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1992 Menorah Review (No. 25, Spring, 1992)

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This Full Issue is brought to you for free and open access by the VCU University Archives at VCU Scholars Compass. It has been accepted for inclusion in Menorah Review by an authorized administrator of VCU Scholars Compass. For more information, please contact [email protected]. • SPRING 1992 NUMBER 25 • CENTER FOR JUDAIC STUDIES OF VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY

For the Enrichment of Jewish Thought

set the tone of new scholarship and traineda generation of graduate students, who, in turn,carr ied the orientation of their mentors deep into the community of educated Americans. That orientation was both anti­ autocraticand anti-Bolshevist It held that a great reservoir of humane and democratic sentiment amongst the Russian people had been stifled first by the arrogance of the reactionary right and then by the doctrinal rigidity of the revolutionary left. The clear message to American students was that in matters of social/politicaldevelopment there was not much about Russia to love. Archibald Coolidge had helped Michael Karpovich (1888-1959) onto the college lecture circuit in 1918 when the III. Between 1920 and the reestablishment native of Russian Georgia found himself out ofRussian-American treatyrelations in 1933, of a job as confidential secretary to Boris A. intellectuals among the Russian emigres Bakhmeteff, the Provisional Government's began to exert considerable influence on ambassador to the United States. Then in lrn American ideas aboutRussia. The proportion 1927 Coolidge supported Karpovich for a of scholars among emigres was unusually faculty position at Harvard and thereby gave high, and historians formed a notable group Harvard its first great strength in Russian among them. Perhaps those who established studies. Karpovich directed more than 30 expatriate in Europe and in 1927 joined the Russian history as a field of professional Ph.D. dissertations in Russian history. faculty at Yale. Perhaps V ernadsky's greatest study were most important; it was they, Mostly through his students,who included­ influence on America was through the written through their academic alliances, teaching to name only a few-Richard Pipes,Donald word, particularly his textbook,A Historyof and writing, who created new and lasting Treadgold, George Fischer,Robert Daniels, Russia. First published in 1929,fiveeditions images of Russia in the minds of America's Hans Rogger and Robert Paul Browder, he later and 17 years after his death, it is still in leadership caste. To be sure, most of the influenced what educated Americans knew print. Vemadsky's monographic work, a scholars chose affiliations with universities and thought about Russia. series beginning with Ancient Russia, set a in Europe. Still, emigre historians played an George Vemadsky (1887-1973) left standard for scholarship in the West. Like important part in establishing Russian studies Russia in 1920, spent seven years as an Karpovich,Vernadsky told modernRussian in the United States; indeed, they came to history mostly as a story of wrong paths dominate the field. taken, a tale in which the good guys seldom American universities had been slow < ·U: :c;u won. Michael Florinsky (1895-1981), who than the United States, among the essential left Russia after the Bolshevik revolution, 7i In components of a higher education. The role spentthe immediate postwaryears in London. of founding Russian studies fell to Archibald �m In 1925, Florinsky came to the United States Cary Coolidge, a Harvard-trained, widely­ to work with Yale University Press and traveled, multilingual Boston Brahmin,just James T. Shotwell, the Carnegie after the turn of the century. But before Endowment's general editor. The self­ World War I very few native scholars showed proclaimed "outspoken critic of the Soviet interest. system" stayed on to finish his Ph.D. at During the 1920s curriculum reform Columbia, to teach there and to write, and the intellectual curiosity of a rapidly eventually, Russia: A History and an growing number of university students Interpretation, a two-volume workhailed as created jobs for Russian emigres. Three "the first comprehensive and yet concise Russian-Americans in particular- Michael • r-a rn tiavt, ... history ofRussia which is not a textbook." It Karpovich at Harvard, Michael Florinsky of • Letter to c, had gone through 10 editions when he died Columbia and George Vemadsky at Yale- in 1981. His study of the prospects for 2 Menorah Review, Spring 1992

European integration and his bookon social and Wallace before him, he apparently saw inconsistent with the evolutionary course of and economic policies in totalitarian states no conflictbetween scholarship and his own which Russia was set. Like the emigre are still in print. patriotic duty. Liberalizing Czarist Russia historians in the United States, they Of the trickle-down effect of seemed in Britishinterests; andPares fostered concentrated on the sins of the Communists Florinsky's scholarship there seems little high level visits between members of the and, for the earlier period, on "what went doubt. In 1985 a commission of Soviet Duma and British reformers to promote it wrong" with the movement toward scholarsinvestigating thecoverageofRussia The Bolshevik Revolution did not; and, constitutional monarchy. in American junior high and high school according to his own account,Pares gave "a This is not to say that no emigre textbooks was insulted by the failure of series of public addresses in Russian in all contributed significantlyto British thinking several authors even to get the name right of the chief towns in Siberia" justifying allied about Russia Paul Vinogradoff, Corpus the founder of the Soviet state. But those military intervention to put it down. Christi chair of jurisprudence at Oxford from authors, synthesizers all, obviously had Pares becamedirector of the Schoolof 1903 until his death in 1925, was an early drawn from Michael Florinsky, who, for Slavonic and East European Studies at the migrant who spoke out in times of Russian many years, explained that Vladimir Ilitch University of London in 1922 and within a crisis. Ulianov'spseudonym was"Nicholas"Lenin. decade made its work "a centralactivity" of In this age of flourishing centers and Otherexarniners ofRussian-Sovietcoverage the university. Equally important,he guided institutes for Russian studies and of in American-authored textbooks for school the development of the Slavonic Review information overload, it is easy to forget children agreed that "a negative emotional (also established in 1922) as a forum and how little was known and how few people tone is definitely evident either explicitly or outlet of scholarship. wereinvolved 60years ago. Even by the end implicitly in much of the content" of World War II, practitioners complained, These and selected other Russian "little scholarly and research material on scholars focusedattention on some common By the end of the 1930s the emigre Russia was available" in the United States. themes, none more importantthan the nature historians in Europe had begun to During the 1920s and 1930s, according to of the Russian state. They seemed to take another study, the number of American­ their theme from Paul Miliukov, an eminent publish the Russian studies that born scholars, equipped for research and prewar scholar and short-term Provisional would influence Englishreaders teaching in Russian studies, amounted to "not more than a dozen or so." This setting, Minister of Foreign Affairs. The general for the rest of the 20th century. features of Russia in the long run, they of itself,gave the dozen or so seminal books thought it important to convey, were They enshrined the basic premise published by