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CONTENTS

WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITY PRESS 1

SUSSEX ACADEMIC PRESS 8

MUSEUM TUSCULANUM PRESS 14

BAYLOR UNIVERSITY PRESS 15

UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY PRESS 17

UNIVERSITY PRESS OF SOUTHERN DENMARK 18

WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITY PRESS

THE THEOLOGY OF THE CHINESE JEWS, 1000-1850Jordan Paper

A thousand years ago, the Chinese government invited merchants from one of the Chinese portsynagogue communities to the capital, Kaifeng. The merchants settled there and the communityprospered. Over centuries, with government support, the Kaifeng Jews built and rebuilt theirsynagogue, which became perhaps the world’s largest. Some studied for the rabbinate; othersprepared for civil service examinations, leading to a disproportionate number of Jewishgovernment officials. While continuing orthodox Jewish practices they added rituals honouringtheir parents and the patriarchs, in keeping with Chinese custom. However, by the mid-eighteenth century—cut off from Judaism elsewhere for two centuries, their synagoguedestroyed by a flood, their community impoverished and dispersed by a civil war that devastatedKaifeng—their Judaism became defunct.

The Theology of the Chinese Jews traces the history of Jews in China and explores how theirtheology’s focus on love, rather than on the fear of a non-anthropomorphic God, may speak tocontemporary liberal Jews. Equally relevant to contemporary Jews is that the Chinese Jewsremained fully Jewish while harmonizing with the family-centred religion of China. In anilluminating postscript, Rabbi Anson Laytner underscores the point that Jewish culture can thrivein an open society, “without hostility, by absorbing the best of the dominant culture and makingit one’s own.”

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Jordan Paper is a professor emeritus at York University (East

Asian and Religious Studies) and a fellow at the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society at theUniversity of Victoria. He studied Buddhist Chinese at and received his doctorate in ChineseLanguage and Literature from the University of Wisconsin (Madison). His many books on religionand Chinese philosophy include The Fu-Tzu: A Post-Han Confucian Text, The Spirits Are Drunk:Comparative Approaches to Chinese Religion, The Chinese Way in Religion (2nd edition), and TheMystic Experience: A Descriptive and Comparative Approach.

HB 9781554583720 £60.99 February 2012 Wilfrid Laurier University 175 pages


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ANTI-JUDAISM IN EARLY CHRISTIANITY Volume 1Paul and the GospelsEdited by Peter Richardson, David Granskou

The period since the close of World War II has been agonizingly introspective--not least becauseof the pain of reassessing Christianity's attitude to Judaism. The early Christian materials haveoften been examined to assess their role in the long-standing negative attitude of Christians toJews. The motivation for the early church's sometimes harsh attitude was partly theological--itneeded to define itself over against its parent--and partly sociological--it needed to make clearthe line that divided the fledgling group of Christian believers fromt he group with which it wasmost likely to be confused. This collection of studies emphasizes the context and history of earlyChristianity in reconsidering many of the classic passages that have contributed to thedevelopment of anti-Judaism in Christianity. The volume opens with an essay that clearlydelineates the state of the question of anti-Judaism in early Christianity. Then follow discussionsof specific passages in the writings of Paul as well as the Gospels.

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Richard Granskou taught religious studies at Wilfrid Laurier

University.

PB 9780889201675 £30.99 April 1986 Wilfrid Laurier University Press 244 pages

ANTI-JUDAISM IN EARLY CHRISTIANITY Volume 2Separation and PolemicEdited by Stephen G. Wilson

The second volume in this two-volume work studying the initial developments of anti-Judaismwithin the church examines the evolution of the Christian faith in its social context as revealedby evidence such as early patristic and rabbinic writings and archaeological findings.

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Stephen G. Wilson is Professor of Religious Studies in the College

of the Humanities at Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario.

PB 9780889201965 £30.99 October 1986 Wilfrid Laurier University Press 197 pages

LAW IN RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES IN THE ROMAN PERIODThe Debate over Torah and Nomos in Post-Biblical Judaism and EarlyChristianityPeter Richardson, Stephen Westerholm, Albert I. Baumgarten, Michael Pettem, Cecilia Wassén

The role and function of law in religious communities in the Roman period—especially inJudaism—has been a key issue among scholars in recent years. This thought-provoking work isthe first full-scale attempt to write a historical assessment of the scholarly debate concerningthis question, focussing on two closely related religious communities, Judaism and Christianity.By juxtaposing the two religions, a clearer understanding of the developments with respect totorah and nomos in Judaism and early Christianity emerges.

This insightful work, placing emphasis on the major figures and both the scholarly lines ofdevelopment and the appropriate lines for future research, will set the debate in a clearer andmore and succinct manner. It will serve as a critical point of reference for further discussion.

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Stephen Westerholm is Associate Professor of Religious Studies

at McMaster University.



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FROM SERMON TO COMMENTARYExpounding the Bible in Talmudic BabyloniaEliezer Segal

The Bible has always been vital to Jewish religious life, and it has been expounded in diverseways. Perhaps the most influential body of Jewish biblical interpretation is the Midrash that wasproduced by expositors during the first five centuries CE. Many such teachings are collected inthe Babylonian Talmud, the monumental compendium of Jewish law and lore that was acceptedas the definitive statement of Jewish oral tradition for subsequent generations.

However, many of the Talmud’s interpretations of biblical passages appear bizarre or pointless.From Sermon to Commentary: Expounding the Bible in Talmudic Babylonia tries to explain thisphenomenon by carefully examining representative passages from a variety of methodologicalapproaches, paying particular attention to comparisons with Midrash composed in the Land ofIsrael.

Based on this investigation, Eliezer Segal argues that the Babylonian sages were utilizingdiscourses that had originated in Israel as rhetorical sermons in which biblical interpretation wasbeing employed in an imaginative, literary manner, usually based on the interplay between twoor more texts from different books of the Bible. Because they did not possess their own traditionof homiletic preaching, the Babylonian rabbis interpreted these comments without regard fortheir rhetorical conventions, as if they were exegetical commentaries, resulting in the distinctive,puzzling character of Babylonian Midrash.

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Eliezer Segal is a professor of religious studies at the University

of Calgary. A native of Montreal, he holds a PhD in rabbinics from the Hebrew University ofJerusalem. His primary areas of research include Talmudic literature, Jewish law and homiletics,and comparative biblical interpretation. His publications include scholarly monographs, popularscholarship, a children’s book, and many articles and book chapters.

