Allan Nadler
Drew University, Religious Studies, Emeritus
A critical assessment of Prof. David Biale's manifesto arguing for the antiquity and essential "Jewishness" of secularism.
Research Interests: Yiddish Literature, Jewish Studies, Secular Humanism, Talmud, Secularization, and 14 moreRabbinics, Midrash, Jewish Thought, Rabbinic Literature, Jewish Philosophy, Judaism, Modern Jewish History, Secular Jewish Thought, Secularism, Early Judaism, Yiddish Culture and Language, Rabbinic Judaism, History of Judaism In Antiquity, and Jewish Secularism
Review-Essay on Noah Feldman's latest -- and first "Jewish" book, that purports to be a no less than a contemporary Guide for the Perplexed, about "God, Israel and the Jewish People."
Research Interests: Israel Studies, Israel/Palestine, Doctrine of God, Rabbinics, Rabbinic Literature, and 14 moreJewish Philosophy, Medieval Jewish Philosophy, Modern Jewish Philosophy, Judaism, Modern Jewish History, Philosophy of God, Zionism, Israel, Zionism (History), Religious Zionism, Modern Jewish Thought, Anti-Zionism, Rabbinic Judaism, and HIstory of Zionism and Jewish Nationalism
... The Agu-dah had established a separate fund for their colonizing efforts in Palestine, called "Keren ha-Yishuv." Shapira accused this fund, to-gether with the general Zionists' "Keren... more
... The Agu-dah had established a separate fund for their colonizing efforts in Palestine, called "Keren ha-Yishuv." Shapira accused this fund, to-gether with the general Zionists' "Keren ha-Yesod," of deliberately draining away support from the traditional endowment of R. Meir ...
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A monumental biography, that establishing among much else, that Maimonides' father was forced to convert his family to Islam after fleeing Almohad persecution in Spain in 1148 only to face it in Fez, Morocco.
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Entry on the evolving definitions of, and views about ,the "Nations of the World" (Aka "Goyim"), in Early Modern and Moderns Judaism.
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The great Liberal American Catholic author and public intellectual, Gary Wills' book "Papal Sins" was so passionately polemical that even I felt the need to push back on certain elements of his criticisms of past popes, and his attack on... more
The great Liberal American Catholic author and public intellectual, Gary Wills' book "Papal Sins" was so passionately polemical that even I felt the need to push back on certain elements of his criticisms of past popes, and his attack on the way Catholic biblical exegesis works. The first part of the book focuses on papal crimes against the Jews, especially those of the perfidious Pius IX. Thankfully, almost a quarter of a century since this important book appeared, much has changed for the better.
Research Interests: Jewish - Christian Relations, Holocaust Studies, Anti-Semitism, Church History, Second Vatican Council, and 8 moreRoman Catholicism, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Pope Pius Ix, Catholic Church, Christian Studies, Christian theology and biblical studies, Catholic Biblical interpretation, and Catholic-Jewish dialogue
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On the reissue of the classic by Johns Hopkins U. Press
Research Interests: Talmud, Midrash, Jewish Literature, Midrashic Literature, Babylonian talmud, and 3 moreRabbinical literature (The Mishnah, Babylonian and Palestinian Talmudim, aggadic midrashim), Research Interests: Rabbinical Literature (The Mishnah, Babylonian and Palestinian Talmudim, Aggadic Midrashim), Midrash, Redactional Criticism of Rabbinic Literature, Literary Criticism, Rabbinic Literature, and Rabbinics, and Talmud and Rabbinics
Written in 1999 on the occasion of the publication of A House Divided, Jacob Katz's landmark history of the origins of Modern Hungarian Jewish denominationalism and the emerging power of Ultra-Orthodoxy. Sadly, the crisis of Jewish... more
Written in 1999 on the occasion of the publication of A House Divided, Jacob Katz's landmark history of the origins of Modern Hungarian Jewish denominationalism and the emerging power of Ultra-Orthodoxy. Sadly, the crisis of Jewish factionalism with which this review- essay begins is far worse a quarter-century later, particularly in the light of the far-right, ultra-Orthodox Israeli coalition government.
By ALLAN NADLER "There is no issue of greater concern to Jews around the world than the deep religious divide that plagues us today. The acrimonious schisms dividing 'the Jewish world against itself can even be seen in the results of Israel's recent elections, which have widely been interpreted as a reaction to the poUdcs of divisiveness of the Netanyahu government. Political and religious leaders of all persuasions regularly decry thê unprecedented" mutual hostility between secular and '^Orthodox Jews in Israel and .among Jewish denomina-. dons m America. ; " But very few understand the historical roots of this great breach..."
By ALLAN NADLER "There is no issue of greater concern to Jews around the world than the deep religious divide that plagues us today. The acrimonious schisms dividing 'the Jewish world against itself can even be seen in the results of Israel's recent elections, which have widely been interpreted as a reaction to the poUdcs of divisiveness of the Netanyahu government. Political and religious leaders of all persuasions regularly decry thê unprecedented" mutual hostility between secular and '^Orthodox Jews in Israel and .among Jewish denomina-. dons m America. ; " But very few understand the historical roots of this great breach..."
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An almost completely obscure minor masterpiece by Eli Wiesel.
