser * American Historical Review *Offering a full panorama of Jewish existence from the dim origins of the 2nd millennium B.C.E. to the hard politics of modern Israel, this work breaks new ground for a one-volume history, both in its range and in its authority… The book as a whole is a monument to scholarship and feeling, immersing the reader on every page in the rich texture of the Jewish heritage. -- Chaim Raphael * Commentary *Represents one of the finest compendia on the topic published to date. * Jewish Week *This work is marked throughout by sound judgment, judicious scholarship, disdain for irrelevant trivia, and avoidance of ideology… A remarkable achievement—all in one volume. * Worldview *Table of ContentsPART I Origins and the Formative Period A. Malamat 1. Introduction

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Book SynopsisThese hard-hitting essays by Yeshayahu Leibowitz, the first to be published in English, constitute a comprehensive critique of Israeli society and politics and a probing diagnosis of the malaise that afflicts contemporary Jewish culture.Trade ReviewThe essays are incisive, provocative, fearlessly consistent… No one interested in Israel, Judaism and the nexus of the two can afford complacently to ignore the questions Leibowitz refuses to stop asking. -- Menachem Kellner * New York Times Book Review *The most significant criticism of Israel that Israel has ever been handed by one of its own citizens. [Leibowitz] has a rare moral presence. -- Moshe Halbertal * New Republic *The essays in this fine collection amply reveal Leibowitz’s unswerving consistency… At the same time, though, a close reading of the essays reveals tensions which, although possibly reconcilable, nevertheless point to a certain elasticity in this seemingly inflexible thinker. In the end, Leibowitz’s humanity stands revealed as much in these rare moments of inconsistency as in his fanatic adherence to principle. -- David Biale * Religious Studies Review *Yeshayahu Leibowitz’s significance in contemporary Jewish intellectual life, and in Israel’s political and intellectual life, is comparable to that of figures better known in the United States—Buber, for example, or Scholem. Leibowitz is more locally involved, and he is more openly polemical. But he is never mysterious or evasive, oracular or reticent. He just fights his battles, but the result of all his battles is a remarkably consistent doctrine. It remains lean and elegant—and, even for people who disagree, heartening and enlivening. -- Michael WalzerTable of ContentsIntroduction by Eliezer Goldman PART 1: FAITH 1. Religious Praxis: The Meaning of Halakhah 2. Of Prayer 3. The Reading of Shema 4. Fear of God in the Book of Job 5. Divine Governance: A Maimonidean View 6. Lishmah, and Not-Lishmah 7. The Uniqueness of the Jewish People 8. The Individual and Society in Judaism 9. Ahistorical Thinkers in Judaism 10. The Religious and Moral Significance of the Redemption of Israel 11. Redemption and the Dawn of Redemption 12. The Status of Women: Halakhah and Meta-Halakhah 13. Religion and Science in the Middle Ages and in the Modern Era PART 2: RELIGION, PEOPLE, STATE 14. The Social Order as a Religious Problem 15. The Crisis of Religion in the State of Israel 16. A Call for the Separation of Religion and State 17. After Kibiyeh 18. Jewish Identity and Israeli Silence 19. The Jew in His Community, on His Land, and in the

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Book SynopsisAn anthology that provides the comprehensive overview for understanding the relationship between religion and violence - historically, culturally, and in the contemporary world. It includes original source materials justifying violence from various religious perspectives: Hindu, Chinese, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and Buddhist.Trade Review"This book is recommended for any person studying the nature of violence in religion and the impact the notion of sacrifice has on expressions of faith."--Wessel, Bentley, Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae "This collective volume focused quite well on the two main aspects of religious violence, warfare and sacrifice. It is very well structured and informative for both for scholars and the general public. It introduces the reader in the field of religion and violence by leading him to select sources, past and present, and this is quite important because it makes him think about his own close relationship with religion and violence. There is also a useful select bibliography on the issue situated at the end the volume that readers can use as a starting point for further exploring the issue."