Florinsky, Karpovich and European but different because of ... that the Bolshevik Revolution Vernadsky before 1940 greater impact on backwardness,the slow pace of development what Americans thought. The influence of and unique problems as well as contacts in was inconsistent with the evolu­ theseanti-autocratic,anti-Bolshevikemigres, expansion and defense. tionary course of which Russia it seems safe to assume, was a major reason In GreatBritain, public understanding educated readers ofEnglish found it difficult and attitudes toward Russian/Soviet life was set. to break with the ideas that the democratic derived much more from native scholars and spirit among Russians was no different than writers. Since the seventeenth century the Pares' A Historyof Russia, 1926; The that among Kansans or Cornishmen, that interests of the Russian and British empires Fall of the Russian Monarchy, 1939; and Bolshevism was a jarring anomaly in the alternatively clashed and coincided. Issues Russia, 1940, reflected the author's evolution of the Russian state, and that, of territorial expansion, trading rights and preference for a strengthened Duma and somehow, Russians would eliminate military might in the quarrels of Eurasia reliance on the liberal gentry and collectivism and one-party government. clearly figured large in the world view of intelligentsia. His tone and his descriptives Whatever the differences between educated Britons and created a need for changeddramatically in his accounts of Lenin early-day scholars ofRussia/U.S.S.R. in the interpreters of the Russian past. Too, the and theearly Soviet era. He wrote of" crying" United States and Great Britain over the tradition of higher education was better and "conspicuous" failures, that which evolution of nation states, the efficacy of developed in Great Britain and, perhaps, "inflicted gravest harm," "terrorism which constitutional monarchy or republican made it easier for professionals to devote never ceased" and a people "sick of politics." government or the wisdom of various their lives to subjects that fell between the There could be no doubt of his disgust for policies, they generally agreed that the classics and the resolution of contemporary Stalin's heavy-handed efforts at social Bolsheviks (Communists) destroyed the problems. engineering. Commenting on this or that potentialfor a happier life in Russia. Insofar BeforeRussian studies became almost Stalinist program, he was likely to erupt, as these scholars trained studentsto carry on exclusively an academic enterprise,a number "Defend this,who can!" the historical examination of the Soviet of educated Britons, self-selected by personal Historians among theRussian emigres, Union, they were the precursors of what has interestsand "a sufficiencyof private means" Jewish and anti-Bolshevik, did not find a been called theAnglo-American totalitarian to live long periods abroad, offered student boomto serve or anacademic vacuum schoolof Sovietology. Orthodox truth,from occasional explanations of the exotic places to fill in postwarBritain. AsMarcRaeffhas the late 1940s into the 1960s, held that the they had come to know. Donald Mackenzie shown,emigrehistoriansinEuropeclustered Bolsheviks were embryonically totalitarian Wallace (1841-1919) and Emile Joseph mostly in Prague,Paris and Berlin. At the and that "outofthe totalitarianembryo would Dillion (1854-1933) were memorable same time, a remarkable generation of come totalitarianismfull-blown." Historians examples of this type. scholars served their apprenticeships in preoccupied themselves, Stephen F. Cohen BemardPares(l867-1949),betterborn British universities and tried to reconcile has written, with showing "continuity," with and more committed to academic orthodoxy their ideals with the disturbing events of the how the Soviet regime imposed its "inner than Dillion or Wallace, emerged as a major day. By the end of the 1930s they had begun totalitarian logic" on an exhausted and architect of Russian studies in Britain by to publish the Russian studies that would exploited society- all of which was "designed establishing Russian history at the University influence English readers for the rest of the to shape the behavior of the freeworld in its of Liverpool. From all accounts, Pares 20th century. They enshrined the basic oppositionto Communism." In the process, developed his role as interpreter of Russian premise ofParesand other mentors; namely, the Anglo-American totalitarian school life with missionary zeal. And like Dillion that the Bolshevik Revolution was neglected or excluded personalities, class Menorah Review, Spring 1992 3

personalities, class conflict, institutional toward Russia/U.S.S.R. of native-born the Jewish tradition has provided for imperatives,group interests, generation gaps academics was undergirded as much by Christianity, the predominant positionof the and dozens of other factors that are the real unspokennational loyalty as by the sense of churches has been characterized by an stuff of historical study. The intellectual a wrongly lost cause. opposition to the very spirit of Jewishness. consequences of rabid anti-Bolshevism - Still, by the time the United States What is unusualabout Christian antisemitism common ground of nationalistic historians reestablished diplomatic relations with the is that over a period of two millennia it has in Great Britain and disgruntled emigres in largest nation on earth in 1933, time and managedtotransformtheimageoftheJewish the United States andthefurtherpol iticization events had worn down the immigrant peopleinto a uniquely evil symbolthat denies of history during the Cold War of the 1940s generation in bothEnglish-speaking nations. the empirical reality of the Jewish condition and 50s - are now clearer. One of the most Most of the former Russian subjects were and justifies the total elimination of Jews as important was the negative orientation of ready to change their hyphenate status and Jews from the earth. most or all things Russian. Cohen notes find a cozier niche in the social scheme of From a historical point of view, perceptively that while most scholars of their adopted homelands. antisemitism is as distinctive for its China are enamored of its history, culture geographical and historicalspan. Jews and and people, "many Sovietologists, on the Christians contains a series of papers other hand, seemed to dislike or hate their Eugene P. Trani is presidelll of Virginia covering the bimillennial longevity, subject" Onecanimaginethatthesentiment, Commonwealth University. This article was presented by a talented cast of scholars, if not its expression, would please those who prepared in collaboration with Dr. Richard including Hans Hillerbrand and A. Roy were present at the creation of Russian/ D. McKinzie, professor of history. at the Eckardt along with the distinguished Soviet studies in the 1920s and 1930s. University of Missouri-Kansas City. theologian and editor of the volume, James Charlesworth. His brilliant article, IV. By 1933, when President Franklin D. "Exploring Opportunities for Rethinking Roosevelt determined to reestablish treaty Relations Among Jews and Christians," is relations with the Soviet Union, most of the the clearest and most thoughtful exposition zealous leaders of the Russian-American of this matter I have ever read. crusade against the Czar's human rights The unique nature of Christian policies were dead and the radical image of antisemitism may explain the discrepancy Russian-Americans that accompanied the betweenthecommonplaceimmediatecauses Red Scare had blurred somewhat. "Causes" of antisemitic events and the enormity of the formerly associatedwith Russian-Americans eventualities. That is, the mass slaughter of were not factors in the signing of a new European Jews during the medieval period Russian-American treaty. For the moment, of the