This book offers the reader a voyage in the new world that opened up to the enlightened Jewish reader of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a time when the first glimmerings of emancipation and secular education were giving large numbers of Jews their first exposure to science, literature, and art, and opening their minds to new ideas. And as on any voyage led by a knowledgeable guide, there are fascinating side-trips along the way: insights into the world of scholarship, then and now, and into the nature of knowledge. All this was happening at a time when Jews' civil status and place in society was undergoing great change in Europe. In this seminal work, Zeev Gries shows that although the history of the book in the Jewish world has long been regarded as the province of librarians and bibliophiles, it is in fact the history of the Jewish intellect. He starts by tracing the awakening of a dormant Jewish intelligentsia-men, women, and children who were thirsty for knowledge. Books were the magic kiss that opened new doors to the modern world; within a century, Jews were making invaluable contributions to the advancement of science and of culture more generally. By surveying the literary output of those years, the author is able to discover what books were being published, where they were published and distributed, and who was reading them. He surveys the fields of halakhic literature, ethical literature, kabbalistic and mystical literature, literature for children and women, and more general literature. He talks about the role of libraries and of book reviews. Above all, he considers the role of books as agents of culture: were they guardians of hallowed sanctity or harbingers of secularization? Gries shows how the types of books favoured by the Jewish reading public offer an insight into the changing nature of their 'portable homeland'. He then goes on to discuss the Haskalah movement and the tensions between increasing secularization and the more traditional world-view, as well as how the resurrection of Hebrew as a secular literary language contributed to the awakening of Jewish nationalism. Nevertheless, he argues that the study of literary history of the period reveals that secular and Zionist leanings were not the only trends present; Jewish literature continued to be permeated with the spirit of religion.

The untold story of the founding father’s likely Jewish birth and upbringing—and its revolutionary consequences for understanding him and the nation he fought to create In The Jewish World of Alexander Hamilton, Andrew Porwancher debunks a string of myths about the origins of this founding father to arrive at a startling conclusion: Hamilton, in all likelihood, was born and raised Jewish. For more than two centuries, his youth in the Caribbean has remained shrouded in mystery. Hamilton himself wanted it that way, and most biographers have simply assumed he had a Christian boyhood. With a detective’s persistence and a historian’s rigor, Porwancher upends that assumption and revolutionizes our understanding of an American icon. This radical reassessment of Hamilton’s religious upbringing gives us a fresh perspective on both his adult years and the country he helped forge. Although he didn’t identify as a Jew in America, Hamilton cultivated a relationship with the Jewish community that made him unique among the founders. As a lawyer, he advocated for Jewish citizens in court. As a financial visionary, he invigorated sectors of the economy that gave Jews their greatest opportunities. As an alumnus of Columbia, he made his alma mater more welcoming to Jewish people. And his efforts are all the more striking given the pernicious antisemitism of the era. In a new nation torn between democratic promises and discriminatory practices, Hamilton fought for a republic in which Jew and Gentile would stand as equals. By setting Hamilton in the context of his Jewish world for the first time, this fascinating book challenges us to rethink the life and legend of America's most enigmatic founder.

What has given the Jewish people their resilience, their power of survival, and their ability to adapt to radically new conditions without losing their identity? What combination of religious faith, social organization, intellectual toughness, and poetic imagination constitutes Jewishness? Eighteen eminent scholars address these questions in this richly illustrated survey of Jewish history from its earliest days to the foundation of Israel. Equal weight is given to Judaica and to the ways in which Judaism has coped with the challenges of modernity. This unparalleled work of scholarship is enhanced throughout by a plethora of superbly reproduced illustrations, from manuscript illuminations and liturgical objects to medieval prints and popular art. 436 illustrations, 135 in color. Edited by Elie Kedourie, a distinguished historian and political philosopher, the book includes essays by Haim Beinart, T. Carmi, Amnon Cohen, S. Ettinger, Shelomo Dov Goitein, A. Grossman, Oscar Handlin, Arthur Hertzberg, Arthur Hyman, Lionel Kochan, Hyam Maccoby, Jacob Neusner, H. W. F. Saggs, Amnon Shiloah, Ezra Spicehandler, David Vital, R. J. Zwi Werblowsky, and Zvi Yavetz.

Drawing on the extensive holdings of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, this celebration of Jewish life through the ages includes images of art and artifacts, archaeological finds, ancient manuscripts, artworks, and traditional and ceremonial objects, all accompanied by insightful texts by museum curators revealing little-known information about the Jewish world.

Geza Vermes is the greatest living Jesus scholar. In this collection of occasional pieces, he explores the world and the context in which Jesus of Nazareth lived and tells the story of the exploration of first-century Palestine by twentieth-century scholars.Informed by the work of a world-class scholar, the articles in this book open to the general reader the findings of some of the major discoveries of the twentieth century such as the Dead Sea Scrolls.This collection of shorter popular pieces, many of which appeared in The Times and other newspapers, makes Vermes' research on Christian origins, the Dead Sea Scrolls and most importantly Jesus the Jew accessible to a wider readership.

She is feared and desired. She is the symbol of a family's failure and a culture's dissolution. She is a courageous ally, a loyal fellow traveler, and a mother struggling for the survival of the same family and culture whose destruction she supposedly seeks. The gentile woman has been all these things and more to the Jewish people. Her almost mythic status has its roots in the dawn of Jewish history and repercussions that extend beyond our own time to shape the Jewish future. It also entails more baggage than any woman could possibly hope to carry. Shiksa: The Gentile Woman in the Jewish World, unpacks that baggage. Shiksa tells the stories of gentile women and women converts living in the Jewish community today, sharing insights from rabbis, Jewish feminists, educators and therapists. The book explores relationships between Jewish and gentile women, particularly Jewish mothers and their gentile daughters-in-law, as well as those between Jewish men and gentile women. And it looks at some of the fascinating Biblical figures whose stories startle with their relevance to today's most intimate issues of Jewish identity. At a time when the Jewish community is rife with concern over intermarriage, Shiksa offers a fearless examination of the gentile and converted women residing within its gates, occupying embattled yet permanent places as partners, daughters, sisters, mothers, friends.

Director's introduction by Alla Efimova -- Benedictions -- Protections -- Illuminations -- Sensations -- Expansions -- Expulsions -- Reparations -- Curator's afterword by Francesco Spagnolo -- Origins of artifacts