--Alexandros Sakellariou, Journal of Religion and ViolenceTable of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction: Why Is Religion Violent and Violence Religious? 1 Part I: Religious Justifications for Violence Introduction to Part I 7 Chapter 1. Kautilya 13 "Forms of Treacherous Fights," the Arthashastra 13 Chapter 2. Sun Tzu 17 "Laying Plans," The Art of War 17 Chapter 3. The Bhagavad Gita 20 The Bhagavad Gita in the Mahabharata 20 Chapter 4. Soho Takuan 25 "Annals of the Sword Taia," The Unfettered Mind 25 Chapter 5. The Hebrew Bible 29 Deuteronomy 20 31 Exodus 23 32 Chapter 6. The Qur'an 35 Surah 2 ("The Cow") 36 Chapter 7. Thomas Aquinas 41 "Whether It Is Always Sinful to Wage War?" Summa Theologica 41 Chapter 8. Reinhold Niebuhr 45 "Why the Christian Church Is Not Pacifist" 45 Chapter 9. Michael Bray 55 "A Time for Revolution?" A Time to Kill 56 Chapter 10. Abd al-Salam Faraj 62 The Neglected Duty 63 Chapter 11. Meir Kahane 69 "War and Peace," The Jewish Idea 69 Chapter 12. Shoko Asahara 75 Declaring Myself the Christ 76 Disaster Comes to the Land of the Rising Sun 77 Chapter 13. 9/11 Conspirator 82 "Last Instructions of 9/11" 83 Part II: Understanding the Religious Role in Violence Introduction to Part II 93 Chapter 14. Emile Durkheim 100 Elementary Forms of the Religious Life 101 Chapter 15. Henri Hubert and Marcel Mauss 108 "Conclusion," Sacrifice: Its Nature and Function 109 Chapter 16. Sigmund Freud 115 Totem and Taboo 116 Chapter 17. Rene Girard 127 "Sacrifice," Violence and the Sacred 128 Chapter 18. Walter Burkert 141 Homo Necans 141 Chapter 19. Maurice Bloch 152 Prey into Hunter 152 Chapter 20. Georges Bataille 167 Theory of Religion 167 Chapter 21. Karl Marx 174 Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right 174 Chapter 22. Nancy Jay 178 "Sacrifice and Descent," Throughout Your Generations Forever 178 Chapter 23. Elaine Scarry 190 The Body in Pain 191 Chapter 24. Jean Baudrillard 201 The Spirit of Terrorism 201 Chapter 25. Ashis Nandy 210 "The Discreet Charm of Indian Terrorism," The Savage Freud and Other Essays 210 Closing Comments: The Connection between War and Sacrifice 217 Selected Bibliography 223 Permissions 229 About the Editors 231 Index 233

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Winter has produced a timely and informative history of the Alawis, an important religious minority located in today's Syria, Lebanon, and Turkey... Unlike most existing literature, Winter uses the vast and largely untouched sources from the Ottoman period to show the existence of a normalized rapport between the state and the Alawis."--ChoiceTable of ContentsList of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 Classical Perceptions of 'Alawism, Nomenclaturism, and Dissimulation * Sources and Argument 1 The Nusayris in Medieval Syria: From Religious Sect to Confessional Community (Tenth-Twelfth Centuries CE ) 11 Ghulat Shi'i Origins * The Nusayri (Khasibi) Da'wa * The Conversion of the Syrian Highlands * Between the Ismailis and the Crusaders * Makzun al-Sinjari * Conclusion: The Birth of a Minority 2 Beyond the Mountain Refuge: 'Alawism and the Sunni State (Thirteenth-FFifteenth Centuries) 43 The Defeat of the Ishaqis and the Hululi-Thamina Controversy * Relations with the State Authorities and the Ismailis * Ibn Taymiyya and the Politics of Persecution * The Uprising of 1318 * Mamluk Fiscal Policies toward the 'Alawis * Conclusion: The Persecution Syndrome 3 Survey and Punish: The 'Alawis' Integration into the Ottoman Empire (1516-1645) 74 The Ottoman Conquest * The 'Alawi Rebellion * The Dirhemu'r-Rical and the Tax Districts of the Coastal Highlands * The Province of Jabala under Ottoman Rule * Conclusion: From Rebels to Reaya 4 The Age of Autonomy: 'Alawi Notables as Ottoman Tax Farmers (1667-1808) 119 'Alawi Tribalism, Tribalization, and Gentry * The Shamsins and the Mukataa of Safita * The Bayt al-Shillif * The Rise of Latakia * Population Pressure and Migration toward Antioch * The Townships (Hillas) of Safita and the Barakat and Raslan Families * Saqr ibn Mahfuz * The War with the Ismailis * conclusion: The Economics of Anarchy 5 Imperial Reform and Internal Colonization: 'Alawi Society in the Face of Modernity (1808-1888) 161 The Disappearance of Ottoman Tripoli * Conversion and Sectarianization * Shaykh al-Moghrabi * The Egyptian Occupation, 1831-1841 * A World Restored * The Struggle over Schooling * The Plight of the Minorities * Administrative Modernity * Conclusion: 'Alawi Ottomanism and Compatriotism 6 Not Yet Nationals: Arabism, Kemalism, and the Alaouites (1888-1936) 218 Hamidian Reeducation * Loyalty and Control * The 'Alawi Awakening * Salih al-'Ali and the Guney Cephesi (Southern Front) * Mandate vs. Republic * Conclusion: The Double Disservice Conclusion 269 From the Sectarian to the Local Bibliography 275 Index 295

