The Jewish 100 [Hardcover]

SHAPIRO (Author), Shapiro (Author), Joan Shapiro (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This book is a pleasant surprise. Shapiro uses the fashionable device of a book of rankings to present short biographies of 100 influential Jewish men and women. His selections for inclusion are all sound and at times surprising, running from Moses, ranked at number one, through Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, at number 100. The work's primary strength lies in Shapiro's well-written entries, which capture the importance of the subject in an engaging, informative, and entertaining fashion. One can argue over who is ranked where or whether a particular individual should have been included, but these cavils do not diminish the book's overall value. This is not, and was not intended to be, a formal, scholarly reference work. Rather, it is an interesting and enjoyable overview of talented individuals designed to appeal to general readers and young adults. Recommended for all public and school libraries.
- Stephen L. Hupp, Capital Univ. Lib., Columbus, Ohio
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Each man or woman on Shapiro's list of the most influential Jews of all time had a special influence on humankind, changing the way we live and think. A few touched the souls and minds of Jews only but are important to the world because of their defining presence on Jewish identity. Starting with Moses, the prophet and lawgiver who led the Israelites out of Egypt, Shapiro ranks and examines them in their order of influence. Second is Jesus, followed by physicist Albert Einstein; then Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, and Abraham, the founding patriarch of the Jews. The list includes such diverse figures as composer Gustav Mahler; Maimonides, the greatest Jewish scholar of the Middle Ages; Rashi, the world's foremost Talmudist; artist Mark Rothko; and actress Sarah Bernhardt. In compiling any list, the author risks being criticized for what the reader believes to be mistaken omissions or inclusions. Despite Shapiro's engaging and cogent list, the omission of Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Elie Wiesel is incomprehensible. Unfathomable, too, is the omission of Nobel Prize winners Isaac Bashevis Singer and Saul Bellow, as well as writer I. L. Peretz, one of the major personalities in modern Jewish history and the formative influence on modern Yiddish literature. George Cohen --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 387 pages
• Publisher: Citadel; Subsequent edition (June 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0806518146
• ISBN-13: 978-0806518145
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 7.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,026,660 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An informative and quite useful book, May 5, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Jewish 100 (Hardcover)

Unlike one reviewer on this site, I found this book to be a delightful read, and especially appropriate for teenage Jewish readers. This is not heavy reading, rather this is bedtime reading that is both informative ("Did you know so-and-so was Jewish?") and on occasion thought-provoking. Far from being anti-Jewish, as has been implied, I found the book to provoke pride in one's Judaism. And the lighter touches (about the Jewish origins of the inventors of Superman, for example) are much appreciated.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars INFLUENTIAL MINDS, September 3, 2000

By 

Bonita L. Davis - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Jewish 100 (Hardcover)

Shapiro's broad sweeping work contains rankings of those whom he considers the top 100 Jewish thinkers and movers of western civilization. His book is not designed to be a detailed analysis of these lives but instead, a snap shot commentary on how each individual impacted their area of expertise that influenced their Jewish community and the world. The rankings of course are subjective and arbitrary and are not that helpful as to why one person's contributions is ranked higher than another.

One must remember that this work is not an intellectual tome but a nice easy to read book to see who's who in the Jewish world. This work contains many flaws and arouses some serious questions.

1. Very few women are contained in the book. Are we to assume that Jewish women on the whole had very little impact in the western world?

2. Shapiro is a great apologist for Christianity as he glosses over the negative impact of that religion upon Judism. Granted Jesus, Mary, Saul and Judas were Jews but the religion that was spawned from them resulted in a negative impact on Jews world wide. Christians baited Jews as Christ killers, forced conversions upon Jews (inquisition) and through their silence allowed the extermination of 6 million Jews.

3. One of the most important questions is how does one determine who is a Jew? Although many of the names are famous, some were of mixed marriages ( Proust, Bohr, etc.) where Judism was absent in their lives and they converted to Christianity. Also included were those who denied their heritage or were non-practicing. Should they have been included regardless of their Jewish background?

In any case this book is a good resource book for young teenagers, young adults and other people who wasnt a broad survey of Jews who impacted upon western civilization

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fundamental errors, February 6, 2005

By 

Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Jewish 100 (Paperback)

We live in a world in which there are two billion Christians and around thirteen million Jews. We live in a world after the Holocaust where more than one- third of the Jewish people were murdered. We also live in a world in which the Jewish people are presently under attack from a radical Islamic fundamentalism aimed at destroying the Jewish state of Israel. We live in a world in which thousands of Christian missionaries feel that it is more important to convert the thirteen million Jews than it is to work either on themselves, or on the other four billion people of the planet who are neither Christians or Jews.All this being the case it seems to me that the author had a duty to write a work that would strengthen Jewish identity and peoplehood, and not make it more questionable. Thus it seems to me completely insensitive of the author to put so many founders of Christianity as 'most influential Jews' I think that they belong rather in a book called ' Most Influential Christians'.

Secondly, does it really make much sense to put the creators of Superman in a book with Biblical figures?

Jewish history ( a third point)is filled with remarkable figures who make some of the American pop figures the author chooses small and insignificant.

The author, it seems to me, might better have done a book on the them ( Jews who have done the most good for their own people.)