Jewish Studies 2011 press.princeton.edu contents New & Forthcoming Titles • 1 New & Forthcoming Paperbacks • 8 Jews, Christians, and Muslims from the Ancient to the Modern World • 12 Index/Order Form • 13 New The Rebbe The Life and Afterlife of Menachem Mendel Schneerson Samuel Heilman & Menachem Friedman “Brilliant, well-researched, and sure to be controversial, The Rebbe is the most important biography of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson ever to appear. Samuel Heilman and Me- nachem Friedman, two of the world’s foremost sociologists of religion, have produced a landmark study of Chabad, religious messianism, and one of the greatest spiritual figures of the twentieth century.” —Jonathan D. Sarna, author of American Judaism: A History From the 1950s until his death in 1994, Menachem Mendel Schneerson—revered by his followers worldwide simply as the Rebbe—built the Lubavitcher movement from a relatively small Samuel Heilman is Distinguished sect within Hasidic Judaism into the powerful force in Jewish life Professor of Sociology at Queens that it is today. Swept away by his expectation that the Messiah College and holds the Harold was coming, he came to believe that he could deny death and Proshansky Chair in Jewish change history. Studies at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Samuel Heilman and Menachem Friedman paint an unforget- Menachem Friedman is professor table portrait of Schneerson, showing how he reinvented emeritus of sociology at Bar-Ilan himself from an aspiring French-trained electrical engineer into University in Israel. a charismatic leader who believed that he and his Lubavitcher Hasidic emissaries could transform the world. They reveal how his messianic convictions ripened and how he attempted to bring the ancient idea of a day of redemption onto the modern world’s agenda. Heilman and Friedman also trace what happened after the Rebbe’s death, by which time many of his followers had come to think of him as the Messiah himself. 2010. 384 pages. 28 halftones. Cl: 978-0-691-13888-6 $29.95 | £20.95 New Prophets of the Past Interpreters of Jewish History Michael Brenner Translated by Steven Rendall Prophets of the Past is the first book to examine in depth how modern Jewish historians have interpreted Jewish history. Michael Brenner reveals that perhaps no other national or religious group has used their shared history for so many different ideological and political purposes as the Jews. He deftly traces the master narratives of Jewish history from the beginnings of the scholarly study of Jews and Judaism in nineteenth-century Germany; to eastern european approaches by Simon Dubnow, the interwar school of Polish-Jewish historians, and the short-lived efforts of Soviet-Jewish historians; to the work of British and American scholars such as Cecil Roth and “Prophets of the Past is a Salo Baron; and to Zionist and post-Zionist interpretations of Jewish panoramic examination of the history. He also unravels the distortions of Jewish history writing, shifting paradigms in modern including antisemitic Nazi research into the “Jewish question,” the Jewish historical writing, rang- Soviet portrayal of Jewish history as class struggle, and Orthodox ing over three continents and Jewish interpretations of history as divinely inspired. from the eighteenth century to the present. In its scope it is History proved to be a uniquely powerful weapon for modern unprecedented. Brenner has Jewish scholars during a period when they had no nation or army made a stellar contribution to to fight for their ideological and political objectives, whether the Jewish intellectual history that goal was Jewish emancipation, diasporic autonomy, or the creation should be of equal interest of a Jewish state. As Brenner demonstrates in this illuminating and to all who would explore the incisive book, these historians often found legitimacy for these nexus between historiography struggles in the Jewish past. and ideology.” 2010. 320 pages. 8 halftones. —Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, Cl: 978-0-691-13928-9 $39.50 | £27.95 Columbia University New Also by Michael Brenner A Short History of the Jews Translated by Jeremiah Riemer “with his characteristically deft touch, Michael Brenner has produced a sweeping and riveting account of Jewish history from Biblical times until the present day. This slender volume is lively, engaging, and a pleasure to read.” —John M. efron, University of California, Berkeley A Short History of the Jews is the story of the Jewish people told in a sweeping and powerful historical narrative. Michael Brenner chronicles the Jewish experience from Biblical times to today, trac- ing what is at heart a drama of migration and change, yet one that is also deeply rooted in tradition. He surveys the latest scholarly Michael Brenner is professor perspectives in Jewish history, making this short history the most of Jewish history and culture learned yet broadly accessible book available on the subject. at the University of Munich. 2010. 440 pages. 92 color illus. 1 table. 