Hebrew Union College Research Articles

No Way Out: The Politics of Polish Jewry 1935-1939 (review)

THE JEWISHQUARTERLYREVIEW,XCII,Nos. 1-2 (July-October, 2001) 175-179 EMANUEL MELZER. No WayOut: ThePolitics of Polish Jewry 1935-1939. Monographs of the Hebrew Union College 19. Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 1997. Pp. xii + 235. Writingin 1989, reviewing the literatureon Polish Jewish history in the Hebrew language, David Engel noted that the most lamentable aspect was the fact that the large body of literaturein Hebrew was virtually unknown outside of Israel. For obvious financial reasons, he found it unlikely that the majorityof books on Polish Jewish subjects in Hebrew would ever be translatedinto otherlanguages. Engel'sunsurprisingconclusion: those who wished seriously to pursuethe historical study of Polish Jewry as a major focus of their academic work would need to consider Hebrew essential for involvement in the field at the top level. ' For the most part,the publishing history in subsequent years has borne out Engel's prediction, the one significantexception being the ongoing appearanceof translationsinto Polish of works in English and Hebrew on Polish Jewry, reflecting the growing interest in both scholarly circles and the general public in Poland in the Polish Jewish heritage. Here too, the numberof translatedworks remains relatively small. For this reason, the recentpublication of EmanuelMelzer'sNo WayOut as partof the Hebrew Union College monographseries representsa major additionto the English-language bookshelf on interwarPolish Jewish history .Melzer'sbook, a reworkingandupdatingof his 1982 workin Hebrew Ma'avaq Medini be-Malkodet: YehudeiPolin 1935-1939 (Political Strife in a Blind Alley: The Jews in Poland 1935-1939), which itself was a revised edition of his doctoraldissertationcompleted several years earlier,is partof a group of notable monographic studies on Polish Jewish politics, completed in Israel over the past threedecades. These studies, which cover most of the interwarperiod, focus in the main on the political struggles of the Jewish minority in Poland:the struggle for minority rights and the implementation of the Minorities Treaties and the Polish constitution on the one hand, andthe internalstruggle for hegemony in the Jewish community and the ongoing debate over the nature of Jewish identity on the other. These works include, among others, the books of Shlomo Netzer2 and Moshe Landau,3 as well as a large number of articles published in the 1David Engel, "WritingPolish Jewish History in Hebrew,"Gal-Ed 11 (1989) 29. 2Ma'avaq YehudeiPolin 'al Zekhuyotehemha-Ezrahiyotveha-Le'umiyot (19181922 ) [The Struggle of Polish Jewry for Civil and National MinorityRights (19181922 )] (Tel Aviv, 1980). 3Mi'ut Le'umi Lohem: Ma'avaq YehudeiPolin 1918-1928 [The Jews as a National Minority in Poland, 1918-1928](Jerusalem, 1986). 176 THEJEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW journal Gal-Ed. To meet, in part, the need stated above, this journal has moved from an all-Hebrewto a half-English, half-Hebrewformat. The new edition of No WayOutis more than simply a condensed translation of the Hebreworiginal.Melzerhas indeedtrimmeddown the original volume fromthe 384 pages in the Hebreworiginalto a muchmorecompact 235 pages in the English version. The authorhas managedthis feat without sacrificingclarity.The readercan follow withoutdifficultythe intricateflow of events, changing governmentpolicies and political debates among Jewish andPolish parties.Furthercontributingto the overall clarityof the narrative was Melzer's wise decision to consolidate his presentation of the events of 1935-1939 into one continuousnarrative,ratherthan follow the model of the Hebrew version of the book, which divided the period into two sub-periods and presentedthe various topics under discussion in two separate frameworks.Thus, for example, the anti-Jewish policies carried out in the Polish universities and the Jewish attemptsto deal with these events are described in one well-structuredpresentation, and the reader need notjump aheador back in the book to follow the story. As its sub-title indicates, the focus of No WayOutis the unenviablepolitical situation of Polish Jewry in the years between the death of Joseph Pilsudski in 1935 and the outbreakof WorldWarII. The book opens with a short and somewhat idiosyncratic introductorychapteron the Pilsudski years, 1926-1935, which provides some general information on the economic situation of Polish Jewry, thenjumps to a discussion of Polish and Jewish politics in those years. In general, this period is the one least covered in historical literatureon interwarPolish Jewry, and Melzer's truncated discussion goes little beyond existing works on the era. When...

Judaism and Disability: Portrayals in Ancient Texts from the Tanach through the Bavli (review)

