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154 SHOFAR Spring 1995 Vol. 13, No.3 BOOK NOTES Annotations of books written by Walter Hirsch of Purdue University are identified by the initials W.H. American Jewish Life Community andPolity: The OrganizationalDynamics ofAmericanJewry, by Daniel J. Elazar. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1995. 672 pp. $49.95. ISBN 0-8276-0519-6. This book is· an update and revision of the 1976 study. Since the appearance of the original edition of Community and Polity in 1976, the American Jewish Community has crossed the watershed from the post-World War II generation to a new generation whose dimensions became apparent in the 1980s. Traditional fundraising for Israel had to compete with the task of mobilizing political support for Israel in Congress and the White House to help secure massive U.S. aid for the Jewish state. At the same time, American public opinion with regard to the Israel-Arab conflict was shifting to a more "even-handed" stance as the events of the 1980s further weakened Israel's position in American eyes. In addition to exploring these and other issues, this edition of Community and Polity is designed to provide a basic survey of the structure and functions of the American Jewish community and also to suggest how that community should be understood as a body politic. Merchant Princes: An Intimate History ofJewish Families Who Built Great Department Stores, by leon Harris. New York: Kodansha Globe, 1994. 432 pp. $14.00 (p). ISBN 1-56836-044-4. Merchant Princes tells the stories ofAmerica's greatJewish storekeeping families-the Rosenwalds of Chicago, the Riches of Atlanta, the Marcuses of Dallas, and the Goldsmiths of Memphis, among others -and how they progressed from ordinary peddlers to general storekeepers to the creators of sumptuous retail emporiums. Book Notes Ancient World and Archaeology 155 Jewish Women in Greco-Roman Palestine: An Inquiry into Image and Status, by Tal Ilan. Tiibingen: J. c. B. Mohr, 1994. 270 pp. DM 158. ISBN 3-16-146283-1. This study explores the real, as against the ideal, social, political, and religious status ofwomen in PalestinianJudaism ofthe Hellenistic and Roman periods. The main conclusions of this investigation are that extreme religious groups in Judaism of the period influenced other groups, classes, and factions to tighten their control of women and represent the ideal relationships between men and women as requiring greater chastity, in order to prove their piety. However, the lives of real women, over and against their representation in the literature of the time, and their relationships to men as opposed to the ideals represented by legal codes, were much more varied and nuanced. This book integrates both Jewish and Early Christian sources together with a feminist critique. The Jews of Egypt: From Rameses II to Hadrian, by Joseph Meleze Modrzejewski, translated by Robert Corman. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1995. 260 pp. $29.95. ISBN 0-8276-0522-6. This is the story of the people of Israel in Egypt, from its beginnings under the Pharaohs, through theJewish mercenary detachment on the island of Elephantine on the upper Nile, to its apogee under Ptolemies, followed by its decline and disappearance under Roman rule. The great "love affair" between the Jews and Hellenic culture occupies the central portion of the book. Psalmen aus Qumran (Psalms from Qumran), by Klaus Berger. Stuttgart: Quell, 1994. 161 pp. DM 39.80. ISBN 3-7918-1941-0. A new translation of psalms and hymns from the Qumran caves. (German) (W.H.) Der Tempelkult in Kanaan und Israel: Ein Beitrag zur Kultgeschichte Palastinas von der Mittelbronzezeit bis zum Untergang Judas (The Cult ofthe Temple in Canaan and Israel: A Contribution to the Cultural History of Palestine from the Middle Bronze Age until the Downfall ofJudah), by 156 SHOFAR Spring 1995 Vol. 13, No.3 Wolfgang Zwickel. Tiibingen: J. c. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 1994. 380 pp. DM 190. ISBN 3-16-146218-1. The theme of sacrifice has nearly been neglected in the past years in the research of the Old Testament. The few studies have been limited mainly to the relatively recent details of the priestly writings. Zwickel describes in his study the development of public sacrifice cults in the pre-exile period...

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