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Abraham Joshua Heschel: A Life of Radical Amazement (Jewish Lives)
By Julian E. Zelizer. 2021
A biography of the rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who became a symbol of the marriage between religion and social justice…
&“When I marched in Selma, I felt my legs were praying.&” So said Polish-born American rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972) of his involvement in the 1965 Selma civil rights march alongside Martin Luther King Jr. Heschel, who spoke with a fiery moralistic fervor, dedicated his career to the struggle to improve the human condition through faith. In this new biography, author Julian Zelizer tracks Heschel&’s early years and foundational influences—his childhood in Warsaw and early education in Hasidism, his studies in late 1920s and early 1930s Berlin, and the fortuitous opportunity, which brought him to the United States and saved him from the Holocaust, to teach at Hebrew Union College and the Jewish Theological Seminary. This deep and complex portrait places Heschel at the crucial intersection between religion and progressive politics in mid-twentieth-century America. To this day Heschel remains a symbol of the fight to make progressive Jewish values relevant in the secular world.A Queen for All Seasons: A Celebration of Queen Elizabeth II on her Platinum Jubilee
By Joanna Lumley. 2021
'Lovely... delivers the warmest of glows' - The TelegraphA sparkling celebration of our much-loved Queen Elizabeth II for her Platinum…
Jubilee including special writings and illuminating insights around key moments in her 70-year reign, introduced and edited by her biggest fan Joanna Lumley.In 2022 Queen Elizabeth II celebrates seventy years as Queen and Head of the Commonwealth. She is Britain's longest reigning monarch and the very first to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee. A Queen For All Seasons, edited and introduced by Joanna Lumley, is a perceptive, touching and engaging tribute to this unique woman. A treasure chest of first-hand writings, insights and snapshots of the Queen during key moments of her reign to form a vibrant portrait of the woman herself and the extraordinary role she plays. Joanna Lumley guides us as we meet Princess Elizabeth in 1952, aged just twenty-five, and about to become Queen, and brings us through to the present day when, as our matriarch, the Queen keeps the national ship steady, including in moments of crisis and suffering. Here are unique perspectives into some of the most fascinating aspects of the Queen's life - her role as head of state at home and abroad, her private passions and public interests and a bird's-eye look at key events that have held the nation together and the Queen in our affection throughout Britain and beyond.This book is a special and unique portrait of our constant Queen in an ever-changing world.A Queen for All Seasons: A Celebration of Queen Elizabeth II on her Platinum Jubilee
By Joanna Lumley. 2021
A sparkling celebration of our much-loved Queen Elizabeth II for her Platinum Jubilee including special writings and illuminating insights around…
key moments in her 70-year reign, introduced and edited by her biggest fan Joanna Lumley.In 2022 Queen Elizabeth II celebrates seventy years as Queen and Head of the Commonwealth. She is Britain's longest reigning monarch and the very first to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee. A Queen For All Seasons, edited and introduced by Joanna Lumley, is a perceptive, touching and engaging tribute to this unique woman. A treasure chest of first-hand writings, insights and snapshots of the Queen during key moments of her reign to form a vibrant portrait of the woman herself and the extraordinary role she plays. Joanna Lumley guides us as we meet Princess Elizabeth in 1952, aged just twenty-five, and about to become Queen, and brings us through to the present day when, as our matriarch, the Queen keeps the national ship steady, including in moments of crisis and suffering. Here are unique perspectives into some of the most fascinating aspects of the Queen's life - her role as head of state at home and abroad, her private passions and public interests and a bird's-eye look at key events that have held the nation together and the Queen in our affection throughout Britain and beyond.This book is a special and unique portrait of our constant Queen in an ever-changing world.Arthur E. Haas - The Hidden Pioneer of Quantum Mechanics: A Biography (Springer Biographies)
By Michael Wiescher. 2021
The book highlights the personal and scientific struggles of Arthur Erich Haas (1884-1941), an Austrian Physicist from a wealthy Jewish middle-class family,…
whose remarkable accomplishments in a politically hostile but scientifically rewarding environment deserve greater recognition.Haas was a fellow student of both Lise Meitner and Erwin Schrödinger and was also one of the last doctoral students of Ludwig Boltzmann. Following Boltzmann's suicide, Haas was forced to submit a more independent doctoral thesis in which he postulated new approaches in early quantum theory, actually introducing the idea of the Bohr radius before Niels Bohr. It is the lost story of a trailblazer in the fields of quantum mechanics and cosmology, a herald of nuclear energy and applications of modern science. This biography of Haas is based on new and previously unpublished family records and archived material from the Vienna Academy of Science and the University of Notre Dame, which the author has collected over many years. From his analysis of the letters, documents, and photos that rested for nearly a century in family attics and academic archives, Michael Wiescher provides a unique and detailed insight into the life of a gifted Jewish physicist during the first half of the twentieth century. It also sheds light on the scientific developments and thinking of the time. It appeals not only to historians and physicists, but also general readers. All appreciate the record of Haas’ interactions with many of the key figures who helped to found modern physics.Here are magnificent insights into the lives of biblical prophets and kings, talmudic sages, and Hasidic rabbis from the internationally…
