A disappointing take on what could be a fascinating topic.
An academic look at Jewish crafts.
In this latest entry in the publisher’s Where Religion Lives series, Eichler-Levine, a professor of Jewish civilization, sets out to provide a book that “examines Jewish material culture with a focus on creativity, gender, and religion in North America. It is a book about the power of craft in relation to Jewish identity.” Unfortunately, readers looking for insight into Jewish arts and crafts will be unsatisfied by this sterile text. Instead of a meaningful exploration of the rich history of craft in Judaism, the author instead uses this heritage as a means to explore modern American Jews as an ethnic group. Eichler-Levine begins by pointing toward the concept of generative resilience, whereby “acts of creation become a crucial part of their makers’ ways of being and coping in the world.” This becomes the starting point from which the author views Jewish craft—as a reactionary expression or a coping mechanism. Eichler-Levine goes on to characterize Jewish craft as having an almost entirely activist role, devoting much attention to such “craftivist” subjects as the “Pussyhats,” which were ubiquitous during the 2017 Women’s March. When exploring Jewish crafts from a less political point of view, the author delves into an esoteric study of crafting that will appeal only to die-hard arts-and-crafts enthusiasts. “I want to think with the frame of what is Jewish expansively,” she writes about a knitting group, “as a critical construction, not just a function of Jewish-affiliated bodies.” In the author’s very act of dissecting and scrutinizing the art of Jewish crafting, she unnecessarily divorces it from the culture and the people who make it. By the end of the book, Jewish craft becomes a byproduct of politics, psychology, and ethnology, in the process losing its individuality and humanity.
A disappointing take on what could be a fascinating topic.Pub Date: Oct. 19, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4696-6063-9
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Univ. of North Carolina
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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