Research Interests: Yiddish Literature, Yiddish Language, Yiddish, Holocaust Studies, Holocaust education, and 11 moreHolocaust Literature, Holocaust, Holocaust Memory, Yiddish Culture and Language, Holocaust Shoah, Holocausto, Elie Wiesel, History of Holocaust Survivors In the Aftermath of World War II, Jewish Responses to the Holocaust, Jewish Vilna, and Abraham Sutzkever
Personal, and painful, reflections about my experiences as an Orthodox rabbi who dared to oppose the Lubavitcher Rebbe, z"atsal's interventions into Israeli politics, which marked the genesis of my alienation from the Orthodox rabbinate... more
Personal, and painful, reflections about my experiences as an Orthodox rabbi who dared to oppose the Lubavitcher Rebbe, z"atsal's interventions into Israeli politics, which marked the genesis of my alienation from the Orthodox rabbinate and eventually the Orthodox community. Not normally something I would post on Academic.Edu, but given the almost complete collapse of what was once pluralistic, tolerant and truly Zionist "Religious Zionism" and the power its usurpers have now risen to in Israel, it is important to revisit how long in the making this degeneration of Modern Orthodoxy has been. The hardline position of the Rebbe on the shtachim which provoked my NY Times article, his deligitimation of rabbis of other denominations -- he was the first to call on Israel to reject as gentiles anyone converted by non-Orthodox rabbis, and many more issues marked, in so many ways, the beginning of the decline chronicled in this piece.
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In the wake of the Crown Heights riots of August, 1991, and the failure of the established Jewish Organizations' inadequate response to the violence -- seen as the result of a lack of communication with and understanding of the Hasidic... more
In the wake of the Crown Heights riots of August, 1991, and the failure of the established Jewish Organizations' inadequate response to the violence -- seen as the result of a lack of communication with and understanding of the Hasidic Jewish Community, I was commissioned by the American Jewish Committee to write a monograph to explain American Hasidim to their leadership and members and for use in their educational programs, which they published six months after the conflagration. I should add on a personal note that I had befriended the young Lubavitcher scholar -- and tragic martyr of a veritable pogrom in Crown Heights -- Yankel Rosenbaum while he was doing research at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, where I had just begun my post as Director of Research just a few months before the riots. Yankel was brutally murdered during the riots by a gang of black rioters, who shouted Kill the Jew, as they chased him down and knifed him. There was thus for me a strong personal motivation to produce this study.
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Essay on Ives' Spinoza play
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On the absurd Jewish reclamation of Spinoza, especially by rabbis
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He was a charismatic preacher from the Galilee whose teachings challenged the regnant Jewish doctrines of his day and undermined rabbinical authority. He communed with the spirits of the living and the dead, performing miracles and... more
He was a charismatic preacher from the Galilee whose teachings challenged the regnant Jewish doctrines of his day and undermined rabbinical authority. He communed with the spirits of the living and the dead, performing miracles and restoring the lost souls of those who accepted his revolutionary teachings. An ascetic, messianic figure, he endured great, largely self-inflicted, suffering during his lifetime, for the sake of Redemption. To his despairing disciples he promised, at the hour of his death: "If you are deserving, I shall come back to you." And now, his dramatic story lovingly recreated from the primary sources of old is available for all to behold.
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The life, work and times of Yudel Rosenberg, the great Kabbalist, Talmudist, Halakhic Posek and most prolific Judaica forgerer of the 20th century: Self-Annointed Chief Rabbi of Montreal
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The first scholarly investigation of the first Munkatcher Rebbe's extreme and all-encompassing hostility to modern Jewish culture and politics.
Research Interests: Jewish Studies, Early Modern History, Ukrainian Studies, Hungarian Studies, Jewish Thought, and 12 moreKabbalah, Hasidism, Politics of Ukraine, Modern Hungarian Jewish History, Ukraine, Modern Jewish Thought, Orthodox Judaism, ultra-Orthodox, Hungarian Jews, Ukrainian Jewish Relations, Lubavitch Hasidism, and Belz Hasidism
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Research Interests: Jewish Studies, Jewish Thought, Jewish Philosophy, Medieval Jewish Philosophy, Modern Jewish Philosophy, and 11 moreChristian Kabbalah, Kabbalah, Hasidism, Lurianic Kabbalah, Demonologia, Medieval Demonology, Jewish Theology, Works of Devil, Kabbalah and science, Practical Kabbalah, and Angels and Demons
The Hasidic Rebbe, or "Grand Rabbi," is no ordinary Jewish spiritual leader. Unlike rabbis in other denominations, from Reform to the fervently Orthodox, the Rebbe in Hasidic communities is much more than a teacher, adjudicator of Jewish... more
The Hasidic Rebbe, or "Grand Rabbi," is no ordinary Jewish spiritual leader. Unlike rabbis in other denominations, from Reform to the fervently Orthodox, the Rebbe in Hasidic communities is much more than a teacher, adjudicator of Jewish law and community leader. He is nothing less than a conduit between his followers and the Heavens; a man believed by the faithful to be immaculately holy, endowed with a direct line to God Himself and thereby blessed with supernatural powers that include miracle-healing, divination and the magical granting of every imaginable human need, from bequeathing children to the clinically barren to endowing wealth to the chronically impecunious. A classic Hasidic adage assures that it is within the Rebbe's power to bestow believers with "offspring, long-life and sustenance."
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When John McCain was finally forced to reject publicly Reverend John Hagee's support, he explicitly condemned some of the Christian leader's most provocative views. Among them was Hagee's professed belief that the prophet Jeremiah (of... more
When John McCain was finally forced to reject publicly Reverend John Hagee's support, he explicitly condemned some of the Christian leader's most provocative views. Among them was Hagee's professed belief that the prophet Jeremiah (of ancient Israel, not Chicago) warned of Hitler's destruction of European Jewry, and that the Holocaust was a necessary prelude to the creation of Israel as well as a punishment to the Jews, for their deafness toward the Zionists' exhortations from the late 19th century on, to abandon Europe for the Holy Land. McCain may have been advised to distance himself from Hagee for fear of alienating conservative Jewish voters. Yet variations of these very same ideascharacterized by McCain as "crazy and unacceptable"have been bandied about and debated by some of the world's most influential Orthodox rabbis for decades, and are fervently held by myriad religious Jews to this day. A central tenet of the violently anti-Zionist theology of Satmar Rebbe Joel Teitelbaum was that the Holocaust was a punishment for the Zionists' secular perfidy and impudent impatience with the tarrying messiah. On the other hand, Teitelbaum's theological nemesis, super-Zionistic Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook, the spiritual father of the Gush Emunim settlers' movement, preached that the Holocaust, as the dark side of a grand apocalyptic Divine plan, was the horribly holy, but necessary, "cleansing" (his exact term) of the Jews from the impurities of the galut (exile), and thus the precondition for the ingathering of the exiles and the creation of the State of Israel. More recently, the former Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel, Ovadiah Yosef, pontificated on Israeli radio that the Holocaust was a punishment for the sins of the maskilim, the secularized European Jews in the modern period, andin explaining its million martyred childrenfor the transgressions of their non-Orthodox ancestors whose souls had been reincarnated to possess their otherwise innocent little bodies.