acclaimed writer, Nobel laureate, and one of the world&’s most honored and beloved teachers. From a multitude of sources, Elie Wiesel culls facts, legends, and anecdotes to give us fascinating portraits of notable figures throughout Jewish history. Here is the prophet Elisha, wonder-worker and adviser to kings, whose compassion for those in need is matched only by his fiery temper. Here is the renowned scholar Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, whose ingenuity in escaping from a besieged Jerusalem on the eve of its destruction by Roman legions in 70 CE laid the foundation for the rabbinic teachings and commentaries that revolutionized the practice and study of Judaism and have sustained the Jewish people for two thousand years of ongoing exile. And here is Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, founder of Chabad Hasidism, languishing in a Czarist prison in 1798, the victim of a false accusation, engaging in theological discussions with his jailers that would form the basis for Chabad&’s legendary method of engagement with the world at large. In recounting the life stories of these and other spiritual masters, in delving into the struggles of human beings trying to create meaningful lives touched with sparks of the divine, Wiesel challenges and inspires us all to find purpose and transcendence in our own lives.Jewish Women's History from Antiquity to the Present
By Debra Kaplan, Elisheva Carlebach, Nadia Valman, Judith R. Baskin, Dianne Ashton, Moshe Rosman, Marla Brettschneider, Dina Danon, Rebecca Lynn Winer, Natalia Aleksiun, Rachel Adelman, Benjamin M. Baader, Joseph and Esther Foster Professor in Judaic Studies Sylvia Barack Fishman, Book Review Editor Federica Francesconi, ChaeRan Freeze, Tal Ilan, Book Review Editor Melissa R Klapper, Sharon Koren, Frances Malino, Renee Levine Melammed, Lilach Rosenberg-Friedman. 2021
Jewish Women’s History from Antiquity to the Present is broad in geographical scope exploring Jewish women’s lives in what is…
now Eastern and Western Europe, Britain, Israel, Turkey, North Africa, and North America. Editors Federica Francesconi and Rebecca Lynn Winer focus the volume on reconstructing the experiences of ordinary women and situating those of the extraordinary and famous within the gender systems of their times and places. The twenty-one contributors analyze the history of Jewish women in the light of gender as religious, cultural, and social construct. They apply new methodologies in approaching rabbinic sources, prescriptive literature, and musar (ethics), interrogating them about female roles in the biblical and rabbinic imaginations, and in relation to women’s restrictions and quotidian actions on the ground. They explore Jewish’s women experiences of persecution, displacement, immigration, integration, and social mobility from the medieval age through the nineteenth century. And for the modern era, this volume assesses women’s spiritual developments; how they experienced changes in religious and political societies, both Jewish and non-Jewish; the history of women in the Holocaust, their struggle through persecution and deportation; women’s everyday concerns, Jewish lesbian activism, and the spiritual sphere in the contemporary era. Contributors reinterpret rabbinical responsa through new lenses and study a plethora of unpublished and previously unknown archival sources, such as community ordinances and court records, alongside autobiographies, letters, poetry, narrative prose, devotional objects, the built environment, illuminated manuscripts, and early printed books. This publication is significant within the field of Jewish studies and beyond; the essays include comparative material and have the potential to reach scholarly audiences in many related fields but are also written to be accessible to all, with the introductions in every chapter aimed at orienting the enthusiast from outside academia to each time and place.The Samaritans: A Profile
By Reinhard Pummer. 2015
Authoritative introduction to the Samaritan tradition from antiquity to the present Most people associate the term "Samaritan" exclusively with the…
New Testament stories about the Good Samaritan and the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well. Very few are aware that a small community of about 750 Samaritans still lives today in Palestine and Israel; they view themselves as the true Israelites, having resided in their birthplace for thousands of years and preserving unchanged the revelation given to Moses in the Torah. Reinhard Pummer, one of the world's foremost experts on Samaritanism, offers in this book a comprehensive introduction to the people identified as Samaritans in both biblical and nonbiblical sources. Besides analyzing the literary, epigraphic, and archaeological sources, he examines the Samaritans' history, their geographical distribution, their version of the Pentateuch, their rituals and customs, and their situation today. There is no better book available on the subject.Scribes and Scrolls at Qumran
