Picking up from Apprentice in Budapest, the first volume of Raphael Patai's autobiography, Journeyman in Jerusalem presents the fascinating journey of a young scholar struggling to make his way in the midst of often trying circumstances while a nation-in-the-making struggles to establish itself. The book covers fifteen years--1933 to 1947--during which the Yishuv, the Jewish community of Palestine, experienced one of the most turbulent periods of its history. This volume is an invaluable record of this era and of the early life of its author, who was to become one of the most respected Jewish scholars of the twentieth century.

The Encyclopedia of Modern Jewish Culture is an extensively updated revision of the very successful Companion to Jewish Culture published in 1989 and has now been updated throughout. Experts from all over the world contribute entries ranging from 200 to 1000 words broadly, covering the humanities, arts, social sciences, sport and popular culture, and 5000-word essays contextualize the shorter entries, and provide overviews to aspects of culture in the Jewish world. Ideal for student and general readers, the articles and biographies have been written by scholars and academics, musicians, artists and writers, and the book now contains up-to-date bibliographies, suggestions for further reading, comprehensive cross referencing, and a full index. This is a resource, no student of Jewish history will want to go without.

The tribulations experienced by the five Patais (Raphael, his father, mother, brother, and sister), as well as their interactions with many well-known Jewish leaders, authors, and scholars of the 1930s both in Hungary and Palestine, spring to life in fascinating detail in the letters presented in Between Budapest and Jerusalem. Rich in source material, this book provides rare insight into the life of one of the first families of Hungary and Palestine, the twilight of the Hungarian Jewish community, the initial phase of Jewish nation-building in Palestine, and the Arab-Jewish struggle for that much-contested and much-loved land.

The first anthology of modern Middle Eastern Jewish thought

The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Studies reflects the current state of scholarship in the field as analyzed by an international team of experts in the different and varied areas represented within contemporary Jewish Studies. Unlike recent attempts to encapsulate the current state of Jewish Studies, the Oxford Handbook is more than a mere compendium of agreed facts; rather, it is an exhaustive survey of current interests and directions in the field.

This study documents the history, traditions, tales, customs, and institutions of the Jadid al-Islam—"New Muslims." In 1839, Muslims attacked the Jews of Meshhed, murdering 36 of them, and forcing the conversion of the rest. While some managed to escape across the Afghan border, and some turned into true believing Muslims, the majority adopted Islam only outwardly, while secretly adhering to their Jewish faith. Jadid al-Islam is the fascinating story of how this community managed to survive, at the risk of their lives, as crypto-Jews in an inimical Shi'i Muslim environment. Based on unpublished original Persian sources and interviews with members of the existing Meshhed community in Jerusalem and New York, this study documents the history, traditions, tales, customs, and institutions of the Jadid al-Islam—"New Muslims."