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Every aspect of the life and legacy of the great Hebrew poet Yehuda Halevi (1075-1141), ardent defender of his "despised faith" and the Jews' most celebrated pilgrim, is plagued by paradoxes, riddled with both historical ambiguities and... more
Every aspect of the life and legacy of the great Hebrew poet Yehuda Halevi (1075-1141), ardent defender of his "despised faith" and the Jews' most celebrated pilgrim, is plagued by paradoxes, riddled with both historical ambiguities and political arguments that rage even now. Offering more than a masterful biography, Hillel Halkin-prolific author, essayist and a skilled translator of Yiddish and Hebrew-includes many eloquent English renderings of Halevi's poems, no mean achievement as these were written in an Arab-influenced Hebrew style, meter and idiom that confounds even the most literate Israeli readers. (Halkin's rendering of the poet's achingly gorgeous love song "Why My Darling Have You Barred All News?" is alone worth the price of the work.) But Halkin's greatest contribution is his nimble navigation of the twists and turns of Halevi's turbulent life and the controversies that punctuate the many interpretations of his thought. The latter has been caricatured all too often as expressing a narrow religious essentialism, typically contrasted to Maimonides' more universalist and rationalist elucidation of Judaism-a simplistic dichotomy that Halkin successfully demolishes through forceful, fair analysis.
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The great Talmudic scholar and Holocaust survivor's meditations on faith and doubt, in both God and "his" revealed texts.
Research Interests: Biblical Studies, History Of The Bible/Biblical Canon, Holocaust Studies, Rabbinics, Rabbinic Literature, and 8 moreReligious Studies, Heresy and Orthodoxy, Faith and Reason, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Rabbinic Judaism, Holocaust Shoah, Rabbinical literature (The Mishnah, Babylonian and Palestinian Talmudim, aggadic midrashim), and Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
Research Interests: Eastern European and Russian Jewish History, Central European history, Czech & Slovak Studies, Czech Jewish Literature, Czech Literature/Czech Culture/Language, and 7 moreCentral and Eastern Europe, German-Jewish Studies, History of Czechoslovakia, Prague, Great Moravia, Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, and History of Jews in Czechoslovakia
Among its many gifts, Ben-Zion Gold's modest and moving chronicle of a Hasidic boy coming of age in pre-Holocaust Poland affords readers a bracing reprieve from the cynicism generated by a recent plague of phony, self-aggrandizing... more
Among its many gifts, Ben-Zion Gold's modest and moving chronicle of a Hasidic boy coming of age in pre-Holocaust Poland affords readers a bracing reprieve from the cynicism generated by a recent plague of phony, self-aggrandizing memoirs-from James Frey's hair-raising tall tale of addiction, "A Million Little Pieces," with its "Marathon Man"-inspired nonsense of undergoing dental surgery without anesthesia in a Nazi-style rehab center, to Binjamin Wilkomirski and Misha Defonseca's Holocaust hoaxes.
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In April 1655, the year before Amsterdam's Jewish community excommunicated him, Baruch Spinoza was the victim of a failed assassination. According to French encyclopedist Pierre Bayle, Spinoza was attacked "on leaving the theatre by a Jew... more
In April 1655, the year before Amsterdam's Jewish community excommunicated him, Baruch Spinoza was the victim of a failed assassination. According to French encyclopedist Pierre Bayle, Spinoza was attacked "on leaving the theatre by a Jew who attacked him with a knife. The wound was slight, but Spinoza believed that it was the assassin's intention to kill him." In all likelihood, Spinoza was in the company of his close friend and Latin mentor, Franciscus van den Enden, known to be a passionate lover of the theater. Most accounts of Spinoza's life append the story of this attack by noting that he wore the deliberately un-mended coat as a badge of courage until his dying day.
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On Marc Saperstein's rich history of rabbinical sermons delivered during wartime
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The practice of depicting Jews as drinkers of blood has been common for centuries.
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A review essay about three books dealing with the Charedim, or Ultra-Orthodox Jews
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There is an assumption in the title of this paper that begs the following ques tion: Was there in fact a signifIcant and sustained "Rambam Revival" in the modern period? The very notion of a modern Jewish Maimonidean renais... more
There is an assumption in the title of this paper that begs the following ques tion: Was there in fact a signifIcant and sustained "Rambam Revival" in the modern period? The very notion of a modern Jewish Maimonidean renais sance implies that there had been an extended historical period during which Maimonides was not of widespread interest and his works not studied in the Jewish world, a deficiency that was subsequently addressed and remedied by this alleged "Rambam revival." In evaluating the history of the reception of Maimonides from the period immediately following his death, through to the early modern period with which we are presently concerned, a fundamental distinction must first
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Moravia's Multiculturalism and Quebec's "Jewish Problem" are uncannily similar. What Quebec's Jews should learn from this history.