HB 9780889204829 £60.99 November 2005 Wilfrid Laurier University Press 176 pages

TRAVEL AND RELIGION IN ANTIQUITYEdited by Philip A. Harland

Travel and Religion in Antiquity considers the importance of issues relating to travel for ourunderstanding of religious and cultural life among Jews, Christians, and others in the ancientworld, particularly during the Hellenistic and Roman eras. The volume is organized around fiveoverlapping areas where religion and travel intersect: travel related to honouring deities,including travel to festivals, oracles, and healing sanctuaries; travel to communicate the efficacyof a god or the superiority of a way of life, including the diffusion of cults or movements; travelto explore and encounter foreign peoples or cultures, including descriptions of these cultures inancient ethnographic materials; migration; and travel to engage in an occupation or vocation.

With interdisciplinary contributions that cover a range of literary, epigraphic, and archeologicalmaterials, the volume sheds light on the importance of movement in connection with religiouslife among Greeks, Romans, Nabateans, and others, including Judeans and followers of Jesus.

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Philip A. Harland is an associate professor in humanities and

ancient history at York University. His recent books on social and religious life in the Greco-

Roman world include Associations, Synagogues, and Congregations (2003) and Dynamics of

Identity in the World of the Early Christians (2009). He also runs a group of websites, a podcast,

and a blog on religions of the ancient Mediterranean at philipharland.com.

HB 9781554582228 £60.99 March 2011 Wilfrid Laurier University Press 306 pages


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MISHNAH AND THE SOCIAL FORMATION OF THE EARLY RABBINIC GUILDA Socio-Rhetorical ApproachJack N. Lightstone, Vernon K. Robbins

Where do the origins of the rabbinic movement lie, and how might evidence from the earlyrabbinic literature be made to reveal those origins?

In order to shed light on the early social formation of the rabbinic guild of masters, Lightstonebrings the theoretical and methodological insights of socio-rhetorical analysis to examineMishnah, the first document authored by the early rabbinic movement and its principal object ofstudy for several centuries.

He argues that the enshrinement of Mishnah served to model, via its pervasive rhetoric, theprincipal authoritative guild expertise that qualified and marked one as a member of the rabbinicguild. Furthermore, he establishes the social and historical venue in late second- and early third-century Galilee.

The author concludes that the social formation of the early rabbinic guild coalesced around theinstitution of the Jewish Patriarchy, for which the early rabbis served as bureaucratic-scribalretainers. He further suggests that the development of both the Patriarchy in the Land of Israeland the social formation of the rabbinic guild may have been spurred by the imposition ofRoman-style urbanization in the region over the course of the latter half of the second andbeginning of the third century.

Lightstone’s approach is informed by the insights and methods of several cognate disciplines,encompassing literary analysis, sociology and anthropology, and history (including, in the lastchapter, the history of material culture). The book will be of interest to advanced students in thehistory of Judaism, rabbinic literature, biblical studies, early Christianity, and the history ofreligion and culture in the late Roman Near East.

PB 9780889203754 £30.99 May 2002 Wilfrid Laurier University Press 245 pages

PLAYING A JEWISH GAMEGentile Christian Judaizing in the First and Second Centuries CEMichele Murray

Is it possible that early Christian anti-Judaism was directed toward people other than Jews?

Michele Murray proposes that significant strands of early Christian anti-Judaism were directedagainst Gentile Christians. More specifically, it was directed toward Gentile Christian judaizers.These were Christians who combined a commitment to Christianity with adherence in varyingdegrees to Jewish practices, without viewing such behaviour as contradictory. Several Christianleaders thought that these community members dangerously blurred the boundaries betweenChristianity and Judaism. As such, Gentile Christian judaizers became the target of much anti-Jewish rhetoric in various early Christian writings.

Evidence of Gentile Christian judaizers can be found in canonical sources, such as Pauls Letter tothe Galatians and the Book of Revelation, as well as non-canonical sources, such as the Epistle ofBarnabas, the Didache, and Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho. In order to compare thephenomenon of judaizing and the reaction to it of ecclesiastical authorities, Murray organizesthe evidence by probable geographical location, using Asia Minor and Syria as the two main loci.

The phenomenon of Gentile Christian judaizing is examined within the broader context of Jewish-Christian relations in the early centuries, and is the first attempt to draw all possible referencesto Gentile Christian judaizers together into one study to consider them as a whole. This discussioninvites readers to reflect on the existence of Gentile Christian judaizers as another point on thecontinuum of Jewish-Christian relations in the Greco-Roman world — an area, Murray concludes,that needs to be more carefully defined.

HB 9780889204010 £60.99 April 2004 Wilfrid Laurier University Press 224 pages


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RELIGIOUS RIVALRIES AND THE STRUGGLE FOR SUCCESS IN CAESAREAMARITIMAEdited by Terence L. Donaldson

We know how the story of the Roman Empire ended with the "triumph" of Christianity and theeventual Christianization of the Roman Mediterranean. But how would religious life haveappeared to an observer at a time when the conversion of the emperor was only a Christian pipedream? And how would it have appeared in one particular city, rather than in the Roman Empireas a whole?

This volume takes a detailed look at the religious dimension of life in one particular Roman cityCaesarea Maritima, on the Mediterranean coast of Judea. Caesarea was marked by a complexreligious identity from the outset. Over time, other religious groups, including Christianity,Mithraism and Samaritanism, found a home in the city, where they jostled with each other, andwith those already present, for position, influence and the means of survival.

Written by a team of seasoned scholars and promising newcomers, this book brings a newperspective to the study of religion in antiquity. Along with the deliberate goal to understandreligion as an urban phenomenon, Religious Rivalries and the Struggle for Success in CaesareaMaritima studies religious groups as part of the dynamic process of social interaction, spanninga spectrum from coexistence, through competition and rivalry, to open conflict. The cumulativeresult is a fresh and fascinating look at one of antiquity’s most interesting cities.

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Terence L. Donaldson is the Lord and Lady Coggan Professor of

New Testament Studies at Wycliffe College (University of Toronto). He is author of two otherbooks — Jesus on the Mountain and Paul and the Gentiles — and is one of the co-chairpersonsof the "Religious Rivalries" Seminar.


RELIGIOUS RIVALRIES AND THE STRUGGLE FOR SUCCESS IN SARDIS ANDSMYRNAEdited by Richard S. Ascough

This volume, one in a series of books examining religious rivalries, focuses in detail on thereligious dimension of life in two particular Roman cities: Sardis and Smyrna. The essays explorethe relationships and rivalries among Jews, Christians, and various Greco-Roman religious groupsfrom the second century bce to the fourth century ce.

The thirteen contributors, including seasoned scholars and promising newcomers, bring freshperspectives on religious life in antiquity. They draw upon a wide range of archaeological,epigraphic, and literary data to investigate the complex web of relationships that existed amongthe religious groups of these two cities—from coexistence and cooperation to competition andconflict. To the extent that the essays investigate how religious groups are shaped by their urbansettings, the book also offers insights into the material urban realities of the Roman Empire.

