AJS Review • Books Received
December 2008

Agnon, S.Y., A Book that Was Lost: Thirty-five Stories, edited with introductions by Alan Mintz and Anne Golomb Hoffman, additional stories edited by Nahum N. Glazer, Preface by Jonathan Rosen, New Milford, Toby Press, 2008, vii, 588pp. ISBN 978-1-59264-254-0

Appelfeld, Ahron, Laish, Trans. Aloma Halter, New York, Schocken Books, 2009. 231pp. ISBN 978-0-8052-4159-4

Bacon, Gershon, Sperber, Daniel and Gaimani, Ahron, Mehkarim be-toldot yehudei Ashkenaz: sefer yovel likhvod Yitzhak (Eric) Zimmer (Studies on the History of the Jews of Ashkenaz presented to Eric Zimmer), Ramat Gan, Bar Ilan University Press, 2008, 290pp. ISBN 978-965-226-307-0

Balinska, Maria, The Bagel: The Surprising History of a Modest Bread, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2008. xx, 220pp. ISBN 978-0-300-11229-0

Baskind, Samantha and Omer-Sherman, Ranen (eds.), The Jewish Graphic Novel: Critical Approaches, New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press, 2008. xxvii, 292pp. ISBN 978-0-813-543-673

Buxbaum, Yitzhak, The Life and Teaching of Hillel, Lanham, Rowman and Littlefield, 2008, ix, 376pp. ISBN 978-0-7425-6337-7

Charney, Leon H. and Mayzlish, Saul, The Mystery of the Kaddish: The Powerful Story of Judaism’s Most Moving and Meaningful Prayer, London, JR books 2009, xiii, 236pp. ISBN 978-1-906217-40-2

Davis, Ellen F., Scripture, Culture, and Agriculture: An Agrarian Reading of the Bible, New York, Cambridge University Press, 2008. xvii, 234pp. ISBN 978-0-521-73223-9

Dodds, Jerrilynn D., Menocal, Maria Rosa, and Balbale, Abigail Krasner, The Arts of Intimacy: Christians, Jews and Muslims in the Making of Castilian Culture, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2008. Xiii, 395pp. ISBN 978-0-300-10609-1

Dolansky, Shawna (ed.), Sacred History, Sacred Literature: Essays on Ancient Israel, The Bible, and Religion in honor of R. E, Friedman on his Sixtieth Birthday, Winona Lake, Eisenbrauns, 2008. xiv, 348pp. ISBN 978-1-57506-151-1

Easterman, Daniel (ed.), Meyer Schapiro Abroad: Letter to Lillian and Travel Notebooks, with an essay by Hubert Damisch, Los Angeles, Getty Research Institute Publications, 2009. ix, 243pp. ISBN 978-0-89236-893-8

Eber, Irene (ed.), Voices from Shanghai: Jewish Exiles in Wartime China, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2008, 142pp. ISBN 978-0-226-18166-0

Einbinder, Susan L., No Place of Rest: Jewish Literature, Expulsion and the Memory of Medieval France, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009. 267pp. ISBN 978-0-812-241150

Eliot, Elissa, Eve: A Novel of the First Woman, New York, Delacorte Books, 2009. 421pp. ISBN 978-0-385-34144-8

Epstein, Barbara, The Minsk Ghetto 1941-1943: Jewish Resistance and Soviet internationalism, Berkeley, University of California Press, 2008, xvi, 351pp. ISBN 978-0-520-24242-5

Finestein, Israel, Studies and Profiles in Anglo-Jewish History: From Picciotto to Bermant, Portland and London, Vallentine Mitchell, 2008. xiv, 290pp. ISBN 978-0-85303-577-0

Fishbane, Michael, Sacred Attunement: A Jewish Theology, Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 2008, xiv, 238pp. ISBN 978-0-226-25171-4

Fitzmyer, Joseph A., A guide to the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Literature, Grand Rapids, William B. Eerdmans, 2008. xvii, 302pp. ISBN 978-0-8028-6241-9

Fredriksen, Paula, Augustine and the Jews: A Christian Defense of Jews and Judaism, New York, Doubleday 2008, xxiii, 488pp. ISBN 978-0-385-50270-2

Geld, Norman, Kings of the Jews: Exploring the Origins of the Jewish Nation, New York, iUniversity, 2008, xix, 245pp. ISBn 978-0-595-46568-2

Giles, Terry and Doan, William J., Twice Used Songs: Performance Criticism and the Songs of Ancient Israel, Peabody, Hendrickson Publishers, 2009. xvii, 179pp. ISBN 978-1-59856-272-9

Goodman, Martin, Rome and Jerusalem: The Clash of Ancient Civilizations, New York, Vintage Books 2007, xiv, 598pp. ISBN 978-0-375-72613-2

Gottlieb-Zornberg, Avivah, The Murmuring Deep: Reflections on the Biblical Unconscious, New York, Schocken Books, 2009. xxxi, 446pp. ISBN 978-0-8052-4247-8