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A heady era of student activism permeated my undergraduate years at McGill University in the early 1970s. Jewish university students across North America were passionately involved on numerous political fronts, none evoking more ardor... more
A heady era of student activism permeated my undergraduate years at McGill University in the early 1970s. Jewish university students across North America were passionately involved on numerous political fronts, none evoking more ardor than the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry. At SSSJ rallies in front of the Montreal Consulate of the Soviet Union, we would defiantly chant our unofficial anthem, a single line from the vast Diwan (collected works) of Judah Halevi (1075-1141), the most prolific Hebrew poet of the medieval Islamic world. Centuries on, his zeal for the exiles of Israel still resonated powerfully with those championing the liberation of the 20th century's longest-suffering asirey tsiyon
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The academic world has become, as of late, almost grotesquely distended by piles of books and articles on the narrowest and most obscure of subjects, written in increasingly opaque scholarly jargon. A mere glance at the lengthy paper... more
The academic world has become, as of late, almost grotesquely distended by piles of books and articles on the narrowest and most obscure of subjects, written in increasingly opaque scholarly jargon. A mere glance at the lengthy paper titlesemploying dozens of terms not to be found in the Oxford English Dictionarypresented at just about any learned society conference, particularly in the humanities, is an experience almost as comical as it is exasperating.
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For the past two millennia, Jews have powerfully resistedoften with their very livesthe Christian notion that the messiah arrived, was betrayed by refusals to accept him and then perished physically, only in order to undergo apotheosis,... more
For the past two millennia, Jews have powerfully resistedoften with their very livesthe Christian notion that the messiah arrived, was betrayed by refusals to accept him and then perished physically, only in order to undergo apotheosis, or rebirth as part of the Godhead. In a religion that is otherwise relatively unconcerned with doctrinal heresy, the idea of Christ as messiah reborn and God incarnate defined idolatry for Judaism in the post-pagan world. Moreover, the Jewish rejection of the concept of a messiah who dies without having fulfilled the biblical prophecies of redemption but is reincarnated to save those who accept him into their hearts lies at the center of the historic Jewish-Christian theological dispute. The grand exception to the rabbinic principle that retains the Jewishness of non-observant members of the community (captured in the talmudic dictum, "An Israelite, though he has sinned, remains an Israelite") is a Jew who voluntarily accepted the belief in a false messiah.
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Odessa, now being bombed by the Russians, has long and tortured Jewish history history -- glorious but in the end terribly tragic. Here is an overview, from the finest history of that city.
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... Rationalism, romanticism, rabbis and rebbes: Inaugural lecture of Dr. Allan Nadler, Director of Research, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: Author: Nadler, Allan. PUBLISHER: YIVO (New York). SERIES... more
... Rationalism, romanticism, rabbis and rebbes: Inaugural lecture of Dr. Allan Nadler, Director of Research, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: Author: Nadler, Allan. PUBLISHER: YIVO (New York). SERIES TITLE: YEAR: 1992. PUB TYPE: Book ...
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Before there was Shtissel there was David Volach's Brilliant "Chofshat Kayitz" (English Title: My Father My Lord)
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Exploding the absurd, and dangerously messianic, myth that the Vilna Gaon's mystical teachings led to the founding of Zionism, by his disciples in the Rivlin Family.
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My translation of the brilliant, irreverent, and ribald satire on both the pretensions of the interwar Warsaw Yiddish Literary elite and the romantic conceit that Baruch Spinoza was "A Yid".
Research Interests: Yiddish Literature, Yiddish, Benedict de Spinoza, Baruch Spinoza, Spinoza, and 9 moreJewish Humor Studies, Yiddish Studies, Yiddish Culture and Language, Jewish Satire, Polish-Jewish Periodical Press, The Jewish Press, Interwar Yiddish Press, Jewish press in Warsaw., and The Jewish community of Warsaw
An essay, partly on YIVO's problematic past and present and partly reviewing the recent history of the Vilna Strashun Jewish Public Library and how it perished, lost only to be stolen.
Research Interests: Yiddish Literature, Holocaust Studies, Yiddish Studies, Yiddish Culture and Language, Holocaust Shoah, and 8 moreEastern European Jewish Studies, Vilna Ghetto, Jewish Vilna, Jewish libraries, Russian and Eastern European Jewish History, History and Kulture of Eastern European Jewry, HIstory and Kulture of Poland, and Jewish Library
An essay on Edward Said and Adam Sutcliffe's books, the latter a superb and erudite new work of scholarship, and the former more of the same, lazy anti-Zionist rhetoric.
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The first academic treatment of the Satmar Rebbe's radical and anti-Zionist theology. A scholarly analysis of R. Yoel Teitelbaum, zatsal's major works, especially "Va-Yoel Moshe" and "Al ha-Geula ve-al ha-Temurah.
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The yahrzeit of a Hasidic rebbe-far from being a day devoted to mourning the dead-is a bona fide yontef. It is marked by feasting, singing and dancing, testifying to the supreme confidence of Hasidim that their departed leader is still... more
The yahrzeit of a Hasidic rebbe-far from being a day devoted to mourning the dead-is a bona fide yontef. It is marked by feasting, singing and dancing, testifying to the supreme confidence of Hasidim that their departed leader is still actively interceding on their behalf in the heavens. Shlomo Enkin lEwiS Besht at Rest: Pilgrims pray at the tomb of the Baal Shem Tov in Medzhibozh, Ukraine in 2007.
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A brutal criticism of David Biale's absurd theories about Jewish secularism.
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Press, 424 pages, $27.95 Natan Meir's meticulous new history of Kiev Jewry in the modern period, is an assiduous work of conventional scholarship. Meir provides a thorough, lucid and ultimately heartrending account of the noble successes... more
Press, 424 pages, $27.95 Natan Meir's meticulous new history of Kiev Jewry in the modern period, is an assiduous work of conventional scholarship. Meir provides a thorough, lucid and ultimately heartrending account of the noble successes of Kiev's Jews in building a solid Jewish community, with exemplary religious and charitable institutions, that included one of Europe's most majestic synagogues and, as in Bialystok (which I review in a companion piece here), a host of medical centers that rivaled the finest in Moscow and St. Petersburg. At the same time Meir documents with great insight and empathy the relentless obstacles, frustrations and ultimately violent rejection by the Russian majority in the city, which "greeted" the Jews' noblest efforts to integrate into the city's larger civic society.