Investigating two cities together in one volume highlights similarities and differences in theinteraction of religious groups in each location. The specific focus on Sardis and Smyrna isbroadened through an investigation of methodological issues involved in the study of theinteraction of urban-based religious groups in antiquity. The volume will be of particular interestto scholars and advanced students in Biblical Studies, Classical Studies, and Archaeology.

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Richard S. Ascough is Associate Professor of New Testament at

Queen's Theological College in Kingston, Ontario.



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RITUAL AND ETHNIC IDENTITYA Comparative Study of the Social Meaning of Liturgical Ritual in SynagoguesJack N. Lightstone, Frederick B. Bird, Simcha Fishbane, Marc P. Lalonde, Victor Levin, LouiseMayer, Madeleine Mcbrearty

In this innovative and comprehensive collection of essays Jack Lightstone and Frederick Birddocument and interpret ritual practice among contemporary Canadian Jews. They particularlyfocus on the character and meaning of the public performance of the Sabbath liturgy in six urbanCanadian synagogues, ranging from Orthodox to Reform, and from large congregations to a smallhouse synagogue-yeshiva (rabbinic academy). Their examination of synagogue ritual iscomplemented with accounts of the ritual life of contemporary Canadian Jews outside thesynagogue — amongst their families, within their homes and beyond.

In contrast with other studies of Jewish observance, Lightstone and Bird document not simplywhich rituals are practised and how often; rather they stress the meaning, including the socialmeaning, of these rituals and treat them as complex symbolic systems. Their multidisciplinaryapproach together with their openness to include a wide variety of phenomena in their study(for example, the organization of the physical setting of the Sabbath, dress codes and patternsof greeting and handshaking) place this work at the very forefront of current research.

Ritual and Ethnic Identity will be of great value to historians and sociologists of religion,anthropologists and all those concerned with religion, ritual and Canadian Jewish and ethnicstudies.

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Jack N. Lightstone is Vice-President Academic at Concordia

University in Montreal. His previous publications include Society, the Sacred, and Scripture inAncient Judaism and The Rhetoric of the Babylonian Talmud, Its Social Meaning and Context.Frederick B. Bird teaches Comparative Ethics and the Sociology of Religion at ConcordiaUniversity.

HB 9780889202474 £60.99 June 1995 Wilfrid Laurier University Press 232 pages

TEXT AND ARTIFACT IN THE RELIGIONS OF MEDITERRANEAN ANTIQUITYEssays in Honour of Peter RichardsonEdited by Stephen G. Wilson, Michel Desjardins

Can archaeological remains be made to “speak” when brought into conjunction with texts? Canwritten remains, on stone or papyrus, shed light on the parables of Jesus, or on the Jewish viewof afterlife? What are the limits to the use of artifactual data, and when is the value overstated?Text and Artifact addresses the complex and intriguing issue of how primary religious texts fromthe ancient Mediterranean world are illuminated by, and in turn illuminate, the ever-increasingamount of artifactual evidence available from the surrounding world.

The book honours Peter Richardson, and the first two chapters offer appreciations of thisscholarship and teaching. The remaining chapters focus on early Christianity, late-antiqueJudaism and topics germane to the Roman world at large. Many of the essays relate to featuresof Jewish life — the epigraphic evidence for gentile converts to Judaism or for Jewish defectors,ancient accounts of the Essenes or of the siege of Masada, and the material context of the firstgreat rabbinic work, the Mishnah. Other essays connect early Christian texts with the social andcultural realia of their day — modes of travel, notions of gender, patronage and benefaction, therelation of tenants and owners — or reflect on the aesthetics of Christian architecture and therelation between building and ritual in Constantinian churches. One study relates the writing ofthe famous novelist Apuleius to a household mithraeum in Ostia, while another explores thechanging appropriation of religious realia as the Roman world became Christian.

These wide-ranging and original studies demonstrate clearly that texts and artifacts can bemutually supportive. Equally, they point to ways in which artifacts, no less than texts, areinherently ambiguous and teach us to be cautious in our conclusions.

HB 9780889203563 £67.99 May 2000 Wilfrid Laurier University Press 632 pages


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THE RHETORIC OF THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD, ITS SOCIAL MEANING ANDCONTEXTJack N. Lightstone

Virtually from its redaction about the sixth century A.D., the Babylonian Talmud became therabbinic document par excellence. Through its lens almost all previous canonical rabbinictradition was refracted. Study and mastery of the Talmud marked one as a rabbi, a “master.” Thisbook examines the character, use and social meaning of the formalized rhetoric which pervadesthe Babylonian Talmud. It explores, first, how the editors of the Talmud employ a consistent andhighly laconic code of formalized linguistic terms and literary patterns to create the Talmud’s(renowned) dialectical, analytic “essays.” Second, the work considers the social meaningsimplicitly communicated by the use of this rhetoric, which not only provided an authoritativemodel for modes of thought and for treatment of earlier authoritative Judaic tradition, but alsoreflected, reinforced or helped engender new social definitions.

Through comparison of the Talmud’s rhetoric with that of other, earlier rabbinic documents andby placing the editing of the Talmud against the backdrop of the social and political situation ofRabbinism in the Late Persian Empire, the book relates the Talmud’s creation and promulgationto a major shift in Rabbinism’s understanding of the social role, “rabbi,” and to the emergenceand ascendancy of the talmudic academy (the Yeshiva) as the primary institution of Rabbinismtoward the end of Late Antiquity. In its agenda, and methodological and theoretical perspectives,The Rhetoric of the Babylonian Talmud brings together the insights and tools of historical, literaryand rhetorical analysis of the New Testament and of early rabbinic literature, on the one hand,and the sociological and anthropological study of religion, on the other.

PB 9780889202382 £30.99 June 1994 Wilfrid Laurier University Press 331 pages

WHOSE HISTORICAL JESUS?Edited by William E. Arnal, Michel Desjardins

The figure of Jesus has fascinated Western civilization for centuries. As the year 2000 approaches,eliciting connections with Jesus’ birth and return, excitement grows — as does the number ofstudies about Jesus. Cutting through this mass of material, Whose Historical Jesus? provides acollection of penetrating, jargon-free, intelligently organized essays that convey well both thecentrality and the complexity of deciphering the historical Jesus.

Contributors include such eminent scholars as John Dominic Crossan, Burton L. Mack, SeánFreyne and Peter Richardson. Essays range from traditional to modern and postmodern andaddress both recent and enduring concerns. Introductions and reflections augment these lucidessays, provide context and help the reader focus on the issues at stake. Whose Historical Jesus?will be of interest to all who wish to understand the current controversies and historical debates,who want insightful critiques of those views or who would like guidance on the direction of futurestudies.

AUTHOR INFORMATION: William E. Arnal is an assistant professor in the Department of

Religion and Classics at New York University.Michel Desjardins is an associate professor in the Department of Religion and Culture at WilfridLaurier University.



