Jews in a Graeco-Roman World (review)

178 SHOFAR Winter 2001 Vol. 19, No.2 Polish one. Jewish petty trade was complementary, not in competition with Polish peasant fanning. Jewish and Polish religious and communal differences were for the most part mutually incomprehensible and held in contempt by both sides, but these alone did not necessarily lead to conflict or antisemitism. All that changed after the First World War and the reunification ofPoland. Modem Polish ethnic nationalism desired a unified and homogeneous Poland, and from its perspective Jews represented an unassimilable and dangerous minority. Evenbefore the Nazi invasion, on the eve of the Second World War, there were forces in Poland that wished for the disappearance of the Jews. Thus Hoffman traces contemporary Polish antagonism to Jews, not to some distant past or to something inherent in Polish culture, butto modem developments, especially ethnic nationalism andthe extraordinary period ofNazi occupation. Although Hoffman's point is well taken and provides a needed corrective to a view that Polish culture was inherently and from its inception antisemitic, nevertheless, in her desire to tilt the argument the other way she may have overcompensated and neglected traditional Polish and Polish Catholic sources ofantagonism to Jews. A more extensive study would need more fully to take into account the role ofPolish Catholicism and the nefarious role that Jews were assigned by it as Christ-killers and demons. Indeed, the view that Jews kidnap children to drain their blood in order to mix with flour for matza during the Passover festival is a view that can still be found in Poland. Such views did not lead to the Final Solution, but during the Nazi occupation they prevented many Poles from reaching out to their fellow Jewish sufferers. Robert Melson Department of Political Science Purdue University Jews in a Graeco-Roman World, edited by Martin Goodman. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998. 293 pp. $70.00. This volume contains 16 essays by as many scholars, on various aspects of relations between Jews and Gentiles in the ancient world. The introductory essay by the editor argues, reasonably, that the oddities of the Jews in the Graeco-Roman world were no greater than those ofmany other distinctive ethnic groups, such as Idumaeans or Celts. In support ofthis thesis he invites us to consider what we would know about the Jews if we had only the testimonies of pagan authors and epigraphic and papyrological evidence. A real test of the thesis, however, would require that we also examine what we know of other ethnic groups. Engaging as this essay is, it is somewhat misleading as an introduction to the volume, since the question it poses is not pursued in the other essays. These are grouped under four headings: "The Hellenistic and Roman World: Jewish Perspectives"; "SoCial Integration?"; "Similarities?"; and "Differences?" Book Reviews 179 The first group, presented under the heading "The Hellenistic and Roman World: Jewish Perspectives," contains three essays in addition to Goodman's introduction. Gruen's essay, now incorporated in his book Heritage and Hellenism, notes the differing attitudes of the Sibyl to Greeks and Romans. Since he rejects most proposed historical references in the book, however, he leaves the impression that most of the oracles were written a propos of nothing in particular, a feature which he mistakenly claims to be typical ofapocalyptic literature. Seth Schwartzargues thatthe hellenization of Near Eastern cities, best exemplified in the cases of Jerusalem and Shechem, involved nothing less than a redefinition of what it meant to be a Greek. Daniel Schwartz argues that the saga of the Tobiads belongs in the second century RC.E. rather than the first, and that the value of Josephus for the history of the Hellenistic period has been underestimated. Part II, "Social Integration?," contains two essays: Benjamin Isaac considers the evidence from Eusebius on Jews, Christians, and others in Palestine and concludes that the overwhelming majority of villages had a mixed population, Jewish, Christian, Samaritan, and pagan. David Noy asks where Diaspora Jews were buried, and concludes that the development of separate Jewish burial areas was a relatively late phenomenon. Part II, "Similarities?," has six essays. Albert Baumgarten discusses voluntary associations and Jewish sects. He notes that the sects made greater demands on their...