The Way Into the Varieties of Jewishness
An accessible introduction to the many ways Jews understand Jewishness and identify themselves and their communities—throughout history and today.
For everyone who wants to understand the varieties of Jewish identity, its boundaries and inclusions, this book explores the religious and historical understanding of what it has meant to be Jewish from ancient times to the present controversy over “Who is a Jew?” Beginning with the biblical period, it takes readers era by era through Jewish history to reveal who the Jewish community included and excluded, and discusses the fascinating range of historical conflicts that Jews have dealt with internally. It provides an understanding of how the Jewish people and faith developed, and of what the major religious differences are among Jewish movements today.
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Book details
- Author
- Sylvia Barack Fishman
- Imprint
- Jewish Lights, an imprint of Turner Publishing Company
- Published
- Formats
- Hardcover, Paperback
- Subjects
- Religion › Judaism
- Topics
- Jewish identity · history of Judaism · Jewish community · who is a Jew · Jewish movements · Jewish spirituality · biblical history
- ISBN-13
- 9781580230308 (Hardcover)9781580233675 (Paperback)
About the author
SYLVIA BARACK FISHMAN is an Emerita Professor of Contemporary Jewish Life in the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies Department at Brandeis University and the author of eight books, including Love, Marriage, and Jewish Families: Paradoxes of a Social Revolution, The Way Into the Varieties of Jewishness and Double or Nothing? Jewish Families and Mixed Marriage.
Fishman has received the Marshall Sklare Award from the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry and the Belkin Award for Distinguished Professional Achievement from Yeshiva University. She earned her BA from Stern College for Women of Yeshiva University, her MA from New York University, and her PhD from Washington University, and served as founding co-director of the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute.
Sylvia lives in Newton, Massachusetts.