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Book SynopsisIt is impossible to understand Palestine today without a careful reading of its distant and past. This book offers a detailed interpretation of this critical region's evolution. Starting with the prebiblical and biblical roots of Palestine, it examines the meanings ascribed to the land in the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions.Trade ReviewGudrun Kramer, Winner of the 2010 Gerda Henkel Prize, Gerda Henkel Foundation "The 400 years before the founding of the Jewish state is a historiographical minefield, but Kramer, a professor of Islamic studies at Free University Berlin, manages to produce an illuminating survey of the terrain...Kramer's fluent narrative pairs a much-needed focus on facts--including useful data on contentious issues of population growth and land ownership--with an evenhanded avoidance of partisanship."--Publishers Weekly "We tend not to notice that Palestine existed as a territory before there was an Israel, and before there was a Palestinian national movement. Kramer, professor of Islamic studies at Free University Berlin, goes back to early 19th-century Egyptian rule, and then to the modernization undertaken by the Ottoman Empire, to situate the present in its historical context."--Martin Levin, The Globe and Mail "An excellent source for those desiring an understanding of the background to the present-day unrest in the region."--L. Edward Sizemore, Dallas Morning News "[Kramer] brilliantly contextualizes Arab anti-Semitism by investigating how, for the Palestinian population, the borders between Jew and Zionist gradually became blurred. By making a series of similar investigations, tracing all the defining points of the conflict, she has been able to write a book that stands out as necessary background reading for all scholars intent on investigating the current situation in Palestine."--Jorgen Jensehaugen, Journal of Peace Research "This is a welcome addition to the growing number of studies on this increasingly popular field, and the book will be of much use to those teaching classes on Middle Eastern history, the history of the Ottoman Empire and Israel Studies. It will also prove useful in seminars on the construction of historical narratives, the connection between religion and nationalism, and processes of decolonialization."--Scott Ury, Religious Studies Review "Kramer's is a well-researched and thoroughly referenced work of synthesis offered by a cautious and reflective historian... A History of Palestine is a respectable addition to the synthetic literature in the field. For the non-specialist reader, the book offers a good introduction to the social, political, cultural, and economic history of Palestine and a wealth of statistical information. For specialists, the book is a further reminder of the challenges posed by colonial history and to the importance, in the twenty-first century, of including the voices of the indigenous peoples as well as the colonists."--Abdel Razzaq Takriti, English Historical Review "[T]his is the first serious biography of the mufti to appear in 14 years and only the fourth ever to appear in English. The authors should be encouraged to greatly expand their research for a much larger second edition. The first edition is already valuable for the dark tale it tells."--Marin Sieff, Sunday Times "Gudrun Kramer's book, although its name is not attractive, is a very interesting, well written book, which can enrich even those who know the history of Palestine. For those who will use it as a first book on Palestine, it is a good starting place."--Gideon Biger, Shofar "For anyone seriously interested in the century-old Arab/Jewish struggle for the land they both call holy, you must get acquainted with Gudrun Kramer's A History of Palestine. A professor of Islamic studies at Free University of Berlin, she presents an exhaustive overview of the country's past from the Ottoman conquest to the creation of Israel, albeit with a subtle Arabist slant."