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A vast, heartbreaking and, to English readers, inaccessible Yiddish and Hebrew library-of some 1,000 volumes, studded with unique memoirs and rare photographs-known as yizker-bikher, or memorial books, is devoted to eternalizing the... more
A vast, heartbreaking and, to English readers, inaccessible Yiddish and Hebrew library-of some 1,000 volumes, studded with unique memoirs and rare photographs-known as yizker-bikher, or memorial books, is devoted to eternalizing the legacies of the myriad cities and towns of Jewish Eastern Europe destroyed by the Holocaust. These books were collaboratively produced, mostly in the late 1950s through the early '70s, by the survivors of those Jewish communities. But with the exception of a half-dozen or so, they
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Review of the remarkable diaries of one of the great Yiddish educators and intellectuals of the 20th Century
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The incredibly inspiring, and in the end unbearably crushing, experience of the great, symbolist Soviet Yiddish writer "Der Nister" after taking up the case for Soviet Jewish National Autonomy in the forsaken, far-eastern, region of... more
The incredibly inspiring, and in the end unbearably crushing, experience of the great, symbolist Soviet Yiddish writer "Der Nister" after taking up the case for Soviet Jewish National Autonomy in the forsaken, far-eastern, region of Birobidzhan.
Research Interests: Yiddish Literature, Stalin and Stalinism, Yiddish Studies, Soviet Yiddish, Jewish Nationalism, and 13 moreYiddish Culture and Language, Soviet Jewry, Jewish Folklore and Ethnography, Yiddish Folklore, Folk Medicine, Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav, History of Russian Jews, Jews of the Ukraine, Soviet Yiddish Writers, Der Nister, Dovid Bergelson, Stalin's Jews, Stalin and the Jews, Yeshivat Chachmei Lublin, and Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee
How I convince my then editor at the Forward to publish a review of a book not yet translated into English is a ,long story. Let's just say that the few examples of the rich material in this amazingly original (and quite damning) work of... more
How I convince my then editor at the Forward to publish a review of a book not yet translated into English is a ,long story. Let's just say that the few examples of the rich material in this amazingly original (and quite damning) work of serious scholarship, largely about Mystics Gone Mad, or Hilarious Hasidic History, she said, WHEN CAN YOU GET IT TO ME ?
These are amazing stories.
And yet, this is a work of formidable scholarship !
Unlike "Shivkhey ha-Besht" and that massive literature of "Rebbeshi Nisim ve-nifloes" collected by Berger in his 4 volume anthology, to say nothing of the tales of Buber and Wiesel, this strange stuff really happened.
These are amazing stories.
And yet, this is a work of formidable scholarship !
Unlike "Shivkhey ha-Besht" and that massive literature of "Rebbeshi Nisim ve-nifloes" collected by Berger in his 4 volume anthology, to say nothing of the tales of Buber and Wiesel, this strange stuff really happened.
Research Interests: Hasidism, Jews in Poland, Ukraine, Jewish heritage, Polish-Jewish / German-Jewish Relations, klezmer revival, Jewish heritage tourism, Holocaust commemoration, antisemitism, social identity, oral history, The Seer of Lublin, and 10 moreNaḥman of Bratslav, Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, Polish Hasidism, Chabad-Lubavitch, Lubavitch Hasidism, Jews in Russia and Ukraine, History of Bratslav Hasidism, Ukrainian Jewish History, Skverer Hasidism, and Jews in Ukraine
The hard, ugly truth about the a once great Jewish Community's destruction, and the legacy -- and current attitudes -- of Lithuania, that enable, and now largely denies that destruction. You will not find it in this book. sadly.
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Ah, how far a healthy ego can take a fine mind out of reality.....
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Critical assessment of Dovid Katz's monumental work of Lithuanian Jews and Jewish Culture
Research Interests: Eastern European and Russian Jewish History, Modern Jewish History, History of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Lithuanian Studies, Lithuania, and 10 moreJewish history and cultural studies, Modern Jewish Art and Visual Culture, East European Jewish History, Mitnagdim, Litvak Studies, Lithuanian Jews, Litvaks, The Gaon of Vilna, Lithuanian Jewish Culture, and Jewish Vilna
Bialik first, and then Chaim Grade"l the Yiddish Bialik and my teacher and friend. I mourn them every day. This was a rather emotional piece.
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Although his philosophical masterpiece, "Ethics," written in the notoriously exact and forbidding "geometrical mode," is one of the least dramatic works in the history of modern philosophy, and despite the dryness of both his personality... more
Although his philosophical masterpiece, "Ethics," written in the notoriously exact and forbidding "geometrical mode," is one of the least dramatic works in the history of modern philosophy, and despite the dryness of both his personality and his intensely private life, Baruch Spinoza has exercised the imagination of a long line of dramatists, especially Hebrew and Yiddish stage impressarios. The parched prose of his writing, the dry determinism of his thought and the solitude of his life are more than compensated for by the lure of his heretical ideas and especially by the salacious story of his excommunication from the Amsterdam Jewish community in 1656.
