Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: Changing Women, Changing Society.
by Dahlia Moore
ISBN 978-1-934843-84-0
250 pp. cloth
$59.00
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Publication Date: February, 2012

In One Step Forward, Two Steps Back, Dahlia Moore explores the social and cultural forces at play in Israeli society and their effects on the changing status of women.  While delving into some of Israel’s unique and influential forces, such as the army, religious sects, and recent immigration, Moore also broadens her perspective, juxtaposing the status of Israeli women with that of women in other Western societies.  An excellent resource for scholars of gender and gender attitudes looking beyond North America and Europe.

Review:
Delving into the historical realities of one specific society, Israel, Dahlia Moore enlarges our understanding of the interplay of ideologies and reality. One Step Forward, Two Steps Back presents an engaging and in-depth analysis of the forces that have sometimes fostered and more often impeded equality between the sexes in Israel. The book will provide fascinating reading to anyone who wishes to study the status of women – in Israel or around the world.
—Faye J. Crosby, Co-editor of Sex Discrimination in Employment

Series: Israel: Society, Culture, and History

Jewish Faith in a Changing World: A Modern Introduction to the World and Ideas of Classical Jewish Philosophy.
by Rafael Shucat
ISBN 978-1-936235-68-1
250 pp. cloth
$69.00
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Publication Date: January, 2012

Ever since the first encounter between Judaism and the western world in the second century BCE, Jewish thinkers like Maimonides, Gersonides, R. Moses Hayyim Luzzatto, and Rabbi A. I. Kook have grappled with the issues of Jewish faith and modernity. The works they published, which comprise Jewish classical philosophy, were products of the highest intellectual caliber, and no question of faith, no matter how embarrassing or heretical, was overlooked. In this book Raphael Shuchat presents the reader with some of the main and timeless issues of Jewish philosophy over the ages and updates them to twenty-first century thinking, making each issue relevant for the modern reader. This book offers a fresh intellectual outlook on the Jewish faith, and contains a timely message for all religionists and thinkers in the twenty-first century.  It will be of great use to both students and laymen.

Review:

“Shuchat’s keen pedagogical skills are always in evidence.  This is a rich, thoughtful, and enjoyable introduction to Jewish philosophy, aimed at the general reader.”
—Zeev Harvey, chair of the Department of Jewish Thought, Hebrew University

Series: Reference Library of Jewish Intellectual History

The Jews, Instructions for Use: Four Eighteenth-Century Projects for the Emancipation of European Jews.
by Paolo Bernardini, Diego Lucci
ISBN 978-1-936235-74-2
220 pp. cloth
$69.00
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Publication Date: December, 2011

This book examines the four most important projects for Jewish emancipation in eighteenth-century Europe. The essays presented in this volume analyze the proposal advanced by the freethinker John Toland in 1714 and three projects of the 1780s, formulated by the state official Christian Wilhelm von Dohm in Frederick the Great’s Prussia, the economist Count D’Arco in Mantua under Habsburg rule, and the Abbe Henri Gregoire in France on the eve of the Revolution. Focusing on the combination of humanitarian and utilitarian arguments and objectives in the proposals to redefine the legal and social status of the Jews, this book is a particularly useful resource for scholars and students interested in the history of Jewish-Gentile relations and the Age of Enlightenment.

Series: Out of the Series

Who is Afraid of Historical Redress: The Israeli Victim / Perpetrator Dichotomy.
by Ruth Amir
ISBN 978-1-934843-85-7
325 pp. cloth
$59.00
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Publication Date: October, 2011

With the Holocaust resonating as the "thick background," historical redress processes in Israel render a particularly challenging case. The simultaneous concern the Jewish community has with past, present and future redress campaigns, as both victim and perpetrator, is unique.  Who is Afraid of Historical Redress analyzes three cases of historical redress in Israel: the Yemeni children affair, the tinea capitis irradiations and the claims for the return of native land of the two Christian Palestinian villages of Iqrit and Bir'em.  All three cases were redressed under the juridical edifice of legal thought and action. The outcomes suggest that these processes were insufficient for achieving closure by the victims, atonement by those responsible and reconciliation among social groups.