Crusades, plagues, "ritual murders" at least, strategic and economic factors and "host desecrations" cannot nearly be outweighed ideological and ethnic accounted for by an examination of only considerations. contemporary economic, social or political In the early 20th century Russian­ causes. To understand these events one Americans, most of whom were Jews, had must comprehend the long historyof religious provided the bedrock support for a campaign antisemitism, especially as it relates to the to foment a brief outburst against the Czar churches and the theology of Christianity. during which the Russo-American Treaty of The same holds true for the events of the 1832 was abrogated as punishment for Holocaust. Nothing any Jews could have antisemitism. Because the Russian policy done in the latenineteenthandearly twentieth toward minorities did not change, Russian­ centuries could explain the disproportionate Americanshad not supportedthe allies during suffering and death the Jews of Europe World War I until the Czar abdicated in The moral universe into which most experienced in the years 1933 to 1945. March 1917. Then, in the aftermath of the Westemers have beenborn, raised and which It is obvious that, in a positive sense, Bolshevik Revolution of November 1917, they acknowledge as their own has been Christianity could not have existed without Russian-Americans themselves became shaped by the stories, myths, beliefs and the Jewish tradition. Moreover, even though targets during a moment of public hysteria­ rituals of Christianity. When, from the first Christiangoodness and righteousness toward dangerous enemies of private property and century of the Common Era onward, the the Jewish peopleis difficult todiscern in the Christian ethics by virtue of birth and Latin Christian churches came into conflict documentaryevidence, there are indications heritage. Thereafter, emigre intellectuals, with Jews, many within the churchesopposed that in every generation there were Christians almost all of whom identified with the losers Jews, Jewishness and Judaism with every who were friendly toward Jews. During the in the Russian Revolution, exercised weapon at their disposal, the primary one Carolinian era, for example, Jews were considerable control over the synthesis of being theological, which has conditioned respectedas the heirs and descendants of the information aboutRussia and projected an and justified all the rest whether political, patriarchs and prophets of testamentary image of life both before and after the economicor cultural. Therefore,anti-Jewish times. When we read of church and church­ revolution that was largely negative. theological defamations, empowered by the inspired secular prohibitions against During these years the relatively small Churchand communicatedbyitstheologians, Christian-Jewish fraternization, we must number of Russian emigresin Great Britain have educated the Christian populace in an assume that worthwhile relationships existed had experiencedsomething of the same trials. anti-Jewish ideology. Moreover, this that the Church sought to discourage. And But theirs were not simply reduced mirror repugnance to J ewishness has not been so Christian theologians continually images. The Balfour Declaration,as a gesture restricted to the realm of ideas; like any complained about the faithful who grew on behalf of Russian Jews, coincided with ideology, it has boiled over into close to Jews or treated them as human British geopolitical interests. The stronger contemptuous feelings and behaviors. beings rather than as theological types. Zionist movement in Great Britain gave the Although many Christians, from Paul Nevertheless, it must beacknow !edged postwar reaction more an antisemitic in Romans II onward, have recognized the that the dominant relationships between complexion. And the negative orientation indispensable historical and spiritual roots Judaism and Jews and the Christian church 4 Menorah Review, Spring 1992 were negative. The Judaism of the past was mean hatred of his alleged murderers. How anti-Jewish theological myths and pillaged from the Jews by the theologians of could Christiarts have ever learned to love defamations, the Jews were pictured no the Latin church to supply Christianity with the Jewish people when favorable religious longer as the chosen People, heroes of an unimpeachable history and with the ideas about Jews were, as Pierre Pierrardhas holiness and morality; instead, they were prestige the new church otherwisewould not stated, "lost in the blood of Calvary "? The protrayed as the earthly representatives of have possessed.To establish that Christ was Church has refused to allow Judaism to the Powers of Evil. not a Greek or Roman god,for example, the shake its image as the work of Satan and the Furthermore, considering Jews the early Christians argued thatChristian history Antichrist and has persistentlyregarded Jews very modelfor evil helpedunite Christendom was even older than Jewish history, having as sacred horror. The Churches' anti-Jewish and provide the Church with a clearly begun at the beginning of time but only theology hasbeen so pervasivethat otherwise contrasting identity for itself. Even though recorded in the Jewish scriptures. To decent, polite Christians have sometimes historically, and indeed theologically, accomplish this, the patristic theologians of uttered the most unhistorical and libelous Christianity has been a derivative of the the late Roman Empire and early Middle statements about Jews. Moreover, these Jewish tradition and, therefore, owed much Ages claimed the Jewish scriptures as their negative perceptions have existed to the mother religion, it had to overthrow own birthright. As Augustine himself has independent of what Jews themselves have the theological dominance of Judaism to observed, "The one and trueGod, creator of actually done or,indeed,of a Jewish presence establishits own sense of self, itS legitimacy goodness... is theauthorofbothTestaments; at all. In their ideological assault on the and its sanctity.This became the paramount but what is New is predicted in the Old Jews, early Christian writers, for example, task of the emerging new Christian religion. Testament, and what is Old is revealed in the sometimes noted the Roman victory over the When comparing Jacob and Esau, for New." The Church, therefore, co-opted all Jews,the loss of the secular Jewish kingdom, example, Paul may have been referring to the Jewish patriarchs,saints and truebelievers of the Jews' holy capital, Jerusalem, and of God'srejection of Jews and his adoption of in Godall the way back to Adam as Christians. the land oflsrael.But they interpreted these Christians as the new Chosen People. "It is Eusebius and Augustine argued that disasters through theological myths that not the children of the flesh who are the Abraham was "father of the faithful;" Abel proclaimed God's abandonment of the Jews children of God, but the children of the was progenitor of the Church. Only those as a result of their deicide and their eternal promise are reckoned as descendants .... scriptural figures who had sinned were punishment in this life and the next God 'The elder will serve the younger.' As it is considered Jewish; it was they who had was always pictured, as Rosemary Ruether written, 'Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."' expressed their evil by murdering the has noted, as "in there punching " on the side (Romans9:8-13) JohnChrysostom has been prophets and by continuing to manifest their of Christianity and the Christians against blunt about it, "Don't you realize, if the maliciousness in each and every generation. Jews and Judaism. Jewish rites are holy and venerable, our way Thus, the Church falsified the whole of of life must be false." When Jews persisted Jewish history.Pseudo-Cyprian summarized Even though