By Sidnie White Crawford. 2019
The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls altered our understanding of the development of the biblical text, the history and…
literature of Second Temple Judaism, and the thought of the early Christian community. Questions continue to surround the relationship between the caves in which the scrolls were found and the nearby settlement at Khirbet Qumran. In Scribes and Scrolls at Qumran, Sidnie White Crawford combines the conclusions of the first generation of scrolls scholars that have withstood the test of time, new insights that have emerged since the complete publication of the scrolls corpus, and the much more complete archaeological picture that we now have of Khirbet Qumran. She creates a new synthesis of text and archaeology that yields a convincing history of and purpose for the Qumran settlement and its associated caves.Nothing New in Europe?: Israelis Look at Antisemitism Today
By Anita Haviv-Horiner. 2022
Today, more than 75 years after the Holocaust and World War II, antisemitism remains a poisonous force in European culture…
and politics, whether cloaked in the garb of reactionary nationalism or manifested in outright physical violence. Nothing New in Europe? provides a sobering look at the persistence of European antisemitism today through fifteen interviews with Jewish Israelis living in Germany, Poland, France, and other countries, supplemented with in-depth scholarly essays. The interviewees draw upon their lived experiences to reflect on anti-Jewish rhetoric, the role of Israel, and the relationship between antisemitism and the persecution of other minorities.Cleopatra Rules!: The Amazing Life of the Original Teen Queen
By Vicky Alvear Shecter. 2010
Learn all about Cleopatra, a far more capable and powerful ruler than people have thought, in this lively and informative…
biography. Most of what we've known about Cleopatra—and what crept into art, film, and literature—came from her enemies, the Romans. Ascending to the throne at young age of 17, Cleopatra proved to be a brilliant negotiator who forged alliances that kept her in power and in control of her kingdom. This book about Egypt's last and most famous pharaoh features an inviting text, many sidebars, and excellent color illustrations: maps, photos of ancient artifacts, and artworks from many historical periods.Zionism’s Redemptions: Images of the Past and Visions of the Future in Jewish Nationalism
By Arieh Saposnik. 2022
In this volume, Arieh Saposnik examines the complicated relations between nationalism and religious (and non-religious) redemptive traditions through the case…
study of Zionism. He provides a new framework for understanding the central ideas of this movement and its relationship to traditional Jewish ideas, Christian thought, and modern secular messianisms. Providing a longue-durée and broad view of the central themes and motivations in the making of Zionism, Saposnik connects its intellectual history with the concrete development of the Zionist project in Israel in its cultural, social, and political history. Saposnik demonstrates how Zionism offers lessons for a politics in which human perfectibility continues to serve as a guiding light and as a counter-narrative to the contemporary politics of self-interest, self-promotion and 'post-truth.' This is a study that bears implications for our understanding of modernity, of space and place, history and historical trajectories, and the place of Jews and Judaism in the modern world.Voices from the Ruins: Theodicy and the Fall of Jerusalem in the Hebrew Bible
By Dalit Rom-Shiloni. 2021
Where was God in the sixth-century destruction of Jerusalem? The Hebrew Bible compositions written during and around the sixth century BCE…
provide an illuminating glimpse into how ancient Judeans reconciled the major qualities of God—as Lord, fierce warrior, and often harsh rather than compassionate judge—with the suffering they were experiencing at the hands of the Neo-Babylonian empire, which had brutally destroyed Judah and deported its people. Voices from the Ruins examines the biblical texts &“explicitly and directly contextualized by those catastrophic events&”—Kings, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Lamentations, and selected Psalms—to trace the rich, diverse, and often-polemicized discourse over theodicy unfolding therein. Dalit Rom-Shiloni shows how the &“voices from the ruins&” in these texts variously justified God in the face of the rampant destruction, expressed doubt, and protested God&’s action (and inaction). Rather than trying to paper over the stark theological differences between the writings of these sixth-century historiographers, prophets, and poets, Rom-Shiloni emphasizes the dynamic of theological pluralism as a genuine characteristic of the Hebrew Bible. Through these avenues, and with her careful, discerning textual analysis, she provides readers with insight into how the sufferers of an ancient national catastrophe wrestled with the difficult question that has accompanied tragedies throughout history: Where was God?'What a compelling read! Nancy Goldstone has brought to life the four female Stuarts in all their tragic glory' Amanda…