Series: Israel: Society, Culture, and History

Justice in the City: An Argument from the Sources of Rabbinic Judaism.
by Aryeh Cohen
ISBN 978-1-936235-64-3
160 pp. cloth
$59.00
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Publication Date: September, 2011

Justice in the City argues, based on the Rabbinic textual tradition, especially the Babylonian Talmud, and utilizing French Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas’ framework of interpersonal ethics, that a just city should be a community of obligation. That is, in a community thus conceived, the privilege of citizenship is the assumption of the obligations of the city towards Others who are not always in view—workers, the poor, the homeless. These Others form a constitutive part of the city. The second part of the book is a close analysis of homelessness, labor and restorative justice from within the theory that was developed. This title will be useful for scholars and students in Jewish Studies, especially Rabbinic Literature and Jewish Thought, but also for those interested in contemporary urban issues.

Review:

“This is an extremely important, interesting and creative project. Nothing like it really exists. Here is someone who combines erudition in the classical literature of Judaism (especially the Babylonian Talmud) with his passion for social justice, both as an activist and as someone who thinks in highly sophisticated terms about the tradition of political philosophy and of social theory inspired by religious traditions.”
—Charlotte Fonrobert, Taube Center for Jewish Studies, Stanford University

Series: New Perspectives in Post-Rabbinic Judaism

Denial of the Denial, or the Battle of Auschwitz: The Demography and Geopolitics of the Holocaust.
edited by Alfred Kokh, Pavel Polian
ISBN 978-1-936235-34-6
350 pp. cloth
$65.00
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Publication Date: May, 2011

Over the decades, the Holocaust has remained a critical issue both historically and politically.  This is due to the modernization of anti-Semitism in the West, where accusations of ritual murder have long been passe and claims that the Holocaust was a hoax are de riguer, and to the government sanctions of anti-Semitism in the East in countries such as Iran.  The purely scholarly problem of determining the number of victims, like other aspects of demography related to the Holocaust, have suddenly become closely embroiled in geopolitics and the phenomenon of Holocaust denial, which is now a context that has been forced upon it.  This book is imbued with these connections and interrelationships.  Avraham, Wolfgang Benz, Sergio Della Pergola, Mark Kupovetsky, Dieter Pohl, Aron Shneer, and the editors contribute their voices to the topic.

Series: Out of the Series

The Twilight of Reason: Benjamin, Adorno, Horkheimer and Levinas Tested by the Catastrophe.
by Orietta Ombrosi
ISBN 978-1-936235-75-9
200 pp. cloth
$65.00
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Publication Date: October, 2011

“Think of the disaster” is the first injunction of thought when faced with the disaster that struck European Jews during the period of Hitler’s rule. Thinking of the disaster means understanding why the Shoah was able to occur in civilized Europe, moulded by humane reason and the values of progress and enlightenment. It means thinking of a possibility for philosophy’s future.

Walter Benjamin, who wrestled with these problems ahead of time, Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer and Emmanuel Levinas had the courage, the strength and the perception – and sometimes simply the desperation – to think about what had happened. Moved by indignation and the desire to testify, they felt the urgent need to address the cries of agony of Auschwitz’s victims in their thinking.

Series: Emunot: Jewish Philosophy and Kabbalah

Alternative and Bio-Medicine in Israel: Boundaries and Bridges.
by Emma Averbuch, Judith Shuval
9781936235865
245 pp. cloth
$72.00
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Publication Date: January, 2012

This book explores the macro and micro social contexts in which alternative and bio-medicine co-exist in Israel. It includes a history of alternative health care in Israel and analysis of current policies and dilemmas regarding different forms of health care. It provides an in-depth analysis of medical professionals who have added alternative health care to their repertoire of professional skills in their practice settings in hospitals and community clinics. The heterogeneity of patient populations in Israel makes it possible to explore attitudes of different cultural groups toward alternative health care: these include Jewish immigrants from different countries as well as Bedouin and other Arab groups. Since alternative medicine is a growing part of the overall health care system in many countries, the book provides insights gained from the Israeli experience regarding its co-existence along with conventional medicine - to a broad spectrum of health professionals, policy makers and laypersons.