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SUSSEX ACADEMIC PRESS

DREAMERS OF ZIONJOSEPH SMITH & GEORGE J ADAMSReed M Holmes

Joseph Smith Jr., founder of the Mormon movement and George J. Adams, one of his least knownfollowers – two Gentile dreamers of Zion – were instrumental in encouraging Jews and Christiansto support the restoration of Israel.

For Joseph Smith, Jewish responsibility for establishing Zion had not been forfeited norterminated. It was continuous: the Jews would return as Jews; they would rebuild Jerusalem asJews. In his view, neither the denigration of Jews, so often characteristic of Christianity, norsupersession by the Church, was tenable. According to Joseph’s perception of the Scriptures, andhis own prophetic insights, there are to be two strategic centers – Zion at historical Jerusalem,and Zion in a New Jerusalem in the heartland of America. He believed that a renewed Israel anda church, restored to its primal purpose, shared a mandate to body forth in society the dream ofthe Kingdom of God. He called this dream the cause of Zion, which became a major emphasis ofthe Mormon movement.

This book explains the rejection by Smith and Adams of “normal” Christian replacement theologyand sets out the apologetics by which Smith and Adams promoted courage and conviction in allwho joined them in encouraging the ingathering of the Jewish exiles to Jerusalem.

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Reed M. Holmes received his MA from Los Angeles State College

and his PhD from Haifa University.

HB 9781903900628 £42.50 January 2003 Sussex Academic Press 224 pages

CONTESTING SYMBOLIC LANDSCAPE IN JERUSALEMJewish/Islamic Conflict over the Museum of Tolerance at Mamilla CemeteryYitzhak Reiter

In 2006 a dispute broke out regarding an initiative by the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles(backed by Israeli authorities) to construct a Museum of Tolerance (MoT) in West Jerusalem. Themuseum was to be built on a plot of land that in the past had been part of the historic MuslimMamilla Cemetery, which since the 1980s has served as a municipal parking lot. Debate centredon whether construction of a museum dedicated to human dignity on Muslim cemeterial landwas justified.

The Northern Islamic Movement and a group of 70 academics and eight Israeli civil societyorganizations (including rabbis) opposed the project, but their petition to Israel’s High Court ofJustice failed. Yitzhak Reiter presents the public and legal dilemmas at the individual level (an actof insensitivity to the Muslim minority in Jerusalem); at the political level (the right of equaltreatment by the state and the right to administer holy properties [waqf] according to religiouslaw and rulings of shari’a [Islamic law] courts); and at the universal level (can conflict over a holyplace be addressed objectively from the ideological/political positions that the place symbolizes,and is a secular civil court competent/appropriate to adjudicate a religious conflict). Research forthis book integrates a multi-disciplinary approach involving history, identity politics, and conflictresolution. Sources include documents obtained from the Shari’a Court of Jerusalem and Israel’sHigh Court of Justice, as well as Islamic law and Israeli civil law literature, reports of expertssubmitted to the courts, and personal participation of the author, including discussions with keyplayers and informants. The Mamilla dispute reflects a microcosm of conflicts over religious andnational symbols of cultural heritage as well as Jewish majority–Arab minority tensions withinIsrael.

HB 9781845196554 £40.00 May 2014 Sussex Academic Press 224 pagesPB 9781845196615 £22.50 May 2014 Sussex Academic Press 224 pages


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THE CRYPTO-JEWISH MASHHADISThe Shaping of Religious & Communal Identity in their Journey from Iran toNew York Hilda Nissimi

This book tells the little-known story of a fascinating crypto-Jewish community through twocenturies and three continents. Beginning as a precarious settlement of a few families in mid-eighteenth-century Mashhad, an Islamic holy city in northern Iran, the community grew into aclosely-knit group in response to their forced conversion to Islam in 1839. Muslim hostility and aculture of memory sustained by intra-communal marriages reinforced their separate religiousidentity, vesting it in strong family and communal loyalty. Mashhadi women became the mainagents of the cultural transmission of communal identity and achieved social roles and highstatus uncharacteristic for contemporary Jewish and Muslim communities.

The Mashhadis maintained a double identity – upholding Islam in public while tenaciouslyholding onto their Jewish identity in secret. The exodus from Mashhad after 1946 relocated thecommunal centre to Tehran, and later to Israel and after the Khomeini revolution to New York.The relationship between the formation and retention of communal identity and memorypractices – with interconnected issues of religion and gender – draws upon existing research onother crypto-faith communities, such as the Judeoconversos, the Moriscos, and the FrenchProtestants, who through the special blend of memory-faith and ethnicity emerged strengthenedfrom their underground period. For the immigration period, the author challenges the oldparadigm that “modernity and religion are mutually exclusive”. The book also explores thesometimes uncomfortable yet intimate relationships that exist between seemingly incompatibleways of seeing the past, both secular and religious.

HB 9781845194161 £22.50 January 2010 Sussex Academic Press 180 pages

‘FROM ONE END OF THE EARTH TO THE OTHER’The London Bet Din, 1805-1855, & the Jewish Convicts Transported toAustraliaJeremy I. Pfeffer

The emancipation of the Jews of England was largely complete when George III came to thethrone in 1760. Free to live how and where they wished, the Jews had been specifically exemptedfrom the provisions of the 1753 Marriage Act which made Christian marriage the only legaloption for all others. The effect of this exemption was to put the matrimonial causes of the Jewsof England exclusively in the hands of their Rabbis and Dayanim (Jewish ecclesiastical judges) forthe next one hundred years. No Bet Din (Jewish ecclesiastical court) anywhere in the world hasleft such a complete record of its transactions – matrimonial and proselytical – as that containedin the extant Pinkas (minute-book) of the London Bet Din from 1805 to 1855.

In all other matters, including the offences punishable by transportation, Jews were subject tothe jurisdiction of the civil courts. Of the estimated 150,000 convict transportees shipped to theAustralian penal colonies, some seven hundred were Jews. Matrimonial and related mattersinvolving twenty of these miscreants are recorded in the Pinkas. Jeremy Pfeffer recounts thehistory of the London Bet Din during these years as revealed by the Pinkas record and relates thepreviously untold stories of this group of Jewish convict transportees and their families.

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Jeremy I. Pfeffer teaches physics at the Rehovot campus of the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

PB 9781845193669 £22.50 July 2009 Sussex Academic Press 355 pages


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THE HOLY PLACES OF JERUSALEM IN MIDDLE EAST PEACE AGREEMENTSThe Conflict Between Global & State IdentitiesEnrico Molinaro

Throughout history, Jerusalem and its Holy Places have been the objects of fierce religiouscontroversy over worship rights, such as the Holy Sepulchre inter-Christian disputes and the HarHa Bait/Haram Al Sharif (Temple Mount/Noble Sanctuary) Israeli–Jewish/Palestinian-Muslimdisputes. This multidisciplinary study offers two competing political ways of interpreting thesedisputes and the Arab–Israeli conflict in general: the state/national (territorial) perspectivefocuses on Israelis and Palestinians as the two main groups entitled to possession of and worshipin Jerusalem’s Holy Places; the global/transnational perspective, on the other hand, entitlesmillions of Jews, Christians, Muslims and their respective clergy worldwide to raise claims to thecity’s Holy Places as universal symbols of devotion and worship.

