Book Notes

Book Notes Book Notes Annotations by Dean Bell of Spertus Institute are identified by the initials D.B. American Jewish Life 183 In Search of American Jewish Culture, by Stephen 1. Whitfield. Hanover, NH: University Press ofNew England, 1999.307 pp. $26.00. ISBN 0-87451-754-0. Stephen J. Whitfield surveys the range of American cultural production in this century, but focuses especially on those sectors where the specifically Jewish contribution has been little explored. He surveys popular music, musical theater, and drama, exploring the Jewish roots and dimensions of the work of Jewish writers and composers and placing them in the context of their times. Whitfield also explores the interprenetrations of Jewish and African American cultures, examines JewishAmericanrepresentations ofthe Holocaust, andponders the future of American Jewish culture. Jews in America, by Hasia Diner. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. 144 pp. $22.00. ISBN 0-19-510678-4. Hasia Diner speaks of the contributions and travails of Jews in this country from the Revolutionary War to the recent growth ofJewish studies programs on college campuses. She explores how its Jewish citizens shaped America and the impact of this free land upon one of the oldest religions in the world. Art, Music, and Film Musik und Asthetik im Berlin Moses Mendelssohns, edited by Anselm Gerhard. Tiibingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1999. 261 pp. DM 126. ISBN 3-484-17525-7. Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786) stands not only for the new identity achieved by an "enlightened" Jewish elite but also for a new approach to "aesthetic education" and music. Mendelssohn himself took piano lessons from Kirnberger, a pupil of Bach's, while Sara Levy (nee Itzig) made her salon into a center for the cultivation of Bach's heritage, and numerous Berlin Jews took an active part in public performances even ofsuch works as Handel's "Messiah" and Graun's "Tod Jesu." The patent preference for "ancient" and self-referential music in these circles permits the thesis that the Jewish minority in Berlin was centrally operative in preparing the ground for the idea of "absolute music." (German) 184 Biblical and Rabbinic Literature SHOFAR Summer 2000 Vol. 18, NO.4 A Beginner's Guide to the Steinsaltz Talmud, by Judith Z. Abrams. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1999. 154 pp. $25.00. ISBN 0-7657-6047-9. In this guide, Judith Z. Abrams selects a section from the Talmud and helps students follow Steinsaltz's path through the intricacies of talmudic logic and thought. Job and the Excess ofEvil, by Philippe Nemo. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 1998. 264 pp. $45.00 (c); $18.95 (p). ISBN 0-8207-0285-4 (c); 0-8207-0286-2 (p). The author turns to the Old Testament and the book ofJob to examine a variety of themes, including the problem ofevil, personal suffering, and the phenomenology of anxiety. Of special note is the postface written by Emmanual Levinas. Rabbinic Views ofQoheleth, by Ruth N. Sandberg: Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 1999. 268 pp. $89.95. ISBN 0-7734-7971-6. This book studies the variety ofRabbinic interpretations of the book ofQoheleth. Targum Neofiti 1: An. Exegetical Commentary to Genesis, Including Full Rabbinic Parallels, by Bernard Grossfeld (complete text edited by Lawrence H. Schiffman). New York: Sepher-Hermon Press, 1999. 506 pp. $65.00. ISBN 0-87203-158-6. The author establishes the relationship betweenTargumNeofiti 1, discovered in the Vatican Library in 1949, and the rabbinic texts and other Aramaic versions of the Pentateuch, as well as with the Septuagint and Vulgate. He presents the work's stylistic and lexical features and variant readings. An analytical introduction, the Aramaic text and critical apparatus, commentary, an appendix of the English translation of rabbinic passages, bibliography and indexes are included. (D.B.) A Time to Tear Down and a Time to Build Up: A Rereading ofEcclesiastes, by Michael V. Fox. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1999. 422 pp. $30.00 (p). ISBN 0-8028-4292-5. By looking carefully at the language and thought of Ecclesiastes, as well as at its uses of contradictions in probing he meaning of life, Fox confronts the problems that have confounded interpretation of this book. Biography, Autobiography, Memoirs, Diaries Arthur Schnitzler: Ein Leben in Wien...