Book Notes

Book Notes Book Notes Annotations by Dean Bell of Sperms Institute are identified by the initials D.B. American Jewish Life 189 Kibbutzniks in the Diaspora, by Naama Sabar. Albany: State University ofNew York Press, 2000. 189pp. $49.50 (c); $16.95 (P). ISBN 0-7914-4471-6 (c); 0-7914-4472-4(P). Naama Sabar examines the lives of a group of Israeli emigrants living in Los Angeles in the 1980s and early 1990s. Through interviews, she uncovers what pushed them to leave the kibbutz and what pulls them to remain in Los Angeles. The underlying leitmotifis the search for identity under changing conditions. The Politics and Public Culture ofAmerican Jews, by Arthur A. Goren. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999. 240 pp. $39.95 (c); $17.95 (p). ISBN 0-253-33535-3 (c); 0-253-21318-5 (p). Arthur A. Goren's essays, ranging over nearly a century ofJewish communal life, examine the ways in which American Jews grappled with issues ofgroup survival in an open and accepting society. With the focus on Jewish strategies for maintaining acollective identity while participating fully inAmerican society andpublic life, Goren explores how immigrants fashioned a Jewish public culture from the traditions and secular ideologies they brought with them from Europe. Turning to the second half of the century, Goren considers the unifying commitment of American Jews to assuring Israel's security and to striving for a pluralistic America. Ancient World and Archaeology Gemeinde ohne Tempel-Community without Temple: Substitution and Transformation ofthe Jerusalem Temple and its Cult in theOld Testament, in Ancient Judaism and in Early Christianity, edited by Beate Ego, Armin Lange, and Peter Pilhofer. Tiibingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1998. 510 pp. DM 200. ISBN 3-16-147050-8. In this collection of essays, various authors consider the many-sided question of how Israel and ancient Judaism were able to deal with the theological challenge presented by the fact that due to its destruction the temple was no longer available as a religious center or either was regarded as disqualified for religious purposes or-as in the case of the diaspora Jews-was too far away for a concrete participation in the cult. The volume focuses mainly on the epoch of the Second 190 SHOFAR Winter 2001 Vol. 19, No.2 Temple. Analogous approaches and problems are considered in the Rabbinic era, the New Testament, the Early Church, in the ancient Orient, and in the GrecoRoman world. Art, Music, and Film The Artless Jew: Medieval and Modern Affirmations and Denials of the Visual, by Kalman P. Bland. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000. 233 pp. $35.00. ISBN 0-691-01043-9. Conventional wisdom holds that Judaism is indifferent or even hostile to the visual arts because of the Second Commandment's prohibition on creating "graven images." Kalman Bland's intellectual history of medieval and modern Jewish attitudes toward art and representation overturns the modern assumption ofJewish iconophobia. A Crown for a King: Studies in Jewish Art, History and Archaeology, edited by S. Sabar, S. Fine, and W. Kramer. Jerusalem: Gefen, 2000. 232 pp. $50.00 (p). ISBN 965-229-211-7. Jewish art and material culture are the subjects ofthis volume presented in memory of Professor Stephen S. Kayser, founding curator of the Jewish Museum in New York. The essays cover a wide range of Kayser's interests, from archaeology to ceremonial art, from the medieval period to the twentieth century. Mordechai Gebirtig: His Poetic and Musical Legacy, edited by Gertrude Schneider. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2000. 224 pp. $65.00. ISBN 0-275-96657-7. Mordechai Gebirtig was a writer ofYiddish songs and poems. This book brings his work to an English-speaking audience, offering a collection of his major works, complete with the scores, transliterated Yiddish text, and English translation. Biblical and Rabbinic Literature Das Auge Gottes: Textstrategie im Hiobbuch, by Melanie Kohlmoos. Tiibingen: Mohr Siebeck,1999. 400pp. DM 170.00. ISBN 3-16-147140-7. Which methods are employed to encourage the reader to interpret the Book ofJob, and what part do dramaturgy and content play in this? Melanie Kohlmoos outlines the basic "textual strategy" of the Book of Job from the point of view of God's...