Book Notes

Book Notes American Jewish Life BOOK NOTES 189 Against the Stream: Seven Decades of Hashomer Hatzair in North America, edited by Ariel Hurwitz. New York: Kibbutz Artzi Federation, 1995. $45.00. This book describes the development of a Chalutzic-Zionist Youth Movement in North America, its educational methods, the development of its ideology, and its struggles within a Jewish community attempting to integrate within American society. Growing UPJewish in America: An Oral History, by Myrna Katz Frommer and Harvey Frommer. Orlando, FL: Harcourt Brace & Co., 1995. 300 pp. $25.00. ISBN 0-15-100132-4. The childhood memories of a hundred men and women create a portrait ofJewish-American life in the twentieth century. The Jewish American Family Album, by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. 127 pp. $19.95. ISBN 0-19509935 -4. This book tells personal stories ofJewish immigrants from their arrival in this country (as early as 1579) to the present day. Letters, diaries, and newspaper articles, as well as interviews and personal memories, describe what life was like in the old countries and tell of the difficulties encountered in leaving home for a new life in America. Portrait of American Jews: The Last Half of the Twentieth Century, by Samuel C. Heilman. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1995. 208 pp. $30.00 (c)j $14.95 (P). ISBN 0-295-97470-2 (c): 0-295-97471-0 (p). Samuel Heilman argues that the same conditions that have allowed Jews to live in relative security in the U.S. since the 1950s have also presented them with a greater challenge than did the adversity and upheaval of earlier years. 190 SHOFAR FaU 1995 Vol. 14, No.1 To Build a Wall: American]ews and the Separation ofChurch and State, by Gregg Ivers. Charlottesville: University Press ofVirginia, 1995. 281 pp. $37.50 (c). ISBN 0-8139-1554-6. Before World War II, the American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress, and the Anti-Defamation League had little influence over establishment clause cases, choosing instead to focus their attention on less direct means to secure religious freedom. But the Holocaust persuaded American Jewish organizations that the time had come for direct action through legal means rather than appeals to Christian consciences. Gregg Ivers here traces the evolution of these three Jewish organizations and shows that organized interests can and do have critical influence in the legal process. Ivers also argues that the ethnic, economic, and religious differences that led to the formation of competing Jewish organizations eighty years ago continue to drive a dynamic pluralism within the Jewish community, manifest in part in divergent approaches to litigation and public affairs. Ancient World and Archaeology The Ancient Near East, by Amelie Kuhrt. London: Routledge, 1995. 784 pp. $150.00. ISBN 0-415-01352-6. The Middle East in ancient times was a vast and culturally, politically, and linguistically diverse area. In this study, Amelie Kuhrt examines the history of the Near East from the earliest written documents to Alexander the Great's conquest. She asserts that the Near East did not lack a market economy, nor was it wholly oppressed by despots or dominated by priestly castes. Babylonians, by H. W. F. Saggs. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995. 200 pp. $28.95 (c). ISBN 0-8061-2765-1. Babylonia is the name given to the ancient empire of southern Mesopotamia, whose people settled between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers before the fourth millennium R.C.E. The empire flourished for almost two thousand years until its capture by Alexander the Great in 331 B.C.E. Drawing upon information available from the findings of archaeology, Saggs shows how the earliest experiments in agriculture and irrigation, the use of writing, the birth of mathematics, and the development of urban life all occurred in Babylonia; he also ilIum- Book Notes 191 inates the myths, religion, languages, trade, politics, and warfare of its people. Galilee: History, Politics, People, by Richard A. Horsley. Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, 1995. 352 pp. $30.00. ISBN 1-56338-133-8. Richard Horsley studies the basic political and economic relations that prevailed in Roman Palestine, with particular reference to Galilee and with attention to...