historically, and as authentic Jews proudly asserting their the Church's interpretation: "Moses they Judaism, they had to besegregated, expelled, (the Jews) cursed because he proclaimed indeed theologically, Christianity converted or sometimes killed, for their Christ, ...David they hated because he sang has been a derivative of the loyalty to their own beliefs was interpreted of Christ, ... Isaiah they sawed asunder as an insult and a danger to the Christian shouting His glories, ... John they slew Jewish tradition and, therefore, image of itself.The Christian dilemma was revealing Christ, ...Judas they loved for owed much to the mother religion, that without Judaism, Christianity had no betraying Him." Had the Jews realized to independent meaning. Therefore, Judaism it had to overthrow the theological what use their Law and Prophets would be had to be preserved but in a conditionwhere put by Christians, as Irenaeus, the second­ dominance of Judaism to estab­ it could do no "harm " to Christianity, like a century Bishop of Lyon, has written, "they lish its own sense of self, its corpse in suspended animation or like a would never have hesitated themselves to degraded Cain living his death within life. bum their own Scriptures." legitimacy and its sanctity. In an attempt to establish the orthodoxy And so, to make the Old Testament of Christian doctrine,early Christian writers their own, these theologians of the Church Another goal of theearly and medieval condemned heretics.Even beforethe official had to denounce the Jews.They proclaimed Christian theologians was to render the Christian canon of scripture was established that thcJews are, have always been and will tenacious Jews hateful to keep the faithful at the Council of Carthage in 397, in letters always be evil. Theyimagined that the Jews from being attracted to Judaism. The attributed to Paul, I Corinthians (11:18-19) repeated their sin of deicide each year by stubborn persistence of Judaism and Jews and the Epistle to Titus (3:10-11), the ritually murdering an innocentChristian child threw intoconstantquestion Christianclaims haereticum hominum (the factious man) "is during Holy Week, and each day in their of earthlyand spiritual triumph.The intensity perverted and sinful " (see also Mt.18: 15). synagogue prayers when they insultedChrist of anti-Jewish language in portions of the Although the firstheretics were the Gnostics, and the Holy Virgin.For these crimes,Jews Christian Scriptures and in almost every many Church Fathers saw heresy as must suffer continual punishment on earth Christian theologian fromthe Church Fathers essentially Jewish in spirit, among them and eternal damnation in the afterlife, unless forward (their writings became almost as Eusebius, Irenaeus, Gregory Bishop of they sought salvation through the one true authoritativeas scripture) was both the cause Nyssa, Basil Bishop of Caesarea, Gregory faith, Christianity. and theresultof this concernfor the potential Nazianz us, Jus tin Martyr and Tenullian. As Christians and Jews shows, much loss of Christian souls. The Christian They believed that a heretic was a person Christian antisemitism centers around the Scriptures were, therefore,not a reasoned, whose intelligence and will had been defamatory myth of exclusive Jewish disinterested debate with the Jews, such as pervertedby the Devil and his Jewish agents. responsibilityfor the assassination of Jesus the pagans may have had.They were written For example, Ambrose identified five kinds Christ.Down to the present day, sometimes as part of a theologicalwar to the death and of heresy, which he associated withJudaism. disguisedas, or mixedwith, secular prejudice, beyond.In the writings and sermons of these He believed that Jews could only beheretics theological antisemitism has convinced religious propagandists, namely the Church because they, in essence, ceased to be since Christians to blame innocentJewsfordeicide. Fathers, no evil was too great for the Jews their rejection of Christ. Pseudo-Ambrose Up to the present generation, to love Christ not tohave reveled in, no crime tooappalling arguedthatallJews were apostatesto Judaism for many if not most Christians came to fortheJews not to have rejoiced in.Through because they had maliciously rejected the Menorah Review, Spring 1992 5 truth of the Messiahship of Jesus. Jews were through all its existence in iniquity... " "apostates, for denial of Christ is essentially In a similar manner, todenigrate Jews a violation of the Law." This idea was also and the Jewish spirit, Christian theologians carried in a host of apocryphal Acts and have been capable of turning the values of Gospels. There was a degree of truth to this Judaism on their head. This value-inversion association of Jews and heretics for in was first employed by Latin Christians in responseto Christian depredations, the Jews response to the crucifixion itself. Most may have supported heretical groups who ancient peoples within the Roman Empire, were not anti-Jewish, like the Arians, with Jews and Gentiles, regarded crucifiXion as whom the Jews were classed as the most demeaning. But Latin Christians took the unrelenting and dangerous enemies of "scandal of the Cross" and converted it into orthodoxy. Furthermore, it can be argued an act of metaphysical and eschatological that by focusing on the Jewish scapegoat and importance. A meaningless execution in the villain as thecause of all the specifichistorical politicallife of theRoman Empire and Judean ills of Europe, the Church could explain politics became, for Christians, the most away the evidence that contravenedits claim meaningful act in history. human and divine. that the Kingdom of God had truly arrived Jesus' death would lead to his life with Christ and accounted for the continued (resurrection) and potentially to eternal life existence of evil in the world. In this way, for all the faithful. That the founder of for two millennia, the Jewish people have Christianity was despised and had been Adding keen observations to a served as a "magic betrayer" to help crucified likeany common criminalwas, in collection of primary sources, Berlin presents Christians explain the plagues, wars and fact, gloried in by Christians. In a like an evenhanded account of 19th century revolutions of history the Church could not manner, they attacked the traits most Christian attacks on Jews together with the control. identifiedas Jewish (Covenant, monotheism, inevitable Jewish responses.He emphasizes So far we have been discussing the synagogue, kosher rules, circumcision, that conversion posed a significant threat to exploitation of Judaism by Christianity. We Chosenness, Promised Land, Jerusalem, American Jews because conservative now turn to the technique of argumentation Temple) by reinterpreting, modifying and Protestants were waging a war of conversion and rhetoric used by Christian theologians to adapting them to fit the requirements of the and millenarians, in particular, regarded the achieve their anti-Jewish goals. They were Christian self-image - in essence, turning conversion of Jews as "inextricably adherents of the theology of glory who, them upside-down. intertwined"with the conversion of"heathen wrote Luther, call "evil good and good evil The Church thus took from the Jews peoples." Isaac Lesser, the preeminent 19th ... everything has been completely turned their scriptures, priesthood and their claim century traditionalistAmerican! ewish writer upside-down." This has been Christianity's to be the Chosen People. Christian on Christianity, interpretedconversion as an normative theological position in regard to theological writings attempted to strip the attempt to validate Christianity, for unless Judaism and Jews, although there is a Jews of the religious values embodied in Jews became Christians, the truth claims of contrasting ideology