Download or read book The Debate Over Jewish Achievement written by Steven L. Pease and published by . This book was released on 2014-11-15 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Properly, the Jew ought hardly to be heard of, but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to the world's list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning are also away out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers ..." -- Mark Twain, "Concerning The Jews" Harpers, 1899 This may well be the best book ever written about why Jews have been the world's most disproportionate high achievers of the last two centuries. What Steven L. Pease did in 2009 with his book The Golden Age of Jewish Achievement - an exhaustive 624-page compendium - has been more than matched by The Debate Over Jewish Achievement, a thoughtful, balanced and ultimately astounding exploration of the "why" behind the "what" of Jewish achievement. Pease traces more than 100 years of major theories put forth to explain the phenomenon, using the technique of a Chronology to expose the strengths and flaws of each theory over time. He puts nature (genetics) and nurture (Jewish culture) under an unrelenting microscope, drawing on recent research into the impacts of culture as well as the breakthroughs in genetics following completion of the Human Genome Project. Some of that research has established, beyond any reasonable doubt, the genetic heritage and linkages between most of the world's Jews dating back thousands of years: the Ashkenazim, Sephardim, Mizrahim and others. Pease also explores how new ways of thinking, such as epigenetics, are moving beyond conventional genetics to present new insights into how nature and nurture may interact to shape what we become. While Pease invites readers to keep an open mind during the "time travel" of his Chronology, he himself comes down firmly on the side of culture as the most important driving influence behind Jewish achievement. And he is forthright about what he sees as the critical lessons to be gleaned from Jewish achievement, as they relate to us all.

Download or read book The Debate Over Jewish Achievement written by Steven Pease and published by . This book was released on 2014-10-03 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Debate Over JewishAchievement, a thoughtful, balanced and ultimately astounding exploration of the "why" behind the "what" of Jewish achievement. Pease traces more than 100 years of major theories put forth to explain the phenomenon, using the technique of a Chronology to expose the strengths and flaws of each theory over time. He puts nature (genetics) and nurture (Jewish culture) under an unrelenting microscope, drawing on recent research into the impacts of culture as well as the breakthroughs in genetics following completion of the Human Genome Project. Some of that research has established, beyond any reasonable doubt, the genetic heritage and linkages between most of the world's Jews dating back thousands of years: the Ashkenazim, Sephardim, Mizrahim and others. Pease also explores how new ways of thinking, such as epigenetics, are moving beyond conventional genetics to present new insights into how nature and nurture may interact to shape what we become.

Download or read book The Chosen Few written by Maristella Botticini and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein show that, contrary to previous explanations, this transformation was driven not by anti-Jewish persecution and legal restrictions, but rather by changes within Judaism itself after 70 CE--most importantly, the rise of a new norm that required every Jewish male to read and study the Torah and to send his sons to school. Over the next six centuries, those Jews who found the norms of Judaism too costly to obey converted to other religions, making world Jewry shrink. Later, when urbanization and commercial expansion in the newly established Muslim Caliphates increased the demand for occupations in which literacy was an advantage, the Jews found themselves literate in a world of almost universal illiteracy. From then forward, almost all Jews entered crafts and trade, and many of them began moving in search of business opportunities, creating a worldwide Diaspora in the process.

