2006 National Jewish Book Award, Modern Jewish Thought Long the object of curiosity, admiration, and gossip, rabbis' wives have rarely been viewed seriously as American Jewish religious and communal leaders. We know a great deal about the important role played by rabbis in building American Jewish life in this country, but not much about the role that their wives played. The Rabbi’s Wife redresses that imbalance by highlighting the unique contributions of rebbetzins to the development of American Jewry. Tracing the careers of rebbetzins from the beginning of the twentieth century until the present, Shuly Rubin Schwartz chronicles the evolution of the role from a few individual rabbis' wives who emerged as leaders to a cohort who worked together on behalf of American Judaism. The Rabbi’s Wife reveals the ways these women succeeded in both building crucial leadership roles for themselves and becoming an important force in shaping Jewish life in America.

The autobiography of a German Jew, from Leipzig, now a rabbi, describing Jewish life and the antisemitism which began in the early 1930s, even before the Nazi takeover. Describing Nazi persecution of Jews, focuses on the expulsion of the Polish Jews in October 1938 and the rescue of some by the Polish consul in Leipzig. Gives details on the events of the "Kristallnacht" pogrom and the struggle of his family to emigrate in 1939. Out of 18,000 Jews in Leipzig in 1930, only 6,000 remained there in 1939; they were deported in various transports between 1942-45. Followed by an essay on Holocaust theology (pp. 148-159).

Did Muslims and Jews in the Middle Ages cohabit in a peaceful "interfaith utopia"? Or were Jews under Muslim rule persecuted, much as they were in Christian lands? Rejecting both polemically charged ideas as myths, Mark Cohen offers a systematic comparison of Jewish life in medieval Islam and Christendom--and the first in-depth explanation of why medieval Islamic-Jewish relations, though not utopic, were less confrontational and violent than those between Christians and Jews in the West. Under Crescent and Cross has been translated into Turkish, Hebrew, German, Arabic, French, and Spanish, and its historic message continues to be relevant across continents and time. This updated edition, which contains an important new introduction and afterword by the author, serves as a great companion to the original.

Today, well over 150 million Europeans embrace a satanic view of the State of Israel. They believe that Israel is exterminating the Palestinians, despite their major population growth in recent decades. This current widespread demonic view of Israel is a new mutation of the diabolical beliefs about Jews which many held in the Middle Ages, and those promoted more recently by the Nazis and their allies. This demonization has been exacerbated by the consequences of the massive and non-selective immigration into Western Europe from Muslim countries, where incitement against Jews and Israel is often fanatic and ongoing. This collection of 57 interviews with scholars, politicians, and the like, depicts how extensive and intense the hate-mongering is. In his opening essay, Gerstenfeld puts the facts and views presented in the book into context. Praise: "Gerstenfeld helps us all understand the world's oldest hatred." -Rabbi Marvin Hier Founder and Dean Simon Wiesenthal Center "An authoritative, up-to-date guide to the cultural-ideological war being waged against the democratic Jewish state." -Prof. Frederick Krantz Director, Canadian Institute Jewish Research "This superb collection of incisive interviews on the demonization of Israel and the Jews should be located on the bookshelves of every committed Jewish activist." -Isi Leibler Former Chairman Governing Board World Jewish Congress "Manfred Gerstenfeld's collection of interviews on anti-Semitism and its proxy, delegitimization of Israel, is brilliantly selected and encyclopedic in scope. His own essay tying the interviews together makes this required reading for those who want to understand where anti-Semitism is today." -Richard B. Stone Chairman Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations

The extraordinary, true story of a Jewish school community in evacuation during World War II, from 1939 until 1945. When the gentile Sheffordians welcomed in the Jewish schoolchildren, they were in for an enormous surprise, but their puzzlement and resentment was quickly overcome and the next six years were memorable ones. This is a fascinating story of triumph and faith in the face of hardship and challenge. Written by the head of London's Jewish Secondary School, who oversaw the evacuation and education of five hundred Jewish schoolchildren in the tiny village of Shefford, England, this heartwarming and inspiring book includes childhood impressions of Shefford, letters, reports, and addresses.

Book by Neusner, Jacob

This is a new release of the original 1954 edition.

Based on the author's travels to document the Jewish Diaspora, featuring photographs of Jews living globally and offers commentaries by leading intellectuals.

In Journey Through a Small Planet (1972), the writer Emanuel Litvinoff recalls his working-class Jewish childhood in the East End of London: a small cluster of streets right next to the city, but worlds apart in culture and spirit. With vivid intensity Litvinoff describes the overcrowded tenements of Brick Lane and Whitechapel, the smell of pickled herring and onion bread, the rattle of sewing machines and chatter in Yiddish. He also relates stories of his parents, who fled from Russia in 1914, his experiences at school and a brief flirtation with Communism. Unsentimental, vital and almost dream like, this is a masterly evocation of a long-vanished world.