or theologia crucis, Talmud, Torah, synagogue, peoplehood, Christianity would be undermined. Lesser, theology of the cross. mission and the one spiritual God- the very who lamented that the traditionalist-Reform This theology of glory has several heart and soul of Judaism.The strengthsthat split within Judaism also contributed to Jews premises, most of them interpretations of made Jewish identity possible, valuable and embracing Christianity, identified two evils biblical passages.The Christian Church,the valid, and for which Jews were willing to in proselytism: first, Christian missionaries new Israel - supposedly ordained and die, were converted into weakness, vice and offered bribes and misrepresentations of sanctioned by God- has succeeded the cursed crime. The imagined existence of this Judaism; second, Jews converted becauseof and rejected old Israel morally, historically fictitious, transvaluated Judaism was used bad motives, e.g., the desire to acquire and metaphysically. In addition, the Jews, over and over again by the Latin Church material gain. In fact, the American Society who denied and murdered the allegedly true Fathers of the first millennium of the for Meliorating the Condition of the Jews, Messiah, the Christ, for which they were Common Era to justify anti-Jewish church known earlier as the American Society for collectively guilty, must forever suffer. laws and church-inspired secular laws, Evangelizing the Jews, went so far as to plan Moreover, although many adherents of policies and actions. the establishmentof a settlement in America theologia gloriae questioned the Jews' right Consequently, it is not surprising that for European converts. Solomon Henry to exist at all. However, the predominant when the years 1933 to 1945 came, even Jackson, editor of the frrst American Jewish position was that the Jews were not to be apparently secular Westerners saw Jews in newspaper, The Jew, charged that when the exterminaled sincetheyadheredto theTorah, this Christian anti-Jewish way. Jews were weak argumentation in Christian missionary or Law. and gave Christianity the history it not real people being discriminated against, tracts failed to convert Jews, Christians needed to legitimize itself. They were expropriated, sent to prison and murderedin resorted to bribery. Indeed, bribery is only "Witness People" who must wander likethe concentration camps. They were sinners one of the immoral techniques for conversion suffering Cain as paradigmatic examples of and cohorts of the devil who had already he attributed to Christians: "Mulks, those rejecting the truth of Christian faith. been condemned by the theologians and robberies, assassinations, persecutions, Finally, based on Matthew23, the Jews were leaders of the churches. This theologically massacres,martyrdoms, exilings, alienations, condemned as evil-doers even before their generated "demonization" of the Jews long inquisitions, tortures, flatteries, persuasions atrocious act of deicide, indeed from the before Hitler's rise had leftthe Jews without and bribes have been used at various times." beginning of their history. In the words of protection when the murderers came to He was not alone in denouncing missionary the fourth-centuryHilary, bishop ofPoitiers, collect them for the gas chambers. activities as a form of antisemitism. Judaism was"ever ...mighty in wickedness; Demonstratingthat conversion was as ...when it cursed Moses; when it hated God; ineffective as it was immoral, Jackson when it vowed its sons to demons; when it Robert Michael is a professor of European declared that for I ,400 years the Gentiles killed the prophets; and finally when it history at Southeastern Massachusetts had failed in their attempts to convert the betrayed to the Praetor and crucified our University and a contributing editor for Jews, a declaration that is no less true a God himself and Lord .... And so glorying Menorah Review. century later. In a similarly straightforward 6 Menorah Review, Spring 1992 way, Lesser argued that if God had wished Trinity. The sortof figurativeunderstanding uplifted, transformed or enlightened - for Christianity to supersede Judaism, the they favored would be more congenial to otherwise, there would be no need for latter would have vanished long ago. That Jews. If, for example, one thinks of the religion. But the tendency of Christian many other rival religionshave survived and Father, Son and Holy Ghost, not as totally theology to dwell on human baseness flourished alongside Christianity surely distinct substances,persons or beings,but as disturbed Jews as it does contemporary supportsLesser's reasoning. Maurice Harris metaphorically expressed attributes or Christians. added that although Christianity was to be aspectsof one Godor ifone conceives of the To the doctrine of the incarnation, one, universal or Catholic, it became three as primary manifestations of the which says that Jesus is the unique son of splintered into numerousdenominations that inexhaustibleAbsolute(Donotmonotheisms God, David Philipson replied, "Judaism were,in effect,different religions. invariably ascribe cognitive, affective and teaches that every man is the son of God." Joseph Samuel C. F. Frey, who volitional properties to the Divine?), rather For Berlin, one implication of the doctrine, converted from Judaism to Christianity, than as parts of God, then God's unity is ironically enough, vitiates Christian claims wrote and spoke zealously to bring Jews to preserved and, indeed, deepened in touniqueness: "If God'sspirit infused human his new faith. He also predicted that the sigrtificance by this threefold diversity. Is culture,then all cultures (and their religious successfulconversionofallJews was certain, not a great work of arta unity of diversities? systems) should be deemed of equal worth." his being just one of the many such And, as a Platonist might ask, Is God not In late nineteenth century Judaism, predictionsthat failed to materialize. Indeed, beautyitself? In Hinduism,the monotheistic Reformers argued that Jesus,in boththought the Christian vision of other religions as B hagavad-Gita recognizes three expressions and deed, was square! y within the Jewish unfulfilled expressions that can only find of human nature: karma marga (the way of tradition.According to isaac M.Wise, Jesus their culmination in Christianity has not action), jnana marga (the way of thought) did not declare himself to be the messiah. been demonstrated through significant and bhakti marga (the way of devotion). Schlessinger, Jackson and Lesser pointed conversions from Hinduism, Buddhism, Similarly, Plato identified three features of out that Christ was not the messiah,since he Islam or Judaism. In fine,however well the the single, human soul, Aristotle located did not bring aboutuniversal peace while he doctrineof"survival of the fittest " serves the three levels of soul at work in each person flourishedand his death was followed by an biologist,it does not seem to oblain among and Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful increase in wars,persecution and fanaticism. theworld religions.Berlin provides an ironic Wizard of Oz, detected three faculties in While Reform writers depicted Jesus as a footnote on the topic of conversion when he every individual. If we are made in God's faithful Jew, others viewed him as special, explains one reason why Jews were unable image and we have a threefold nature,might e.g., as the paradigm for rabbinic teachers. to missionize among Christians: "To do so not our threefold nature be one of the ways Rabbi Henry Berkowitz called Jesus "the would have been to abandon the argument in which we resemble God? In any case, as greatest,noblest rabbi of them all." Other thatJews were more tolerant than Christians, literally understood,the Trinity will remain Jews recognized Jesus as an inspiring but