Unusual book

Summarizes recent scholarship and takes into account important historical, cultural, and political developments in American Judaism over the past fifteen years.

The theme of this book is the gradual emergence of the Jewish people from total political powerlessness - a development stretching over nearly 100 years and culminating in the consolidation in the State of Israel. Ironically, Professor Bauer demonstrates, events during this period stemmed in part from a belief in the power of the international Jewish community that never existed - but that motivated both the Germans and, after the war, the British.This is a brief but absorbing study by one of the world's great experts on the Holocaust, who has drawn on a huge body of material to depict one of the unforgettable events in recent history from an arresting and unfamiliar view point.

Josephus, author of the "Jewish War" and the "Jewish Antiquities", belongs equally to Jewish and to Greco-Roman history. A well-to-do priest and Pharisee at Jerusalem, he was a contemporary and chronicler of the great changes which took place in the Roman Empire in the first century AD and a controversial general in the great Jewish revolt of 66-73 against Rome. Tessa Rajak, an ancient historian versed in both Greek and Hebrew, assesses the varied source material to produce a sociological account of the Jewish revolt which casts fresh light on Josephus' attitudes, placing his achievement in the context of both Jewish values and the Greek historical tradition. This second edition includes a substantial new introduction and bibliography.--Amazon.com.

Why aren't Jewish women circumcised? This improbable question, first advanced by anti-Jewish Christian polemicists, is the point of departure for this wide-ranging exploration of gender and Jewishness in Jewish thought. With a lively command of a wide range of Jewish sources—from the Bible and the Talmud to the legal and philosophical writings of the Middle Ages to Enlightenment thinkers and modern scholars—Shaye J. D. Cohen considers the varied responses to this provocative question and in the process provides the fullest cultural history of Jewish circumcision available.

This survey history offers the first examination of Jewish life and culture to focus on the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as a radically new phase in Jewish history.

Could our sense of who we are really turn on a sliver of DNA? In our multiethnic world, questions of individual identity are becoming increasingly unclear. Now in ABRAHAM'S CHILDREN bestselling author Jon Entine vividly brings to life the profound human implications of the Age of Genetics while illuminating one of today's most controversial topics: the connection between genetics and who we are, and specifically the question "Who is a Jew?" Entine weaves a fascinating narrative, using breakthroughs in genetic genealogy to reconstruct the Jewish biblical tradition of the chosen people and the hereditary Israelite priestly caste of Cohanim. Synagogues in the mountains of India and China and Catholic churches with a Jewish identity in New Mexico and Colorado provide different patterns of connection within the tangled history of the Jewish diaspora. Legendary accounts of the Hebrew lineage of Ethiopian tribesmen, the building of Africa's Great Zimbabwe fortress, and even the so-called Lost Tribes are reexamined in light of advanced DNA technology. Entine also reveals the shared ancestry of Israelites and Christians. As people from across the world discover their Israelite roots, their riveting stories unveil exciting new approaches to defining one's identity. Not least, Entine addresses possible connections between DNA and Jewish intelligence and the controversial notion that Jews are a "race apart." ABRAHAM'S CHILDREN is a compelling reinterpretation of biblical history and a challenging and exciting illustration of the promise and power of genetic research.