This work provides international law practitioners and Middle East scholars with a thoroughoverview of the legal, historical and diplomatic interpretation of the provisions embodied in theinternational documents adopted in the Middle East Peace Process. In addition to applying thelegal notion of international local custom, this study provides three alternative terms to expressthe three different meanings of sovereignty namely, independence, authority and title. Based onhis work’s methodology and conclusions, the author has initiated second track meetings behindclosed doors between Israelis and Palestinians, which have resulted in a political–diplomaticdata-base. Those seeking a deeper understanding of the intricate legal terminology surroundingJerusalem will find the main results produced by these meetings to be of particular interest, suchas The Guidelines for a Jerusalem Statute, wherein both parties share cultural–religiousprinciples towards building a better coexistence in Jerusalem (Annex III), and The Glossary ofhistorically complex terms such as Status Quo and Holy Places (Annex IV).

HB 9781845193355 £65.00 April 2009 Sussex Academic Press 198 pagesPB 9781845194048 £22.50 December 2009 Sussex Academic Press 198 pages

THE JEWSTheir Religious Beliefs & Practices (Second Edition)Alan Unterman

In this revised and fully updated introduction to Jewish beliefs and practices, Alan Untermandemonstrates that Judaism is a living religion which retains the vitality apparent in the Biblicalcorpus, but which has gone on to develop institutions, modes of behaviour and patterns ofthought which together constitute the singularity of Jewish expression.

The study as a whole portrays a vivid insight into the great legal, mystical, theological, ethical andritual traditions which have preserved the identity of the exiled and often outcast Jew, andenabled him to carry the message of the Hebrew Bible into the modern world.

REVIEWS: "Alan Unterman offers a comprehensive survey of the major ideas, customs and

movements which have made Judaism what it is. It is also an excellent book for the intelligentreader whose knowledge of Judaism is deficient. The reader who is well versed in Judaism willalso find much that is new and provocative."

PB 9781898723417 £16.95 January 1999 Sussex Academic Press 248 pages


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ISAAC ABOAB DA FONSECAJewish Leadership in the New WorldMoisés Orfali

From 1642 to 1654 Isaac Aboab da Fonseca was the hakham (Torah scholar) and spiritual leaderof the oldest Jewish community in the New World. As a Hebrew grammarian, a poet, and amystic, as well as an excellent and very popular preacher, Aboab da Fonseca (b. 1605) was notonly one of the most interesting Jewish personalities of the seventeenth century, but his writingsare an invaluable historical resource with regard to many aspects of Jewish life in Dutch ColonialBrazil, the local attitudes towards Jews, and corroboration of events outlined in contemporaryliterary sources.

His forebears were so-called New Christians, having undergone compulsory conversion toCatholicism in Portugal. In order to be able to live freely as professing Jews, the family moved inabout 1612 to Amsterdam. There, Hakham Isaac Uziel of Fez became his Talmud teacher; amonghis colleagues was Menasseh Ben Israel. In 1638 he was confirmed as one of the four hakhamimof the new congregation Talmud Torah of Amsterdam. In 1641/42 he accepted the nominationfor hakham of the growing Jewish community in Recife, Brazil, where he was in charge of allrabbinical functions and gave lectures in Talmud. Aboab da Fonseca enjoyed a few prosperousyears, but the Portuguese rebellion caused the economic ruin of the Jews of Dutch Brazil. Hissalary much reduced, he nevertheless remained to lead and help his people until the occupationof Recife by Brazilian-Portuguese troops on January 26, 1654. Upon returning to Amsterdam, hisinclination toward mysticism made him one of the leading believers in the false messiahShabbetai Zvi. But his writing and scholarship remained undiminished: In 1646 he wrote Zekherasiti leniflaot El, in which he described events in Dutch Brazil after the outbreak of the war; by1647 he had written the still unpublished Hebrew grammar book Melekhet ha-Dikduk; he alsopublished a Hebrew translation of the Spanish cabbalistic works of Abraham Cohen Herrera, Casade Dios y Puerta del Cielo, under the title Sha'ar ha-Shamayim (The Gate of Heaven).

This first scholarly monograph on Isaac Aboab da Fonseca and his intellectual and spiritualcontributions, includes discussion of his commentary on the Pentateuch entitled ParafrasisComentada sobre el Pentateuco, as well as a consideration of Aboab’s involvement in the ban ofSpinoza.

HB 9781845193546 £49.95 April 2016 Sussex Academic Press 212 pages

ISRAEL, THE DIASPORA & JEWISH IDENTITYEdited by Danny Ben-Moshe, Zohar Segev

Investigates the significance, contribution, and role played by the State of Israel – ideologicallyand practically – in the identity of Diaspora Jews.

Explores the extent and way Israel features in Diaspora identity through a range of issuesincluding: anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, Jewish continuity and Israel visits, the peace process,pro-Israel lobbying, philanthropy, religious thought and gender

Examines the place of Israel in the identity of Jewish communities in eight countries and amongstthe Israeli Diaspora

A unique feature of this volume is that each chapter is followed by short and insightful viewpointsby Israeli and Diaspora commentators, with the book reflecting a dialogue between thesedifferent voices from across the Jewish world

Jews, like everyone else, have multiple identities and Israel is only one aspect of Jewish identitythat has to compete and coexist with many other Jewish and non-Jewish factors. This bookexplores what it is about Israel that resonates or not with Diaspora Jews, leading them to placeIsrael above, alongside or below competing or complementary considerations in their identity

HB 9781845191894 £55.00 July 2007 Sussex Academic Press 353 pagesPB 9781845192426 £25.00 August 2007 Sussex Academic Press 353 pages


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A JEW'S BEST FRIEND?The Image of the Dog Throughout Jewish HistoryEdited by Phillip Ackerman-Lieberman, Rakefet Zalashik

The dog has captured the Jewish imagination from antiquity to the contemporary period, withthe image of the dog often used to characterize and demean Jewish populations in medievalChristendom. In the interwar period, dogs were still considered goyishe nakhes (‘a gentilepleasure’) and virtually unheard of in the Jewish homes of the shtetl. Yet, Azit the ParatroopingDog of modern Israeli cinema, one of many examples of dogs as heroes of the Zionist narrative,demonstrates that the dog has captured the contemporary Jewish imagination.

