Book Notes

American Jewish Life

The New Jewish Leaders: Reshaping the American Jewish Landscape, edited by Jack Wertheimer. Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press, 2012. 352 pp. $39.95. ISBN 978-1-61168-183-3.

By the end of the twentieth century, a new generation of leaders had begun to assume positions of influence within established organizations. Born during the last quarter of the twentieth century, these leaders came of age in a very different America and a different Jewish world than earlier generations. Not surprisingly, their worldview and understanding of Jewish issues set them apart from their elders, as does their approach to organizing. Based upon interviews and survey research, as well as an examination of the websites frequented by younger Jews and personal observation of their programs, The New Jewish Leaders describes how younger Jews organize, relate to collective Jewish efforts, and think about current Jewish issues. It also offers a glimpse of how they re-envision American Jewish communal arrangements.

Ancient World and Archaeology

An Introduction to Second Temple Judaism: History and Religion of the Jews in the Time of Nehemiah, the Maccabees, Hillel and Jesus, edited by Lester L. Grabbe. London and New York: T&T Clark, 2010. 150 pp. $100.00. ISBN 978-0-567-55248-8.

This introduction provides a guide to the Second Temple Period, its history, literature, and religious setting.

Was 70 CE a Watershed in Jewish History? On Jews and Judaism before and after the Destruction of the Second Temple, edited by Daniel R. Schwartz and Zeev Weiss. Leiden: Brill, 2012. 548 pp. $226.00. ISBN 978-90-04-21534-4.

The destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem in 70 CE, which put an end to sacrificial worship in Israel, is usually assumed to constitute a major caesura in Jewish history. But how important was it? What really changed due to 70? What, in contrast, was already changing before 70 or remained basically unchanged despite it? How do the Diaspora, which was long used to Temple-less Judaism, and early Christianity, which was born around the same time, fit in? This Scholion Library volume presents twenty papers given at an international conference in Jerusalem in which scholars assessed the significance of 70 for their respective fields of specialization, including Jewish liturgy, law, literature, magic, art, institutional history, and early Christianity.

Art and Music

The Art of Time, The Art of Place: Isaac Bashevis Singer and Marc Chagall—A Dialogue, by Ruth Dorot. Brighton, UK: Sussex Academic Press, 2011. 120 pp. $59.95. ISBN 978-1-84519-409-3.

This book draws a comparison between two of the most prominent Jewish artists in the twentieth-century: Polish-born magician story-teller Isaac Bashevis-Singer (1904-1991) and Russian-born creator of visual magic Marc Chagall (1887-1985). In addition to their East European Jewish background both were exposed to Western culture. While both artists were affected by these Western influences, they remained firmly entrenched within the Jewish culture—the Yiddish language and life in the "shtetl"—from which they drew their inspiration. Ruth Dorot demonstrates that they shared, albeit unwittingly, a common "meta-realistic" style combining the earthly with the supernatural and the transcendental. Their works allude to real place names, dates, facts and historical events; but at the same time contain occult forces, angels, demons, mysticism and mystery.

The Illuminated Kaddish: Interpretations of the Mourner's Prayer, by Hyla Bolsta. Jersey City: KTAV, 2012. 108 pp. $27.50. ISBN 978-1-60280-190-2.

The Illuminated Kaddish: Interpretations of the Mourner's Prayer is a contemporary illuminated manuscript, the artist/author's personal interpretation (or midrash) expressed in poetic text and lavish artwork. The book explores the profound ideas of the Kaddish and will benefit those who look for solace and inspiration.

The Lady in Gold: The Extraordnary Tale of Gustav Klimt's Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, by Anne-Marie O'Connor. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2012. 349 pp. $30.00. ISBN 978-0-307-26564-7.

The story of Gustav Klimt's Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, one of the most emblematic portraits of its time; of the beautiful, seductive Viennese Jewish...