There is a popular and romantic myth about Rembrandt and the Jewish people. One of history's greatest artists, we are often told, had a special affinity for Judaism. With so many of Rembrandt's works devoted to stories of the Hebrew Bible, and with his apparent penchant for Jewish themes and the sympathetic portrayal of Jewish faces, it is no wonder that the myth has endured for centuries. Rembrandt's Jews puts this myth to the test as it examines both the legend and the reality of Rembrandt's relationship to Jews and Judaism. In his elegantly written and engrossing tour of Jewish Amsterdam—which begins in 1653 as workers are repairing Rembrandt's Portuguese-Jewish neighbor's house and completely disrupting the artist's life and livelihood—Steven Nadler tells us the stories of the artist's portraits of Jewish sitters, of his mundane and often contentious dealings with his neighbors in the Jewish quarter of Amsterdam, and of the tolerant setting that city provided for Sephardic and Ashkenazic Jews fleeing persecution in other parts of Europe. As Nadler shows, Rembrandt was only one of a number of prominent seventeenth-century Dutch painters and draftsmen who found inspiration in Jewish subjects. Looking at other artists, such as the landscape painter Jacob van Ruisdael and Emmanuel de Witte, a celebrated painter of architectural interiors, Nadler is able to build a deep and complex account of the remarkable relationship between Dutch and Jewish cultures in the period, evidenced in the dispassionate, even ordinary ways in which Jews and their religion are represented—far from the demonization and grotesque caricatures, the iconography of the outsider, so often found in depictions of Jews during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Through his close look at paintings, etchings, and drawings; in his discussion of intellectual and social life during the Dutch Golden Age; and even through his own travels in pursuit of his subject, Nadler takes the reader through Jewish Amsterdam then and now—a trip that, under ever-threatening Dutch skies, is full of colorful and eccentric personalities, fiery debates, and magnificent art.

As the world moved towards WWII, King Boris III of Bulgaria strove to stay neutral. But by 1939, Bulgaria was an unwitting ally of Germany forced to follow Nazi dictates, including the deportation and execution of all 50,000 of it Jewish population. Beyond Hitler's grasp is the dramatic true account of the Bulgarians conspiracy to outwit the Germans - and keep every one of Bulgaria's Jews from ever being deported. This monumental work actually reads like a thriller, involving beautiful spies, the Church, a secret mole, and a compassionate king committed to his countrymen.

The journey of nine extraordinary men from Budapest to the New World, wht they experienced along their dangerous route and how they changed America and the world. They are the scientists Leo Szilard, Edward Teller, Eugene Wigner, and John von Neuman; Arthur Koestler author of Darkness at Noon; Robert Capa, the first photographer ashore on D-Day; Andre Kertesz, pioneer of modern photojournalism and iconic filmmakers Alexander Korda and Michael Curtiz.

The journey of nine extraordinary men from Budapest to the New World, wht they experienced along their dangerous route and how they changed America and the world. They are the scientists Leo Szilard, Edward Teller, Eugene Wigner, and John von Neuman; Arthur Koestler author of Darkness at Noon; Robert Capa, the first photographer ashore on D-Day; Andre Kertesz, pioneer of modern photojournalism and iconic filmmakers Alexander Korda and Michael Curtiz.

"In his new book, New York Times bestselling author Jay Sekulow presents a political and historical rationale for the existence of Israel as a sovereign nation. The State of Israel and its very right to exist is a lynchpin issue not only in the Middle-East, but is a critical issue to the world at large. Whether it is the blatant and stated desire of ISIS, Hamas, Hezbollah, or Iran to wipe Israel from the face of the earth, or the more subtle but equally insidious aim to delegitimize Israel's existence through efforts at UNESCO, the goal is the same-to get rid of Israel. Here is the book that defends, Israel's right to exist as a sovereign nation. As Chief Counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, Jay Sekulow has fought with Israel hand-in-hand in some of Israel's most strategic, international battles. Now, he has pulled together the definitive and comprehensive look at Israel-one of the world's most controversial nations- and its importance to us as Americans and as a key focal point to the future of the world. He looks at the legal case for its prominence, as well as the historical and political rationale for its existence as a sovereign nation and homeland for Jews today, and encourages readers to stand with him against the hatred, lies, and efforts to delegitimize one of the world's oldest nations."--Amazon.

Seven-year-old Miriam places her baby brother's basket in the Nile River, watches the Pharoah's daughter draw him out and name him Moses, and ponders a vision of other water parting. Includes note on the biblical story on which this is based.

The introduction by Feldman (pp. 15-52), "The Jew as Pariah: The Case of Hannah Arendt (1906-1975)", discusses her life and writings, including her views regarding antisemitism in the 19th-20th centuries. Pp. 240-279 contain material on the controversy over Arendt's book "Eichmann in Jerusalem" - exchanges between her and the scholars Gershom Scholem and Walter Laqueur stating their objections to her views, along with her responses.

