The Way Into the Varieties of Jewishness

The Way Into the Varieties of Jewishness PDF Author: Sylvia Barack Fishman
Publisher: Jewish Lights Publishing
ISBN: 1580233678
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 290

Book Description
Takes readers era by era through Jewish history, revealing the fascinating range of historical conflicts that Jews have dealt with internally. Outlines the development of the Jewish faith, people and the major differences among Jewish movements today.

The Way Into the Varieties of Jewishness

The Way Into the Varieties of Jewishness PDF Author: Sylvia Barack Fishman, PhD
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
ISBN: 1580236766
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 298

Book Description
An accessible introduction to the many ways Jews understand Jewishness and identify themselves and their communities—throughout history and today. For everyone who wants to understand the varieties of Jewish identity, its boundaries and inclusions, this book explores the religious and historical understanding of what it has meant to be Jewish from ancient times to the present controversy over “Who is a Jew?” Beginning with the biblical period, it takes readers era by era through Jewish history to reveal who the Jewish community included and excluded, and discusses the fascinating range of historical conflicts that Jews have dealt with internally. It provides an understanding of how the Jewish people and faith developed, and of what the major religious differences are among Jewish movements today.

The Beginnings of Jewishness

The Beginnings of Jewishness PDF Author: Shaye J. D. Cohen
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520226933
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 444

Book Description
This is a study of the notion of Jewishness from c. 200 BCE to c. 200 CE. Reasonable and well-informed people disputed whether a given person was Jewish or not; Cohen opens by discussing just such an argument, about Herod the Great.

Jews and Judaism in the 21st Century

Jews and Judaism in the 21st Century PDF Author: Edward Feinstein
Publisher: Jewish Lights Publishing
ISBN: 1580233155
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 194

Book Description
"In this thought-provoking book, five celebrated leaders in Judaism, representing a broad spectrum of contemporary Jewish experience, reinterpret Jewish life, re-envision its institutions, and re-imagine its future in the shadow of the events of the twentieth century."--BOOK JACKET.

The Other Talmud--the Yerushalmi

The Other Talmud--the Yerushalmi PDF Author: Judith Z. Abrams
Publisher: Jewish Lights Publishing
ISBN: 1580234631
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 258

Book Description
This engaging look at the Judaism that might have been breaks open the Yerushalmiù"The Talmud of the Land of Israel"ùand what it means for Jewish life today. It examines what the Yerushalmi is, how it differs from the Bavliùthe Babylonian Talmudùand how and why the Bavli is used today. It reveals how the Yerushalmi's vision of Jewish practice resembles today's liberal Judaism, and why the Yerushalmi is growing in popularity.

Diasporas and Exiles

Diasporas and Exiles PDF Author: Howard Wettstein
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520228642
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 302

Book Description
"Rarely have I encountered a collection of essays that coheres so well around an overarching theme. This will be an important resource."—Hillel J. Kieval, author of Languages of Community

The Vanishing American Jew

The Vanishing American Jew PDF Author: Alan M. Dershowitz
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0684848988
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 420

Book Description
Explores the meaning of Jewishness in light of the increasing assimilation of America's Jews and suggests ways to preserve Jewish identity.

Beyond Jewish Identity

Beyond Jewish Identity PDF Author: Jon A. Levisohn
Publisher: Academic Studies PRess
ISBN: 1644691183
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 414

Book Description
There is something deeply problematic about the ways that Jews, particularly in America, talk about “Jewish identity” as a desired outcome of Jewish education. For many, the idea that the purpose of Jewish education is to strengthen Jewish identity is so obvious that it hardly seems worth disputing—and the only important question is which kinds of Jewish education do that work more effectively or more efficiently. But what does it mean to “strengthen Jewish identity”? Why do Jewish educators, policy-makers and philanthropists talk that way? What do they assume, about Jewish education or about Jewish identity, when they use formulations like “strengthen Jewish identity”? And what are the costs of doing so? This volume, the first collection to examine critically the relationship between Jewish education and Jewish identity, makes two important interventions. First, it offers a critical assessment of the relationship between education and identity, arguing that the reification of identity has hampered much educational creativity in the pursuit of this goal, and that the nearly ubiquitous employment of the term obscures significant questions about what Jewish education is and ought to be. Second, this volume offers thoughtful responses that are not merely synonymous replacements for “identity,” suggesting new possibilities for how to think about the purposes and desired outcomes of Jewish education, potentially contributing to any number of new conversations about the relationship between Jewish education and Jewish life.

To Heal the World?

To Heal the World? PDF Author: Jonathan Neumann
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 125016088X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 248

Book Description
A devastating critique of the presumed theological basis of the Jewish social justice movement—the concept of healing the world. What is tikkun olam? This obscure Hebrew phrase means literally “healing the world,” and according to Jonathan Neumann, it is the master concept that rests at the core of Jewish left wing activism and its agenda of transformative change. Believers in this notion claim that the Bible asks for more than piety and moral behavior; Jews must also endeavor to make the world a better place. In a remarkably short time, this seemingly benign and wholesome notion has permeated Jewish teaching, preaching, scholarship and political engagement. There is no corner of modern Jewish life that has not been touched by it. This idea has led to overwhelming Jewish participation in the social justice movement, as such actions are believed to be biblically mandated. There's only one problem: the Bible says no such thing. In this lively theological polemic, Neumann shows how tikkun olam, an invention of the Jewish left, has diluted millennia of Jewish practice and belief into a vague feel-good religion of social justice. Neumann uses religious and political history to debunk this pernicious idea, and shows how the Bible was twisted by Jewish liberals to support a radical left-wing agenda. In To Heal the World?, Neumann explains how the Jewish Renewal movement aligned itself with the New Left of the 1960s, and redirected the perspective of the Jewish community toward liberalism and social justice. He exposes the key figures responsible for this effort, shows that it lacks any real biblical basis, and outlines the debilitating effect it has had on Judaism itself.

Bukharan Jews and the Dynamics of Global Judaism

Bukharan Jews and the Dynamics of Global Judaism PDF Author: Alanna E. Cooper
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253006430
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 335

Book Description
Part ethnography, part history, and part memoir, this volume chronicles the complex past and dynamic present of an ancient Mizrahi community. While intimately tied to the Central Asian landscape, the Jews of Bukhara have also maintained deep connections to the wider Jewish world. As the community began to disperse after the fall of the Soviet Union, Alanna E. Cooper traveled to Uzbekistan to document Jewish life before it disappeared. Drawing on ethnographic research there as well as among immigrants to the US and Israel, Cooper tells an intimate and personal story about what it means to be Bukharan Jewish. Together with her historical research about a series of dramatic encounters between Bukharan Jews and Jews in other parts of the world, this lively narrative illuminates the tensions inherent in maintaining Judaism as a single global religion over the course of its long and varied diaspora history.