Acts of Faith: A Journey to the Fringes of Jewish Identity [Hardcover]

Dan Ross (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1982

This book is about Is a popular account Jewish offshoots, by blows hertical sects and obscure followings.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 244 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr; 1st edition (January 1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312004001
• ISBN-13: 978-0312004002
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,243,634 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An overview of Jews on the margin, February 14, 2007

By 

bukhtan (Chicago, Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Acts of Faith (Paperback)

This short book consists of brief chapters on various groups of Jews whose "Jewishness" has been questioned by Jews living in the main Talmudic, Rabbinical tradition. Among them are the Karaites, the Samaritans, "Marranos" living in Portugal, the Falasha, the Bene Israel of India, the Jews of China (prior to the Ashkenazim taking shelter in Shanghai), a small group living in a village outside Mexico City, and others. The title, of course, alludes to "auto da fe", the torments to which Jews, among others, were subjected by the Inquisition.
Each portrait is quite vivid, factually and humanly, the result of the author's own visits with members of the groups, in their own locales, or at least with those in the best position to know, as well as his own library and archive research.
The author had been a journalist in the USA and Israel, and the type of easy personal manner that is so valuable to a journalist comes through in this book, without the superficiality so common among members of that trade. I also notice a directness and good humor, a willingness to take people at their word that seems to have become less common in the twentyfive years since the book was written. This is epitomized, it seems to me, in the author's conclusion that people who feel that they are Jews are in fact Jews.