Griffith-Jones, Robin, Beloved Disciple: The Misunderstood Legacy of Mary Magdalene, The Woman Closest to Jesus, New York, HarperOne, 2008, xvi, 286pp. ISBN 978-0-06-119199-2

Grob, Leonard and Roth, John K. (eds.), Anguished Hope: Holocaust Scholars Confront the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, Grand Rapids, William B. Eerdmans, 2008, ix, 253pp. ISBN 978-0-8028-3329-7

Hasak-Lavy, Todd, Here and Now: History, Nationalism and Realism in Modern Hebrew Fiction, Syracuse, Syracuse University Press, 2008, xlv, 176pp. ISBN 978-0-8156-3157-6

Hyman, Arthur and Ivry, Alfred (eds.), Maimonidean Studies vol.5, New York, Yeshiva University Press, 2008. xvii, 490pp. ISBN 978-0-88125-941-4

Indyk, Martin, Innocent Abroad: An intimate History of American Peace Diplomacy in the Middle East, New York, Simon & Schuster, 2009, viii, 470pp. ISBN 978-1-4165-9429-1

Kagan, Richard L. and Morgan, Philip D., Atlantic Diasporas: Jews, Conversos, and Crypto-Jews in the Age of Mercantilism, 1500-1800, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009, xvii, 307pp. ISBN 978-0-8018-9035-2

Kanaaneh, Rhoda Ann, Surrounded: Palestinian Soldiers in the Israeli Military, Stanford, Stanford University Press, 2009. 213pp. ISBN 978-0-8047-5858-1

Karp, Jonathan, The Politics of Jewish Commerce: Economic Thought and Emancipation in Europe, 1638-1848, New York, Cambridge Univrsity Press, 2008, x, 379pp. ISBN 978-0-521-87393-2

Kessner, Carole S., Marie Syrkin: Values beyond the Self, Walthan, Brandeis University Press, 2008, xii, 479pp. ISBN 978-1-58465-451-3

Kleinberg, Aviad, Seven Deadly Sins: A Very Practical List, trans. Susan Emanuel and the Author, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 2008. 192pp. ISBN 978-0-674-03141-8

Kotek, Joel, Cartoons and Extremism: Israel and the Jews in Arab and Western Media, trans. Alisa Jaffa, Portland, Vallentine Mitchel, 2009. xxvi, 201pp. ISBN 978-0-853-037521

Lasner, Phyllis, Anglo-Jewish Women Writing the Holocaust: Displaced Witnesses, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, ix, 225pp. ISBN 978-0-230-20258-0

Levinson, Bernard M, Legal Revision and Religious Renewal in Ancient Israel, New York, Cambridge University Press, 2008. xxvi, 206pp. ISBN 978-0-521-51344-9

Magid, Shaul, From Metaphysics to Midrash: Myth, History and the Interpretation of Scripture in Lurianic Kabbala, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 2008. xii, 349pp. ISBN 978-0-253-35088-6

Mahlendorf, Ursula, The Shame of Survival: Working through a Nazi Childhood, University Park, Pennsylvania State University, 2009, ix, 346pp. ISBN 978-0-271-03447-8

Malkiel, David, Reconstructing Ashkenaz: The Human Face of Franco-German Jewry, 1000-1250, Stanford, Stanford University Press, 2009. xvi, 357pp. ISBN 978-0-8047-5950-2

Mason, Steve, Josephus, Judea and Christian Origins: Methods and Categories, Peaboy, Hendrickson Publishers, 2009, xx, 443pp. ISBN 978-1-59856-254-5

Mazor, Yair, Who Wrought the Bible? Unveiling the Bible’s Aesthetic Secrets, Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, xiii, 169pp. ISBN 978-0-299-22840-6

Miron, Guy and Szalai, Anna (eds.), Yehudim al parashat derkhim: siah ha-zehut ha-yehudit be-hungaria ben mashber le-hithadshut, 1908-1926 (Jews at the Crossroads: The Jewish Identity Discourse in Hungary Between Crisis and Renewal, 1908-1926), Ramat Gan, Bar Ilan University Press, 2008, 234pp. ISBN 978-965-226-337-7

Myers, David N. et al (eds.), Acculturation and its Discontents: The Italian Jewish Experience Between Exclusion and Inclusion, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2008, viii, 228pp. ISBN 978-0-8020-9851-1

Neusner, Jacob, Persia and Rome in Classical Judaism, Lanham, University Press of America, 2008. xiv, 175pp. ISBN 978-0-7618-4102-9

Neusner, Jacob, Analytical Templates of the Yerushalmi, Lanham, University Press of America, 2009. xxiv, 469pp. ISBN 978-0-7618-4089-3

Peleg, Yaron, Israeli Culture between the Two Intifadas: a Brief Romance, Austin, University of Texas Press, 2008, xi, 156pp. ISBN 978-0-292-71877-7