Reviewed by: Judaism and Disability: Portrayals in Ancient Texts from the Tanach through the Bavli Mayer I. Gruber Judaism and Disability: Portrayals in Ancient Texts from the Tanach through the Bavli, by Judith K. Abrams. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 1998. 236pp. $49.95. In this book Judith K. Abrams presents scholar and layperson alike with a masterful study of the treatment of the physically and cognitively challenged in the authoritative sacred texts of Israel from the Iron Age through the Babylonian Talmud circa 500 C.E. (her date, which follows the traditional date given by Sherira, head of the academy of Pumbeditha [c. 970–1000 C.E.]). She exhibits total mastery of the relevant passages in Hebrew Scripture, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Mishnah, Tosefta, the Talmuds and Rabbinic midrash. She makes creative use of the work of the important pathfinders in 1) twentieth century Jewish biblical studies (Haran, Kaufman, Knohl, Milgrom, Weinfeld); 2) the contemporary scientific study of rabbinic literature (Halivni, Jaffee, Kraemer, Neusner); and 3) the post-modern study of the body in Judaism (Boyarin, Eillberg-Schwartz). Abrams is equally at home in the history of medicine and in anthropology and sociology. The depth and breadth of Rabbi Dr. Abrams’ knowledge is a tribute not only to the author of Judaism and Disability but also to her mentors at Hebrew Union College, where she earned her rabbinic ordination and at Baltimore Hebrew University where she earned her Ph.D. A generation ago Rabbi Douglas Goldhamer, spiritual leader of the Jewish congregation for the deaf in Greater Chicago (Bene Sholom), reported to the Chicago Board of Rabbis the grave difficulty that deaf Jews had in receiving a fair hearing [End Page 115] within the Jewish community. Wrongly assuming that every deaf person should be defined as cheresh (deaf and dumb; consequently in a subcategory of shoteh [imbecile]), rabbis and congregations refused to provide prayer groups of deaf Jews with Torah scrolls and other necessary appurtenances of public worship. Finding that the Jewish community turned a deaf ear to their pleadings, hearing-impaired Jews often fled to the welcoming arms of Christian churches. In a feature article concerning the treatment of the handicapped in the State of Israel in the Hebrew daily newspaper Ma’ariv (February 10, 2000) Tali Barzilai Sonenfeld writes: “Israel is insensitive to the physically handicapped; it does not see the blind, nor does it hear the deaf.” Consequently, she explains, elevators in public buildings lack buttons with captions in Braille for the blind; many government buildings provide no wheelchair access, and few ATMs are situated low enough to be operated from a wheelchair. Moreover, she reports, the head of one supermarket chain asked Ms. Sonenfeld please not to report that the chain would, if asked, help handicapped customers carry their purchases to their vehicles: “We do not want the handicapped taking advantage of us.” Rabbi Dr. Judith Z. Abrams shows that the basic sacred texts of Judaism—Hebrew Scripture, Mishnah, Tosefta, the two Talmuds, and the vast midrashic literature produced in Byzantine-age Palestine—constitute a treasure-trove of insights as to how the physically and cognitively unchallenged can learn to treat as peers the blind, the lame, the deaf, as well as the cognitively challenged. The author explains that the priestly heritage of Judaism exemplified by Lev. 1–16 created an ideal of physical perfection, which may rightly be compared with the qualifications required for admission to that elite military corps, the United States Marines. Building upon Israel Knohl’s thesis concerning the ideological differences between the priestly heritage exemplified by Lev. 1–16 and the Holiness Code contained in Lev. 17–26, Abrams demonstrates that Lev. 19 brought the ideal of physical perfection required of Temple priests into the popular realm by requiring Israelites to respect and treasure all human bodies. The logical consequence is Lev. 19:14, which prohibits cursing the deaf and putting a stumbling block before the blind. The next logical step is contained in ancient Rabbinic exegesis (see pp. 42–45). The rabbis saw in these prohibitions not only special consideration toward those persons whose physical disabilities often lead to their marginalization but also 1) a general prohibition against dealing...

Christianity through Reform Eyes: Kaufmann Kohler's Scholarship on Christianity

In the early twentieth century, Kaufmann Kohler, one of the outstanding leaders of Reform Judaism in America, wrote a series of articles on Christianity for the Jewish Encyclopedia. Using the opportunity to present his views, he wished to educate Jews as to the nature of Christianity and its relation to Judaism. 1 Kohler also hoped that Christians would read his work and thus encounter a Jewish view of Jesus, early Christianity, and Jewish-Christian relationships. In his opinion it would offer Christians a more comprehensive and sound picture of their own tradition and would bring them to change their views on Judaism and Jews. He believed that the scholarly view on the rise of Christianity and of Judaism would eventually determine the amount of tolerance and acceptance Jews could expect to enjoy in Christian societies. Kohler's work was one of the early attempts of Jewish scholars to put their imprint on the scholarship on the origins of Christianity. It gave expression to his feelings as a Jewish leader defending Judaism against what he considered Christian intolerance, while at the same time he was a scholar wishing to promote his own work and gain the attention of the general scholarly community. Kohler's position toward Christianity reflects traditional Jewish attitudes towards the Christian religion as well as more innovative Reform ones. The growing interest in Christianity and its relation to Judaism by Reform thinkers reflected a new consciousness among Jewish leaders, who viewed Judaism and its role in the modern world in relation to Christianity. Kohler's initial interests were not in the origins of Christianity. Born in 1843 in Fuerth, Bavaria, Kohler was a disciple of Samson Raphael Hirsch, the patriarch of German neo-Orthodoxy. Pursuing a doctorate degree at the University of Erlangen, he was influenced by the scholarly climate of German universities, which included the Higher Criticism of the Bible. Adopting a critical view of the biblical narrative, Kohler found it difficult to obtain a rabbinical position in the more conservative climate of Germany and came to America in 1869, where he began his [End Page 181] career as a rabbi first in Detroit and then in Chicago. 2 In 1879 he succeeded his father-in-law, David Einhorn, as rabbi of congregation Beth-El in New York and, like Einhorn, became an influential figure in the Reform movement. Kohler, for example, was a leading figure in the writing of the Pittsburgh Platform, a declaration of principles adopted in 1885 by a gathering of Reform rabbis that promoted the universal and rational features of Judaism. In 1903 Kohler became president of the Hebrew Union College and moved to Cincinnati. He worked to reshape the college and turn it into a solid academic institution. Throughout his career as a rabbi and president of the Hebrew Union College Kohler saw himself as a Jewish theologian writing tracts, sermons, and instructional books on the Jewish religion and its historical mission. But he shifted his interest more and more to the relationship between Judaism and early Christianity, a relationship that, he came to believe, was crucial to understanding both religious traditions. Although his move to Cincinnati ended, in effect, his editorial role in the Encyclopedia as well as his position as writer of articles on Jewish theology for the Encyclopedia, he continued to write articles on the Jewish-Christian relationship which were the focus of his scholarly interest and which he regarded as a mission. He was concerned over what he considered a serious disparity. Christian academicians were unwilling to adopt the same scholarly standards when addressing the origins of their own religious tradition that they used to address the origins of the Jewish religious tradition and its sacred texts. Few, if any, New Testament scholars or those searching for the historical Jesus, for example, were as daring as scholars of the Old Testament in touching upon the foundations of the sacred texts. 3 His frustration motivated his writings. Kohler'...