ForemanValentine's Day, 1613. Elizabeth Stuart, the sixteen-year-old granddaughter of Mary, Queen of Scots, marries Frederick V, a German count and ally of her father, James I of England. In just five years a terrible betrayal will ruin 'the Winter Queen', as Elizabeth will forever be known, imperil the lives of those she loves and launch a war that lasts thirty years.In a sweeping narrative encompassing political intrigue, illicit love affairs and even a murder mystery, Nancy Goldstone tells the riveting story of a queen in exile, and of her four defiant daughters.The Making of the Bible: From the First Fragments to Sacred Scripture
By Jens Schröter, Konrad Schmid. 2021
The authoritative new account of the Bible’s origins, illuminating the 1,600-year tradition that shaped the Christian and Jewish holy books…
as millions know them today. The Bible as we know it today is best understood as a process, one that begins in the tenth century BCE. In this revelatory account, a world-renowned scholar of Hebrew scripture joins a foremost authority on the New Testament to write a new biography of the Book of Books, reconstructing Jewish and Christian scriptural histories, as well as the underappreciated contest between them, from which the Bible arose. Recent scholarship has overturned popular assumptions about Israel’s past, suggesting, for instance, that the five books of the Torah were written not by Moses but during the reign of Josiah centuries later. The sources of the Gospels are also under scrutiny. Konrad Schmid and Jens Schröter reveal the long, transformative journeys of these and other texts en route to inclusion in the holy books. The New Testament, the authors show, did not develop in the wake of an Old Testament set in stone. Rather the two evolved in parallel, in conversation with each other, ensuring a continuing mutual influence of Jewish and Christian traditions. Indeed, Schmid and Schröter argue that Judaism may not have survived had it not been reshaped in competition with early Christianity. A remarkable synthesis of the latest Old and New Testament scholarship, The Making of the Bible is the most comprehensive history yet told of the world’s best-known literature, revealing its buried lessons and secrets.Originally published in 1955, and containing some 500 passages, this Biblical anthology brings together, in their original wording, the highest…
expressions of the Biblical view of life. The anthology is non-historical and non-doctrinal. It starts with the confrontations of man with God as seen in the ‘calls’ of the prophets, and proceeds to the ways of life demanded of man and the duties accompanying the privilege of vocation. It ends with the visions of the ideal society which in times of trial the author believes have sustained the mind. When this was first published, the anthology used often forgotten texts, and in so doing stimulated much attention to these enduring religious documents.The Thought of the Prophets (Ethical and Religious Classics of East and West #5)
By Israel I. Mattuck. 1953
Originally published in 1953, The Hebrew Prophets’ conception of the meaning and purpose of human history has considerable significance for…
a religious view of the world situation in the middle of the 20th Century. This book discusses the nature of the Hebrew prophets and the grounds for their claim to inspiration. He then examines the fundamental and universal religious ideas underlying their pronouncements. Particular attention is paid to their views on the basis of human morals, the character of the good society, the duties of government and the relation between religion and politics. Other chapters deal with their ideas of true religion and of the relation of God to human life.A Year with Martin Buber: Wisdom on the Weekly Torah Portion (JPS Daily Inspiration)
By Rabbi Dennis S. Ross. 2021
The teachings of the great twentieth-century Jewish thinker Martin Buber empower us to enter a spiritual dimension that often passes…
unnoticed in the daily routine. In A Year with Martin Buber, the first Torah commentary to focus on his life&’s work, we experience the fifty-four weekly Torah portions and eleven Jewish holidays through Buber&’s eyes. While best known for the spiritual concept of the I-Thou relationship between people, Buber graced us with other fundamentals, including Over Against, Afterglow, Will and Grace, Reification, Inclusion, and Imagine the Real. And his life itself—including his defiance of the Nazis, his call for Jewish-Arab reconciliation, and his protest of Adolf Eichmann&’s execution—modeled these teachings in action. Rabbi Dennis S. Ross demonstrates Buber&’s roots in Jewish thought and breaks new ground by explaining the broader scope of Buber&’s life and work in a clear, conversational voice. He quotes from the weekly Torah portion; draws lessons from Jewish commentators; and sets Buber&’s related words in context with Buber&’s remarkable life story, Hasidic tales, and writing. A wide variety of anecdotal illustrations from Buber as well as the author&’s life encourages each of us to &“hallow the everyday&” and seek out spirituality &“hiding in plain sight.&”The Pharisees
By Joseph Sievers and Amy-Jill Levine, editors. 2021
A multidisciplinary appraisal of the Pharisees: who they were, what they taught, and how they&’ve been understood and depicted throughout…
