The Story of Hebrew explores the extraordinary hold that Hebrew has had on Jews and Christians, who have invested it with a symbolic power far beyond that of any other language in history. Preserved by the Jews across two millennia, Hebrew endured long after it ceased to be a mother tongue, resulting in one of the most intense textual cultures ever known. Hebrew was a bridge to Greek and Arab science, and it unlocked the biblical sources for Jerome and the Reformation. Kabbalists and humanists sought philosophical truth in it, and Colonial Americans used it to shape their own Israelite political identity. Today, it is the first language of millions of Israelis. A major work of scholarship, The Story of Hebrew is an unforgettable account of what one language has meant and continues to mean.

After Adolph Ochs purchased The New York Times in 1896, Zionism and the eventual reality of the State of Israel were framed within his guiding principle, embraced by his Sulzberger family successor, that Judaism is a religion and not a national identity. Apprehensive lest the loyalty of American Jews to the United States be undermined by the existence of a Jewish state, they adopted an anti-Zionist critique that remained embedded in its editorials, on the Opinion page and in its news coverage. Through the examination of evidence drawn from its own pages, this book analyzes how all the news “fit to print” became news that fit the Times’ discomfort with the idea, and since 1948 the reality, of a thriving democratic Jewish state in the historic homeland of the Jewish people.

Marcus Heymann Bresslau was a German-Jewish journalist and Hebraist who settled in London as a youth. He was affiliated with "Hebrew Review" (1834-1836), a monthly publication edited by Dr. M.J. Raphall. Bresslau tried to revive the "Hebrew Review" in 1859 but was unsuccessful. [Sources: Bresslau, Marcus Heymann. The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia. New York : Univ. Jew. Encycl. Co, [1948]; Breslau, Marcus, Heymann. The Jewish Encyclopedia, viewed online March, 28, 2016].

"The Annual of Rabbinic Judaism: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern," the first and only annual with a special focus on Rabbinic Judaism, will publish principal articles, essays on method and criticism, systematic debates ("Auseinandersetzungen"), occasional notes, long book reviews, reviews of issues of scholarly journals, assessments of textbooks and instructional materials, and other media of academic discourse, scholarly and educational alike. "The Annual" fills the gap in the study of Judaism, the religion, which is left by the prevailing division of Rabbinic Judaism into the standard historical periods (ancient, medieval, modern) that in fact do not apply; and by the common treatment of Judaism in bits and pieces (philosophy, mysticism, law, homiletics, institutional history, for example), which obscures the fundamental unity and continuity of Rabbinic Judaism from beginning to the present. The 2000 issue contains articles by Ithamar Gruenwald, Dvora Weisberg, Jacob Neusner, Jose Faur, Simcha Fishbane, Norman Solomon, and Dov Schwartz, as well as reviews by Jacob Neusner, Herbert W. Basser, and Gunter Stemberger.