--Tim Boxer, 15 Minutes Magazine "[T]his is a comprehensive and readable account which should be useful to both students and scholars. Kramer's insistence on confronting the historiographical dominance of 1882 is a valuable intervention, and her long view of the past gives today's conflict the wider historical context that too many commentators choose to overlook."--Anna Bernard, Modernism/modernityTable of ContentsList of Illustrations vii List of Tables ix Preface xi Abbreviations xiii CHAPTER ONE: Names and Borders 1 CHAPTER TWO: The Holiness of the "Holy Land" 18 CHAPTER THREE: Contrasts: Palestine, 1750-1840 37 CHAPTER FOUR: The Age of Reform, 1840-1914 71 CHAPTER FIVE: Evolving Nationalisms: Zionism and Arabism, 1880-1914 101 CHAPTER SIX: "A Land without a People for a People without a Land"? Population, Settlement, and Cultivation, 1800-1914 128 CHAPTER SEVEN: World War I and the British Mandate 139 CHAPTER EIGHT: Double Standard, or Dual Obligation 164 CHAPTER NINE: "Two Peoples in One Land" 188 CHAPTER TEN: The Mufti and the Wailing Wall 216 CHAPTER ELEVEN: From Unrest to Uprising 238 CHAPTER TWELVE: The Arab Uprising, 1936-39 264 CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Triumph and Catastrophe: From World War II to the State of Israel 296 Bibliography 325 Index 343

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Book SynopsisExploring the tension between Queerness and Islamophobia, and how the elite reinforce the politics of homonationalism.Trade Review'A smart, courageous, and at times unsettling indictment of LGBTQ complicity with xenophobic violence. If you care deeply about social justice, read this brilliant book' -- Julia Chinyere Oparah is Professor of Ethnic Studies at Mills College and co-editor of Activist Scholarship: Antiracism, Feminism and Social Change'A brilliant analysis which shatters the singularity of the universal gay/trans subject to expose hir collusion in the production of the 'homophobic Muslim'. This highly engaging book is a must read for all concerned with issues of justice, demilitarisation and radical transformation in global politics' -- Sunera Thobani, Associate Professor at the Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice at the University of British Columbia'This exciting book by one of the most brilliant emerging scholars today brings a novel approach to 'queer gentrification' and a host of new concepts pertaining to space, queer and trans subjects of colour, race, sexuality and violence' -- Paola Bacchetta, Associate Professor of Gender & Women's Studies at University of California, Berkeley'An original and highly impactful contribution to critical race and ethnic studies, gender and sexuality studies and urban studies' -- Dylan Rodríguez, Professor and Chair of the Department of Ethnic Studies at University of California, Riverside'Seamlessly synthesises the relationships between Islamaphobia, racism within Europe and the United States, and how the global war on terror serves to reinforce the politics of homonationalism. Brilliant and fierce, a must-read for all those interesting in imagining new liberatory politics' -- Andrea Smith, Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies and Media & Cultural Studies at the University of California, Riverside.A crucial text that does so much work that queer theory desperately needs. Taking urban spaces in Berlin as a primary site, Haritaworn shows how the production of respectable queers emerges against supposedly degenerate non-white others' -- Karma R. Chávez is author of Queer Migration Politics: Activist Rhetoric and Coalitional Possibilities (University of Illinois Press, 2013) and member of the collective, Against Equality'Constitutes a sophisticated masterpiece of decolonial queer/transgender theory' -- Ramón Grosfoguel, Associate Professor, Ethnic Studies Department, University of California, Berkley'A trenchant and unrelenting critical gaze at the tensions between a nascent people of colour consciousness and the swirling turbulence of homophobia and xenophobia in 21st Century Germany. More than just a sensitive portrait of lives, sites, and energies, this book is an incitement to think queerly, to dream otherwise.' -- Martin F. Manalansan IV, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Asian American Studies'In an exemplary intersectional cultural analysis, Haritaworn explores racial and sexual formations in contemporary and historical Berlin.' -- Gloria Wekker is emeritus professor in Gender and Ethnicity at Utrecht University, the Netherlands, and author of The Politics of Passion (2006) and White Innocence (forthcoming 2016, Duke University Press).'Shifts critical debates about rights, recognition, diversity, coalition, homonationalism, necropolitics, migration