A Jew’s Best Friend? The Image of the Dog throughout Jewish History discusses specific culturalmanifestations of the relationship between dogs and Jews, from ancient times to the present.Covering a geographical range extending from the Middle East through Europe and to NorthAmerica, the contributors – all of whom are senior university scholars specializing in variousdisciplines – provide a unique cross-cultural, trans-national, diachronic perspective. An importanttheme is the constant tension between domination/control and partnership which underpins therelationship of humans to animals, as well as the connection between Jewish societies and theirbroader host cultures.

A public increasingly interested in cultural history in general and Jewish history in particular willbenefit from the diverse perspectives provided herein. One need look no further than thepopular media surrounding President Obama’s choice of a canine companion: dog-owners anddog-lovers, and all those involved at university level with cultural studies, can deepen theirunderstanding of the human–canine relationship by reading this volume.

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Phillip Ackerman-Lieberman is Assistant Professor in the

Program in Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University.Rakefet Zalashik is Visiting Fellow in the Corcoran Department of History at the University ofVirginia, as well as Württemberg Guest Chair in Israel and Near Eastern Studies at the Universityof Heidelberg.

HB 9781845194017 £55.00 April 2013 Sussex Academic Press 304 pagesPB 9781845194024 £22.50 April 2013 Sussex Academic Press 304 pages

THE MEETING OF CIVILIZATIONSMuslim, Christian & JewishEdited by Moshe Ma’oz

The horrific acts of anti-Western and anti-Jewish terrorism carried out by Muslim fanatics duringthe last decades have been labelled by politicians, religious leaders and scholars as a “Clashof Civilizations”. However, as the contributors to this book set out to explain, these acts cannotbe considered an Islamic onslaught on Judeo-Christian Civilization.

While the hostile ideas, words and deeds perpetrated by supporters among thethree monotheistic civilizations cannot be ignored, history has demonstrated a more positive,constructive, albeit complex, relationship among Muslim, Christians and Jews during medievaland modern times. For long periods of time they shared divine and human values, cooperated incultural, economic and political fields, and influenced one another’s thinking.

This book examines religious and historical themes of these three civilizing religions, the impactof education on their interrelationship, the problem of Jerusalem, as well as contemporaryinterfaith relations. Noted scholars and theologians – Jewish, Christian and Muslim – from theUnited States, Canada, Egypt, Indonesia, Israel, Pakistan, Palestine and Turkey contribute to thisbook, the theme of which was first presented at an international conference organized by theWeatherhead Center for International Affairs, and the Divinity School, Harvard University.

HB 9781845192877 £49.95 September 2008 Sussex Academic Press 264 pagesPB 9781845193959 £19.95 October 2009 Sussex Academic Press 264 pages


13

SPECIAL OFFER – Hardback at paperback pricePROVIDENCE IN THE BOOK OF JOBThe Search for God's MindJeremy I Pfeffer

Discusses the origins of the Book of Job, the key personalities in its narrative (God, Satan andJob), and the workings of Providence as reflected in Scripture and Talmudic source

A critical presentation of the sense of the Book of Job as it appears in the commentaries of R.Saadiah Gaon, R. Abraham Ibn Ezra, the Rashi School of exegetes, Maimonides, Nahmanides,Gersonides, R. Joseph Caspi, the Zohar and Kabbalists, Rabbeinu Bachya Asher, R. ZerahiahGarcian, R. Simeon ben Zemah Duran and R. Meir Lebush Malbi

Much of the material has never before appeared in the English language

Provides Hebrew setting of key words and phrases in the Job story

HB 9781845192259 £25.00 April 2005 Sussex Academic Press 212 pages

SEMITISMThe Whence & Whither, 'How Dear Are your Counsels'Kenneth Cragg

Semitism is a human story of distinctive intimacy with a God, believed to belong with birth, sealedin history and homed in given territory. “How dear are Your counsels to me, O God,” the psalmistcried – how precious, yet how costly this privilege between us. These three denominators oftribe, territory and remembered time belong to all human identities, understood as one creationin a single cosmos in the Bible and the Qur’an.

Anti-Semitism is a tragic misprision of this long conviction of the Judaic mind, bringing endlesssuffering to the one, shame and guilt to the other. Its effect has been to make “those counselsdearer” still, whether in Zionist will to recover and rule territory or in a secular diaspora strugglingto know itself. Semitism has overtaken itself with the barbarity of a dividing Wall – a scar acrossa land allegedly “beloved above all”, by both God and People. Its presence resembles Solomon’sjudgment on a disputed child.

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Kenneth Cragg was first in Jerusalem in 1939, and subsequently

became deeply involved in areas of faith between Semitic religions under the stress of currentpolitics. He later pursued doctoral studies in Oxford where he first graduated and became‘Prizeman’in Theology and Moral Philosophy, and where he is now an Honorary Fellow of JesusCollege.

REVIEWS: A masterful study that demonstrates Cragg’s profound knowledge and scholarship

of the historical, theological and scriptural sources of Judaism, Christianity and Islam as well asthe current conflict in the Middle East. Bold and original, it provides an empathetic reassessmentof the Jewish fear of anti-Semitism grounded in the context of European history that culminatedin the horrors of the Holocaust and the displacement and suffering of the Palestinian people.Cragg demonstrates his impeccable analytical skills to uncover the manipulation of the fear ofanti-Semitism to justify Israeli policies. Profound, enlightening, a must read for anyoneconcerned with the issue of anti-Semitism and the Middle East conflict.Yvonne Y. Haddad, Center for Muslim–Christian Understanding, Georgetown University

PB 9781845190712 £15.95 January 2005 Sussex Academic Press 214 pages


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SPECIAL OFFER – Hardback at paperback priceTWENTY-FIRST CENTURY YIDDISHISMLanguage, Identity & the New Jewish StudiesTatjana Soldat-Jaffe

Drawing on sociolinguistics and cultural studies, Twenty-First Century Yiddishism examinestransnational critical debates about teaching Yiddish over the last hundred years. It looks at theways a contested pedagogical terrain comes to define a minority language’s on-going resourcesof cultural and ideological resilience. From the inaugural international academic conference onthe language held in 1908 in the Austro-Hungarian empire to the rise of Yiddish home-schoolingand the surge of interest as a subject of secondary language study in recent years, the status,turf-sharing conflicts and pedagogical frictions surrounding the shuttling of Yiddish back-and-forth reveal a fraught yet surprisingly dynamic situation.

Through historical and comparative analysis – including archival work, surveys, interviews, closetextual reading, discourse analysis, and ideological critique – the author reports on three criticalcase-studies for the language’s futurity: ultra-orthodox Jewry in the UK, “heritage” learners inthe US, and “multi-cultural” non-Jewish learners in Germany. The volume addresses severaltimely preoccupations in the fields of both Jewish Studies and Linguistics, pulling togethermultiple strands from the humanities and the social sciences concerning the evolving politics oflanguage, pedagogy, transnationalism and diaspora, the meaning of heritage languages, andreligious and ethnic identity in the modern era. Twenty-First Century Yiddishism will be of keeninterest to all who study these disciplines academically, as well as other readers in literary andcultural studies, literary and cultural theory, anthropology, and history.

