Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle, 29 April 1977. Synagogue Life: A Study in Symbolic Interaction. By Samuel C. Heilman. Chicago University Press. £8.75. Some American anthropologists, having exhausted, in more senses than one, the Hopi Indians, have turned their attention to Jewish communities, among which the more exotic provide a happy hunting ground. Professor Heilman’s…...

Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle, 5 August 197[?]. Understanding Bereavement and Grief. Edited by Norman Linzer, Ktav and Yeshiva University Press. $15 cloth, $6.95 paperback. This book contains the Proceedings of two Interdisciplinary Educational Conferences in 1974 and 1975 co-sponsored by the Jewish Funeral Directors of America, Yeshiva University and allied professions. In this country…...

Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle. The Biblical Antiquities of Philo, translated from the old Latin version, by M. R. James. Ktav, New York. Old Testament Illustrations. By Clifford M. Jones. Cambridge University Press. £3. The First Book of Samuel. Commentary by Peter R. Ackroyd. Cambridge University Press. £2.20. Amos, Hosea, Micah. Commentary by Henry McKeating…....

Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle. Nehamot Yisrael, a Commentary to the Song of Songs. By Nahum, son of Moses Aaron, Jer., reprinted from the first edition, Jer., 1902. This boob has been reprinted through the efforts of the author’s grandson, the Rev Noah Kaplin, of London. A Talmudic shiur by the well-known rabbinic scholar Rabbi…...

Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle. Philo of Alexandria: An Introduction. By Samuel Sandmell. Oxford University Press. £7.50. Philo of Alexandria, contemporary of Hillel, Gamaliel, Jesus and Paul, and one of the most influential figures in the history of religious thought, appears neither in the Talmudic literature nor in any of the traditional Jewish sources until…...

Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle. Old Testament Theology: A Fresh Approach. By R. E. Clements. Marshall, Morgan and Scott. £6.95. A fresh approach, indeed, and a very refreshing one. R. E. Clements discusses, albeit tentatively, how the religious ideas found in the Old Testament can be studied in their own right and whether they can…...

Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle, 22 October 1971. Jewish Law in Ancient and Modern Israel. Edited by Haim H. Cohn. Ktav, 1971. Judge Cohn has collected a number of previously published essays written by him and by other Israeli jurists. They discuss the theory and development of Jewish law; the trial and death of Jesus;…...

Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle. Studies in Shemot: The Book of Exodus. By Nehama Leibowitz. Translated and adapted from the Hebrew by Aryeh Newman. World Zionist Organisation. Jerusalem. N.P. Introduction to the Old Testament. By Georg Fohrer. SPCK. £5.50. Aryeh Newman, translator of Professor Leibowitz’s book on Genesis, continues the good work in this splendid…...

Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle, 13th August 1971. The Mediaeval Jewish Mind. By Chaim Pearl. Vallentine, Mitchell. 1971. £2.80. The sub-title of this book is “The Religious Philosophy of Isaac Arama” of which Dr Pearl gives a thorough and comprehensive account. Isaac Arama was born in northern Spain in about 1420 and died about 1495,…...

Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle. Halakhic Man, by Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik. Translated from the Hebrew by Lawrence Kaplan. Jewish Publication Society of America, $12.95. The classic description of halachic man, whose life is completely dominated by Jewish law, by the foremost exponent of Orthodox Judaism, is now translated into English most effectively for the…...

Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle. Of tension and turmoil Poets, Prophets and Sages: Essays in Biblical Interpretation. By Robert Gordis. Indiana University Press, 1971. £7.25. Dialogue and Tradition: The Challenge of Contemporary Judeo-Christian Thought. By Jacob B. Angus. Abelard-Schuman, New York, 1971. £3. One should protest on principle at the practice, favoured by an increasing…...

Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle, 26th November 1971. People’s Talmud LOUIS JACOB The Talmud with English Translation and Commentary. Quiddushin, edited by Rabbi Dr A. Ehrman, El-Am, Jerusalem-Tel Aviv. Ideally the Talmud should be expounded verbally by a teacher capable of elaborating on the bare text, pointing out its subtleties and bringing the arguments to…...

Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle, 10th November 1972. Sephardi approach LOUIS JACOBS THE SEPHARDIM: A PROBLEM OF SURVIVAL? By Abraham Levy. London, 1972. Copies available from 4 Biddulph Road, Maida Vale, W9. There is a story about a Lithuanian rabbi who was a dedicated student of Maimonides all his life. When the rabbi died and…...

Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle, 3rd November 1972. PATTERNS OF THOUGHT Louis Jacobs Wisdom in Israel. By Gerhard Von Rad. Translated from the German by James D. Martin. SCM Press. £3.75. This penetrating study is the last book of Professor Von Rad, who died last year. The term “wisdom” in the title is technical and…...

Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle, 19th January 1973. A WORK OF DEVOTION Louis Jacobs Studies in the Book of Genesis. By Nehama Leibowitz, translated and adapted from the Hebrew by Aryeh Newman. Alpha Press, Jerusalem, 1972. No price. Nehama Leibowitz’s studies in the weekly sidra have justifiably become renowned as a key for the unlocking…...

Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle, 13th October 1981. THE I-THOU RELATIONSHIP LOUIS JACOBS Buber on God and the Perfect Man. By Pamela Vermes. Brown Judaic Studies No. 13. Scholars Press/Journal of Jewish Studies. £5.25. That Martin Buber is one of the seminal thinkers of mankind will be denied by few but the difficulty of grasping the…...

Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle, 20th October 1972. FAMILY MATTERS Louis Jacobs The Family in Transition: Its Past, Present and Future Patterns. By F. George Kay. David and Charles. £3.25. This interesting book (and expensive, for 184 pages) traces the origins of the family and the forms it has assumed in diverse civilizations. Despite severe attacks…...

Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle, 26th January 1973. COMMENTARY & CRITICISM By LOUIS JACOBS Commentary on the Book of Exodus. By U. Cassuto, translated by Israel Abrahams. The Magnes Press, the Hebrew University. Distributed by the Oxford University Press. 72s. The late Professor Cassuto adopted the unusual method of combining text, comment and notes in…...

Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle, 26th January 1973. Selective Judaism LOUIS JACOBS Where Judaism Differed. By Abba Hillel Silver. Macmillian (NY). Available UK at 70p. This is a paperback edition of the by now famous book, first published in 1956, in which the author endeavours to trace, in the words of the sub-title, the distinctiveness…...

Originally published in Chayenu, 21:9/10 (1952), pp. 10-11. Of God, the Devil and the Jews, by Dagobert D. Runes, the Philosophical Library, New York. $3.0. The publisher’s blurb describes this book as “a powerful and profound indictment of the Western world and the lies and contradictions which corrode and must in time crumble the foundations of…...