"When his family are deported to concentration camps in 1942, twenty-year-old draftsman Cioma Schonhaus goes under-ground. Recruited to a network dedicated to rescuing Jews from the gas chambers. Schonhaus discovers a life-saving talent for falsifying identity cards. While working on his forgeries, he changes address every night, relying on girl-friends and the friendship of anti-Nazi Germans to keep him one step ahead of the Gestapo. But when his face finally appears on Gestapo wanted posters all over the city, he decides the time has come to attempt a breathtaking escape from Berlin to Switzerland by bicycle."--Back cover.

What do Joyce Brothers and Sigmund Freud, Rabbi Harold Kushner and philosopher Martin Buber have in common? They belong to a group of pivotal and highly influential Jewish thinkers who altered the face of modern America in ways few people recognize. So argues Andrew Heinze, who reveals in rich and unprecedented detail the extent to which Jewish values, often in tense interaction with an established Christian consensus, shaped the country's psychological and spiritual vocabulary. Jews and the American Soul is the first book to recognize the central role Jews and Jewish values have played in shaping American ideas of the inner life. It overturns the widely shared assumption that modern ideas of human nature derived simply from the nation's Protestant heritage. Heinze marshals a rich array of evidence to show how individuals ranging from Erich Fromm to Ann Landers changed the way Americans think about mind and soul. The book shows us the many ways that Jewish thinkers influenced everything from the human potential movement and pop psychology to secular spirituality. It also provides fascinating new interpretations of Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, and Western views of the psyche; the clash among Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish moral sensibilities in America; the origins and evolution of America's psychological and therapeutic culture; the role of Jewish women as American public moralists, and more. A must-read for anyone interested in the contribution of Jews and Jewish culture to modern America.

What do Joyce Brothers and Sigmund Freud, Rabbi Harold Kushner and philosopher Martin Buber have in common? They belong to a group of pivotal and highly influential Jewish thinkers who altered the face of modern America in ways few people recognize. So argues Andrew Heinze, who reveals in rich and unprecedented detail the extent to which Jewish values, often in tense interaction with an established Christian consensus, shaped the country's psychological and spiritual vocabulary. Jews and the American Soul is the first book to recognize the central role Jews and Jewish values have played in shaping American ideas of the inner life. It overturns the widely shared assumption that modern ideas of human nature derived simply from the nation's Protestant heritage. Heinze marshals a rich array of evidence to show how individuals ranging from Erich Fromm to Ann Landers changed the way Americans think about mind and soul. The book shows us the many ways that Jewish thinkers influenced everything from the human potential movement and pop psychology to secular spirituality. It also provides fascinating new interpretations of Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, and Western views of the psyche; the clash among Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish moral sensibilities in America; the origins and evolution of America's psychological and therapeutic culture; the role of Jewish women as American public moralists, and more. A must-read for anyone interested in the contribution of Jews and Jewish culture to modern America.

While the special relationship of all ethnic and religious minorities in the USA with their old countries and the existence of their pressure groups is regarded as normal, the support given by U.S. Jews to Israel and the pro-Israeli lobby causes some Americans to view the Jews as disloyal to the USA. Examines the "paper" by John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt, "The Israeli Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" (first published in 2006 on the Internet and then in the "London Review of Books"; an expanded book appeared later, in 2007). The authors contend that U.S. support of Israel is harmful to American interests, and is due to pressure exerted by a mighty Israel Lobby which acts to the detriment of the state. They argue that the Israel Lobby had a crucial part in the decision to attack Iraq in 2003. Notes that despite the academic style of their paper, Mearsheimer and Walt have revived the myths of a Jewish conspiracy, of Jewish control of the mass media, and of a Jewish secret power. Dwells, also, on the Tony Judt affair. In 2006 Judt, who supported Mearsheimer and Walt, was to deliver a lecture on a binational alternative for Israel. His lecture was cancelled, which he ascribed to pressure by the Anti-Defamation League. Supporters of Mearsheimer and Walt used it as a demonstration of the Israel Lobby's intervention. Criticizes Jimmy Carter's book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid" (2006) for its clear anti-Israel bias.