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68 results in Littman Library of Jewish Civilization

Page 3 of 4

One People?
  • Tradition, Modernity, and Jewish Unity
  • Jonathan Sacks
  • Published by:
    Liverpool University Press
    Published online:
    27 November 2019
    Print publication:
    01 March 1993
  • One People? is the first book-length study of the major problem confronting the Jewish future: the availability or otherwise of a way of mending the schisms between Reform and Orthodox Judaism, between religious and secular Jews in Israel, and between Israel itself and the diaspora—all of which have been deepened by the fierce and continuing controversy over the question of ‘who is a Jew?’ One People? is a study of the background to this and related controversies. It traces the fragmentation of Jewry in the wake of the Enlightenment, the variety of Orthodox responses to these challenges, and the resources of Jewish tradition for handling diversity. Having set out the background to the intractability of the problems, it ends by examining the possibilities within Jewish thought that might make for convergence and reconciliation. The Chief Rabbi employs a variety of disciplines—history, sociology, theology, and halakhic jurisprudence—to clarify a subject in which these dimensions are inextricably interwoven. He also explores key issues such as the underlying philosophy of Jewish law, and the nature of the collision between tradition and modern consciousness. Written for the general reader as much as the academic one, this is a lucid and thought-provoking presentation of the dilemmas of Jewish Orthodoxy in modernity.

Seeking Zion
  • Modernity and Messianic Activity in the Writings of Tsevi Hirsch Kalischer
  • Jody Myers
  • Published by:
    Liverpool University Press
    Published online:
    27 November 2019
    Print publication:
    01 June 2003
  • Focusing on the teachings of Tsevi Hirsch Kalischer, this study examines the modern revival of the belief among religious Jews that they are duty-bound to hasten messianic redemption.

The Three Temples
  • On the Emergence of Jewish Mysticism
  • Rachel Elior
  • Translated by David Louvish
  • Published by:
    Liverpool University Press
    Published online:
    27 November 2019
    Print publication:
    01 March 2004
  • In this ground-breaking study, Rachel Elior offers a comprehensive theory of the crystallization of the early stages of the mystical tradition in Judaism based on the numerous ancient scrolls and manuscripts published in the last few decades. Her wide-ranging research, scrupulously documented, enables her to demonstrate an uninterrupted line linking the priestly traditions of the Temple, the mystical liturgical literature found in the Qumran caves and associated directly and indirectly with the Merkavah tradition of around the second and first centuries BCE, and the mystical works of the second to fifth centuries CE known as Heikhalot literature.The key factor linking all these texts, according to Professor Elior’s theory, is that many of those who wrote them were members of the priestly classes. Prevented from being able to perform the rituals of sacred service in the Temple as ordained in the biblical tradition, they channelled their religious impetus in other directions to create a new spiritual focus. The mystical tradition they developed centred first on a heavenly Chariot Throne known as the Merkavah, and later on heavenly sanctuaries known as Heikhalot. In this way the priestly class developed an alternative focus for spirituality, based on a supertemporal liturgical and ritual relationship with ministering angels in the supernal sanctuaries. This came to embrace an entire mystical world devoted to sustaining religious liturgical tradition and ritual memory in the absence of the Temple.This lyrical investigation of the origins and workings of this supernal world is sure to become a standard work in the study of early Jewish mysticism.

Moses Mendelssohn
  • A Biographical Study
  • Alexander Altmann
  • Published by:
    Liverpool University Press
    Published online:
    23 November 2019
    Print publication:
    01 March 1984
  • Professor Altmann quotes widely from personal letters and other contemporary documents in this biographical study of one of the most celebrated figures of the German Enlightenment. A considerable amount of the primary source material is offered in English translation.

Sa'adyah Gaon
  • Robert Brody
  • Published by:
    Liverpool University Press
    Published online:
    23 November 2019
    Print publication:
    25 April 2013
  • A masterly yet accessible study of an outstanding tenth-century Jewish thinker that examines his life and intellectual achievements in the context of his times.

Hasidism and Politics
  • The Kingdom of Poland, 1815–1864
  • Marcin Wodzinski
  • Published by:
    Liverpool University Press
    Published online:
    23 November 2019
    Print publication:
    31 March 2013
  • The book analyses the development of political relations between the Kingdom of Poland and the hasidic movement, and demonstrates the distinctively modern character of hasidic political activity.

Theology and Poetry
  • Studies in the Mediaeval Piyyut
  • Jakob J. Petuchowski
  • Published by:
    Liverpool University Press
    Published online:
    23 November 2019
    Print publication:
    01 September 1978
  • In the Middle Ages, unconventional theological views were often expressed in poetic form. Jakob Petuchowski provides parallel texts of ten medieval theological poems in the standard liturgy that express unconventional and daring theological ideas, each with a commentary on the poem and its author, and a survey of Jewish thought on its particular theme.

