Death and Birth of Judaism [Paperback]

Jacob Neusner (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Neusner continues to supply scholars and informed laypersons alike with insightful works on Judaism. His premise here is the question, Why did the Judaism of the Torahi.e., Orthodoxywork when it did, and why did it stop working? His answer is a fascinating discourse on seven new JudaismsConservative, Reform, Revisionist, Jewish Socialism, Yiddishism, Zionism, and the Judaism of Holocaust and Redemptionand the way they fit into contemporary America. Neusner breaks new ground on the influence of the Holocaust on American Jews, speaking of a "re-ethnicization of American life." His conclusion is a surprise: "Today . . . there is a reversion, a re-entry into, that Judaism of the . . . Torah (Orthodoxy) that had so long repelled so many." Gerda Haas, Holocaust Human Rights Ctr. of Maine, Augusta
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Jacob Neusner is Research Professor of Religion and Theology Bard College Annandale-on-Hudson, NY.

Product Details

• Paperback: 380 pages
• Publisher: University Of South Florida (January 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555408117
• ISBN-13: 978-1555408114
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,173,561 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4.0 out of 5 stars a reverent and well-done look at Jewish history, June 17, 2001

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Michael Lewyn (Forest Hills, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Death and Birth of Judaism (Paperback)

A fine description of the various Jewish systems that have arose over the past two centuries to supplement and supplant traditional Talmudic Judaism. Neusner begins by discussing how Talmudic Judaism arose; he suggests that Talmudic Judaism's emphasis on the Messiah and on the divine transmission of the Oral Torah (i.e. rabbinic tradition beyond the Hebrew Bible) arose as a response to the challenge of Christianity, because these issues were not heavily emphasized in the Mishnah and other works that preceded Christianity's installation as the state religion of the Roman Empire. He then discusses how rabbinic Judaism was replaced by modern Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Judaism. (Although Neusner appears to be most sympathetic towards the former, he is quite respectful of all three perspectives). Neusner explains that all three differ from pre-19th century Judaism in that they address how one can be a citizen of a secular society and a religious Jew as well. He then discusses secular Jewish movements such as Zionism. The only thing that troubled me was his complaint near the end that Judaism is too ossified to develop any new "systems". It seems to me that the systems he discusses were responses to major crises (e.g. the rise of Christianity, European anti-Semitism). The only such crisis in this century, the Holocaust, was arguably part of the anti-Semitism addressed by the 19th-century ideology of Zionism. But after the Holocaust, there have been no comparable crises, so why should there be any major new religious movements? We should be thankful that we have gone a few decades without any system-creating calamities.

Neusner is sometimes quite eloquent. My favorite quote: "the Jews are a people that never could find a home in the twentieth century. That, in the aspect of eternity, may prove the highest tribute God will pay to those whom God among humanity first chose."