New Books in Jewish Studies

Interview with Scholars of Judaism about their New Books

Religion & Spirituality
Judaism
976
Aaron W. Hughes, “Rethinking Jewish Philosophy:...
In Rethinking Jewish Philosophy: Beyond Particularism and Universalism (Oxford University Press, 2014), Aaron W. Hughes, the Philip S. Bernstein Chair of Jewish Studies at the University of Rochester, explores that paradox he sees at the heart of Jewis...
30 min
977
Cecile E. Kuznitz, “YIVO and the Making of Mode...
In YIVO and the Making of Modern Jewish Culture: Scholarship for the Yiddish Nation (Cambridge University Press, 2014), Cecile E. Kuznitz, Associate Professor of Jewish History and Director of Jewish Studies at Bard College,
31 min
978
Jeffery S. Gurock, “The Holocaust Averted: An A...
In The Holocaust Averted: An Alternate History of American Jewry, 1938-1967 (Rutgers University Press, 2015), Jeffrey S. Gurock, the Libby M. Klaperman Professor of Jewish History at Yeshiva University, imagines an alternate history of American Jewry h...
56 min
979
Jon Birger, “Date-onomics: How Dating Became a ...
In Date-onomics: How Dating Became a Lopsided Numbers Game (Workman Publishing Company, 2015), Jon Birger, an award-winning journalist and contributor to Fortune magazine, explores the social implications of dating markets with a shortage of college-ed...
28 min
980
Lila Corwin Berman, “Metropolitan Jews: Politic...
In Metropolitan Jews: Politics, Race, and Religion in Postwar Detroit (University of Chicago Press, 2015), Lila Corwin Berman, Associate Professor of History, Murray Friedman Chair of American Jewish History,
32 min
981
Derek J. Penslar, “Jews and the Military: A His...
In Jews and the Military: A History (Princeton University Press, 2015), Derek J. Penslar, the Stanley Lewis Professor of Israel Studies at the University of Oxford and the Samuel Zacks Professor of Jewish History at the University of Toronto,
29 min
982
Kimberly Arkin, “Rhinestones, Religion, and the...
In Fictions of Conversion: Jews, Christians, and Cultures of Change in Early Modern England (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013), Jeffrey S. Shoulson, the Doris and Simon Konover Chair in Judaic Studies and the Director of the Center for Judaic Stu...
31 min
983
Michael L. Satlow, “How the Bible Became Holy” ...
In How the Bible Became Holy (Yale University Press, 2014), Michael L. Satlow, a professor of religious studies and Judaic studies at Brown University, explores how an ancient collection of obscure writing became, over the course of centuries, “holy.
31 min
984
Liora R. Halperin, “Babel in Zion: Jews, Nation...
In Babel in Zion: Jews, Nationalism, and Language Diversity in Palestine, 1920-1948 (Yale University Press, 2015), Liora R. Halperin, an Assistant Professor in the Department of History and the Program in Jewish Studies at the University of Colorado,
30 min
985
Jeffrey S. Shoulson, “Fictions of Conversion: J...
In Fictions of Conversion: Jews, Christians, and Cultures of Change in Early Modern England (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013), Jeffrey S. Shoulson, the Doris and Simon Konover Chair in Judaic Studies and the Director of the Center for Judaic Stu...
29 min
986
Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler, eds., “The ...
59 min
987
Lisa Moses Leff, “The Archive Thief: The Man Wh...
33 min
988
John H. Walton, “The Lost World of Adam and Eve...
For centuries the story of Adam and Eve has resonated richly through the corridors of art, literature, and theology. But, for most modern readers, taking it at face value is incongruous. New insights from anthropology and population genetics–let alone ...
55 min
989
Mark S. Wagner, “Jews and Islamic Law in Early ...
During the early twentieth century, Yemeni Jews operated within a legal structure that defined them as dhimmi, that is, non-Muslims living as a protected population under the sovereignty of an Islamic state. In exchange for the payment of a poll tax,
54 min
990
Shulem Deen, “All Who Go Do Not Return: A Memoi...
Winner of the 2015 National Jewish Book Award, Contemporary Jewish Life and Practice At fourteen, young Shulem Deen, a Hassid in Boro Park, New York, lost his loving father. How was he to deal with the enormous gap in his life that his father’s early d...
74 min
991
Lital Levy, “Poetic Trespass: Writing Between H...
Since the beginning of the 20th century, Jewish settlement in Palestine and the revival of Hebrew as a national language have profoundly impacted the relationship between Arabic and Hebrew. In a highly contentious political environment,
56 min
992
Emily Alice Katz, “Bringing Zion Home: Israel i...
World War Two and the establishment of the State of Israel significantly altered American Jewish attitudes toward Zionism. American Jews supported Israel during times of conflict, like the 1948 war. However,
52 min
993
Hasia Diner, “Roads Taken: The Great Jewish Mig...
The period from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries witnessed a mass migration which carried millions of Jews from central and eastern Europe, north Africa, and the Ottoman Empire to new lands. Hasia Diner’s new book,
49 min
994
Alon Confino, “A World Without Jews: The Nazi I...
Alon Confino‘s A World Without Jews: The Nazi Imagination from Persecution to Genocide (Yale University Press, 2014) begins with a vivid and devastating scene in the small German town of Fürth on November 10,
51 min
995
Timothy Michael Law, “When God Spoke Greek: The...
When a contemporary reader opens up their Bible they may be unaware of the long historical process that created the pages within. One of the key components in this history is the Septuagint, the Greek translation of Hebrew scriptures between the third ...
56 min
996
Yaacov Ariel, “An Unusual Relationship: Evangel...
“In no other instance,” notes Yaacov Ariel, professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, “have members of one community of faith considered another group to hold a special role in the divine course of human redemptio...
31 min
997
Daniel Lee, “Petain’s Jewish Children: French J...
Daniel Lee‘s new book, Petain’s Jewish Children: French Jewish Youth and the Vichy Regime, 1940-1942 (Oxford University Press, 2014) is highly compelling in its breadth, depth of research, and analysis. Focused on the social relationship between French...
60 min
998
Rebecca Rossen, “Dancing Jewish: Jewish Identit...
How does an author craft a work that speaks across the boundaries of dance studies, Jewish studies and gender studies? What does it mean for dance to function as a site for probing complex questions of racial, ethnic and cultural identity?
45 min
999
Matthew Hedstrom, “The Rise of Liberal Religion...
Expressions of religious belief through popular media are a regular occurrence in our contemporary age. But the circulation and negotiation of religious identities in public contexts has a fairly long history in American culture. Matthew Hedstrom,
56 min
1000
Adam Phillips, “Becoming Freud: The Making of a...
For those who are savvy about all things psychoanalytic, be they analysts, analysands, or fellow travelers, the existence, presence, work, writing, and imprimatur of Adam Phillips is given long, as opposed to short, shrift.
52 min