Book Notes

218 SHOFAR Spring 1996 Vol. 14, No.3 BOOK NOTES Annotations of books in German written by Walter Hirsch of Purdue. University are identified with his initials. American Jewish Life Gender Equality and American jews, by Moshe Hartman and Harriet Hartman. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996. 384 pp. $79.50 (c); $24.95 (p). ISBN 0-7914-3051-0 (c); 0-7914-3052-9 (P). The authors study gender equality in education, labor force participation, and occupational achievement among American Jews, based on the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey. The book first focuses on education and training as key "gatekeepers" to roles in the eonomy, and then on the gender differences in labor force behavior and occupational attainment. To place American Jews in perspective, they are compared to the wider American population, and to Israeli Jews. Thejewish East Side: 1881-1924, edited by Milton Hindus. New Brunswick , NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1995. 301 pp. $22.95. ISBN 1-56000842 -3. This book, originally published as The Old East Side, is a collection of literature and documents ranging from the autobiography of the sculptor Jacob Epstein and the novels of Abraham Cahan to the reporting ofWilliam Dean Howells and the fictional reconstruction of a vanished world by Henry Roth. The world is that of the old shtetl transplanted to a new, growing country. jews on the Move: Implications for jewish Identity, by Sidney Goldstein and Alice Goldstein. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995. 288 pp. $59.50 (c); $19.95 (P). ISBN 0-7914-2747-1 (c); 0-7914-2748-X (P). Based on data from the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey, the authors examine the high level of mobility among American Jews and their increasing dispersion throughout the United States, and consider how this presents new challenges to the national Jewish community. Book Notes Ancient World and Archaeology 219 Labor, Crafts and Commerce in Ancient Israel, by Moshe Aberbach. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1995. 306 pp. $30.00. ISBN 965-223-860-0. The purpose of this work is to provide a scholarly but also readable account of the economic activities of the Jews, as well as their attitudes to labor in general during the biblical and talmudic periods. As far as possible, the entire source material, scattered as it is in the Bible, the Apocrypha, the Talmud, and Midrash, has been utilized to present a comprehensive picture of this important but relatively neglected subject. Pseudo-Hecateus, "On the Jews": Legitimizing the JeWish Diaspora, by Bezalel Bar-Kochva. Berkeley: University ofCalifornia Press, 1996. 325 pp. $55.00. ISBN 0-520-20059-4. Debate over the authenticity of "On the Jews" has persisted for nearly 1,900 years. Bezalel Bar-Kochva attempts to overcome this stalemate in this study, which argues the forgery of the book and suggests not only a source for the text but also a social, political, and cultural setting that explains its conception. Bar-Kochva contends that the author of this treatise belonged to the moderate conservative Jews of Alexandria, whose practices were contrary to the contemporary trends of Hellenistic Judaism. "On the Jews," according to Bar-Kochva, was the manifesto of this group and was written at the peak period of the Hasmonean kingdom. Its main purpose was to legitimize Jewish residence in Egypt. Die "vaterlichen" Gesetze: FlaviusJosephus als Vermittler von Halacha an Griechen und Romer (The laws of the Fathers: Flavius Josephus as a Conveyor of the Halacha to the Greeks and the Romans), by Bernd SchrOder. Tiibingen: J. C. B. Mohr (paul Siebeck), 1996. 320 pp. DM 170. ISBN 3-16-146481-8. The question of the handing down of the Jewish Halacha to the Greeks and the Romans touches a fundamental aspect of the cultural conflict and discussion between Ancient Judaism and Hellenism. Bernd Schroder attempts to answer this question, dealing with the various far-reaching elements it implies while at the same time adhering to the text. The subject of this work, Flavius Josephus, is probably the most important author of the first centuryAD. (German) 220 SHOFAR Spring 1996 Vol. 14, No.3 The Wiles of Women/The Wiles of Men: Joseph and Potiphar's Wife in Ancient Near...