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Tatjana Soldat-Jaffe holds a PhD from University of Illinois, and is

currently a professor at University of Louisville, Kentucky, where she supervises the linguisticsprogram. Her research and teaching interest focus on Yiddish studies, language & culture, andlanguage & ideology.

HB 9781845196578 £19.95 February 2012 Sussex Academic Press 246 pages

MUSEUM TUSCULANUM PRESS

CHRISTIAN CONCEPTIONS OF JEWISH BOOKSThe Pfefferkorn AffairAvner Shamir

This study explores the conflicting perceptions that Christians held of the meaning andsignificance of Jewish books at the beginning of the 16th century – a time when, following theirgeneral expulsion from many countries and territories, there were fewer Jews in western andcentral Europe than in the previous thousand years. This account tells the story of the so-called“Pfefferkorn affair”: a tenacious campaign led by the German Johann Pfefferkorn – previously aJew and now a convert to Christianity – to confiscate and burn all Jewish post-biblical literaturein the Holy Roman Empire in the years 1509–10. The author follows the fate of the confiscatedbooks and their examination by a commission of experts, exploring how Christians perceivedJewish scholarship and knowledge and the consequences of those perceptions.

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Avner Shamir is a Doctoral candidate at the Department of

Culture and Identity at Roskilde University.

PB 9788763507721 £16.99 June 2011 Museum Tusculanum Press 130 pages


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BAYLOR UNIVERSITY PRESS

THE BIBLE AND THE DEAD SEA SCROLLSVolumes 1-3Edited by James H Charlesworth

The recovery of 800 documents in the eleven caves on the north-west shores of the Dead Sea isone of the most sensational archaeological discoveries in the Holy Land to date. These threevolumes, the very best of critical scholarship, demonstrate in detail how the scrolls haverevolutionised our knowledge of the text of the Bible, the character of Second Temple Judaism,and the Jewish beginnings of Christianity. This three-volume set is a must-read for scholarsinterested in the Jewish origin of Christianity.

HB 9781932792348 £216.99 March 2006 Baylor University Press 1575 pagesPB 9781932792782 £166.99 March 2006 Baylor University Press 1567 pages

IN QUEST OF THE HISTORICAL PHARISEESEdited by Jacob Neusner, Bruce D Chilton

This work sketches the many portraits of the Pharisees that emerge from ancient sources. Basedupon the Gospels, the writings of Paul, Josephus, the Mishnah, the Tosefta, and archeology, thevolume profiles the Pharisees and explores the relationship between the Pharisees and theJudaic religious system foreshadowed by the library of Qumran. A great virtue of this study isthat no attempt is made to homogenize the distinct pictures or reconstruct a singular account ofthe Pharisees; instead, by carefully considering the sources, the chapters allow different picturesof the Pharisees to stand side by side.

REVIEWS: Whether as parents, foils, or both, the Pharisees have always been a focus of interest

for anyone interested in the genesis of Christianity or of rabbinic Judaism. This volume allowsserious readers an opportunity to learn the sources, to follow the debates, and so to understandand assess a revolution in historical and theological scholarship.Daniel R. Schwartz, Professor of Ancient Jewish History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

PB 9781932792720 £33.50 April 2007 Baylor University Press 548 pages

JUDAISM AND THE GENTILESJewish Patterns of Universalism (to 135 CE)Terence L. Donaldson

In the Second-Temple period non-Jews were attracted to Judaism's communal life, religiousobservance and theological imagination. On the Jewish side, this was matched by thedevelopment of several discrete "patterns of universalism"-ways in which Jews were able toconceive of a positive place for Gentiles within their symbolic world. In this book TerenceDonaldson collects and comments on all of the texts (to the end of the second Jewish rebellionin 135 CE) that deal with Gentile sympathizers, proselytes, ethical monotheists and participantsin end-time redemption. In impressive detail, Donaldson identifies, defines, and describes these"patterns of universalism."

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Terence L. Donaldson (Th.D. Wycliffe College and University of

Toronto) is Lord and Lady Coggan Professor of New Testament Studies at Wycliffe College andthe Director of Advanced Degree Programs at the Toronto School of Theology. He is the authorof two other books, including, Jesus on the Mountain: A Study in Matthean Theology (JSTOTPress), and Paul and the Gentiles: Remapping the Apostle's Convictional World (Fortress Press).

HB 9781602580251 £58.50 October 2007 Baylor University Press 580 pages


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PERFORMING ISRAEL'S FAITHNarrative and Law in Rabbinic TheologyJacob Neusner

If law alone yields legalism, then religious belief, by itself, fails to create justice. In PerformingIsrael's Faith, Jacob Neusner shows how Jewish Halakhah (law) and Aggadah (narrative) fittogether to form a robust and coherent covenant theology—one directly concerned about thisworld. Neusner's careful and thorough examination of several key issues within rabbinicJudaism—the nations, idolatry, sin, repentance, and atonement—demonstrates that neitherHalakhah nor Aggadah can be fully and rightly understood when the two are isolated from eachother. Performing Israel's Faith thus effectively reveals that rabbinic Judaism's true pattern ofreligion was constituted by a covenant theology comprised by both law and story—a covenanttheology whose aim was to restore the sanctification of God's original creation.

REVIEWS: Neusner brings together into a coherent picture the diverse legal and theological

worlds of Halakhah and Aggadah, demonstrating how each in its own way was an integralcomponent of rabbinic covenantal religion. Especially instructive is the manner in which he isable to extrapolate from the law's specific aspects of the realia of everyday life to which theHalakhah spoke. As a bonus, students of early Jewish literature and the New Testament will findfresh points of continuity and discontinuity with the traditions of rabbinic Judaism.George W. E. Nickelsburg, Professor Emeritus, University of Iowa

PB 9781932792256 £29.50 August 2005 Baylor University Press 230 pages

REVOLUTIONARY FORGIVENESSEssays on Judaism, Christianity, and the Future of Religious LifeMarc H Ellis

Revolutionary Forgiveness is a startling series of essays challenging the prevailing sensibilities ofboth Jews and Christians. In the call for accountability and commitment, Ellis asks whether thecurrent boundaries that Jews and Christians claim continue to provide the foundations for faithand the embrace of the covenant.

