Book Notes

Book Notes Book Notes 173 Annotations written by Dean Bell of the Spertus Institute for Jewish Studies are identified with his initials. American Jewish Life A Biblical People in the Bible Belt: The Jewish Community ofMemphis, Tennessee, 1840-1960, by Selma S. Lewis. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, in association with the Jewish Historical Society of Memphis and the Mid-South, 1998. 320 pp. $35.00 (c). ISBN 0-86554-602-9. Selma S. Lewis describes the origins and development of a healthy relationship between the Jews and the people of the Bible Belt. For a variety of reasons, Jewish Memphians suffered little overt prejudice and were able to take care of their own needs while attending to those ofthe community as a whole. As a result, from early on they have held positions of municipal leadership, been active supporters of the city's cultural and philanthropic activities, and aided in the course of racial integration. A Portrait of the American Jewish Community, edited by Norman Linzer, David J. Schnall, and Jerome A. Chane">. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1998. 240 pp. $59.95. ISBN 00-275-96022-6. This book examines the many issues American Jews and their organizations are confronting, and shows how the Jewish community responds so as to remain a distinct entity while also becoming a part of the larger American culture. Ancient World and Archaeology Gottesfiirchtige und Sympathisanten: Studien zum heidnischen Umfeld von Diasporasynagogen , by Bernd Wander. Tiibingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1998. 300 pp. DM 180. ISBN 3-16-146865-1. Why were gentiles so interested in Judaism and Jewish communities? Why did the gentiles want to have a new home in these communities but at the same time be excused from compulsory requirements such as circumcision? Bernd Wander pursues these complex questions concerning the diaspora communities and analyzes the conflicts the gentiles experienced between fascination and aggression and between their attraction towards the Jewish identity and their mission to the people. 174 SHOFAR Spring 1999 Vol. 17, No.3 Judaism and Hellenism in Antiquity: Conflict or Confluence?, by Lee I. Levine. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1998. 248 pp. $20.00 (p). ISBN 0-295-97682-9. Generations of scholars have debated the influence of Greco-Roman culture on Jewish society and the degree of its impact on Jewish material culture and religious practice in Palestine and the Diaspora of antiquity. Lee I. Levine examines this phenomenon from the aftermath of Alexander's conquest to the Byzantine era, offering a view ofthe literary, epigraphical, and archaeological evidence attesting to the process oJ Hellenization in Jewish life and its impact on several aspects of Judaism as we know it today. Qumran-Messianism: Studies on the Messianic Expectations in the Dead Sea Scrolls, edited by James H. Charlesworth, Hermann Lichtenberger and Gerbern S. Oegema. Tiibingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1998. Ca. 300 pp. DM 150. ISBN 3-16-146968-2. A collection of articles on Qumran messianism from a team of international scholars, marking the fiftieth anniversary of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947, and attempting to understand the subject within the context of ancient Judaism and early Christianity. (D.B.) The Story of Sukkot: The Setting, Shaping, and Sequel of the Biblical Feast of Tabernacles, by Hilkan Ulfgard. Tiibingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1998. Ca. 300 pp. DM 170. ISBN 3-16-147017-6. The author traces the ideological development of the biblical feast of Tabernacles from c. 600 BCE until c. 500 CE, and examines the relation between sukkot and the calendar, temple, Torah and history. (D.B.)· This Holy Place: On the Sanctity ofthe Synagogue during the Greco-Roman Period, by Steven Fine. Notre Dame, IN: University ofNotre Dame Press, 1998. 328 pp. $35.00 (c). ISB N 0-268-04205-5. Using a variety of literary and archaeological sources dating to the Greco-Roman period, Steven Fine demonstrates how the synagogue came to be seen as sacred, rather than simply as a house of study. Fine argues that the biblical scrolls read, studied, and stored within its walls were the most important source of synagogue sanctity in the minds of the ancients, for the Scriptures offered the physical manifestation of the Divine within local congregations...