Kategoria BISAC: Religion >> Judaism - History

In 1789, when George Washington was elected the first president of the United States, laymen from all six Jewish congregations in the new nation sent him congratulatory letters. He replied to all six. Thus, after more than a century of Jewish life in colonial America the small communities of Jews present at the birth of the nation proudly announced their religious institutions to the country and were recognized by its new leader. By this time, the synagogue had become the most significant institution of American Jewish life, a dominance that was...

Jacob S. Dorman offers new insights into the rise of Black Israelite religions in America, faiths ranging from Judaism to Islam to Rastafarianism all of which believe that the ancient Hebrew Israelites were Black and that contemporary African Americans are their descendants. Dorman traces the influence of Israelite...

Over the past several decades, the field of Jewish studies has expanded to encompass an unprecedented range of research topics, historical periods, geographic regions, and analytical approaches. Yet there have been few systematic efforts to trace these developments, to consider their implications, and to generate new concepts appropriate to a more inclusive view of Jewish culture and society. Jewish Studies at the Crossroads of Anthropology and History brings together scholars in anthropology, history, religious studies, comparative literature, and other fields to chart new...

In "Demonic Desires," Ishay Rosen-Zvi examines the concept of "yetzer hara," or evil inclination, and its evolution in biblical and rabbinic literature. Contrary to existing scholarship, which reads the term under the rubric of destructive sexual desire, Rosen-Zvi contends that in late antiquity the "yetzer" represents a general tendency toward evil. Rather than the lower bodily part of a human, the rabbinic "yetzer" is a wicked, sophisticated inciter, attempting to snare humans to sin. The rabbinic "yetzer" should therefore not be read in the tradition of the Hellenistic quest for control...

The 1960s San Francisco spiritual revolution - a view from inside.

Memoir about a spiritual teacher and a student in 1960s San Francisco, a colorful cast - including Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert, Allen Ginsburg, Murshid Samuel Lewis ("Sufi Sam"), Swami Satchidananda, Ajari Warwick, Rabbi Zalman Shalomi Schachter, and many more - and lives that were changed forever.

Aryae Coopersmith, a 22-year old college student in 1960s San Francisco, meets the charismatic rabbi and folk singer Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach and decides to start a...

The fifteenth century was one of the most tragic and fateful centuries in the history of the Jewish people. It was the century which not only sealed the fate of Sephardic Jewry in the Iberian Peninsula, but also marked the turning point in the historical development of Ashkenazic Jewry from its centre in Germany to Poland and eastern Europe.

Rabbi Dr. Bernard Rosensweig utilizes the life and times and works of Rabbi Jacob Weil and his contemporaries in order to give us an intimate picture of Ashkenazic Jewry in this age of transition. Through these original sources, we are exposed...