Book Notes

148 SHOFAR Summer 1994 Vol. 12, No.4 BOOK NOTES Annotations written by Walter Hirsch, Paul Miller, and Nancy Lein, all of Purdue University, are identified by their initials. American Jewish Life A Corner ofthe Tapestry: A History of theJewish Experience in Arkansas, 1820s-1990s, by Carolyn Gray LeMaster. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1994. 632 pp. $60.00. ISBN 1-55728-304-4. This work chronicles the lives and genealogy of not only the highly visible and successful Jews who settled in Arkansas, but also those who constituted the fabric of society. LeMaster consulted data from the American Jewish Archives, American Jewish Historical Society, Arkansas' Jewish cemeteries, articles and obituaries from journals and newspapers, personal letters, congregational histories, census and court records, and over 400 interviews. Hebrew in America: Perspectives and Prospects, edited by Alan Mintz. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1993. 337 pp. $24.95. ISBN 08143 -2351-0. This book explores the Jewish attachment to Hebrew in twentiethcentury America. Fifteen scholars in Judaic studies write about the legacy of American Hebraism and the claims it continues to make upon the soul ofthe American Jewish community. Several writers look backward to the impact of the Hebrew movement in America on literature and education; others consider the implications ofHebrew's arrival on the college campus. Another emphasis is the relationship between language and culture in the case of Hebrew from anthropological , educational, and linguistic perspectives. Several essays also assess the role of Hebrew in the development ofJewish leadership in America as regards the relationship with the classic past and with contemporary Israel. Book Notes Ancient World and Archaeology 149 The Dead Sea Scrolls Today, by James c. VanderKam. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1994. 221 pp. $12.99 (p). ISBN 0-8028-0736-4. James VanderKam covers topics such as the discoveries of the manuscripts, the archaeological remains of buildings in the area during the 1940s and 1950s, and the methods used to date the scrolls and ruins, including a description of computer-imaging. He discusses the content and character of the texts themselves as well as the identity of the people who lived in the area of Qumran and who collected and wrote the scrolls. Also included is an account of the controversies surrounding the scrolls since the late 1980s. Die Essener: Berichte des Flavius Josephus (Sources on the Essenes in Flavius Josephus), by Roland Bergmeier. Kempen: KokPharos, 1993. 175 pp. n.p.1. ISBN 90-390-0014-X. The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus referred to the Essenes in a number of his works. The author compares his treatment with the Qumran texts and finds both similarities and differences. It appears that Flavius used Hellenistic sources; the result is a "literary" as well as a "historical" portrait of Essenism. (German) (W.H) A History ofIsraelite Religion in the Old Testament Period. Vol. 1: From the Beginnings to the End of the Monarchy, by Rainer A1bertz. Louisville, KY: Westminsterl.John Knox Press, 1994. 384 pp. $32.99. ISBN 0-66421846 -6. This history of Israel and Judah from the earliest discernible beginnings to Hellenistic times chronicles these kingdoms, not only in light of the religions of the ancient Near East but also in light of what we can recover of Israelite social history. A1bertz describes the history of Israel's religion as an interplay between historical demands, reliigous experiences, and theological reactions as different groups struggle over the appropriate religious response to God. Imperialism and BiblicalProphecy 750-500 BCE, by David Aberbach. New York: Routledge, 1994. 122 pp. $49.95. ISBN 0-415-09500-X. David Aberbach argues that the poetry of prophecy is inseparable from the empires which determined the history of the ancient Near East and the fate of Israel and Judah from the late eighth century to 150 SHOFAR Summer 1994 Vol. 12, No.4 the end of the sixth century BCE-first Assyria, then Babylonia, and finally Persia. Each empire had its own character and motives and stimulated a distinct wave of prophecy, led in turn by Isaiah ben Amoz, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and Second Isaiah. Jerusalem Ressuscitee Oerusalem Revived), by Jacqueline Benot-Bismuth. Paris: Albin Michel, 1992. 278 pp. n.p.1. ISBN 2-226...