5 maps. Cl: 978-0-691-14351-4 $29.95 | £20.95 press.princeton.edu 1 New Not in the Heavens The Tradition of Jewish Secular Thought David Biale “Not in the Heavens offers a lucid and superbly informed overview of the major currents of secularization in modern Jewish thought. Its particular originality is in its persuasive demonstration of the roots of these trends in aspects of Jewish religious philosophy that go back to the medieval period and the enlightenment.” —Robert Alter, University of California, Berkeley Not in the Heavens traces the rise of Jewish secularism through the visionary writers and thinkers who led its development. Spanning the rich history of Judaism from the Bible to today, David Biale David Biale is the emanuel shows how the secular tradition these visionaries created is a Ringelblum Professor of Jew- uniquely Jewish one, and how the emergence of Jewish secularism ish History at the University of was not merely a response to modernity but arose from forces long California, Davis. at play within Judaism itself. December 2010. 248 pages. Cl: 978-0-691-14723-9 $35.00 | £24.95 New winner of the 2010 Award for excellence in the Study of Religion, Constructive- Reflective Studies, American Academy of Religion Saving God Religion after Idolatry Mark Johnston “This witty and philosophically subtle book is . very Maimonidean in its thoroughgoing rejection of superstition and idolatry as an offense to true religion.” —Menachem Kellner, Jewish Review of Books In this book, Mark Johnston argues that God needs to be saved not only from the distortions of the “undergraduate atheists” (Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris) but, more importantly, from the idolatrous tendencies of religion itself. each Mark Johnston is the walter monotheistic religion has its characteristic ways of domesticating Cerf Professor of Philosophy at True Divinity, of taming God’s demands so that they do not radi- Princeton University. cally threaten our self-love and false righteousness. Turning the monotheistic critique of idolatry on the monotheisms themselves, Johnston shows that much in these traditions must be condemned as false and spiritually debilitating. 2009. 216 pages. 1 halftone. Cl: 978-0-691-14394-1 $24.95 | £16.95 Connect with us on Twitter @ princetonupress & 2 Facebook @ PrincetonUniversityPress Forthcoming Rethinking the Other in Antiquity “This erudite and lucid treat- Erich S. Gruen ment of the limits of tolerance and open-mindedness toward Prevalent among classicists today is the notion that Greeks, Ro- the Other in ancient Greece, mans, and Jews enhanced their own self-perception by contrasting Rome, and the Jewish world themselves with the so-called Other—egyptians, Phoenicians, deals with a topic central to our ethiopians, Gauls, and other foreigners—frequently through hostile evaluation of any society. The stereotypes, distortions, and caricature. In this provocative book, book will be an all-important erich Gruen demonstrates how the ancients found connections source of information and will rather than contrasts, how they expressed admiration for the stimulate renewed discussion achievements and principles of other societies, and how they of the moral standards of the discerned—and even invented—kinship relations and shared roots ancients in their attitudes with diverse peoples. toward foreigners. This absorb- ingly written work will lead to erich S. Gruen is the Gladys Rehard wood Professor of History and a reconsideration of questions Classics (emeritus) at the University of California, Berkeley. regarding ethnic identity in the Martin Classical Lectures ancient Mediterranean world.” January 2011. 416 pages. 8 halftones. —Benjamin Isaac, Tel Aviv Cl: 978-0-691-14852-6 $39.50 | £27.95 University New Were the Jews a Mediterranean Society? Reciprocity and Solidarity in Ancient Judaism Seth Schwartz “There are very few books that combine grand ambition with careful and skeptical scholarship as successfully as this wonderfully provocative book. Seth Schwartz takes on the very biggest ques- tion of Second Temple Judaism: how different were the Jews from the Greco-Roman society in which they lived? And he does so with sharp sophistication and profound learning.” —Simon Goldhill, University of Cambridge How well integrated were Jews in the Mediterranean society controlled by ancient Rome? The Torah’s laws seem to constitute a rejection of the reciprocity-based social dependency and emphasis Seth Schwartz is the Lucius N. on honor that were customary in the ancient Mediterranean world. Littauer Professor of Classical But were Jews really a people apart, and outside of this broadly Jewish Civilization and profes- shared culture? Were the Jews a Mediterranean Society? argues that sor of religion at Columbia Jewish social relations in antiquity were animated by a core tension University. between biblical solidarity and exchange-based social values such as patronage, vassalage, formal friendship, and debt slavery. Were the Jews a Mediterranean Society? is the first comprehensive exploration of Jewish social integration in the Roman world, one that poses challenging new questions about the very nature of Mediterranean culture.