An intriguing, though perhaps incomplete, look at two cultures colliding and coexisting.
An exploration of the effects of Roman-era culture on Judaism.
Visotzky (Midrash and Interreligious Studies/Jewish Theological Seminary; Sage Tales: Wisdom and Wonder from the Rabbis of the Talmud, 2011, etc.) convincingly argues that, from C.E. 70 onward, Judaism was greatly influenced by the Roman culture surrounding it. He is less successful in tying that history to Judaism as experienced today. It is widely understood that with the first-century destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, Judaism transformed into a Scripture-based, synagogue-centered religion. The author asserts that Roman culture had a far greater bearing on the formation of this renewed Judaism than most experts believe. He couches much of his thesis in the intriguing fact that the Jews of the time saw the Romans as the children of Esau, twin brother to Jacob, the father of the Israelites. Therefore, to the Jews, the Romans were at once siblings and enemies. “It strikes me that in this choice of Esau as the symbol of Rome,” writes Visotzky, “the rabbis gave voice to the complexity of their relationship.” What Judaism borrowed from Rome seems mainly to have been aspects of learned or upper-class lifestyles. For instance, the author notes that the rabbis learned the art and value of rhetoric from the Romans, and they used the teachings of philosophical schools, such as the Stoics and the writings of Plato. They also adopted Roman architecture, as seen in early synagogues, and Roman art. The competition among Latin, Greek, and Hebrew is another important piece of the author’s discussion. Visotzky spends less effort in finding ways in which Roman culture touched working-class Jews or how it still resonates in modern Judaism. However, his personal exploration of Jewish catacombs does provide a touching example of how all Jews in the Roman Empire were touched by Roman culture and language. Plus, his theory that the modern Seder is a product of the Roman Symposium is certainly food for thought.
An intriguing, though perhaps incomplete, look at two cultures colliding and coexisting.Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-250-08576-4
Page Count: 256
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
HISTORY | JEWISH | WORLD | GENERAL HISTORY
BOOK REVIEW
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorker staff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
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