THE MATURATION OF RESEARCH IN JEWISH EDUCATION

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsMichael ZeldinMichael Zeldin is Professor of Jewish Education at the Rhea Hirsch School of Education at Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles. He is immediate past‐chair of the Network for Research in Jewish Education.Alex PomsonAlex Pomson is Professor of Jewish Education in the Faculty of Education, York University. He is coordinator of York's Jewish Teacher Education Programme.

Book Reviews

Journal Article Book Reviews Get access Jews, Slaves, and the Slave Trade: Setting the Record Straight. By Eli Faber. New York University Press, 1998. 400 pages.$27.95. Karla Goldman Karla Goldman Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Volume 69, Issue 1, March 2001, Pages 228–230, https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/69.1.228 Published: 01 March 2001

Compiling a Bibliography סf American Jewish Liturgy through 1925

The experience of compiling a bibliography of American Jewish liturgy from the establishment of the press through 1925 is discussed. The parameters of the bibliography are detailed as well as its contents. The present lack of complete or systematic documentation of American Jewish liturgy in Judaica libraries is noted. Also discussed is the significance of liturgy for the study of American Jews, their religious and cultural identity, as well as their demographics. This paper details the experience of compiling a bibliography of American Jewish liturgy through 1925, and describes some of the parameters and contents of the bibliography. This bibliography was published by Hebrew Union College Press in late 1997 under the title American Jewish Liturgies: A Bibliography of American Jewish Liturgy from the Establishment of the Press in the Colonies through 1925.

No Way Out: The Politics of Polish Jewry, 1935-1939. By Emanuel Melzer. Monographs of the Hebrew Union College. Cincinnati, Ohio: Hebrew Union College Press, 1997. Dist. Wayne State University Press, xii, 235 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $39.95, hard bound.

No Way Out: The Politics of Polish Jewry, 1935-1939. By Emanuel Melzer. Monographs of the Hebrew Union College. Cincinnati, Ohio: Hebrew Union College Press, 1997. Dist. Wayne State University Press, xii, 235 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $39.95, hard bound. - Volume 59 Issue 1

Decadent Trends in Hebrew Literature: Bialik, Berdychevski, Brener [Brenner] (review)