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It never ends, this distortion of Spinoza's real attitude to the Jews and Judaism. Ben Gurion, I can understand, but how does an Orthodox Chief Rabbi, with pretentions to being a "philosopher" allow his rhetoric to so distort Spinoza's... more
It never ends, this distortion of Spinoza's real attitude to the Jews and Judaism. Ben Gurion, I can understand, but how does an Orthodox Chief Rabbi, with pretentions to being a "philosopher" allow his rhetoric to so distort Spinoza's clear contempt for all things Jewish ? Arthur Hertzberg, a great rabbi and serious scholar got it right when he called the Theological Political Treatise an ANTI-SEMITIC work. As did Chaim Grade....But the Jewish Romance with Spinoza is irresistible to our "dramatic" Jewish leaders and refuses to die.
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Review of one of the most important Jewish books of this century...so far, at least !
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A critique of Jonathan Sack's duplicitous Jewish theology. Fundamentalism parading as universalism. The phoniness and superficiality of his "Modern Orthodoxy" were what rendered his term as Chief Rabbi of the UK so divisive and, for the... more
A critique of Jonathan Sack's duplicitous Jewish theology. Fundamentalism parading as universalism. The phoniness and superficiality of his "Modern Orthodoxy" were what rendered his term as Chief Rabbi of the UK so divisive and, for the British Orthodox United Synagogues, so truly disastrous.
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Upon the publication of his late life masterpiece, Beyond Reasonable Doubt, the fullest expression of his theology, a tribute to the greatest British Rabbi of the modern era
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The lineage and basic theology of the line of anti-Chabad Hasidic dynasties, beginning with R. Avraham of Kalisk through to the thriving contemporary Slonimer Hasidic text.
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YIVO Encyclopedia entry on one of the most unusual Hungarian Hasidic rabbis, who in the midst of the Holocaust, came to realize that his own "rebbes" were fatally, tragically wrong about Zionism. Author of a stunning and important work of... more
YIVO Encyclopedia entry on one of the most unusual Hungarian Hasidic rabbis, who in the midst of the Holocaust, came to realize that his own "rebbes" were fatally, tragically wrong about Zionism. Author of a stunning and important work of Holocaust theology, which unlike him survived.
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How close, but how very very far these two greatest of Jewish geniuses were, when it came to an identification with Judaism and the Jews. Contra my friend Shaul Magid's imagining of connections and influences where there are in fact none.
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My celebration of Spinoza on the happy occasion of his Cherem
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A justifiably tough assessment of an absolutely ridiculous book, by Jubu Master Roger Kamenetz, who cannot even read Tikun Klali !
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Elliot Horowitz, a magnificent scholar who left us too soon, also left us this remarkable, erudite and original book.
Research Interests: Jewish Thought, Modern Judaism, Medieval Jewish-Muslim Encounters, Judeo-arabic manuscripts regarding Islam, Polemics of Jewish Authors against Islam, Jewish Holidays, Purim, and 4 moreJewish-Gentile Integration in Early Judaism, Festival of Purim, Elliott Horowitz, and Jewish Atttitudes Towards Christians
A new, intriguing and unique book about Orthodox Judaism and 9/11.
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Hasidism without Romanticism.
A treasury of Hasidic sources, wisely chosen and translated by Rabbi Norman Lamm. A work that will greatly enhance the teaching of Chasidism to those unable to read the original Hebrew sources.
A treasury of Hasidic sources, wisely chosen and translated by Rabbi Norman Lamm. A work that will greatly enhance the teaching of Chasidism to those unable to read the original Hebrew sources.
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A disappointing book, although well edited by Rabbi Adam Mintz. The conclusions reflect terribly poorly on American Modern Orthodox Jews and their rabbis.
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My tribute to the great Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm, upon his retirement. Among the people who enter our lives, enrich our minds and inspire our hearts are at times those we barely, if at all, know personally. Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm, who has... more
My tribute to the great Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm, upon his retirement.
Among the people who enter our lives, enrich our minds and inspire our hearts are at times those we barely, if at all, know personally. Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm, who has just announced his retirement as chancellor of Yeshiva University after a remarkably distinguished career, has for decades played such a role in my life. His scholarship inspired me during my very first year of graduate school, when I read his path-breaking book on the thought of the Rabbi Hayyim of Volozhin, Torah Lishmah. Hayyim of Volozhin was the most important disciple of the Gaon of Vilna and his writings and, even more so, the great yeshiva he established in the Belorussian town of Volozhin shaped the faction within Orthodox Judaism known as the Mitnagdim, who opposed the Hasidic movement.
Among the people who enter our lives, enrich our minds and inspire our hearts are at times those we barely, if at all, know personally. Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm, who has just announced his retirement as chancellor of Yeshiva University after a remarkably distinguished career, has for decades played such a role in my life. His scholarship inspired me during my very first year of graduate school, when I read his path-breaking book on the thought of the Rabbi Hayyim of Volozhin, Torah Lishmah. Hayyim of Volozhin was the most important disciple of the Gaon of Vilna and his writings and, even more so, the great yeshiva he established in the Belorussian town of Volozhin shaped the faction within Orthodox Judaism known as the Mitnagdim, who opposed the Hasidic movement.