Review:

"No authors are better positioned than Shuval and Averbach to explore the boundaries and bridges between alternative and biomedicine. They have spent over ten years examining the ways in which these two disparate forms of health care have managed to co-exist in Israel.
With a solid theoretical framework and historical perspective, the book explores the diverse forms of co-existence that have emerged in their country between complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and the biomedical model. These include studies of nurses and midwives practicing CAM, as well as physicians who regularly incorporate it into their treatments. Other Israeli colleagues contribute significantly to the empirical research.
The book will be a critical source for scholars seeking to understand the social processes underlying the current challenges to the previous dominance of the medical profession and the transformation of the health care system."
—Merrijoy Kelner

Series: Israel: Society, Culture, and History

The Pale God: Israeli Secularism and Spinoza's Philosophy of Culture.
by Gideon Katz
ISBN 978-1-936235-38-4
222 pp. cloth
$65.00
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Publication Date: November, 2011

The Pale God examines the relationship between secularism and religious tradition. It begins with a description of the secular options as expressed by Israeli intellectuals, and describes how these options have led to a dead end.  A new option must be sought, and one of the key sources for this option is the works of Spinoza. The author explains that unlike Nietzsche, who discussed "the death of God," Spinoza tried to undermine the authority of religious virtuosos and establish the image of a rational "Pale God." Such changes could channel religious tradition to the basic principles of secular political rule. The author demonstrates that the secular option is inherent in Israeli society, fits the type of secularism that Zionism instilled in the Jewish people, and complements the traditional trends deeply rooted in that society.  

Series: Israel: Society, Culture, and History

The Teachings of Maimonides.
9781618111487
310 pp. cloth
$49.00
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Publication Date: October, 2011

This groundbreaking book was among the most important of those that presented the teachings of Maimonides, as represented by his many published works, as a unified whole, thus bringing about a renaissance in the study of this seminal scholar. The author states, in his original introduction, that “the spirit which animated [Maimonides’] mind and pervades his writings is as much needed now as ever before.” Academic Studies Press is proud to make this important work once again available in printed form.

Series: Classics in Judaica

Creating the Chupah: The Zionist Movement and the Drive for Jewish Communal Unity in Canada, 1898-1921.
by Henry Srebrnik
ISBN 978-1-936235-71-1
225 pp. cloth
$69.00
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Publication Date: September, 2011

Creating the Chupah assesses the role of Canadian Zionist organizations in the drive for communal unity within Canadian Jewry in the first two decades of the twentieth century. Two strands of Zionism, represented respectively by the Federation of Zionist Societies of Canada and Poale Zion, were often involved in conflicts that reflected greater disputes. The book also describes Zionist activities within the larger spectrum of Canadian Jewish life. Montreal was at the time the “capital” of Canadian Jewry, but the Jewish communities of Toronto and Winnipeg also play a significant role in these events. By providing a detailed historical examination of the early Canadian Zionist movement, the book makes a substantial contribution to our understanding of 20th century Jewish life in Canada.

Series: Jews in Space and Time

Aggadah and its Interpretation.
by Yosef Tabory
ISBN 978-1-936235-79-7
400 pp. cloth
$89.00
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Publication Date: December, 2011

This volume contains fifteen articles, many in Hebrew, by leading scholars. The articles cover a broad range of subjects, from an analysis of biblical narratives as expounded in the midrash and by medieval commentators, through a discussion of Maimonides’ attitude towards midrash and an analysis of talmudic aggadah as expounded by oriental scholars, to polemics concerning the attitude to aggadah in the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries, and culminating with an analysis of interpretation of aggadah by latter-day talmudic scholars. There are also articles about the essence of aggadah, its literary conventions and its relation to law, and two articles which deal with a passage in the Passover Haggadah. The participants include: E. Eizenman, N. Ilan, G. Blidstein, Y. Blau, M. Bregman, A. Grossman, H. Davidson, C. Horowitz, O. Viskind-Elper, H. Mak, A. Atzmon, A. Kadari, A. Rozenak, M. Shmidman, and J. Tabory.