Maimonides the Rationalist
  • Herbert A. Davidson
  • Published by:
    Liverpool University Press
    Published online:
    23 November 2019
    Print publication:
    30 April 2011
  • This reconsideration of Maimonides' efforts to argue for the rationalist, fundamental harmony of philosophy and the rabbinic worldview settles many important issues in the study of his work.

Poverty and Welfare Among the Portuguese Jews in Early Modern Amsterdam
  • Tirtsah Levie Bernfeld
  • Published by:
    Liverpool University Press
    Published online:
    23 November 2019
    Print publication:
    05 July 2012
  • The reputed wealth and benevolence of the Portuguese Jews of early modern Amsterdam attracted many impoverished people to the city, both ex-Conversos from the Iberian peninsula and Jews from many other countries. In describing the consequences of that migration in terms of demography, admission policy, charitable institutions—public and private—philanthropy and daily life, and the dynamics of the relationship between the rich and the poor, Tirtsah Levie Bernfeld adds a nuanced new dimension to the understanding of Jewish life in the early modern period.

Rashi
  • Avraham Grossman
  • Published by:
    Liverpool University Press
    Published online:
    23 November 2019
    Print publication:
    27 September 2012
  • An in-depth analysis of the world-view of the scholar whose influence on Jewish thinking remains unsurpassed, with conclusions that are likely to stimulate much debate.

The Rebbe, the Messiah, and the Scandal of Orthodox Indifference
  • With a New Introduction
  • David Berger
  • Published by:
    Liverpool University Press
    Published online:
    23 November 2019
    Print publication:
    01 March 2008
  • This book is a history, an indictment, a lament, and an appeal, focusing on the messianic trend in Lubavitch hasidism. It records the shattering of one of Judaism's core beliefs and the remarkable equanimity with which the standard-bearers of Orthodoxy have allowed it to happen. This is a development of striking importance for the history of religions, and it is an earthquake inthe history of Judaism. David Berger describes the unfolding of this historic phenomenon and proposes a strategy to contain it.

Jewish Mysticism
  • The Infinite Expression of Freedom
  • Rachel Elior
  • Published by:
    Liverpool University Press
    Published online:
    23 November 2019
    Print publication:
    31 May 2007
  • A masterly investigation of the Jewish mystical phenomenon, from antiquity to the twentieth century, contextualized in the spiritual and historical circumstances in which it evolved.

The Expulsion of the Jews from Spain
  • Haim Beinart
  • Translated by Jeffrey M. Green
  • Published by:
    Liverpool University Press
    Published online:
    09 July 2019
    Print publication:
    01 December 2001
  • The Expulsion of the Jews from Spain' is a detailed study of the events surrounding this infamous chapter in Spanish history. Based on hundreds of documents discovered, deciphered, and analyzed during decades of intensive archival research, this work focuses on the practical consequences of the expulsion both for those expelled and those remaining behind. It responds to basic questions such as: What became of property owned by Jewish individuals and communities? What became of outstanding debts between Jews and Christians? How was the edict of expulsion implemented? Who was in charge? How did they operate? What happened to those who converted to Christianity in order to remain in Spain or return to that country? The material summarized and analyzed in this study also sheds light on Jewish life in Spain preceding the expulsion. For example, Jews are shown to have been present in remote villages where they were not hitherto known to have lived, and documents detailing lawsuits between Christians related to debts left behind by Jews reveal much about business and financial relations between Jews and Christians. By focusing on the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in such detail - for example, by naming the magistrates who presided over the confiscation of Jewish communal property - Professor Beinart takes history out of the realm of abstraction and gives it concrete reality.

The Golden Age of Aragonese Jewry
  • Community and Society in the Crown of Aragon, 1213–1327
  • Yom Tov Assis
  • Published by:
    Liverpool University Press
    Published online:
    09 July 2019
    Print publication:
    01 July 1997
  • 'An essential book for anyone interested in Jewish life in medieval Spain, or in medieval Europe.' Elka Klein, Medieval Review

Founder of Hasidism
  • A Quest for the Historical Ba'al Shem Tov
  • Rosman Moshe
  • Published by:
    Liverpool University Press
    Published online:
    09 July 2019
    Print publication:
    20 June 2013
  • Moshe Rosman's award-winning research supplies the history behind the legend of the Ba'al Shem Tov and thus changes the master-narrative of hasidism.