"From Suburb to Shtetl" is an outstanding ethnography that moves beyond simple demographics. Mayer weaves an intricate tapestry of how family, school, and community leaders influence each other. Whether discussing the role of the rebbe or the matchmaker, those who know these communities will find what he says as relevant today as it was when first penned. This is hardly surprising, for the ultra-Orthodox community takes great pride in not changing, in maintaining itself as it was in Europe despite the allure of modern American society. His discussion of synagogue life is particularly informative and evocative. Those in charge of helping immigrants adopted the path of least resistance, allowing and even encouraging them to retain their identities except for those few aspects that might threaten the country's national interests. The American Orthodox community was tremendously augmented by the arrival from Europe, after World War Two, of thousands of Orthodox Jews who remained devoted to that way of life. Egon Mayer was himself part of a smaller, but significant group of Jews who came to the U.S. and settled mostly in Boro Park in the wake of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. The interaction between the Hasidim and their less fervent Orthodox counterparts described and analyzed in this volume tells us a great deal about how people negotiate their beliefs, values, and norms when forced into close contact with each other in an urban setting within the larger American culture. By exploring these and many other related issues Mayer has given us the chance to assess and forecast the future of American Jewish life as a whole.

Covenantal Rights is a groundbreaking work of political theory: a comprehensive, philosophically sophisticated attempt to bring insights from the Jewish political tradition into current political and legal debates about rights and to bring rights discourse more fully into Jewish thought. David Novak pursues these aims by presenting a theory of rights founded on the covenant between God and the Jewish people as that covenant is constituted by Scripture and the rabbinic tradition. In doing so, he presents a powerful challenge to prevailing liberal and conservative positions on rights and duties and opens a new chapter in contemporary Jewish political thinking. For Novak, "covenantal rights" are rooted in God's primary rights as creator of the universe and as the elector of a particular community whose members relate to this God as their sovereign. The subsequent rights of individuals and communities flow from God's covenantal promises, which function as irrevocable entitlements. This presents a sharp contrast to the liberal tradition, in which rights flow above all from individuals. It also challenges the conservative idea that duties can take precedence over rights, since Novak argues that there are no covenantal duties that are not backed by correlative rights. Novak explains carefully and clearly how this theory of covenantal rights fits into Jewish tradition and applies to the relationships among God, the covenanted community, and individuals. This work is a profound and provocative contribution to contemporary religious and political theory.

Despite antisemitic statements uttered by Franco, and despite Nazi-influenced antisemitism in Spain, thousands of Jews were saved during the Holocaust period by fleeing from France into Spain. Franco is also credited with a direct role in saving about 250,000 Sephardic Jews in the Balkans. Studies the historical events and Franco's attitudes and ambivalence, concluding that there is no clear explanation for Franco's actions.

"Copyright( 1942, by the Jewish Publication Society of America.

An elderly black grandmother passes on the story of the family’s Jewish origins to her young granddaughter, Carol Olivia. As family members flee the Spanish Inquisition, are kidnapped by pirates and eventually sail to America, one daughter in each generation is given the name Olivia, from the Hebrew Shulamit meaning “peace,” to honor the Jewish part of their ancestry. Critically-acclaimed author Carolivia Herron (Nappy Hair) shares this engaging, multicultural tale is based on her own family's heritage.

(Transcontinental Music Folios). 50 worship, holiday, life-cycle, educational and Israel solo songs from one of the most respected Jewish composers today. Includes translations, annotations and a history of Isaacson's wonderful career.

Dina Z, a Jewish-American filmmaker is seeking to document the lives of people who dwell on ancient holy ground and to discover how that history affects them. She falls in love with a Palestinian activist and sees him and his people in ways that were not available to her before the ancient story of Dinah and Shechem was revived through their meeting. This novel is a republication of Deena Metzger's 1989 novel, originally published by Viking.. This novel is a republication of Deena Metzger's 1989 novel. The original motivation for the novel was to investigate the Biblical story from Genesis, the story of Jacob and Leah's daughter who is loved and ravished by a "heathen," and whose brothers avenge her honor by slaying him on his wedding night. This story, which is somehow still unacknowledged, is of the ancient core of the intergenerational conflict remaining very much in our collective DNA, the story which has not been mourned, for which amends have not been made. Metzger is hoping to see if the retelling of it in a new way, the reliving of it, even if only in the creative imagination, could offer healing to the terrible history which was (which is) once again exploding in violence.