since Judaism accorded the possibility of an insurmountable obstacle to Jewish­ unoriginal teacherofJewishdoctrine.Hirsch, salvation to non-Jews." Christian dialogue and to unity among for example, asserted that many of Jesus' Frequently, 19th century American Christians themselves. sayings are found verbatim in Talmudic Jews repudiated Christianity, because they The Christian doctrine of atonement writings. Describing Jesus' "Our Father " found the doctrine of the Trinity to be an proved to be another target of Jewish prayer as "an anthology of Jewish prayers," affront against monotheism. Benjamin Dias polemics in 19th century America. Hirsch held that "there is scarcely an Fernandes, drawing on Jewish polemical Schlessinger asked how anyone could expression creditedto him [Jesus] but has its literature, denounced the doctrine as an honestly believe that the death of one man analogon in the well-known sayings of the absurdity.According to Lesser, rather than could remit the sins of an entire race - rabbis." Even Jesus as the good shepherd is uphold the unity of God, Christians seek to especially since it is evident that man's anticipated in Moses carrying a sheep on his "propagate the doctrine of the trinity."As he sinfulness still persists after 2,000 years. shoulders to return it tothe flock.But Hirsch saw it,"there can be no unity of purpose ... Bernard Felsenthal considered the idea that concludes,"in the form which Jesus gave to if a sacrifice can be accepted by one part of sin is inherited fromAdam to be un-Jewish, these old Jewish maxims they were given the Deity from the other ..." He accused without Biblical support,and irrational.He force and directness and pithiness that the Christians of clinging to an absurd held that no ransom can be paid for one's sin, rabbirtical maxims of equal tenor almost polytheism, failing to render the doctrine no one else can die in place of a guilty party lack altogether." Kaufmann Kohler detects intelligible and choosing to persecute the and no one's sin can be expunged by a "the charm of true originality " in Jesus' Jews who questioned it. Lesser predicted sacrifice. Lesser found no reference to a remarks such as "let him that is without sin that Gentiles would eventually accept the mediator in the Bible, no atonement apart cast the first stone " and "be like children and truthof monotheism. Rabbi W. Schlessinger, from individual repentance. Emil G.Hirsch you are not far from the kingdom of God." who wrote under the pseudonym Israel asserted that the idea of obtaining vicarious Morris Jastrow, professor of Semitic Philalethes, regarded the Trinity as a atonement through Jesus' death is Semitic, languages, credits Jesus with going beyond transition between polytheism and not Jewish, but Berlin notes that Hirsch the prophets through his utter indifference monotheism. Similarly, some have spoken dismissed as poetryany passages in rabbinic toward theological speculationand religious of henotheism as a transition between literature that one might use to support the rites. But Jesus' status was directly polytheism and monotheism. But concept of transmitted sin or vicarious challenged by Felsenthal who emphasized henotheism, which refers to a stage in the atonement.On the related subject of human that Jews are hardly alone in denying the evolution of religions, has not enduredand a depravity, Jews were again critical of the messiahship of Jesus,since it is not affiiTOed trinitarian doctrineof theAbsolutecontinues Christian position. Hirsch faulted Christians by deists, pantheists,agnostics, Buddhists, to be fundamentalin Buddhism (the Trikaya for taking a disparaging view of man, Darwinian evolutionists and adherents of doctrine), Christianity and Hinduism including, of course, Paul who seemed numerous other theological and (Brahma,Shiva,Vishnu). Thus it isnot clear preoccupied with man's sinful nature. philosophical systems. how such a doctrine is represenlative of a Felsenthalpointedly asked: "Did the Creator Another refrain inJ ewish responses to less developed phase of religion. J. R. befoul man's nature by incorrigible the Christian message was that Christianity Peynado,Lesser's correspondentin England, wickedness and moral rottenness fromthe had mistakenly placed the virtue of love a­ related that some Christians were afraid to beginning? " Of course, every religion bovethat of justice.Kohler denied that love express a non-literal interpretation of the assumes humans are "fallen " and need to be could be the basis for socialrelations, for he Menorah Review, Spring 1992 7

believed it to be subjective, thereby making it impossible for an individual to love all others equally. Moreover, he asserted that by overlooking faults, love sanctionswrong­ doing; whereas justice affirmsthe value and dignity of every individual. Dissenters . . . included Felix Adler, theson ofRabbi Samuel · . . · . : :·:·:: . · : · :: : . . Adler, who favored love over justice on the · .· · · : . · .. grounds that is was better able to address the . : : . : . : .. :.:. · : : : · :: .· ·. .::. · · · social needs of humans. In addition, . . .. · . . . .· . . . · Josephine Lazarus, an American Jew with sympathies toward liberalProtestantism, who ueil

advocated the merging of Judaism and ••• •• • • ..• • • • • ••• • Christianity into a universalistic religion, believed that love surpasses justice, for love embraces it Still, Marcus Jastrowpreferred justice over "an unrealizable ideal of love" and he doubted that loving one's enemy could have ever been seriously intended. But Maurice Harris quotes scripture to demonstrate that loving one's neighbor is indeed part ofJudaism -whether the neighbor is friend or foe. Augustine, who dramatizes the significance of love by urging one to "love and do what you will," provided a classic Christian statement on the difficult job of loving one's enemy: "Donot love the errorin man but love the man. For man is the work of God; error is the work of man." One who seeks to love her enemies will find encouragement in Martin Buber's idea that one cannot fully hate them: "Thebasic word I-It can never be spoken with one's whole being." Of course, this is true for Buber because he holds that every finite thou - however despicable - is animated by the Eternal Thou. Since Christians as well as Jews disagree among themselves on whether love or justice should be given greaterweight, it is a mistake to characterize their religions in terms of these virtues. Consider Kohler who assigns love, "the feminine element of the world," to Christianity and "righteousness, the stronger and more indispensable," to Judaism. Whether one is disposed toward justice, love or their equilibrium, a tension persists since justice seems to require that a person receive exactly what she deserves, no more or no less, but love entails being willing to give a person more than she, strictly speaking, deserves. There is an urgent need to come to terms with Berlin's analysis of the encounters, relations and conflicting doctrines between nineteenth century Jews and Christians, for many of the same issues inform the contemporary Jewish-Christian dialogue, a conversation that is in a promising if nascentstate. Kohler foresaw the resolution of difficulties in the "Church Universal," one that "is neither Jewish nor Christian, but which knows only of God's children." Lazarus also proposed a new, universal religion that would incorporate Judaism and Christianity, but others would question if one religion would be any more desirable

continued, page 8 8 Menorah Review, Spring 1992