policies, and citizenship in important new directions' -- Eithne Luibheid, Professor of Gender and Women's Studies, University of ArizonaTable of ContentsList of Figures Acknowledgements Introduction: Queer Regenerations 1. Setting the Scene 2. Love 3. Hate 4. Queer Nostalgia 5. Conclusion: Kiss Good Morning, Kiss Good Night 6. Epilogue: Beyond the ‘Most Homophobic’ Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisAn updated and expanded look at how under the shadow of authoritarian rule, ordinary people can make meaningful change through the practices of everyday life in the Middle East.Trade Review"Asef Bayat has penned a remarkable study. Life as Politics should be a mandatory read for any journalist, scholar or politician who has never been to the Middle East." -- Arab News"Life as Politics offers a brilliant alternative perspective on public life by taking seriously the daily lives and the social agency of ordinary people." -- Middle East Book Reads"When Life as Politics was published..., Asef Bayat's arguments on grassroots dynamism as the harbinger of democratic transformations in the Arab world seemed a utopian hope. Barely a year later, as events of the 2011 Arab Spring continue to unfold, his critical insights on everyday forms and spaces of political activity in the region have become prescient." -- Contemporary Sociology"In Life as Politics Asef Bayat offers up a historically rich, analytically rigorous and conceptually innovative account of Middle East oppositional movements . . . [A] tour de force that will inspire as well as inform scholarship on Middle East social movements—most importantly by moving beyond a preoccupation with 'exceptionalist' tendencies. Above all, this work establishes Asef Bayat as a virtuoso of the sociological imaginary. Specialist and non-specialist readers alike will find themselves transported to the streets of the Middle East and afforded a first-hand view of social and political activism in the making." -- Navid Pourmokhtari * Against the Current *

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Book SynopsisThanks to Thomas Keneally's book Schindler's Ark, and the film based on it, Schindler's List, we have become more aware of the fact that, in the midst of Hitler's extermination of the Jews, courage and humanity could still overcome evil. While 6 million Jews were murdered by the Nazi regime, some were saved through the actions of non-Jews whose consciences would not allow them to pass by on the other side, and many are honoured by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations' for their actions. As a baby, Agnes Grunwald-Spier was herself saved from the horrors of Auschwitz by an unknown official, and is now a trustee of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust. She has collected together the stories of thirty individuals who rescued Jews, and these provide a new insight into why these people were prepared to risk so much for their fellow men and women. With a foreword by Sir Martin Gilbert, one of the leading experts on the subject, this is an ultimately uplifting account of hTrade Review'In my lifetime I have read some 300+ books about the Holocaust. I can unequivocally say that Agnes Grunwald-Spier's The Other Schindlers is one of the best Holocaust books I have read in the last few years. Superbly researched, beautifully written, Ms Grunwald-Spier brings vividly to life the stories of some of the people who risked everything to help Jews when everyone else could
seemingly care less. This is a book to cherish and one to be consulted repeatedly in the years to come.' Anthony Anderson, Holocaust Studies Librarian, University of Southern California

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Book SynopsisAn accessible introduction to pre-modern Islam, showcasing the individuals caliphs, law-makers, theologians, poets, mystics and scholars who shaped the course of early Islamic history.Trade Review'A beautifully written set of brief, vividly drawn portraits' - Times Higher EducationTable of Contents1. Islam and Empire 600–850 • 2. The Islamic Commonwealth 850–1050 • 3. The Sunni Synthesis 1050–1250 • 4. Conflict & Change 1250–1550