historyFor centuries, Pharisees have been well known but little understood—due at least in part to their outsized role in the Christian imagination arising from select negative stereotypes based in part on the Gospels. Yet historians see Pharisees as respected teachers and forward-thinking innovators who helped make the Jewish tradition more adaptable to changing circumstances and more egalitarian in practice. Seeking to bridge this gap, the contributors to this volume provide a multidisciplinary appraisal of who the Pharisees actually were, what they believed and taught, and how they have been depicted throughout history. The topics explored within this authoritative resource include:the origins of the Phariseesthe meaning of the name &“Pharisee&”Pharisaic leniency, relative to the temple priesthood, in judicial mattersPharisaic concerns for the Jewish laityPharisaic purity practices and why they became popularthe varying depictions of Pharisaic practices and beliefs in the New TestamentJesus&’s relationship to the Phariseesthe apostle Paul and his situation within the Pharisaic traditionthe question of continuity between the Pharisaic tradition and Rabbinic Judaismthe reception history of the Pharisees, including among the rabbis, the church fathers, Rashi, Maimonides, Luther, and Calvinthe failures of past scholarship to deal justly with the Phariseesthe representations, both positive and negative, of the Pharisees in art, film, passion plays, and Christian educational resourceshow Christian leaders can and should address the Pharisees in sermons and in Bible studiesFollowing the exploration of these and other topics by a team of internationally renowned scholars, this volume concludes with an address by Pope Francis on correcting the negative stereotypes of Pharisees that have led to antisemitic prejudices and finding resources that &“will positively contribute to the relationship between Jews and Christians, in view of an ever more profound and fraternal dialogue.&”Contributors: Luca Angelelli, Harold W. Attridge, Vasile Babota, Shaye J. D. Cohen, Philip A. Cunningham, Deborah Forger, Paula Fredriksen, Yair Furstenburg, Massimo Grilli, Susannah Heschel, Angela La Delfa, Amy-Jill Levine, Hermut Löhr, Steve Mason, Eric M. Meyers, Craig E. Morrison, Vered Noam, Henry Pattarumadathil, Adele Reinhartz, Jens Schröter, Joseph Sievers, Matthias Skeb, Abraham Skorka, Günter Stemberger, Christian Stückl, Adela Yarbro Collins, and Randall Zachman.Studying Lived Religion: Contexts and Practices
By Nancy Tatom Ammerman. 2021
Offers an overarching definition and framework for the study of religion as it manifests itself in everyday lifeLook around you…
as you walk down the street; somewhere, usually hidden in plain sight, there will be traces of religion. Perhaps it is the person who walks past with a Christian tattoo or a Muslim hijab. Perhaps it is the poster announcing a charity auction at the local synagogue. Or perhaps you open your Instagram feed to see what inspiring images and meditations have been posted by spiritual guides to help start the day.Studying Lived Religion examines religious practices wherever they happen—both within religious spaces and in everyday life. Although the study of lived religion has been around for over two decades, there has not been an agreed-upon definition of what it encompasses, and we have lacked a sociological theory to frame the way it is studied. This book offers a definition that expands lived religion’s geographic scope and a framework of seven dimensions around which we can analyze lived religious practice. Examples from multiple traditions and disciplines show the range of methods available for such studies, offering practical tips for how to begin. The volume opens up how we understand the category of lived religion, erasing the artificial divide between what happens in congregations and other religious institutions and what happens in other settings. Nancy Tatom Ammerman draws on examples ranging from Singapore to Accra to Chicago to show how deeply religion permeates everyday lives. In revealing the often overlooked ways that religion shapes human experience, she invites us all into new ways of seeing the world around us.Devotion: Three Inquiries in Religion, Literature, and Political Imagination (TRIOS)
By Amy Hollywood, Sarah Hammerschlag, Constance M. Furey. 2021
Three scholars of religion explore literature and the literary as sites of critical transformation. We are living in a time…
of radical uncertainty, faced with serious political, ecological, economic, epidemiological, and social problems. Scholars of religion Constance M. Furey, Sarah Hammerschlag, and Amy Hollywood come together in this volume with a shared conviction that what and how we read opens new ways of imagining our political futures and our lives. Each essay in this book suggests different ways to characterize the object of devotion and the stance of the devout subject before it. Furey writes about devotion in terms of vivification, energy, and artifice; Hammerschlag in terms of commentary, mimicry, and fetishism; and Hollywood in terms of anarchy, antinomianism, and atopia. They are interested in literature not as providing models for ethical, political, or religious life, but as creating the site in which the possible—and the impossible—transport the reader, enabling new forms of thought, habits of mind, and ways of life. Ranging from German theologian Martin Luther to French-Jewish philosopher Sarah Kofman to American poet Susan Howe, this volume is not just a reflection on forms of devotion and their critical and creative import but also a powerful enactment of devotion itself.