Hebrew Studies 41 (2000) 350 Reviews For his part, Lewis can reciprocally rely on Zangwill. Thus there is a complicated echo among these translations, each of which bequeaths its imprint to its successor. That imprint is also the record of the translator's personal meeting with the Hebrew poet and his work. So do we need another translation of the Keter Malkhut? Well, why not? It would be easy to quibble with Slavitt for his wording here and there. More seriously, he has sent a difficult text into the world with few references to the world from which she came, let alone her indebtedness to previous sponsors. Nonetheless, Slavitt's rendition is overall a pleasant "read." The Keter Malkhut has moments of strange and wonderful kind of poetry. All three translations testify in some way to its marvels, even as they grope along the path to the royal palace of their source. To paraphrase Ibn Gabirol, some translations will be like blind men on this journey, while some stride unwaveringly to their goal. Still, for those who respect the miracle of translation, "it is all the same mystery, and if they each have different names, they all go to one place." (Keter Malkhut, section III.) By 2040, we will be ready for a new companion on the road. Susan Einbinder Hebrew Union College Cincinnati, OH 48220 seinbinder@huc.edu DECADENT TRENDS IN HEBREW LITERATURE: BIALIK, BERDYCHEVSKI, BRENER [BRENNER]. By Hamutal Bar-Yosef. pp. 416. Jerusalem: Mossad Bialik, 1997. The subject of Decadence is timely for both Israeli and American culture. The acclaimed feature film "Eyes Wide Shut" has reminded Americans of Arthur Schnitzler's Vienna and of the role Jews played in the depiction of the darkness in the lives of twentieth century urban dwellers-living in apparent light but seeking secret places in which to avoid the glare. The re-emergence of Sigmund Freud in current discourse further enlivens our interest in decadence, and three prominent museum exhibits of Freud's life have enriched that discourse. Additional attention to decadent theme and personality-and the moral contrast with the hypocrisies of mainstream social values-became prominent subjects in two movies and a wildly successful play about the life and trial of Oscar Wilde. Hebrew Studies 41 (2000) 351 Reviews Israelis, for their part, are experiencing a renewed soul searching about their own cultural environment and about the role of "classic" scribes in adding unconventional themes to the canon of Hebrew fiction and poetry. Thus, Hamutal Bar-Yosef's book on Bialik, Berdyczewski, and Brenner and their relationship to decadence brings together two ostensibly disparate worlds which she links with both dexterity and first rate scholarship. Her book could be the ideal study for Israeli-American discourse-a discourse which too rarely engages intellectuals with shared concerns. (The problem of readership even for the Hebrew literate is another issue.) Historically, of course, Wilde and the trend known as Decadence had considerable importance for Hebrew literature, and Wilde's work was translated surprisingly early within the Yishuv's translation industry. For some readers, attention to the indulgent denizens of urban environments and the fascination with bourgeois arrangements remains a surprising little comer of the early Zionist movement which based itself on optimistic social programs and which attached itself to values which-though not "transcendant" theologically--certainly were understood to transcend (in the sense of over-ride) the pressure of quotidien life. Wilde's appearance on the Zionist scene is, on the other-hand, no more surprising than his appearance among the Colorado miners or Iowa farmers he addressed on his legendary visit to America in the early 1880s. But Wilde-inspired "decadence" is only one perspective on this wide ranging trend of the eady twentieth century. Bar Yosef describes an array of elements that found their way in one degree or another into the works of modem Hebrew's remarkable literary triad. Her four hundred plus page book peers into almost every aspect of decadence in the three writers and she traces sources of influence-its methods and its themes--challenging earlier critics to re-examine the significance of the works these three writers must have read. Because Bialik has not...

Eric Friedland, “Were Our Mouths Filled With Song”: Studies in Liberal Jewish Liturgy. Monographs of the Hebrew Union College 20. Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 1977. xiv, 367 pp.

Eric Friedland, “Were Our Mouths Filled With Song”: Studies in Liberal Jewish Liturgy. Monographs of the Hebrew Union College 20. Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 1977. xiv, 367 pp. - Volume 24 Issue 2

Sharona Wachs. American Jewish Liturgies: A Bibliography of American Jewish Liturgy from the Establishment of the Press in the Colonies Through 1925. Bibliographica Judaica 14. Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 1997. ix, 221 pp.

Sharona Wachs. American Jewish Liturgies: A Bibliography of American Jewish Liturgy from the Establishment of the Press in the Colonies Through 1925. Bibliographica Judaica 14. Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 1997. ix, 221 pp.

Developing digital libraries of cultural content for Internet access

Over the past five years, interest in digital libraries and in the World Wide Web have both greatly increased as the result of a symbiotic relationship. For an even longer period, my IBM colleagues and I have been developing online digital libraries for cultural institutions. In this article, selected aspects of projects with the Vatican Library, the National Gallery of Art (United States), the Klau Library of Hebrew Union College, and Russia's State Hermitage Museum are reported. In these projects, both technical and institutional challenges were met. Three technical challenges are discussed: protecting the intellectual property rights of institutions to their online materials; producing high-quality images with data sizes that are suitable for Internet delivery; and achieving significant capture throughput. Finally, some opinions are offered on the outlook for digital libraries of cultural content.

Where They Lie: The story of the Jewish Soldiers of the North and South Whose Deaths—Killed, Mortally Wounded or Died of Disease or Other Causes—Occurred During the Civil War, 1861-1865 (review)