Series: Out of the Series

The Shtiebelization of Modern Jewry: Studies in Custom and Ritual in the Judaic Tradition: Social-Anthropological Perspectives.
by Simcha Fishbane
ISBN 978-1-936235-77-3
280 pp. cloth
$75.00
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Publication Date: September, 2011

Custom and ritual, or their Hebrew equivalent, minhag, have intrigued rabbis and scholars for generations. The majority of the rabbinical works devoted to minhag primarily encompass lists of sources and reporting of old and new customs. Some have explored the historical development of the minhag. Here, Simcha Fishbane treats minhag from a socio-anthropological perspective.  The Shtiebelization of Modern Jewry discusses the theory and model of minhagim using the Mishnah Berurah and the Arukh Hashulkhan, analyzes rabbinic texts concerned with custom, and describes current rituals from a socio-anthropological viewpoint.

Series: Judaism and Jewish Life

Sorrow and Distress in the Talmud.
by Shulamit Valler
ISBN 978-1-936235-36-0
300 pp. cloth
$59.00
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Publication Date: August, 2011

Both the Babylonian Talmud and the Jerusalem Talmud depict a wide range of sorrowful situations tied to every level of society and to the complexities of human behavior and the human condition. 
The causes and expressions of sorrow amongst the Sages, however, are different from their counterparts amongst common people or women, with descriptions varying between the Babylonian and the Jerusalem Talmud.  In Sorrow and Distress in the Talmud, Valler explores more than 50 stories from both the Babylonian and the Jerusalem Talmuds, focusing on these issues.

Series: Judaism and Jewish Life

Maimonides as a Biblical Interpreter.
by Sara Klein-Braslavy
ISBN 978-1-936235-28-5
260 pp. cloth
$69.00
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Publication Date: June, 2011

Although Maimonides did not write a running commentary on any book of the Bible, biblical exegesis occupies a central place in his writings, particularly in his Guide for the Perplexed . In this book, Klein-Braslavy offers a collection of essays on several key biblical interpretations by Maimonides dealing with: the creation of the world; the story of the Garden of Eden; Jacob's dream of the ladder; King Solomon as an esoterist philosopher; and the problem of exoteric and esoteric biblical interpretations in the Guide. Special attention is paid to Maimonides' methods of interpretation and to his esoteric way of writing. Some of the articles in this volume were originally published in Hebrew, and appear here for the first time in an English translation.

Review:

"Sara Klein-Braslavy is one of our generation's pre-eminent interpreters of Maimonides. This volume makes available to the English reader a selection of her pioneering studies on Maimonides as interpreter of the Bible and on his art of writing. Professor Klein-Braslavy's  important work is thus made available to a much wider audience and makes a substantial contribution to the reader's understanding of this crucial figure."
—Menachem Kellner

Series: Emunot: Jewish Philosophy and Kabbalah

Strictly Kosher Reading: Popular Literature and the Condition of Contemporary Orthodoxy.
by Yoel Finkelman
ISBN 978-1-936235-37-7
250 pp. cloth
$49.00
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Publication Date: August, 2011

For centuries, fervently observant Jewish communities have produced thousands of works of Jewish law, thought, and spirituality. But in recent decades, the literature of America's Haredi [ultra-Orthodox] community has taken on brand-new forms: self-help books, cookbooks, monthly magazines, parenting guides, biographies, picture books, even adventure stories and spy novels -- all produced by Haredi men and women for the Haredi reader. What's changed? Why did these works appear, and what do they mean to the community that produces and consumes them? How has the Haredi world, as it seeks fidelity to unchanging tradition, so radically changed what it writes and what it reads? In answering these questions, Strictly Kosher Reading points to a central paradox in contemporary Haredi life. Haredi Jewry sets itself apart, claiming to reject modern secular culture as dangerous and as threatening to everything Torah stands for. But in practice, Haredi popular literature reveals a community thoroughly embedded in contemporary values. Popular literature plays a critical role in helping Haredi Jews to understand themselves as different, even as it shows them to be very much the same.