Download or read book Gersonides written by Seymour Feldman and published by . This book was released on 2015-09-03 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gersonides (1288-1344), known also as Ralbag, was a philosopher of the first rank as well as an astronomer and biblical exegete, yet this is the first English-language study of the significance of his work for Jewish thought. Seymour Feldman, the acclaimed translator of Gersonides' most important work, The Wars of the Lord - a complete philosophical system and astronomical encyclopedia - has written a comprehensive picture of Gersonides' philosophy that is both descriptive and evaluative. Unusually for a Jewish scholar, Gersonides had contacts with several Christian notables and scholars. It is known that these related to mathematical and astronomical matters; the extent to which these contacts also influenced his philosophical thought is a matter of some controversy. Unquestionably, however, he wrote a veritable library of philosophical, scientific, and exegetical works that testify not only to the range of his intellectual concerns but also to his attempt to forge a philosophical-scientific synthesis between these secular sciences and Judaism. Unlike many modern scientists or philosophers, who either scorn religion or compartmentalize it, he did not see any fundamental discrepancy between the pursuit of truth via reason and its attainment through divine revelation: there is only one truth, with which both reason and revelation must agree. As a philosopher-scientist and biblical exegete Gersonides sought to make this agreement robustly evident. While philosophical and scientific ideas have progressed since Gersonides' time, his work is still relevant today because his attempt to make prophecy and miracles understandable in terms of some commonly held philosophical or scientific theory is paradigmatic of a religion that is not afraid of reason. His general principle that reason should function as a 'control' of what we believe has interesting and important implications for the modern reader. Indeed, some of his basic arguments are favoured by many contemporary thinkers who attempt to incorporate modern science into their religious belief system. He was not afraid to make religious beliefs philosophically and scientifically credible; one could say that he pursued an 'ethics of belief' in that he held that there are constraints to what is believable, especially in religion. In this respect he was a precursor of Kant and Hermann Cohen: Judaism is or should be a religion of reason.

Download or read book Jews Judaism and Success written by Robert Eisen and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2023-06-23 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Jews, Judaism, and Success, Robert Eisen attempts to solve a long-standing mystery that has fascinated many: How did Jews become such a remarkably successful minority in the modern Western world? Eisen argues that Jews achieved such success because they were unusually well-prepared for it by their religion – in particular, Rabbinic Judaism, or the Judaism of the rabbis. Rooted in the Talmud, this form of Judaism instilled in Jews key values that paved the way for success in modern Western society: autonomy, freedom of thought, worldliness, and education. The book carefully analyses the evolution of these four values over the past two thousand years in order to demonstrate that they had a longer and richer history in Jewish culture than in Western culture. The book thus disputes the common assumption that Rabbinic Judaism was always an obstacle to Jews becoming modernized. It demonstrates that while modern Jews rejected aspects of Rabbinic Judaism, they also retained some of its values, and these values in particular led to Jewish success. Written for a broad range of readers, Jews, Judaism, and Success provides unique insights on the meaning of success and how it is achieved in the modern world.

Download or read book The Jewish Phenomenon written by Steve Silbiger and published by Taylor Trade Publications. This book was released on 2000-05-25 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With truly startling statistics and a wealth of anecdotes, Silbiger reveals the cultural principles that form the bedrock of Jewish success in America.

Download or read book The Jewish Political Tradition written by Michael Walzer and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2006-05-15 with total page 664 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book launches a landmark four-volume collaborative work exploring the political thought of the Jewish people from biblical times to the present. The texts and commentaries in Volume I address the basic question of who ought to rule the community."--Descripción del editor.

Download or read book Maimonides written by Moshe Halbertal and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2013-11-24 with total page 399 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive and accessible account of the life and thought of Judaism's most celebrated philosopher Maimonides was the greatest Jewish philosopher and legal scholar of the medieval period, a towering figure who has had a profound and lasting influence on Jewish law, philosophy, and religious consciousness. This book provides a comprehensive and accessible introduction to his life and work, revealing how his philosophical sensibility and outlook informed his interpretation of Jewish tradition. Moshe Halbertal vividly describes Maimonides's childhood in Muslim Spain, his family's flight to North Africa to escape persecution, and their eventual resettling in Egypt. He draws on Maimonides's letters and the testimonies of his contemporaries, both Muslims and Jews, to offer new insights into his personality and the circumstances that shaped his thinking. Halbertal then turns to Maimonides's legal and philosophical work, analyzing his three great books—Commentary on the Mishnah, the Mishneh Torah, and the Guide of the Perplexed. He discusses Maimonides's battle against all attempts to personify God, his conviction that God's presence in the world is mediated through the natural order rather than through miracles, and his locating of philosophy and science at the summit of the religious life of Torah. Halbertal examines Maimonides's philosophical positions on fundamental questions such as the nature and limits of religious language, creation and nature, prophecy, providence, the problem of evil, and the meaning of the commandments. A stunning achievement, Maimonides offers an unparalleled look at the life and thought of this important Jewish philosopher, scholar, and theologian.