70CIVIL WAR HISTORY Hunter's life primarily from the context ofhis military career. It is a wise choice, for Hunter was a product of the military and Miller is an expert on the culture of the army officer corps. He details Hunter's ambitions and frustrations, from his grumbling dispatches to dilemmas over strategy and tactics. But one can only guess athow broadercultural concerns, such as religion and race, shaped Hunter's worldviews and actions, factors that would have shed even more light on "Lincoln's abolitionist general." John Stauffer Yale University Where They Lie: The story ofthe Jewish Soldiers ofthe North and South Whose Deaths—Killed, Mortally WoundedorDiedofDisease or Other Causes—Occurred During the Civil War, 1861-1865. By Mel Young. (New York: University Press of America, 1991. Pp. 297. $17.00) Like Somon Wolf in his The American Jew as Patriot, Soldier, and Citizen ( 1895), this book purposes to highlight the participation of individualAmerican Jews in the convulsive events of the American Civil War. Wolf produced a list of 7,038 names including generals and privates, Union and Confederate. Although Wolf's list is flawed (some of the men listed have been proven to be non-Jews), it has served as a starting point for all subsequent efforts to write about Jewish servicemen in the Civil War. Young's book also seeks to list as many individuals who fought as possible. Young provides more anecdotal information than was given by Wolf. What makes Young's book a unique contribution is his focus on those who died as a result of their involvement in the war—killed in action, died of wounds, or dead from other war-related causes. The first five chapters of the book offer a chronological narrative of the major campaigns of the war with anecdotes of Jewish participation in each event and a list of Jewish casualties in each action. Chapter 6 is a selection of more detailed stories relating to individuals told with original documents. Chapter 7 gives a brief notice on each of the Jewish winners of the Congressional Medal of Honor during the Civil War and of one Confederate who received its CSA equivalent. Chapter 8 lists the names, units, and places and circumstances of death of almost six hundred Jewish soldiers from both sides who died during the war (burial sites are given for about one-third of these). Some of the information Young gives about individual soldiers is new with this book, not merely copied from Wolf: 20 percent of a sample of names found in chapter 2 were not mentioned in Wolf; a further 20 percent of the names included additional or corrected information for individuals listed inWolf. Young drew from nineteenth-century newspaper accounts, the Official Records and other governmental archival sources, and extensive correspondence with families who shared some previously unpublished material (for example, correspondence of A. Zehden in chapter 6). BOOK REVIEWS7I However, the book suffers from a narrative so poorly written as to be distracting . There are numerous small errors relating to general Civil War history. The photographs of gravemarkers reproduced in the book are often fuzzy and hard to read, and printed transcriptions are frequently not given. Behind this book (andWolf's as well) is the problem ofhow to establish the Jewish identity of CivilWar-era individuals, civilian or military. In spite ofthese flaws,Young's contribution to the literature of Jewish military participation in the Civil War is a valuable one. Growing from his military background (West Point class of 1 952), strong Jewish identification, and proximity to the burial sites of Civil War Jewish dead in and near Chattanooga, Young's focus on those Jews who made the ultimate sacrifice in the Civil War is constant throughout the book and unique in the literature. He gives us their names, tells some of their stories, and urges us to remember them and their deeds. Allan D. Satin Hebrew Union College Slavery and the American West: The Eclipse ofManifest Destiny and the Coming ofthe Civil War. By MichaelA. Morrison. (Chapel Hill: University ofNorth Carolina Press, 1997. Pp. 396. $49.95.) It is impossible for a short review to dojustice to a study of this...

Slavery and the American West: The Eclipse of Manifest Destiny and the Coming of the Civil War (review)

BOOK REVIEWS7I However, the book suffers from a narrative so poorly written as to be distracting . There are numerous small errors relating to general Civil War history. The photographs of gravemarkers reproduced in the book are often fuzzy and hard to read, and printed transcriptions are frequently not given. Behind this book (andWolf's as well) is the problem ofhow to establish the Jewish identity of CivilWar-era individuals, civilian or military. In spite ofthese flaws,Young's contribution to the literature of Jewish military participation in the Civil War is a valuable one. Growing from his military background (West Point class of 1 952), strong Jewish identification, and proximity to the burial sites of Civil War Jewish dead in and near Chattanooga, Young's focus on those Jews who made the ultimate sacrifice in the Civil War is constant throughout the book and unique in the literature. He gives us their names, tells some of their stories, and urges us to remember them and their deeds. Allan D. Satin Hebrew Union College Slavery and the American West: The Eclipse ofManifest Destiny and the Coming ofthe Civil War. By MichaelA. Morrison. (Chapel Hill: University ofNorth Carolina Press, 1997. Pp. 396. $49.95.) It is impossible for a short review to dojustice to a study of this size and complexity ; but, to be succinct, this book is a masterpiece. As with the best recent scholarship on the late antebellum period, Michael A. Morrison's magisterial study defies easy categorization; although predominantly political, this vast survey also draws heavily from intellectual and cultural studies. No historian who pretends to understand the sixteen-year countdown to Civil War will be able to ignore it. Morrison has little sympathy with ethnocultural or revisionist approaches to the war's origin. The cause of the conflict, he bluntly observes, was slavery. The appalling prospect of unfree labor in the western territories began the transition from a healthy interparty discussion over the economic wisdom of manifest destiny to a sectionalized argument over slavery extension. Put simply, restrictionists claimed to be upholding the legacy of the Revolution by attacking a governmental conspiracy determined to crush majority rule and the democratic process, while proslavery advocates replied that the break with Britain was to be understood as a defense of minority rights and the sanctity of property in the face of a despotic power. Even before the Mexican War, Morrison demonstrates , Southern politicians of both parties defined the territorial question in terms oftheir equal rights in the republic. Resolved to uphold their Revolutionary heritage, statesmen of both sections increasingly came to regard each other as a reactionary threat to the Union as it was framed by the patriot elite. By focusing on this shared political heritage, as well as on commonalities of language and religion, Morrison depreciates cultural differences between the 72CIVIL WAR HISTORY sections. In the process, he perhaps underestimates the extent to which unwaged labor fastened a fundamentally nonmarket society upon the Old South. Northern activists and Southern politicians, in his view, shared a collective—not disparate —Revolutionary heritage. Many specialists in the Revolutionary era may disagree. But one of the many virtues of Morrison's sophisticated theme is its adaptability; historians who suspect that the South always had interpreted the meaning of 1776 differently from the North precisely because of their peculiar institution can concur with the theory that both sides marched into battle secure in the belief that they were throwing off a tyrannical yoke. Given the imposing size and scope of this study, it seems downright churlish to suggest that Morrison should have included the voices ofwomen in his work. The use of recent studies on political rallies staged by Whig women on behalf ofparty candidates, forexample, would only have strengthened Morrison's theory of a thoroughly politicized citizenry. The author also overstates the extent to which the South industrialized in the years before the war. These are quibbles. Morrison's research is stunning. His footnotes—unfortunately placed at the end of the text and regrettably devoid of historiographical discussion—reveal research conducted in 405 collections in forty repositories and in 149 newspapers and magazines. Elegant, witty (mystery fans will note a good number of...