Series: Jewish Identity in Post Modern Society

The Muselmann at the Water Cooler: A Study of Survival in Extreme and Day-to-Day Situations: The Inside View of a Holocaust Survivor.
by Eli Pfefferkorn
ISBN 978-1-936235-66-7
300 pp. cloth
$69.00
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Publication Date: May, 2011

A survivor of concentration camps and the Death March, Eli Pfefferkorn looks back on his Holocaust and post-Holocaust experiences to compare patterns of human behavior in extremis with those of ordinary life.  What he finds is that the concentration camp Muselmann, who has lost his hunger for life and is thus shunned by his fellow inmates on the soup line, bears an eerie resemblance to an office employee who has fallen from grace and whose coworkers avoid spending time with him at the water cooler.  Though the circumstances are unfathomably far apart, the human response to their situations is triggered by self-preservation rather than by calculated evil. By juxtaposing these two separate worlds, Pfefferkorn demonstrates that ultimately the human condition has not changed significantly since Cain slew Abel and the Athenians sentenced Socrates.

Reviews:

''Pfefferkorn's experience and his memoir about it are both unusual in the field of Holocaust studies.  He experienced the Shoah and survived it, played a crucial role in the establishment of the United States Holocaust Museum, and has made substantial academic contributions as well. His memoir is well done, and will make an important contribution to the field of Holocaust studies.''
—John K. Roth, Edward Sexton Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Claremont McKenna College 

“Pfefferkorn has a lively style and a fascinating story to tell: his insights and his perspectives deserve a wide audience.”
—Sir Martin Gilbert, official biographer of Winston Churchill and author of The Second World War (Weidenfeld and Holt, 1989) 

Series: Reference Library of Jewish Intellectual History

Wandering Jew in America.
by Uzi Rebhun
ISBN 978-1-936235-26-1
154 pp. cloth
$60.00
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Publication Date: June, 2011

Uzi Rebhun provides the reader with a thorough description and analysis of the multifaceted nature of Jewish internal migration in the United States. Using data from the 1990 and 2000 NJPS, and through up-to-date approaches in the social sciences, he traces changes in the levels, directions, and types of Jewish migration, evaluating the changing social and economic characteristics of the migrants. Finally, Rebhun tests the relationships between migration and Jewish behavior in both the private and public spheres, his findings contributing to the theoretical literature on internal migration and to a better understanding of American ethnicity. The Wandering Jew in America is an excellent resource for students of migration, ethnicity, and sociology of religion as well as those interested in Jewish life in America.

Reviews:

"In The Wandering Jew, Uzi Rebhun has presented the definitive work on American Jews' geographic mobility for our time. Although comprehensive and rich with intriguing data analyses, his prose style makes the exploration of this important dimension of Jewish life readily available, acessible, and engaging. He contends not only with the prevailing theories and images of Jewish mobility, but also discerns fascinating changes over time in the patterns of mobility, in the characteristics of movers and stayers, and in the implications of mobility for Jewish identity and community."
—Steven M. Cohen, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion

"Uzi Rebhun documents changes in the wanderlust of American Jews up through 2001. His research, grounded in current theoretical frameworks, enables us to consider how Jews are similar to and different from other migrants within the United States. Rebhun concludes that American Jews are characterized by increasing and unusually high spatial mobility, which has resulted in high levels of both individual and institutional dispersion. Rebhun spells out the implications of his findings in terms of theoretical insights and suggested directions for future research, as well as for Jewish communal policy.