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Book SynopsisJudaism makes the bold argument that the very concept of a religion of ‘Judaism’ is an invention of the Christian church. The intellectual odyssey of world-renowned Talmud scholar Daniel Boyarin, this book will change the study of Judaism—an essential key word in Jewish Studies—as we understand it today.Trade Review"A brilliant book that marks a fresh beginning for scholarly conversations about Judaism, religion, and even the historical utility of categories." -- Annette Yoshiko Reed * author of Jews, Christians, and the Roman Empire *"A significant and radical contribution." -- Michael Satlow * author of How the Bible Became Holy *"This book offers a reflective, and even-meta reflective discussion of the term 'Judaism.' Boyarin, as always, offers provocative, trail blazing insights to reckon with." -- Dina Stein * author of Textual Mirrors: Reflexivity, Midrash, and the Rabbinic Self *"What Boyarin does in Judaism is offer us a complex map, a detailed topography, of how the term Judaism came to be used to define Jewish 'doings,' and for some, to define Jews....One of the greatest things a scholar of Boyarin’s stature can do is make arguments that create the requisite space for future scholars to do their work. A book of this scope can never, and should never, close a conversation, but rather open one. Judaism is a term we all use reflexively but do not quite know what it actually means. Boyarin’s contribution to that reflexivity is a major contribution to scholarship." * H-Judaic *"Boyarin’s book provide[s] [the reader] to think through some of these theoretical questions, and to continue our ongoing conversation about the ancient individuals, groups, and ideas that continue to resonate down to the present." * Marginalia *" Boyarin’s provocative new book... succeeds at its primary goal: to destabilize the automatic use of 'Judaism' by scholars." * Marginalia *"A wonderfully clever argument that demands we reconsider much of what we write and teach about Judaism." * Marginalia *"Provocative and challenging." * Marginalia *"What we thus have from Boyarin’s philological genealogy is one reading of 'Judaism' that begins as a negative, is turned into a positive, and then becomes irrelevant, except for those who share it with something else....Boyarin’s genealogy teaches us that Judaism can never stand alone or be alone. If Judaism is all there is, then the term 'Judaism' ceases to exist, mostly because it is no longer necessary." * Marginalia *"Brief and powerful." * Marginalia *"Judaism: The Genealogy of a Modern Notion attests once again to Daniel Boyarin’s restlessly inquisitive mind and to his persistent need to challenge commonly held assumptions in a manner meant to be provocative and contrarian." * Marginalia *"How Christians Invented 'Judaism,' According to a Top Talmud Scholar," by Tomer Persico https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-how-christians-invented-judaism-according-to-a-top-talmud-scholar-1.7417536 * Haaretz *"Boyarin has created a very interesting argument." * Histoire sociale/Social History *Table of ContentsContentsPreface What Are We Talking About When We Talk About “Judaism”?Part 1 The Terms of the DebateChapter 1 Debate of the TermsPart 2 The State of the Lexicon: Questioning the ArchiveChapter 2 Jewry without Judaism: The Stakes of the QuestionChapter 3 Getting Medieval YahadutPart 3: A New Dispensation: The Christian Invention of “Judaism”Chapter 4 “Judaism” out of the Entrails of ChristianityChapter 5 From Yiddishkayt to Judentum; From Judentum to Yahadut;, or Philology and the Transformation of a FolkEpilogueBibliography

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Book SynopsisJews in America are in a period of unprecedented status and impact, but for many their identity as Jews--religiously, historically, culturally--is increasingly complicated. Many are becoming Jews without Judaism. It appears success and acceptance will accomplish what even the most virulent anti-Semitism never could---if not the disappearance of Jews themselves, the undermining of what it means to be Jewish.In this thoughtful, personal, deeply-reasoned book, Robert Mnookin explores the conundrums of Jewish identity, faith and community in America by delving deep into Jewish history, law, and custom. He talks to rabbis, scholars, and other Jews of many perspectives to explore the head, heart, and heritage of Judaism and confronts key challenges in the Jewish debate from the issue of intermarriage to the matter of Israeli policies.Mnookin shares provocative stories of the ways American Jews have forged (or disavowed) their Jewish identity over the past half-century, including his own to answer the standing question: How can Jews who have different values, perspectives, and relationships with their faith, keep the community open, vibrant, and thriving?

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