"Your Voice Like a Ram's Horn": Themes and Texts in Traditional Jewish Preaching (review)

Hebrew Studies 39 (1998) 264 Reviews concludes that both are significant strands within the complex of Hekhalot literature, which developed independently but were linked by a later redactor who understood their goals to be intimately related. Swartz's argument has important implications for the relationship of.ascent and adjuration in Merkabah mysticism, a topic addressed by Scholem (who considered ascent to be at the center of the movement) and other scholars. Scholastic Magic addresses the issues of memory, ritual, and purity by closely examining the Sar-Torah texts and by drawing on rabbinic and nonJewish material. Swartz's analysis of memory raises a number of intriguing issues, including the significance of food in the Sar-Torah texts and its relation to memory, a topic which he fleshes out with comparative examples from rabbinic and Muslim sources. His discussion of ritual and purity is also enlightening although the topic of women and their relation to impurity could have been examined in greater depth. Swartz provides an invaluable service to non-Hebrew readers by translating and critically commenting on the various Sar-Torah texts. His interpretations are lucid and well supported by Jewish and non-Jewish sources alike. Scholastic Magic is an indispensable work for those interested in the role of magic in Judaism and in early Jewish mysticism. Because of its clear writing, cross cultural references. and methodological awareness, it is also accessible to readers outside of Jewish studies with a background in history of religions. Nathaniel Deutsch Swarthmore College Swarthmore. PA 19081 ndeutsch@swarthmore.edu "YOUR VOICE LIKE A RAM'S HORN": THEMES AND TEXTS IN TRADITIONAL JEWISH PREACHING. By Marc Saperstein. Monographs of the Hebrew Union College 18. pp. xix + 522. Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College, 1992. Cloth. The study of Hebrew preaching has a long history. The first survey, by Leopold Zunz (Die goltesdienstlichen Vortriige der Jaden historisch entwickelt [Berlin, 1832]), dates back to the previous century and was followed by Israel Bettan's study (Studies in Jewish Preaching [Cincinnati. 1939]), in the beginning of the current century. Despite the significant chronological gap between them, both of these works are representative of older scholarship. More recently, major advances in the study of Jewish Hebrew Studies 39 (1998) 265 Reviews preaching have been made by such modem scholars as Joseph Dan (Sifrut Ha-Musar We-Ha-Derush [Jerusalem, 1975]), Mordechai Pachter (Sijrut Ha-Derush We-Ha-Musar shel Hakhmei Sefat Be-Me'ah Ha-Tet-Zayin UMa 'arekhet Ra'ayonoteha Ha-'/qariyyim [Ph.D. thesis, Hebrew University Jerusalem, 1976]), and Jacob Elbaum (Peti/.zut We-Histagrut: Ha-Ye$irah Ha-RuI;zanit Ha-Sifrutit Be-Polin U-Be-Ar$ot Ashkenaz Be-Shalhei HaMe 'ah Ha-Shesh 'Esreh [Jerusalem, 1990]). However, the leading modem scholar of Hebrew preaching is the author of the present volume, Marc Saperstein. Saperstein's studies of Jewish preaching, in his previous book (Jewish Preaching 1200-1800 [New Haven, 1989]) as well as in his numerous articles and the current volume, are devoted exclusively to the study of Hebrew sermons, beginning with the Middle Ages. In all of these works, Saperstein studies Jewish preaching from varied perspectives: historical, literary, and philosophical. He compares Jewish sermons with their Christian counterparts and notes features both common and unique to the two types of sermons. To a certain extent the present volume continues the previous one. However, while the previous volume is devoted to Hebrew preaching in general, the present volume limits itself to specific issues as it deals with two types of sermons: penitential sermons and sermons preached on the High Holidays, which bear a hortatory character; and eulogies. Sermons of the first category are general in nature, as they deal with transgressions of all sorts; only rarely do they discuss a particular sin or relate to a specific place or occasion. By contrast, eulogies deal with a specific person whom the preacher felt himself bound to eulogize, whether out of a sense of personal obligation, due to personal acquaintance or out of professional obligation, as when the preacher served as a rabbi and communal leader. The present volume includes both articles published previously in assorted scholarly journals and new material, which links the earlier studies into a...