Rebhun has invested considerable skill in making his scientifically sound and sophisticated analyses, mostly based on the 1990 and 2000-1 Natinal Jewish Population Surveys, very accessible to all readers. Sure to be considered the definitive text on American Jewish spatial mobility for this time period, this work in highly recommended as worthwhile for scholars (of religion, ethnicity, and Jewish studies) and practitioners alike, as well anyone interested in the development of the contemporary American Jewry."
—Harriet Hartman, Professor of Sociology, Rowan University President, Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry

Series: Judaism and Jewish Life

Without Red Strings or Holy Water: Maimonides’ Mishne Torah.
edited by H. Norman Strickman
ISBN 978-1-936235-48-3
250 pp. cloth
$48.00
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Publication Date: July, 2011

Maimonides was one of the greatest Jewish personalities of the Middle Ages: a halakhist par excellence, a great philosopher, a political leader of his community, and a guardian of Jewish rights. In 1180 C.E., Maimonides composed his Halakhic magnum opus, the Mishneh Torah, which can be described without exaggeration as the greatest code of Jewish law to be composed in the post-Talmudic era, unique in scope, originality and language.  In addition to dealing with an immense variety of Jewish law, from the laws of Sabbath and festival observances, dietary regulations, and relations between the sexes to the sacrificial system, the construction of the Temple, and the making of priestly garments, the Mishneh Torah represents Maimonides’ conception of Judaism.  Maimonides held that the version of Judaism believed in and practiced by many pious Jews of his generation had been infected by with pagan notions. In the Mishneh Torah, he aimed at cleansing Judaism from these non-Jewish practices and beliefs and impressing upon readers that Jewish law and ritual are free from irrational and superstitious practices.  Without Red Strings or Holy Water explores Maimonides’ views regarding God, the commandments, astrology, medicine, the evil eye, amulets, magic, theurgic practices, omens, communicating with the dead, the messianic era, midrashic literature, and the oral law.  Without Red Strings or Holy Water will be of interest in to all who are interested in the intellectual history of Judaism.

Series: Judaism and Jewish Life

Beyond Political Messianism: The Poetry of Second-Generation Religious Zionist Settlers.
by David C. Jacobson
ISBN 978-1-934843-72-7
250 pp. cloth
$69.00
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Publication Date: May, 2011

In recent decades, a group of second-generation religious Zionist West Bank settlers have turned away from the collectivist political messianic ideology of the first generation of settlers and have begun to explore poetry as a mode of individual self-expression. Based on interviews of eight key figures in this new trend and an analysis of their poetry, Beyond Political Messianism: The Poetry of Second-Generation Religious Zionist Settlers tells the story of how they revolutionized the religious Zionist settler culture by moving poetry into the mainstream of that culture and how they introduced into the world of secular Israeli literature images and language drawn from their lives as religiously observant Jews.  Among the themes central to these poets’ concerns are: the formation of a religious identity based on faith and ritual observance, the relationship of the contemporary Jew to the Bible and to traditional Jewish texts, appropriate ways to write about erotic experiences, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Review:

"In lucid writing and armed with depths of understanding and knowledge, David C. Jacobson leads his reader into an exploration of Jewish thought rooted in the teachings of Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Kook and his son Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook and their disciples. Against this background, Jacobson explains the framework of the new poetic phenomenon which has grown at the very heart of the religious Zionist community, an ideological and political movement which largely held back from poetic activity from its inception. The writer invites his reader, indeed all of us, to a challenging experience – of thought and poetry blended together."
—Avinoam Rosenak, Professor of Jewish Thought, Hebrew University, Jerusalem

Series: Israel: Society, Culture, and History

A Coat of Many Colors: Dress Culture in the Young State of Israel.
by Anat Helman
ISBN 978-1-934843-88-8
242 pp. cloth
$59.00
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Publication Date: May, 2011

A Coat of Many Colors investigates Israel's first seven years as a sovereign state through the unusual prism of dress. Clothes worn by Israelis in the 1950s reflected political ideologies, economic conditions, military priorities, social distinctions, and cultural preferences, and all played a part in consolidating a new national identity. Based on a wide range of textual and visual historical documents, the book covers both what Israelis wore in various circumstances and what they said and wrote about clothing and fashion. Written in a clear and accessible style that will appeal to the general reader as well as students and scholars, A Coat of Many Colors introduces the reader both to Israel's history during its formative years and to the rich field of dress culture.