Download or read book The Reparations Controversy written by Yaakov Sharett and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2011-08-29 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book about the reparations issue ("Wiedergutmachung" in German; "shilumim" in Hebrew) brings together selected protocols of all debates held in the Knesset, in its Foreign Affairs and Security Committee, in the Government and in the high councils of the ruling party Mapai, regarding conducting negotiations with the West German Government. This is the first book documenting confidential protocols lately opened to the public. With the elaborate introduction by Yehiam Weitz, this book will serve as a basic textbook for an important chapter not only in Israeli and German history, but also in post-war history in general.

Download or read book The Israel Lobby and U S Foreign Policy written by John J. Mearsheimer and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2007-09-04 with total page 651 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in 2007, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, by John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Stephen M. Walt of Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, provoked both howls of outrage and cheers of gratitude for challenging what had been a taboo issue in America: the impact of the Israel lobby on U.S. foreign policy. A work of major importance, it remains as relevant today as it was in the immediate aftermath of the Israel-Lebanon war of 2006. Mearsheimer and Walt describe in clear and bold terms the remarkable level of material and diplomatic support that the United States provides to Israel and argues that this support cannot be fully explained on either strategic or moral grounds. This exceptional relationship is due largely to the political influence of a loose coalition of individuals and organizations that actively work to shape U.S. foreign policy in a pro-Israel direction. They provocatively contend that the lobby has a far-reaching impact on America's posture throughout the Middle East―in Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, and toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict―and the policies it has encouraged are in neither America's national interest nor Israel's long-term interest. The lobby's influence also affects America's relationship with important allies and increases dangers that all states face from global jihadist terror. The publication of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy led to a sea change in how the U.S-Israel relationship was discussed, and continues to be one of the most talked-about books in foreign policy.

Download or read book Jewish Emancipation written by David Sorkin and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2019-09-10 with total page 526 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sorkin seeks to reorient Jewish history by offering the first comprehensive account in any language of the process by which Jews became citizens with civil and political rights in the modern world.

Download or read book The Vanishing American Jew written by Alan M. Dershowitz and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 1998-09-08 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the meaning of Jewishness in light of the increasing assimilation of America's Jews and suggests ways to preserve Jewish identity.

Download or read book Nothing Sacred written by Douglas Rushkoff and published by Crown. This book was released on 2003-04-08 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Acclaimed writer and thinker Douglas Rushkoff, author of Ecstasy Club and Coercion, has written perhaps the most important—and controversial—book on Judaism in a generation. As the religion stands on the brink of becoming irrelevant to the very people who look to it for answers, Nothing Sacred takes aim at its problems and offers startling and clearheaded solutions based on Judaism’s core values and teachings. Disaffected by their synagogues’ emphasis on self-preservation and obsession with intermarriage, most Jews looking for an intelligent inquiry into the nature of spirituality have turned elsewhere, or nowhere. Meanwhile, faced with the chaos of modern life, returnees run back to Judaism with a blind and desperate faith and are quickly absorbed by outreach organizations that—in return for money—offer compelling evidence that God exists, that the Jews are, indeed, the Lord’s “chosen people,” and that those who adhere to this righteous path will never have to ask themselves another difficult question again. Ironically, the texts and practices making up Judaism were designed to avoid just such a scenario. Jewish tradition stresses transparency, open-ended inquiry, assimilation of the foreign, and a commitment to conscious living. Judaism invites inquiry and change. It is an “open source” tradition—one born out of revolution, committed to evolution, and willing to undergo renaissance at a moment’s notice. But, unfortunately, some of the very institutions created to protect the religion and its people are now suffocating them. If the Jewish tradition is actually one of participation in the greater culture, a willingness to wrestle with sacred beliefs, and a refusal to submit blindly to icons that just don’t make sense to us, then the “lapsed” Jews may truly be our most promising members. Why won’t they engage with the synagogue, and how can they be made to feel more welcome? Nothing Sacred is a bold and brilliant book, attempting to do nothing less than tear down our often false preconceptions about Judaism and build in their place a religion made relevant for the future. From the Hardcover edition.

