Booknotes

156 American Jewish Life BOOKNOTES SHOFAR An American Jewish Community: 50 Years 1889-1939, by Samuel Koenig. Stamford, Cf: Stamford Jewish Historical Society, 1991. 208 pp. $18.00. ISBN 0-9629560-0-7. A long-forgotten manuscript, uncovered by chance in the Connecticut State Library archives, provides a profile of the largely immigrant Jewish population of Stamford as it was emerging into the 19305. The study was a socioeconomic, historical survey conducted for ~he Federal Writers Project, a WPA agency, during Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration. Jews on the Frontier: An Account ofJewish Pioneers and Settlers in Early America, by I. Harold Sharfman. Malibu, CA: Pangloss Press, 1990. 336 pp. $29.50. ISBN 0-934710-20-1. Although most Jews settled in the heavily populated Eastern cities, in forgotten records the author has discovered a gallery of frontiersmen, traders, explorers, and military leaders (including the celebrated pirate chief, Jean Lafitte), whose lives encompass the events of our history from the French and Indian Wars to the Alamo. United States Jewry, 1776-1985. VoL ll: The Gennanic Period, Part 1 and VoL ll/: The Gennanic Period, Part 2, by Jacob Rader Marcus. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. Vol. II: 1990. 420 pp. $39.95. ISBN 0-8143-2187-9; Vol. III: 1991. 920 pp. $59.95. ISBN 0-8143-2188-7. The second volume covers the period from 1841 to 1860. Immigrants of this time were Ashkenazim from Europe's Germanic countries who moved into all regions west of the Hudson River. Marcus discusses commerce, religion, social welfare, Jewish culture, social and leisure activity, and rejection by Gentiles. Volume III spans the period from 1961 to 1920, when two disparate Jewish communities were present in the United States, the German and the Russian. Marcus discusses their history and interplay in light of major events of the time: slavery, the Civil War, Isaac Mayer Wise and Reform Judaism, politics, commercial life, socio-recreational life, social welfare, and Jewish education and culture. Volume 10, No.1 Fall1991 Ancient World and Archaeology 157 Early Israel, edited by Hershel Shanks and Dan P. Cole. Volume 1 of the series Archaeology and the Bible. Washington, DC: Biblical Archaeology Society , 1990. 324 pp. $18.95. ISBN 0-9613089-5-8. The Archaeology and the Bible series presents articles from the journal Biblical Archaeology Review (BAR). In this volume the articles reconstruct the life and character of ancient Israel, the community out of which the Hebrew Bible emerged. In the course of this reconstruction the reader learns how the archaeological enterprise is conducted and what the major disagreements are. The articles range from the Genesis stories of Abraham at Beer-sheba to inscriptions of the time of Jeremiah to the last days ofJudah before its fall to the Babylonians. . Early Israel: A New Horizon, by Robert B. Coote. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1990. 197 pp. $11.95. ISBN 0-8006-2450-5. The purpose of this book is to summarize the understanding of early Israel that has emerged from the research of the last decade. Holy War in Ancient Israel, by Gerhard von Rad. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans , 1991. 170 pp. $14.95. ISBN 0-8028-0528-0. From the earliest days of Israel's existence as a people, during the time of the judges, holy war was a sacred institution, undertaken as a cultic act of a religious community. The most important feature of holy war for Israel was the demand for faith in Yahweh's saving acts. However, von Rad argues , it was not Yahweh alone who acted; rather, because they envisioned Yahweh fighting on their behalf, the Israelites themselves were inspired -and obliged-to fight even harder. In this regard, the actual events differed vastly from the picture given by the biblical narratives, which downplay and often exclude the human factor and stress the exclusive warlike action of Yahweh, thus equating holy war with absolute miracle . Von Rad argues that this conception resulted from reinterpretation of the ancient events by prophets who spiritualized the institution of holy war, seeking to make prophecy the legal successor to the ancient institution and themselves the executors of the tradition. 158 SHOFAR Jewish Communities in Asia Minor, by Paul Trebilco...