Neusner introduces the reader to selections from all the documents of the Torah and Scripture that define the canon of Judaism in its formative stage.

The changed situation of Western Jewry in the 19th-20th centuries caused Jews to revise their conceptions of Jewry as a community and of its place in the world. Six Judaic systems emerged. Discusses each one in detail. While the 19th-century trends (Orthodox, Reform, and Conservative) developed in response to the needs of integration with the non-Jewish world, the 20th-century Judaisms (Zionism, Jewish Socialism and Yiddishism, and the American Judaism of Holocaust and Redemption) were a response to aggressive antisemitism and to the crisis caused by the rapid social and economic restructuring of Central and Eastern Europe. The events of May-June 1967 in the Middle East brought about a new trend - Holocaust and Redemption Judaism, in the center of which are the Holocaust (mythicized and perceived as a metaphor for absolute evil) and the State of Israel (perceived as the redemption for the Holocaust). This Judaism contains a salvific myth and possesses all the traits of a religious system. The exposition is accompanied by excerpts from books and articles.

About the Author Jacob Neusner is Research Professor of Religion and Theology Bard College Annandale-on-Hudson, NY. Product description