The History of the Jews in the Netherlands
  • Edited by J. C. H. Blom, R. G. Fuks-Mansfeld, I. Schöffer
  • Translated by Erica Pomerans, Arnold J. Pomerans
  • Published by:
    Liverpool University Press
    Published online:
    09 July 2019
    Print publication:
    01 December 2001
  • This history of the Jews of the Netherlands and the role they have played in Dutch society was originally published in Dutch and widely acclaimed for the breadth of its coverage. It covers both the internal evolution of the Jewish community and its social, cultural, and economic interaction with the wider population. From the first Jewish settlements in the medieval duchies of Gelderland, Brabant, and Limburg to the Jewish community of today, the interaction between Dutch Jews and Dutch Christians has mostly been one of fruitful collaboration which only the period of German occupation from 1940 to 1945 was seriously able to disrupt. The contribution that Dutch Jews have made, and continue to make, to cultural life, to the economy, and to science is recognized as being of central importance to the Netherlands as a whole. The ten eminent scholars contributing to this book each describe Jewish life in a particular period, from the Middle Ages to the present. In doing so they consider the strains caused within the Jewish community by the effort to play a full part in Dutch society while maintaining Jewish culture, setting the discussion in the context of trends and tensions within Dutch society in the period in question. The circumstances of the Jews under German occupation and in the immediate post-war period are also discussed.

Is There a Jewish Philosophy?
  • Rethinking Fundamentals
  • Leon Roth
  • Foreword by Edward Ullendorff
  • Published by:
    Liverpool University Press
    Published online:
    06 July 2019
    Print publication:
    01 March 1999
  • Elegantly written essays provide an engaging, thought-provoking discussion of the fundamentals of Judaism, in which the application of Jewish ethical principles shines through.

Jewish Day Schools, Jewish Communities
  • A Reconsideration
  • Edited by Alex Pomson, Howard Deitcher
  • Published by:
    Liverpool University Press
    Published online:
    06 July 2019
    Print publication:
    01 February 2009
  • Cross-cultural and genuinely comparative, this consideration of Jewish day-schools around the world reframes day-school research and policy-making and offers original insights into faith-based schooling and the public good.

The Image of the Non-Jew in Judaism
  • The Idea of Noahide Law
  • David Novak
  • Published by:
    Liverpool University Press
    Published online:
    06 July 2019
    Print publication:
    25 August 2011
  • This classic study of the idea of Noahide law traces the concept's historical development and shows how it is relevant to practical discussions of the halakhah pertaining to non-Jews and to relations between Jews and non-Jews. Individual analyses of each of the seven Noahide laws, drawing primarily on classical rabbinic texts by traditional commentators, are followed by a discussion of the underlying theory.

Hadassah
  • American Women Zionists and the Rebirth of Israel
  • Mira Katzburg-Yungman
  • Published by:
    Liverpool University Press
    Published online:
    06 July 2019
    Print publication:
    31 January 2011
  • In February 1912 thirty-eight American Jewish women met at Temple Emanuel in New York and founded Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America. This has become the largest Zionist organization in the Diaspora and the largest and most active Jewish women's organization ever. Its history is an inseparable part of the history of American Jewry and of the State of Israel, and the relationship between them. Hadassah is also part of the history of Jewish women in the United States and in the modern world more broadly. Its achievements are not only those of Zionism but, crucially, of women, and throughout this study Mira Katzburg-Yungman pays particular attention to the life stories of the individual women who played a role in them. Based on historical documentation collected in the United States and Israel and on broad research, the book covers many aspects of the history of Hadassah and analyses significant aspects of the fascinating story of the organization. A wide-ranging introductory section describes the contexts and challenges of Hadassah's history from its founding to the birth of the State of Israel. Subsequent sections explore in turn the organization's ideology and its activity on the American scene after Israeli statehood; its political and ideological role in the World Zionist Organization; and its involvement in the new State of Israel in the twin fields of activity: in medicine and health care and in its work with children and young people. The final part of the book deals with topics that enrich our understanding of Hadassah in additional dimensions, such as gender issues, comparisons of Hadassah with other Zionist organizations, and the importance of people of the Yishuv and later of Israelis in Hadassah's activities. The study concludes with an Epilogue that considers developments up to 2005, assessing whether the conclusions reached with regard to Hadassah as an organization remain valid. It considers developments within Hadassah in the 1980s and 1990s, years in which the organization was affected by the significant changes within the wider American Jewish community, specifically the enormous increase in intermarriage with non-Jews and the impact of the so-called 'second wave' of feminism. This extensive, diverse, and balanced study offers a picture of Hadassah in both arenas of its activity: in the land that is now the State of Israel, and in the United States. In doing so it makes a contribution not only to Zionist history but also to the history of American Jewish women and of Jewish women more widely.

Page 3 of 4