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Glen Dynner's fine study of a fascinating, and 'loaded', subject. Oxford University Press, 272 pp., $24.95 According to a famous Yiddish ditty the Gentile is, to his very core, an alcoholic. By contrast, in the tune's alternating refrain... more
Glen Dynner's fine study of a fascinating, and 'loaded', subject. Oxford University Press, 272 pp., $24.95 According to a famous Yiddish ditty the Gentile is, to his very core, an alcoholic. By contrast, in the tune's alternating refrain we "learn" that the Jew is, by definition, genetically sober, studious, and pious: Shiker iz der Goy (the Goy is drunk) Shikker iz er (a drunk is he) Trinken miz er (he must drink) Vayl er iz a goy (because he's a Goy) Nikhter iz der Yid (the Jew is sober) Nikhter iz er (sober is he) Lernen (in some versions, Davenen) miz er (he must learn, or pray) Vayl er iz a Yid (because he is a Jew) "Shikker iz der Goy" is one of the most popular and least charitable Jewish folk songs of all time. Its stanzas depict the respective hangouts of the Goy and the Yid, namely the tavern and the beit midrash. Its two alternating refrains, "explaining" these polar opposites by way of ethnic, even racial, determinism, reflect long-held and broadly shared biases about the sharply contrasting relationships to alcohol maintained by Gentiles and Jews. The myth of Jewish sobriety was employed by Jews to comfort, flatter, and elevate themselves above the debauched, drunken, and at times violently anti-Semitic Eastern European peasantry. But a far more sinister and predatory version of the fable of Jewish sobriety flourished for centuries among anti-Semites, particularly
Research Interests: Polish History, Eastern European and Russian Jewish History, Alcohol Studies, History of Alcohol and Drug Use, Anthropology of Alcohol, and 5 moreJewish heritage, Polish-Jewish / German-Jewish Relations, klezmer revival, Jewish heritage tourism, Holocaust commemoration, antisemitism, social identity, oral history, Alcoholism, Bootlegging, Jewish Bootleggers, and Jews and Booze
Truly one of the greatest Jewish minds of the 20th Century, sadly forgotten. Aside from the masterpiece, "The Second Scroll" and his great collection about Quebec, "The Rocking Chair" his thousands of brilliant essays, editorials and... more
Truly one of the greatest Jewish minds of the 20th Century, sadly forgotten. Aside from the masterpiece, "The Second Scroll" and his great collection about Quebec, "The Rocking Chair" his thousands of brilliant essays, editorials and literary reviews render Klein the most interesting, and least remembered, of Anglo-Jewish writers and intellectuals. My very small attempt to fight his erasure from our Jewish, Canadian and Quebecois memories.
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Best read with speakers/headset so one can listen to the carefully chosen links to musical gems. The highest from of what the kids today call "Jewish Mindfulness".
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No business worse than Shul business
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A remarkable biography of the enigmatic BESHT !
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A review essay about Marranos, and about the enigmativ Yirmiyahu Yovel
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Jacob Neusner, Jacob Chinitz and me on Israel's most dangerous thinker.
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I find Mendelssohn's philosophy an abject failure, on all counts. Noble, but hopelessly naïve. Shmuel Finer seems not to agree
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A positive, but not uncritical, assessment of Sarna's overly optimistic assessment of American Judaism
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A superb study by Shaul Stampfer
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My review of Idel's ridiculous book on Messianism, in honor of Jacob Neusner.
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To my knowledge, the only study of Soloveitchik that places him solidly within the Hasidic orbit of thinking, not the Misnagdic
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Major Entry on East European Judaism
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Thanks to Ruth Wisse's marvelous new translation, the great Yiddish writer Yankev (Jacob) Glatshteyn will be less forgotten.
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A fascinating historical connection between French Huguenots and Jews.
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A sordid matter, worth reflection.
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An appraisal of Elisheva Carlebach's remarkable and beautiful book on the Jewish Calendrial History.
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An appreciation of a great work of scholarship by Pawel Macieko
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A modest tribute to a giant of Yiddish Literature, and a true hero, and inspiration, Der Nister.
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My strange venture into the morality of neuroscience
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An assessment of the new generation of great cantors.
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My takedown of Resa Aslan's truly awful best seller.
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Tragically, much worse today than when I first wrote this piece. The Chief Rabbinate continues to disgrace itself and all of Israel. And its chauvinistic approach is totally anti-Zionist !
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On the amazing life, and work for social justice, of the great rabbi Joachim Prinz.
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25 Comments E-mail Print In this review of an adulatory biography of the Satmar Rebbe, first published February 17, 2011, Allan Nadler considers Judaism's most traditional-and most alienated-community.-The Editors __________ A prospect... more
25 Comments E-mail Print In this review of an adulatory biography of the Satmar Rebbe, first published February 17, 2011, Allan Nadler considers Judaism's most traditional-and most alienated-community.-The Editors __________ A prospect terrifying to secular Israelis and Zionists worldwide has been the rapid growth of the Jewish state's ultra-Orthodox (haredi) community. Given the stranglehold of haredi political parties on recent coalition governments, and the encroachments by non-Zionist haredi clerics upon Israel's chief rabbinate, once religiously moderate and firmly Zionist, the fear is not entirely irrational. Birthrates among haredim are more than quadruple the national Jewish average; the large majority do not serve in the army; the male unemployment rate is at an astounding 70 percent; and the ultra-Orthodox community subsists largely on a variety of government welfare programs and Jewish aid from abroad. A great historical irony lurks in this scenario of an emerging theocracy in the land of Israel. It could all have been avoided had the leading haredi figures, during the country's nascent years, heeded the strong admonitions of the most virulently outspoken anti-Zionist rabbi who ever lived. This was Joel Moshe Teitelbaum (1887-1979), the "Satmar" rebbe. Born into a hasidic dynasty, Teitelbaum served in and around the Hungarian (later Romanian) town of Satmar until World War II, when he was rescued from death in the Holocaust. After a brief postwar sojourn in Jerusalem, he settled for good in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, later establishing Kiryas Joel, a Satmar town named for him, in New York's Orange County. From the start, he would have absolutely no relations, political or financial, with the Jewish state, prayed daily for its demise, and instructed his adoring followers to do likewise. A massive new biography of the rebbe-privately published in Montreal, and the first of its kind in English-has now appeared. Composed by Rabbi Dovid Meisels, the son of one of Teitelbaum's closest
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On the unique history and culture of Montreal Jewry.
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Memoir of my friendship with the great Yiddish poet, Chaim Grade, and how he changed my life.
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Yechi, yes ? Actually, really ? Come on !
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Long before David Berger took on the messianic heresy of Chabad, there was a series of my articles.
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Evaluation of an important and erudite book on the history of "Birkat ha-Minim" aka "La-Malshinim".