Reviews:

"Well-documented with an impressive bibliography, Anat Helman's book, A Coat of Many Colors, is an easy-to-read account and analysis of dress fashions among Israel's immigrants and residents in the country's first years. I enjoyed this book very much—it's fun to read and clearly demonstrates how clothing and dress are integral aspects of social and cultural history."
—Joanne B. Eicher, Editor-in-Chief, Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion

"With her superb eye for detail and her ability to tell a good story well, Anat Helman has produced a marvelous history of the State of Israel's early days by studying its clothing culture. Through this approach Helman tells the history of the fledgling state's economy, illuminates the values of the kibbutz movement, the military, the government and Israeli private life and reveals much about gender roles and the East-West ethnic encounter and does so by examining the dress codes each of these spheres promoted and the ideological underpinnings for such choices. A Coat of Many Colors allows us to read Israeli culture in its formative phase in an entirely new light. This is cultural history at its finest and establishes Anat Helman as one of the most interesting and path-breaking historians of her generation."
—John Efron, Koret Professor of Jewish History, University of California-Berkeley

Series: Israel: Society, Culture, and History

Persecution, Polemic, and Dialogue: Essays in Jewish-Christian Relations.
by David Berger
ISBN 978-1-934843-76-5
450 pp. cloth
$45.00
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Publication Date: May, 2010

Persecution, Polemic, and Dialogue follows the interaction between Jews and Christians through the ages in all its richness, complexity, and diversity.  This collection of essays analyzes anti-Semitism, perceptions of the Other, and religious debates in the Middle Ages and proceeds to consider modern and contemporary interactions, which are marked by both striking continuity and profound difference.  These include controversies among historians, the promise and challenge of interfaith dialogue, and the explosive exchanges surrounding Mel Gibson’s film on the passion.  This volume will engage scholars, students, and any reader intrigued by one of the longest and most fraught inter-group relationships in history.

Review:

“Few bring to the subject of Jewish-Christian relations the singular blend of insight, erudition, and passion that characterizes David Berger’s Persecution, Polemic, and Dialogue; and few collections of essays constitute as coherent and accessible an introduction to a difficult subject as this volume certainly does.  Professor Berger’s studies of the major issues in the encounter between Jews and Christians during the Middle Ages, in the way that modern writers have understood that encounter, and in that encounter’s enduring impact on Jewish-Christian interaction today reflect keen critical scholarship on the one hand, and a resolute commitment to Jewish tradition on the other.  Without compromising either, Berger boldly addresses the thorniest, most sensitive of issues – from the Crusades to the blood libels to the supersessionism of the present pope – with candor, fairness, and wit.  No reader, of whatever faith or critical disposition, will leave this book unrewarded.”
—Jeremy Cohen, Abraham and Edita Spiegel Family Foundation Professor of European Jewish History, Tel Aviv University

"This masterful collection of essays is vintage David Berger – thoughtful, erudite, engaged, broad and insightful. Trained as a medievalist, specializing in the Jewish-Christian debate, Prof. Berger demonstrates that to understand the present relation between the two religions, one must go back in history and see what lessons can be derived from the past. Published over the course of a long career, these articles have stood the test of time and retain their vitality and liveliness, providing a model of careful and independent thinking on oftentimes sensitive subjects."
—Daniel J. Lasker, Norbert Blechner Professor of Jewish Values, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Series: Judaism and Jewish Life