The United Jewish Appeal (UJA) was the primary Jewish philanthropic umbrella organization until it was combined with another philanthropic organization in 1999. Using original archival research, this volume traces the history of the UJA from its origins to 1982.
This volume consists of papers (or the offspring of papers) that were delivered by the Hellenistic Judaism section of the 1990 and 1991 annual meetings of the Society for Biblical Literature. In recognition of the fact that so little work had been down on the subject, presenters were not asked to focus on a single set of questions, a single body of evidence, or utilize a single methodology. Rat…
Few scholars loom as large in the history of scholarship on ancient Judaism than does Erwin Ramsdell Goodenough (1893-1965). A professor at Yale University for forty years, Goodenough fundamentally changed our understanding of Jews in the Hellenistic world, even when his suggestions turned out to be incorrect. Best known for his monumental, Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period, Goodenough a…
This volume examines the way thatMishnah-Tosefta attempted to construct an Israelite ethnic identity in order to differentiate the Israelites from the gentiles who also populated the Land of Israel. This became an especially pertinent project with the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple, the failure of the Bar Kokhba Revolt, the increased influx of gentiles into the Land of Israel. and the soci…
In Halakhah in a Theological Dimension, David Novak argues that Jewish law (halakhah) is grounded on a set of theological assumptions relating to the covenant between God and Israel. Novak’s study is fundamental for understanding both his later work on the Covenant and the continuing philosophical discussion of the relationship between religious law and theology.
Almost fifty years has passed since the publication of Marilyn J. Chiat’s Handbook of Synagogue Architecture (1982). Since then, there have been more finds and much more research on the issues that Chiat raises. Nevertheless, Chiat’s study still provides an important architectural guide to these synagogues.
Claude Montefiore (1858-1938) was among the major founders of Anglo-Liberal Judaism and the World Union for Progressive Judaism, and was known for his radical ideas and deep sympathy for Christian ideas. This volume explores why and how Montefiore engaged Christianity, and the reaction to this engagement by many contemporary Jewish luminaries.
In the last forty years anthropologists have made major contributions to understanding the heterogeneity of reproductive trends and processes underlying them. Fertility transition, rather than the story of the triumphant spread of Western birth control rationality, reveals a diversity of reproductive means and ends continuing before, during, and after transition. This collection brings together…
In most European countries, the horrific legacy of 1939–45 has made it quite difficult to remember the war with much glory. Despite the Anglo-American memory narrative of saving democracy from totalitarianism and the Soviet epic of the Great Patriotic War, the fundamental experience of war for so many Europeans was that of immense personal losses and often meaningless hardships. The anthology…
This study of the social circumstances of Japanese intellectuals in the last quarter of the eighteenth century is based on biographical data concerning 173 individuals. It deals with the image of intellectual life of that period in current scholarship, and with the self-image and ethos of scholars, authors, poets and artists. That self-image and ethos, however, often clash with the realities of…