Download or read book The Origins of Nazi Genocide written by Henry Friedlander and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2000-11-09 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tracing the rise of racist and eugenic ideologies, Henry Friedlander explores in chilling detail how the Nazi program of secretly exterminating the handicapped and disabled evolved into the systematic destruction of Jews and Gypsies. He describes how the so-called euthanasia of the handicapped provided a practical model for the later mass murder, thereby initiating the Holocaust. The Nazi regime pursued the extermination of Jews, Gypsies, and the handicapped based on a belief in the biological, and thus absolute, inferiority of those groups. To document the connection between the assault on the handicapped and the Final Solution, Friedlander shows how the legal restrictions and exclusionary policies of the 1930s, including mass sterilization, led to mass murder during the war. He also makes clear that the killing centers where the handicapped were gassed and cremated served as the models for the extermination camps. Based on extensive archival research, the book also analyzes the involvement of the German bureaucracy and judiciary, the participation of physicians and scientists, and the nature of popular opposition.

Download or read book Hebron Jews written by Jerold S. Auerbach and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2009-07-16 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this first comprehensive history in English of the Jews of Hebron, Jerold S. Auerbach explores one of the oldest and most vilified Jewish communities in the world. Spanning three thousand years, from the biblical narrative of Abraham's purchase of a burial cave for Sarah to the violent present, it offers a controversial analysis of a community located at the crossroads of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle over national boundaries and the internal Israeli struggle over the meaning of Jewish statehood. Hebron Jews sharply challenges conventional Zionist historiography and current media understanding by presenting a community of memory deeply embedded in Zionist history and Jewish tradition. Auerbach shows how the blending of religion and nationalism_Orthodoxy and Zionism_embodied in Hebron Jews is at the core of the struggle within Israel to define the meaning of a Jewish state.

Download or read book The Story of Sacrifice written by Liane M. Feldman and published by Mohr Siebeck. This book was released on 2020-09-21 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The sacrificial instructions and purity laws in Leviticus have often been seen as later or secondary additions to an originally sparse Priestly narrative. In this volume, Liane M. Feldman argues that the ritual and narrative elements of the Pentateuchal Priestly source are mutually dependent, and that the internal logic and structure of the Priestly narrative makes sense only when they are read together. Bringing together insights from the fields of ritual theory and narratology, the author argues that the ritual materials in Leviticus should be understood and analyzed as literature. At the core of her study is the assertion that these sacrificial instructions and purity laws form the backbone of the Priestly story world, and that when these materials are read within their broader narrative context, the Priestly narrative is first and foremost a story about the origins and purpose of sacrifice.

Download or read book Haskalah written by Olga Litvak and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2012-12-13 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Commonly translated as the “Jewish Enlightenment,” the Haskalah propelled Jews into modern life. Olga Litvak argues that the idea of a Jewish modernity, championed by adherents of this movement, did not originate in Western Europe’s age of reason. Litvak contends that the Haskalah spearheaded a Jewish religious revival, better understood against the background of Eastern European Romanticism. Based on imaginative and historically grounded readings of primary sources, Litvak presents a compelling case for rethinking the relationship between the Haskalah and the experience of political and social emancipation. Most importantly, she challenges the prevailing view that the Haskalah provided the philosophical mainspring for Jewish liberalism. In Litvak’s ambitious interpretation, nineteenth-century Eastern European intellectuals emerge as the authors of a Jewish Romantic revolution. Fueled by contradictory longings both for community and for personal freedom, the poets and scholars associated with the Haskalah questioned the moral costs of civic equality and the achievement of middle-class status. In the nineteenth century, their conservative approach to culture as the cure for the spiritual ills of the modern individual provided a powerful argument for the development of Jewish nationalism. Today, their ideas are equally resonant in contemporary debates about the ramifications of secularization for the future of Judaism.