Polland, Annie, Landmark of the Spirit: The Eldridge Street Synagogue, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2009, xvii, 164pp. ISBN 978-0-300-12470-5

Rochelson, Meri-Jane, A Jew in the Public Arena: The Career of Israel Zangwill, Detroit, Wayne State University Press, 2008. xxvi, 317pp. ISBN 978-0-8143-3344-0

Rose, Alison, Jewish Women in Fin de Siecle Vienna, Austin, University of Texas Press, 2008, xi, 314pp. ISBN 978-0-292-71861-6

Rustow, Marina, Heresy and the Politics of Community: The Jews of the Fatimid Caliphate, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 2008, xxxv, 435pp. ISBN 978-0-8014-4582-8

Saposnik, Arieh Bruce, Becoming Hebrew: The Creation of a Jewish National Culture in Ottoman Palestine, New York, Oxford University Press, 2008, xii, 314pp. ISBN 978-0-19-533121-9

Scharf Gold, Nili, Yehuda Amichai: The Making of Israel’s National Poet, Waltham, Brandeis University Press, 2008, xiii, 445pp. ISBN 978-1-58465-733-0

Schifferdecker, Kathryn, Out of the Wirlwind: Creation Theology in the Book of Job, Cambridge, Harvard University Press 2008. xii, 217pp. ISBN 978-0-674-02597-4

Schochet, Gordon, Oz-Salzberger, Fania and Jones, Meirav, Political Hebraism: Judaic Sources in Early Modern Political Thought, Jerusalem, Shalem Press, 2008. xix, 287pp. ISBN 978-965-7052-45-7

Schimdman, Michael A. (ed.), Turim: Studies in Jewish History and Literature Presented to Dr. Bernard Lander, vol.2, New York, Touro College Press, 2008, xii, 318pp. ISBn 978-1-60280-026-7

Schwarz, Dov and Gross, Ariel, Al ha-teshuva ve-al ha-ge’ula: Minhat shai le-Binyamin Gross (On Repentance and Redemption: Presented to Binyamin Gross), Ramat Gan, Bar Ilan University Press, 2008, 462pp. ISBN 978-965-226-335-3

Schuchat, Raphael B., Olam nistar be-memadei ha-zman: torat ha-ge’ula shel ha-GRA mi-Vilna, mekoroteha ve-hashpa‘ata le-dorot (A World Hidden in the Dimensions of Time: The Theory of Redemption in the Writings of the Vilna Gaon, its Sources and Influence on Later Generations), Ramat Gan, Bar Ilan University Press, 2008, 370pp. ISBN 978-965-226-351-3

Segre, Augusto, Memories of Jewish Life: From Italy to Jerusalem, 1918-1960, Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 2008, xxviii, 507pp. ISBN 978-0-8032-1378-4

Ami Silber, Early Bright, New Milford, Toby Press, 2008, 348pp. ISBN 978-1-59264-241-0

Simmons, William A., Peoples of the New Testament World: An Illustrated Guide, Peabody, Hendrickson Publishers, 2008. 352pp. ISBN 978-1-56563-877-8

Sperber, Daniel, The Jewish Life Cycle: Custom, Lore and Iconography –Jewish Customs from the Cradle to the Grave, Ramat Gan and New York, Bar Ilan University Press and Oxford University Press, 2008, 676pp. ISBN 978-0-19-530759-7

Stavans, Ilan, Resurrecting Hebrew, New York, Schocken Books, 219pp. ISBN 978-0-8052-4231-7

Stein, Sarah Abrevaya, Plumes: Ostrich Feathers, Jews, and a Lost World of Global Commerce, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2008. xii, 244pp. ISBN 978-0-300-12736-2

Stansky, Peter, The First Day of the Blitz, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2007, xii, 212pp. ISBN 978-0-300-14335-5

Sweeny, Marvin A., Reading the Hebrew Bible after the Shoah: Engaging Holocaust Theology, Minneapolis, Fortress Press, 2008. xiii, 287pp. ISBN 978-0-8006-3849-8

Urban, Martina, Aesthetics of Renewal: Martin Buber’s Early Representation of Hasidism as Kulturkritik, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2008. xi, 238pp. ISBN 978-0-226-84270-7

Yellin, Tamar, Tales of the Ten Lost Tribes, New Milford, Toby Press, 2008, 156pp. ISBN 978-1-59264-213-7

Weingarten, Aviva, Jewish Organizations’ Response to Communism and to Senator McCarthy, London and Portland, Vallentine Mitchell, 2008, x, 164pp. ISBN 978-0-85303-744-6

Weinreich, History of the Yiddish Language ( 2 vols.), edited by Paul Glasser, translated by Shlomo Noble, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2008, xiv, 988pp. ISBN 978-0-300-10887-3

Wilf, Steven, The Law before the Law, Lanham, Lexington Books, 2008, xviii, 236pp. ISBN 978-0-7391-2314-0