than one world art. Religions may be freedom and character-shaping choices this common ground, and have respect for fruitfullycompared to art works, for both, at above intellectual speculation, also have the honest convictions of one another, and their best, are always particular expressions affinities with this perspective. Jewish then both may clasp hands and look into of universal truths. Generic religion is existentialists like Buber and Christian each other's eyes, and repeat the words idolatry and generic art is counterfeit art or existentialistslike KierkegaardShare a regard uttered by Moses and Jesus: 'The Lord our debased craft. If follows that particularity, for live experience or encounters over God is one God. And thou shalt love."' individuality or identity is as important to ideology. Buber stressed that even if we religion as it is to art. Maurice Harris endorses cannot comprehend life we can embrace it this sort of outlook when he says, "The Felsanthal was ahead of his era with his Earle J. Coleman is professor of philosophy world is absorbing Jewish teachings; Judaism proposal, "Let us consider these articles of at Virginia Commonwealth University. is absorbing Christian teachings; every day creed on which we disagree as personal the mutual debt is growing, yet, without opinions." To the charge that this is a non­ either renouncing the religion that it loves cognitive position, one might reply that and believes." An apt question is posed by perhaps know ledge is not abandoned; the contemporary writer, Anne Roiphe: "I instead, ordinary knowledge gives way to am wondering if one feels a primary insight identificationwith all the boatpeoples afloat Berlin remarks that, in the past, the on all the waters of the globe, can there ever debate between Christians and Jews "was be a return to the particular group again?" fought in absolutist and mutually exclusive There is another approach to Jewish­ terms." Jews predicted the extinction of Christian accord that might be termed Christianity and Christians looked for the experiential. Here, religious experiences - inevitable eclipse of Judaism. As long as a from prayer, to rituals, to social action, to Jew, such as Lesser, hoped that Christians union with God in mystical experiences - would come "to embrace the full effulgence takeprecedence over doctrinesand theology. of light which is with Israel"and a Christian, In the language of St. Teresa of Avila, "the such as Karl Barth, spokeof allnon-Christian important thing is not to think much but to religions as being in "endarkenment," both love much." Working together and parties remained blinded by the "light." In celebrating together take priority over creeds. the spirit of promoting harmony, Berlin Such an orientation explains why the concludes his study by statingthat Christians Renaissance figure Pico della Mirandola have tried to get Jews to appreciate Jesus in was especiallydrawn to Kabbalism andfound every way except one, the way of love. "Try it to be consonant with his own Christianity. that, for they believe in love; and you believe Existentialists, who place the exercise of in love. Let both Jew and Christian get on

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JUDAIC CULTURE ADVISORY COMMITTEE: RobertM. Talbert, chairman Harry Lyons, fmmding member Stephen M. Auerbach Earle J. Coleman Darryl C. Dance William H. Duvall Hans S. Falck Bea Fine Barbara J. Ford Lisa Fratkin Helen Horwitz Robert Hyman Amy Krumbein Jeffrey Levin Elaine Rothenberg Barbara Shocket Mark Sisisky Jay Weinberg Morris Yarowsky

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Editor's Note: Inclusion of a book in "Briefings" does not preclude its being reviewed in a future issue of Menorah Review.

Deceptive Images: Toward aRedefinition ofAmerican Judaism. Facing aCruelMirror: lsrael'sMomentofTruth. By Michael By Charles S. Liebman. New Brunswick, NJ.: Transaction Bar-Zohar. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. The author Books. This volume is a thoughtful effort by a social scientist to depicts a nation struggling to maintain its moral values and come to terms with his concerns about how American Jews and democratic ideals. He examines the crisis of conscience that the Judaism have been studied and his sensitivity to the policy country has undergone in dealing with the occupied territories. implications of such studies. The author contends that those He also analyzes the weaknesses of the political system. Despite concerned with American Jews have placed too much emphasis the country's disarray, Bar-Zohar believes that Israel can again on what Jews do and too little on Judaism itself. They have given work towards its original dream of a just, humane, Jewish society too little encouragement to efforts to probe the meaning of - largely through a reform of the government. Judaism in the lives of American Jews. This probing study calls for reassessment both of the study of American Judaism and the Gardens and Ghettos: The Art of Jewish Life in Italy. Edited priorities of American Jewish organizations. by Vivian B. Mann. Berkeley: University of CaliforniaPress in cooperation with The!ewishMuseum. An exquisite presentation Spinoza and other Heretics. Vol. I: The Marrano of Reason. of the bimillenial history of the Jews of Italy, an exhibition rich Vol. ll: The Adventures of Immanence. By Yirmiyahu Yovel. in art work interwoven with eight brilliant essays on Jewish­ Princeton,N J.: Princeton University Press. This ambitious and Italian life including Jewish art and culture in ancient Rome, original study presents Baruch Spinoza as the most outstanding Hebrew illuminated manuscripts, ceremonial art during the era thinker of modernity. He anticipated secularization, the rise of of the city-states and ghettos, Jewish artists in Italy from the natural science, biblical criticism, the Enlightenment, the liberal­ Risorgimento to theResistance, and the history of Hebrew poetry democratic state. in Italy. A visual and intellectual experience. The first volume traces the origins of the idea of immanence to the culture of Spinoza's Marrano ancestors. The authors argue Shylock Reconsidered: Jews, Moneylending, and Medieval that crypto-Jewish life had mixed Judaism and Christianity in Society. ByJosephShatzmiler. Berkeley: UniversityofCalifornia ways that undermined both these religions and led to rational Press. The author offers an excellent overview of medieval skepticism and secularism. European Jewish moneylending, in· its legal and institutional The second volume unveils the presence of Spinoza's theory as well as in its practice. In this fascinating investigation philosophical revolution in the work of later thinkers who helped of previously unknown medieval documents, the author finds shape the modern mind. The most innovative figures in the past expressions of resentment and frustration over hardhearted two centuries were profoundly influenced by Spinoza and shared creditors matched by appreciative tributes to a benign, generous the essentials of his philosophy of immanence. The Epilogue of Jewish moneylender, who may be a respected member of his this outstanding work examines Spinoza's significance to Jews community. A refreshing revision of the traditional stereotype. today and the question of whether he was the "first secular Jew." These two volumes are a remarkable achievement. Daggers ofFaith: Thirteenth-Century Christian Missionizing andJewishResponse. ByRobertChazan. Berkeley: University When MourningComes: A Book ofComfort for the Grieving. of Californian Press. A balanced account of Christian by William B. Silverman andKennethM. Cinnamon. Northvale, missionizing among the Jews. Arguing that until the 13th N.J.: Jason Aronson, Inc. This is not a book about grief, but a century Western Christendom showed little serious commitment guide for the grieving. The authors help readers to find a spiritual to converting Jews, the author details the special circumstances context for their grief. Step by step, they point the way to of that critical century in European history. rebuilding life after the loss of a loved one, treating many themes that absorb someone struck with the loss of a loved one. TheJewsofParisandtheFinalSolution:Communal Response and Internal Conflicts, 1940-1944. By Jacques Adler. New Settings of Silver: An Introduction to Judaism. By Stephen M. York: Oxford University Press. A former member of the French Wylen. New York: Paulist Press. Effectively organized for Resistance, the author examines the roles, activities, and policies classroom use, thorough and well-informed without being of the diverse Jewish organizations that existed in Paris during technical, this is an excellent and comprehensive introduction to theGerrnanoccupationfrom1940to 1944. Thoroughly researched Judaism, which considers and answers two encompassing and drawing upon previously unavailable materials, this volume questions: "What is Torah?" and "What is a Jew?" The author presents an important portrait of communal solidarity and engagingly examines observances, beliefs and history. communal conflict, of heroes and those whose courage failed. 2 Menorah Review Supplement, Spring 1992