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An appreciation of a great classic on Lithuanian Jewry
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My great teacher
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Great review, from the Great One !
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Sharon Flatto's totally entertaining, just as it is nasty and ad hominem and desperate, attempt to justify herself.
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Spinoza not quite at his BESHT !
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Demolition of one of the worst academic books I have ever read.
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Meshigoyim ! Af di gantse kep. Therefore so interesting.
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Classic book on the dilemma facing the trapped Jews of Poland on the eve of the Holocaust.
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Review of the only scholarly treatment of Moravian Jewry in the Age of Modernity. Superb work.
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Jon Levenson is right. The term Abrahamic Religions is less than meaningless, and more: it is dangerously deceitful. Brilliant book.
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Shayne Yidn !
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, 144 pages, $21.95. \Mpn John Mc0ain was finally forced to reject publicly Reverend John l-lagee's support, he explicitly cordemned some of the Clristian leader's most provocative views. Among them was F.lagee's professed belief that tle... more
, 144 pages, $21.95. \Mpn John Mc0ain was finally forced to reject publicly Reverend John l-lagee's support, he explicitly cordemned some of the Clristian leader's most provocative views. Among them was F.lagee's professed belief that tle prophet Jererniah (of ancient lsrael, rnt Chicago) warred of Hitler's destrr.rction of Ewopean Jsrry, arrd tl'et the Holocaust was a recessary prehde to the creation of lsraelas well as a punishment to the Jews, for tleir deafress toward the Zionists' exlprtations from the late 19th century on, to abardon Europe for the Holy Land. McCain may lnve been advised to distarce himself from l'bgee for fear of alienatirg conservative Jewish voters, Yet variations of these very same ideas-characterized by Mc0ain as "cra4y arrd unacceptable"-have been bandied about ard debated by some of tl'e world's most infltaential Orthodox rabbis for decades, and are fervently held by myriad religious Jews to this day. A central tenet of the violerrtly anti-Zionist ttreology of Satmar Rebbe JoelTeitelbaun was tMt the Fblocar.rst was a pnishrnent for the Zionists'secular perfidy ard impr.rdent impatierce with tle tanyirg messiah. On ttae other hand, Teitelbaum's theological nemesis, sçer-Zionistic Rabbi ZviYehtda Kook, the spiritrnlfather of the Gush Emunim settlers' movement, preached that the Holocaust, as tlae dark side of a grand apocalyptic DMre plan, was the horribly holy, bü recessary, "cleansing" (his exact term) of the Jews from the imprrities of tl're gah.rt (exile), and ttn-s the precorrdition for the irgatherirg of tl're exiles ard the creation of the State of lsrael. More recently, the former Sephardic chief rabbi of lsrael, Owdiah Yosef, pontificated on lsraeli radio that the l-blocaust was a punislrnent for the sins of the maskilim, the secularized European Jews in the modern period, and-in explaining its million martyred children-for the transgressiors of their mn-Ortl'rodox ancestors whose souls had been reirrarnated to possess their othenrvise irurocent little bodies. ii is io sirch iireologiârg-shai'ed by an assoÉmeiii of evargelical Ci-,ristiai,s "unitêd for lsrael," Orthodox Je.,t,ish Zionists and l-hsidic anti-Zionists-tfnt the first section ("Prayer During the Holocaust") of Rabbi David Weiss Halivni's powerfulcollection of essays, "Breaking the Tablets: Jewish Theobgy after the Shoah," is largely directed. This essay was originally commissioned by lsrael's Yad Vashem Holocawt lnstitrle as an introdrrction for the publication of the personalmanuscript transcribed from memory by the Satmar l:erzrrn,l.laftali Stern, to lead services in the Nazi labor camp at Wolfsberg for Rosh l-lashana 57OS (1944), at which Flalirnriwas present. ln it, he reminisces about the trarsformatile effects of tfut experienee, br.rt also offers a compellirg, scholarly repudiation of Yosef's sr-ggestion that the mass murder of Jewish children somehow reflected the will of the God of lsrael. Despite its su{rtitle, this rclurne offers both less ard mr,tch more than a "Holocarst theology." lt presents instead a grand, if concise, summation of the masterful contribüions, over more than a half-centuny, to both biblicaland rabbinical text studies, ard Jewish religious tholglrt, of one of today's greatest talmr.rdic scholars. The book consists of four essays by Fhliwri, all prefaced by commentaries by Peter Ochs, tlat sharply syrtl'esize his life's work, from the earÿ, bold critical textual str.rdies of the Talmud, in his multiroh.rne masterpiece, " Mekorot u-Masarot'("Sources and Traditions," 1968-2007), to his movirg 1996 memoir, "Tl'p Book ard the Sword: A Life of Learning in the Shadow of Destrrction"' hüp:/lwww.torward.corUarbclesl I J):Ji \ t\) 4l"lîl)fios 1.o? pl\l
All you really need to know about the smartest Jews.....EVER !
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All you need to know about the finest Jews....ever !
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On the sanctification of East European foods served at the Chasidic Rebbe's Tish, or Shabbes table. Stranger than fiction, but this is not a Haskalah satire. The sources are all authentic Hasidic sources, including those explaining how... more
On the sanctification of East European foods served at the Chasidic Rebbe's Tish, or Shabbes table. Stranger than fiction, but this is not a Haskalah satire. The sources are all authentic Hasidic sources, including those explaining how the Tsadik (Rebbe) = Yesod (the Divine phallus, as represented among the 10 Kabbalistic Sefirot = KUGEL, so do not eat it with your hands !!! Gives entirely new meaning to Pey-Tsadik…..,
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On the remarkable affinity and friendship between the greatest Lithuanian Talmudic scholar and the greatest Lithuanian Yiddish writer, of their generation.
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Tribute to a great teacher.