An Assessment of David Noel Freedman

AN ASSESSMENT OF DAVID NOEL FREEDMAN S. David Sperling Hebrew Union College, New York A review of Divine Commitment and Human Obligation-Selected Writings of David Noel Freedman, Vol. 1. Ancient Israelite History and Religion. By David Noel Freedman. John R. Huddleston, ed. pp. xxix + 545. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1997. Cloth, $45.00. Divine Commitment and Human Obligation-Selected Writings of David Noel Freedman, Vol. 2. Poetry and Orthography. By David Noel Freedman. John R. Huddleston, ed. Pp. xx + 269. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1997. Cloth, $30.00. The two volumes under review derive their title from the author's characterization of the biblical berEt between Israel and its God (1:168-78). Through his voluminous publications, his teaching, and not the least his editing of ASOR publications and especially of the Anchor Bible Series, the Anchor Bible Dictionary, and the Anchor Bible Reference Library,! Professor David Noel Freedman, now at the University of California at San Diego, is surely one of the most influential biblical scholars of the twentieth century. The writings selected for these volumes. arranged chronologically , span about a half-century, providing the opportunity for an overview of the constant and the changing in Freedman's work.2 What is constant is Freedman's overriding preoccupation with the text, which he is always examining afresh. As he states in the preface (I:xvii; ll:xvi): "Fifty years later I am still trying to make sense of biblical verses. The primary task of the student-scholar is to read the text closely and care- ! For bibliography of published works and editorial work through 1981, see M. O'Connor, "Bibliography of the Works of David Noel Freedman," in The Word 0/the LordShall Go Forth Essays in lIonor ofDavid Noel Freedman, eds. C. L. Meyers and M. O'Connor (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1983). For bibliography through 1995 see K. G. Bedc in Fortunate the Eyes that See: Essays in Honor 0/David Noel FreedmtJn in Celebration of his Seventieth Birthday, cds. A. B. Beck, A. H Banell, P. R. Raabe, and C. A. Franke (Grand Rapids, M1: Eerdmans, 1995), pp. 660--669. 2 Interestingly, Volume I carries on ils jacket the subtitle Ancient Israelite History and Religion, while the front matter has the more accurate History and Religion. A number of the essays reflect Freedman's passionate dedication to the ongoing life of the Church, the miniStry, Jewish·Christian relations and the theological implications of critical study of the Bible. These significant issues, unfortunately, cannot be discussed in the present review. Hebrew Studies 39 (1998) 184 Review Essay fully and to grapple with problems in and of the text." What has changed is Freedman's evolving reluctance to find value in conjectural emendation (1:352); instead he searches for internal criteria for understanding difficult passages in terms of such poetic devices as gapping and anastrophe. He allows as well for the ecstatic state of at least some of the biblical authors, the prophets (1:365-366). Another constan~ is that Freedman never ignores the smallest details, but is always aware that the details may add up to a comprehensive picture. An excellent example is the 1987 essay "Headings in the Books of the Eighth-Century Prophets" (1:367-382), in which he attempts provocatively to establish the relative chronologies of Amos, Hosea, Micah, and Isaiah as well as the possible circumstances for the publication of their prophecies on the basis of the headings of the individual books. Likewise, Freedman remains over the years committed to the possibility of deriving early Israelite political and religious history from early Israelite poetry. A good example of the method is "Who is Like Thee among the Gods?: The Religion of Early Israel" (1:383-402). Originally published in 1987 in a volume dedicated to Freedman's colleague from Hopkins days, Frank Cross, the essay establishes a relative chronology for five biblical poems: Genesis 49; Exodus 15; Numbers 23-24; Deuteronomy 33 and Judges 5. According to Freedman, these poems describe Israel's earliest history from its origins until its settlement in Canaan. They are only "slightly later than the events they describe"3 and represent the "original medium" of the biblical...

The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion (review)

Hebrew Studies 39 (1998) 276 Reviews Judaism conceived as both a nationality and a religion, the Arab-Israeli conflict from the British Mandate period to Oslo II, the Holocaust, and the perils of Diaspora. In a more specific literary context, the discussions often tum towards world literature, the Bible, Yehoshua's reaction to criticism of his work, and analyses of authors who have most influenced his style (Agnon, Kafka, Faulkner). Hom contextualizes these issues by providing occasional passages of factual background. In a sense, Hom is a character in search of an author who can help him fathom the complex nature of Judaism and Israeli volatility. Far from being "dead," Hom's author, vitally engaged and devoid of hubris, is willing to re-examine his views and share. As Bulli tells Bernie, a fair number of literary critics, in addition to Yehoshua himself, have caught "a kind of mania" from Mr. Mani-Yehoshua's greatest literary accomplishment thus far-and continue to interpret and decode its multiple layers and interconnected strands twelve years after initial parts of this novel first appeared in print. Hom's book has now infected me with a variation of this mania: I feel that in order to do justice to Hom's portrayal of Yehoshua, I, too, must investigate the literary, political, and personal connections that operate upon Hom, possibly spending long hours in conversation with the interviewer in order to understand the genesis and implications of his book. Such a mise en abyme would prolong the delightful atmosphere of curiosity , humor, and self-reflection pervading Hom and Yehoshua's meetings. Yael Halevi-Wise Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14850 yh54@cornell.edu THE OXFORD DICTIONARY OF THE JEWISH RELIGION. R. J. Zwi Werblowsky and Geoffrey Wigoder, eds. pp. xii + 764. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. Cloth, $95.00. The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion compresses into a single volume some 2,400 items that define the major personalities, concepts, practices, and texts constituting that indefmable entity known as the Jewish religion. Though the dictionary is not quite what it could have been, its contents, bibliographies, and organization make it extremely valuable both as a reliable reference work for the general reader and as an accessible Hebrew Studies 39 (1998) 277 Reviews starting point for students and scholars wishing to delve deeper into religious aspects of Judaism. The dictionary is an expanded and updated version of the Encyclopedia of the Jewish Religion first published in 1966 and now out of print. The revisions make the dictionary a much more useful resource than its predecessor . More than half of its entries are newly authored, many by worldclass scholars, and not a few of these amount to mini-essays that are gems of concision and scholarly balance. The rest of the entries, inherited from the earlier encyclopedia, are only slightly revised if at all, but all articles are supplemented with bibliographies. The latter feature allows the user to follow up on a topic at greater length and are what make this dictionary especially useful for students. Confined by limited space, the bibliographies are of course incomplete, and they favor English language scholarship. However, they are often quite current, some citing research as recent as 1996, and when dealing with texts, they often provide information about translations and the editio princeps. Also to be commended is the editors' effort to include as authors of the entries scholars with a wide variety of institutional and religious commitments . Virtually all the entries reflect critical scholarship, but they reflect the perspectives of scholars from all major movements within Judaism, from Yeshiva University at one end of the spectrum to the Hebrew Union College on the other. (Curiously, only the New York faculty of JTS seems underrepresented among the contributors to the dictionary.) An emphasis on diversity and inclusiveness is also often reflected in the articles themselves which, within the tight constraints of a dictionary entry, often do their best to register the diversity of Jewish or scholarly perspectives on a topic. The embrace of the dictionary is not completely encompassing. There is no entry, for example, on Sally Preisand, the first woman ordained as a rabbi in the Reform movement...

