Book Notes
- Book Notes
American Jewish Life
Brownsville, Brooklyn: Blacks, Jews, and the Changing Face of the Ghetto, by Wendell Pritchett. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002. 333 pp. $35.00. ISBN 0-226- 68446-6.
From its founding in the late 1800s through the 1950s, Brownsville, a section of eastern Brooklyn, was a white, predominantly Jewish, working-class neighborhood. But during the 1960s, Brownsville was stigmatized as a black and Latino ghetto, a neighborhood with one of the city’s highest crime rates. Wendell Pritchett tells the story of these two different but in some ways similar Brownsvilles.
Forged in Freedom: Shaping the Jewish-American Experience, by Norman H. Finkelstein. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2002. 192 pp. $24.95. ISBN 0-8276-0748-2.
The beginning of the twentieth century was a time of massive immigration to this country. This book traces the journey of Jewish immigrants in America, from the tenements of the Lower East Side to the cities and towns beyond.
In the Catskills: A Century of the Jewish Experience in “The Mountains,” edited by Phil Brown. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002. 415 pp. $27.95. ISBN 0-231- 12360-4.
This collection of writings evokes memories and emotions of the hotels and bungalow colonies in the Catskills, where Jewish working-class people from New York went to get fresh air.
The Shul Without a Clock: Second Thoughts from a Rabbi’s Notebook, by Emanuel Feldman. Jerusalem: Feldheim, 2001. 308 pp. $24.95. ISBN 1-58330-499-1.
This book gives a tour of many facets of Jewish life, including uplifting funerals, depressing Bar Mitzvahs, and cellular phone conversations at the Western Wall. The author led Atlanta’s Congregation Beth Jacob for almost forty years.
Ancient World and Archaeology
The Rescue of Jerusalem: The Alliance between Hebrews and Africans in 701 BC, by Henry T. Aubin. New York: Soho Press, 2002. 421 pp. $30.00. ISBN 1-56947-275-0.
This story is about the 25th Egyptian dynasty ruled by Kushite Kings, black Africans, who brought to the Egyptian culture one of its most illustrious periods of [End Page 186] art, architecture, and statecraft. When the Assyrians descended upon Jerusalem, it was the Kushites who came to the aid of the embattled city.
Biblical and Rabbinic Literature
The Bible in Israeli Folk Dances, by Matti Goldschmidt. Viersen, Germany: Choros, 2002. 191 pp. Euro 22.00. ISBN 3-933512-12-3.
Matti Goldschmidt, instructor of Israeli folk dancing, has chosen 53 dances whose lyrics can be traced back to the Bible. He has researched the development of the dances and describes their origins.
Deboraerzählung und Deboralied, by Heinz-Dieter Neef. Neukirchen: Neukirchener Verlag, 2002. 220 pp. Euro 34.00. ISBN 3-7887-1890-0.
The song of Deborah is a hymn to the saving God. The knowledge of God’s might and his partisanship for his people are the characteristics of the song. The song, which can be dated to the end of the eleventh century B.C.E., doesn’t describe the relationship between history and fiction, but that of history and confession.
(German)
Introducing the Old Testament, by John Drane. Revised edition. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001. 368 pp. $26.00. ISBN 0-8006-3432-2.
John Drane provides a guide to the principal religious ideas of the Old Testament. Included are photos, maps, timelines, artwork, charts, diagrams, and line drawings, in addition to 44 one-page articles.
The JPS Bible Commentary: Haftarot, by Michael Fishbane. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2002. 593 pp. $75.00. ISBN 0-8276-0691-5.
The haftarot are an ancient part of Hebrew liturgy. Excerpted from the Prophets, they are supplemental readings that accompany each weekly Sabbath reading from the Torah as well as readings for special Sabbaths and festivals. In this commentary Michael Fishbane introduces each haftarah with an outline and discussion of how that passage conveys its meaning.
Mishnah and the Social Formation of the Early Rabbinic Guild: A Socio-Rhetorical Approach, by Jack N. Lightstone. Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2002. 246 pp. $29.95. ISBN 0-88920-375-X.
Jack Lightstone examines Mishnah, the first document authored by the early rabbinic movement, and argues that the...