Vienna and the Jews, 1867-1938: A Cultural History. By Beyond Appearances: Stories From the Kabbalistic Ethical Steven Beller. Cambridge University Press. This book studies Writings. Edited by Aryeh Wineman. The Jewish Publication the role played by Jews in the explosionof cultural innovation in Society. Fifty-four charming and evocative tales, especially Vienna at the turnof thecentury, which had its rootsin the years translated from Hebrew for this volume, recapture a rich yet following the"Ausgleich" of 1867 and its demise in the sweeping virtually forgotten chapter in the history of Jewish narrative. events of the 1930s. Theauthor shows that Jews were predominant They form the important transitional link between the esoteric throughout most of Viennese modemhigh culture. The culture mystical teachings of the 16th century Kabbalists and the populist of Vienna during this periodwas born out of the vivid encounter tales of the18th century EastemEuropeanHasidim. Anoverriding between the Jewish background and the Viennese context. message in the stories is that the true meaning of things isn't necessarily what they seem; it can be "beyond appearances." Jewish Philosophy in a Secular Age. By Kenneth Seeskin. Wineman's introductoryessay presents the historical setting and Albany: State University of New York Press. This volume the ethos of the community that produced this body of Jewish presents a dialogue betweena rationalist understanding of religion imaginative writing. He also prepared an excellent commentary and its many critics, ranging from Descartes and Hume to around the stories that recapture a rich yet forgotten chapter of Kieerkegaard, Buber and Fackenheim. The author confronts Jewish narrative. such classical problems as divine attributes, creation, revelation, suspension of the ethical, ethics and secular philosophy, the Sacred Fragments: Recovering Theologyfor the ModernJew. problem of evil, and the importance of the Holocaust. On each By Neil Gillman. Philatlelphia: The Jewish Publication Society. issue, he sets the terms of the debate and works towards a In forthright, non-technical language, the author addresses the constructive resolution. most difficult theological questions of our time and shows there are still viable Jewish answers, even for skeptics. Retaining the The Saint of Beersheba. By Alex Weingrod. Albany: State sacred fragments of the traditional system of belief, he explains University of New York Press. The author presents an anthro­ how they can be rethought and reformulated despite the strains pologicalstudy of the development of a Jewish saint, or"tsaddik," and tensions of modernity. Each chapter addresses one of the in Israel and of the annual pilgrimage to his enshrined grave by perplexing issues for Jewish theology today, and for each issue thousands of North African Jews. It is the fascinating story of the author presents a range of authentic Jewish perspectives. how Rabbi Chayim Chouri, an aged Tunisian rabbi, became famed as the "Saint of Beersheba," after his death in the 1950s. Arguing with God: A Jewish Tradition. By Anson Laytner. The author focuses on the meaning of this event in the lives of the Northvale, NJ.: Jason Aronson, Inc. The author admirably participants, and interprets the relevance of mystical-religious details Judaism's rich and pervasive tradition of calling God to traditions to present-day Israeli society, politics and culture. task over human suffering and experienced injustice. It is a tradition that originated in the biblical period and continued The Great Torah Commentators. By Avraham Yaakov Finkel. through the Holocaust and beyond. This stance, rooted in faith, Northvale,NJ.: Jason Aronson,lnc. A unique and monumental holds that it is right and proper for human beings to argue with compendium, this volume provides rich insight into the Torah God about human suffering. This volume is the first and only process itself and into the individuals who have performed the comprehensive study of a time-honored aspect of Jewish prayer vital task of interpreting and explaining Jewish thought and and theology. wisdom. There are biographies of over I 00of the greatest Torah sages and representative selections of their work. Torah Umadda: The Encounter of Religious Learning and Worldly Knowledge in the Jewish Tradition. By NormanLamm. TheHolyTempleRevisited. ByLeibe/Reznick. Northvale,NJ.: Northvale,NJ.: JasonAronson,lnc. The centrality of Torah in Jason Aronson, Inc. This volume is a detailed exploration of the Judaism is beyond doubt, but less clear is the value of"Madda," Temple Mount and ancient Jerusalem: Where was the Holy of secular knowledge. If the study of Torah is the single most Holies located? What is the significance of the Rock that rests important precept of Judaism , does this leave room for the rest upon the mount today? What function did the secret tunnels of human intellectual pursuits? This volume shows that such serve? Where was the Holy Ark hidden? Where did the concerns are by no means unprecedented. The author explores Maccabees find the jug of oil that is commemorated in the six models of"Torah umadda,"providing thorough overviews of holiday of Hanukkah? The book tries to answer these and many great Jewish thinkers on this issue. other fascinating questions. It is an excellent synthesis of traditional rabbinical literature and modern archaeology, The Story of Scripture: From Oral Tradition to the Written containing over I 00 photographs, drawings and maps. Word. By Daniel Jeremy Silver. New York: Basic Books,Inc., Publishers. This book recounts in fascinating details how the The Jews of St. Petersburg: Excursions through a Noble Past. spread of literacy among the upper classes, more than any By Mikhail Beizer. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication religious imperative,prompted the community to write down its Society. This is a richly detailed and illustrated volume, in which living oral traditions. The emergence of a scripture helped define the author leads the reader on six long and lively excursions a faith's teachings with greater precision but, at the same time, through a fascinating period of Russian Jewish history, 1880- hampered the faith's freedom to adapt to changing circumstance. 1930. These were the years when many Jews left their small A second scripture inevitably arose- the Talmud- that was more villages- the shtetls- and came to the Czarist capital. These were systematic as well as pedantic and that tended to justify and also years of great flourishingin thecultural life of St. Petersburg interpret positions adopted by new religious leaders. The history Jews - in Hebrew writing, Jewish ethnography and history, in of scripture depended on who controlled the apparatus of drama, art and music. interpretation and what readings they authorized.