Hebrew Union College Annual 65 (1994). vi + 276 + 22 (Hebrew) pp.

Hebrew Union College Annual 65 (1994). vi + 276 + 22 (Hebrew) pp.

Hebrew Union College Annual 66 (1995). vi + 287 + 42 (Hebrew) pp. B.Z. Wacholder and S. Wacholder examine the calendar of the book of Jubilees, 1 Enoch and the Qumran texts and compare it with the Hebrew Bible.

Hebrew Union College Annual 66 (1995). vi + 287 + 42 (Hebrew) pp. B.Z. Wacholder and S. Wacholder examine the calendar of the book of Jubilees, 1 Enoch and the Qumran texts and compare it with the Hebrew Bible.

Jewish Learning in American Universities: The First Century (review)

Reviewed by: Jewish Learning in American Universities: The First Century Ira Robinson Jewish Learning in American Universities: The First Century. By Paul Ritterband and Harold S. Wechsler. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1994. xviii + 346 pp. The academy has historically been a place in which people reflected on themselves and the significance of what they were doing. Practitioners of what is generally called “Jewish Studies” are no exception to this rule. The appearance of this volume, as well as that of other articles and studies, examining the impact of Jewish studies or telling the parallel story of Jewish academics at American universities, bespeaks a sense of maturity which has come to the field in the last several years and which invites reflection on its origins. Whether Jewish Studies as a part of the North American university scene is flourishing or floundering is a matter for academic debate. In its nineteenth century origins, however, the criteria for success were considerably different as was the subject matter encompassed in the words “Jewish learning.” As well, communal and university expectations of this learning have differed dramatically between the nineteenth century and our own. Though Hebrew was an early component of American college education, it was present for specifically Christian theological purposes and is not really part of the story Ritterband and Wechsler tell. In the late nineteenth century, however, the rise of universities, like Johns Hopkins, which avidly pursued advanced studies on the model of contemporary German universities, gave “Jewish learning” an entree into the American academy. [End Page 141] This entree came about in the context of departments of Semitic studies, in which Hebrew and Hebraic/Judaic culture were legitimate, though not major parts. These studies were admissable into non-Jewish academic settings because they were viewed as part of a more universal context. This appealed to the leaders of the late nineteenth century American Jewish community and their desire for the retention of a Judaic identity within a more universalistic society and culture. Indeed, as the authors point out, it was expected that Jewish communities would support local university Semitics programs and in most cases this was the case. One of the major points the authors make is that the Judaic/Hebraic element in university Semitics programs withered, or at least did not expand in the early twentieth century. One of the major reasons for this, to which the authors do not give enough attention, is the rise of institutions, such as Dropsie College, the Jewish Theological Seminary and Hebrew Union College, which engaged in Judaic/Hebraic studies as their central focus. This alternative vision of a Jewish presence in the academy, fostered by Cyrus Adler, the first graduate of John’s Hopkins’ Semitics program, who was simultaneously president of Dropsie and the Jewish Theological Seminary had as its model the German Wissenschaftdes Judentums which subsisted in its native Germany outside the university context. For most intents and purposes, the first half of the twentieth century saw Jewish learning in America pursued almost exclusively in American Jewish institutions. The major exceptions to this rule were Harry Wolfson at Harvard and Salo Baron at Columbia. This situation, like much else in American higher education, changed radically after War II. In the postwar era, Hebraic and Jewish studies began to take hold in many key American universities, particularly those located within cities with large Jewish communities and created a situation in which Jewish studies transferred its major base of operations from specifically Jewish institutions to secular universities. Symbolic of this process is the transformation of Dropsie College from an independent institution to the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. However this process, of the utmost importance to an understanding of present developments in the field, is analyzed much more sketchily than earlier developments. That the reason for this brevity is that mention (and possibly criticism) of people still alive and active in the field could be minimized is not unlikely. In sum, this book contains somewhat less than one might have wished. It nonetheless is a thorough and stimulating account of the beginnings of a process of great significance in American Jewish history. [End Page 142] It will be...

The Asterisked Materials in the Greek Job (review)

The Asterisked Materials in the Greek Job (review)