HB 9780918954756 £33.50 October 2000 Baylor University Press 357 pagesPB 9781602583412 £41.99 November 2010 Baylor University Press 357 pages

TOWARD A JEWISH THEOLOGY OF LIBERATIONForeword by Desmond Tutu and Gustavo GutierrezMarc H. Ellis

Turmoil still grips the Middle East and fear now paralyzes post-9/11 America. The comforts andchallenges of this book are thus as timely as when first published in 1987. With new reflectionson the future of Judaism and Israel, Ellis underscores the enduring problem of justice. Ellis' useof liberation theology to make connections between the Holocaust and contemporarycommunities from the Third World reminds both Jews and oppressed Christians that they sharecommon ground in the experiences of abandonment, suffering, and death. The connections alsoreveal that Jews and Christians share a common cause in the battle against idolatry--representednow by obsessions for personal affluence, national security, and ethnic survival. According toEllis, Jews and Christians must never allow the reality of anti-Semitism to become an excuse forevading solidarity with the oppressed peoples--be they African, Asian, Latin American or,especially, Palestinian.

PB 9781602583450 £41.99 November 2011 Baylor University Press 253 pages


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TWO POWERS IN HEAVENEarly Rabbinic Reports about Christianity and GnosticismAlan F. Segal

In his now classic Two Powers in Heaven , Alan Segal examines rabbinic evidence about earlymanifestations of the "two powers" heresy within Judaism. Segal sheds light upon thedevelopment of and relationships among early Christianity, Gnosticism, and Merkabah mysticismand demonstrates that belief in the "two powers in heaven" was widespread by the first century,and may have been a catalyst for the Jewish rejection of early Christianity. An important additionto New Testament and Gnostic scholarship by this much revered scholar, Segal's Two Powers inHeaven is made available once again for a new generation.

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Alan F. Segal (1945-201) was Professor of Religion and Ingeborg

Rennert Professor of Jewish Studies at Barnard College.

PB 9781602585492 £33.50 August 2012 Baylor University Press 339 pages

UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY PRESS

ASK NOW OF THE DAYS THAT ARE PASTEliezer Segal

Written for a general audience, the essays collected here present refreshing and often humorousglimpses of various topics in Jewish history and traditional religious literature. Inspired by thediversity of Jewish thought, author and scholar Eliezer Segal sheds light on the social and politicalforces that have brought the Jewish community together in the past and still speak withfamiliarity to a modern western culture. Enlightening and entertaining, Professor Segal's writingis a rare blend of scholarship and wit, highlighting contemporary experiences that bring the richheritage of Jewish civilization to life for the everyday reader. With an extensive and broadknowledge of ancient and medieval Jewish social and religious traditions, Segal deftly craftsanecdotes and explanations that address the tribulations of contemporary life. From topics asdiverse as panhandling, tennis, vampires, and the history of the tomato to themes as universalas weddings, charity, and taxation, the essays presented here, some for the first time in English,all include detailed notes on sources for further reading. Equally suited to those after a light-hearted romp or those on a serious quest for knowledge, Ask Now of the Days that Are Past issure to satisfy anyone who has ever wondered how the past still influences us today.

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Eliezer Segal is a Professor of Religious Studies at the University

of Calgary, where he has been teaching since 1986.

PB 9781552381311 £17.99 March 2005 University of Calgary Press 323 pages

IN THOSE DAYS, AT THIS TIMEHoliness and History in the Jewish CalendarEliezer Segal

Eliezer Segal's approach to Jewish history and tradition is light-hearted and humorous. In ThoseDays, At This Time is a collection of entertaining short essays that explores the intricateframework of sacred days and times that make up the Jewish festival calendar. Each piece isdevoted to an occasion in the cycle of sacred seasons. With such intriguing titles as "Getting aHandel on Hanukkah" and "The Eggs and the Exodus," these essays bring a touch of whimsy to acomplex and deep-rooted religious tradition. Segal investigates the ways festival observanceshave been shaped over the generations, looking at different interpretations of their rituals, theirsymbolism, and their adaptation to changing historical circumstances.

PB 9781552381854 £17.99 December 2007 University of Calgary Press 340 pages


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RABBIS AND THEIR COMMUNITYStudies in the Eastern European Orthodox Rabbinate in Montreal, 1896-1930Ira Robinson

In one of the few studies of the early immigrant Orthodox rabbinate in North America, IraRobinson has delved into the Jewish community in Montreal in the first three decades of thetwentieth century. Rabbis and their Community: Studies in the Eastern European OrthodoxRabbinate in Montreal, 1896-1930, introduces several rabbis who, in various ways, impactedtheir immediate congregations as well as the wider Montreal Jewish community. Most studies ofthe early North American rabbinate focus on only one rabbi. Here, though, Robinson carefullyexamines the interrelationship among a number of rabbis sharing the same communal "turf." Hehas diligently researched the unpublished source material these men, generally forgotten tohistory, left behind. Their writing offers a valuable glimpse at some of the struggles andchallenges they faced in their own community, as well as those faced by Canadian Jewish societyas a whole in the early twentieth century. Robinson introduces the reader to such leaders asRabbi Hirsh Cohen, a fixture in the Jewish community of Montreal from 1901 through the late1940s, Rabbi Simon Glazer, Cohen's main rival for the chief rabbinate, and revolutionary thinkerRabbi Yudel Rosenberg. The issues they faced, such as the Kosher meat wars of the 1920s, andthe institutions they created, most notably the Jewish Community Council of Montreal, werefactors of fundamental importance for the development of the second-largest Jewish communityin Canada.

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Ira Robinson is a professor of Judaic studies in the Department of

Religion at Concordia University in Montreal. He has taught at Concordia since 1979 and haspublished extensively in the area of Jewish studies.

PB 9781552381861 £24.99 September 2007 University of Calgary Press 178 pages

UNIVERSITY PRESS OF SOUTHERN DENMARK

LESSONS IN CONTEMPTPoul Ræff’s Translation & Publication in 1516 of Johannes Pfefferkorn’s TheConfession of the JewsJonathan Adams

Published in 1516, Poul Ræff's Iudeorum Secreta, a translation of Johannes Pfefferkorn's TheConlession of the Jews, was a landmark in the development of anti-Jewish polemics in Denmark.For the first time, Danes were presented with descriptions of Jewish ceremonies that aimed toportray these practices as dangerously anti-Christian, superstitious and deviating from 'real'Biblical Judaism. Contemporary Judaism is described as a rabbinical construction that is worthyof nothing but ridicule and mockery. Lessons in Contempt explores this key text that comprises avaluable source for a range of academic disciplines: the history of antisemitism, the study ofJewish-Christian relations, social history, the history of religious culture, and medieval and earlymodern Danish language and literature. This book includes an outline of how Jews wereportrayed in medieval Danish vernacular literature; a description of Pfefferkorn's life and works;a discussion of Ræff's translation and publication of Iudeorum Secreta; a presentation of thelanguage and style of the Danish version, as well as an edition of the text together with the Latinoriginal, an English translation and an extensive commentary.

HB 9788776746803 £27.50 April 2013 University Press of Southern Denmark 353 pages

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