Understanding Judaism

By Melanie J. Wright

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1903283035
• ISBN13: 9781903283035
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Orchard Academic
• Length: 284 Pages
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 0.8" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

Very Positive Review from RE Today

Understanding Judaism is a scholarly but accessible text that seeks to explore Jewish belief and practice in the context of the modern world. The writer, Melanie J. Wright, is Academic Director of the Centre for Jewish-Christian Relations, Cambridge. The front cover, with a black and white austere image of a Star of David on a wrought-iron gate, does not convey the vitality of the Judaism presented within the text.The book has a wide span, covering Jewish identity and religious diversity in the modern world. Jewish law through the ages, festivals, rites of passage, the synagogue and dietary practices, responses to the Holocaust and the state of Israel, Jewish and non-Jewish relations, attitudes to the environment and developments in medical science. A reprint could perhaps look more closely at the growth in European anti-Semitism and how this affects Jewish identity.The author, who is not Jewish, has insight into Judaism as an evolving religion stating that `Jewish self-understanding and expression is not static, but dynamic ... it has developed to a significant extent in response to the encounter with non-Jewish cultures' (page 2). She describes in her chapter on Jewish diversity how the beliefs of Moroccan Jews now living in Israel, including saint veneration and pilgrimage, have had an influence on Israelis' own folklore and religiosity.The chapter entitled `Common Ground' explores rites of passage and life-cycle events in their biblical, historical and modern context. In her section on kashrut (food laws) she describes how some Jewish people `will keep a kosher kitchen at home but are willing to eat non-kosher foots in restaurants or in non-Jewish homes (page 118). This `insider knowledge' reveals the way in which interaction in the modern world has shaped religious practice.The book includes a useful glossary of Jewish terms, suggested websites and a list of dates for Jewish holidays between 2004/4.This well research, analytical and fascinating book manages to combine an overview of Jewish history and tradition with an exploration of the diversity of Judaism in the modern world. It would appeal to teachers of A level Religious Studies who are searching for something to refresh their teaching of Judaism, as well as those involved with inter-faith work.Anne Krisman, RE Today Summer 2004.