Menorah Review (No. 20, Fall, 1990)

Abba Hillel Silver, The Holocaust and American Politics: 1943-1944 -- Different Jews - One Judaism -- Book Briefing -- Rescuing Jews During the Holocaust -- Balancing -- Text and Context: The Case of American Judaism -- Book Briefing

John Henry Newman’s Anglican Views on Judaism

The scant scholarship associated with Newman’s Anglican views about Judaism has focused on his negative rhetoric against Judaism and portrayed him as anti-Semitic. His Anglican writings, however, applied terms associated with Judaism in a typological sense to the political and religious realities of his day, primarily to support his apologetic agenda and to highlight threats to the Church of England. Simultaneously, he stressed the positive characteristics of Judaism, illustrated the continuity between Judaism and Christianity, and pointed out that the religious system of Judaism was divinely inspired and contained worthy examples for Christian living

The messiah: developments in earliest Judaism and Christianity

Reviewed Book: Charlesworth, James H. The messiah: developments in earliest Judaism and Christianity. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992

Rejoicing Against Judaism In Handel\u27s \u27Messiah\u27 (George Frideric Handel)

Scholars have too little investigated questions of religious meaning in Handel\u27s Messiah, particularly the work\u27s manifest theological anti-Judaism. Previously unknown historical sources for the work\u27s libretto compiled and arranged by Charles Jennens (1700–73) reveal the text\u27s implicit designs against Jewish religion. Handel\u27s musical setting powerfully underscores these tendencies of Jennens\u27s libretto and adds to them, reaching a euphoric climax in the Hallelujah chorus. Within its arrangement of juxtaposed Old Testament prophecies and their New Testament fulfillment and with its matching musical styles, Handel\u27s Messiah could hardly have expressed more powerfully its rejoicing against Judaism than by having the ferocious tenor aria “THOU [Jesus] shalt break THEM [the Jews] with a rod of iron” answered by the chorus “Hallelujah! for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.” The aria is a setting of Psalm 2:9, a passage that was generally and unquestioningly believed among Christians in Handel\u27s day to have foretold the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple in the year 70. This horrible event was construed as a divine punishment of Judaism for its failure to accept Jesus as God\u27s promised messiah. The Hallelujah chorus apparently sees cause for rejoicing in such vengeance. Further, this chorus quotes the melodies of several hymns whose texts concern the depiction in Matthew 25 of acceptance by a bridegroom of five wise virgins and his rejection of five foolish virgins. This parable was taken to symbolize the welcoming of Ecclesia, Christianity and Jesus as the messiah, and the rejection of Synagoga and Judaism. In 18th-century England most Christians fervently believed that a choice between Judaism and Christianity was a choice between eternal damnation and eternal salvation. This would have represented motivation indeed for Messiah to project Christian theological contempt for its sibling religion

The moral core of Judaism and Christianity: reclaiming the revolution

Reviewed Book: Maguire, Daniel C. The moral Core of Judaism and Christianity: reclaiming the revolution. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1993

Menorah Review (No. 7, Spring, 1986)

Incomplete Redemption -- Alternatives for a New Jewish-Christian Future -- Books Received -- Identifying Jewish Art: A Question of Moral Consciousness? -- Being a Jew in Vienna -- Introductory Judaism -- Contribution

Book Review: \u3ci\u3eAbsent Mother God of the West: A Kali Lover’s Journey into Christianity and Judaism\u3c/i\u3e

Book review of Absent Mother God of the West: A Kali Lover’s Journey into Christianity and Judaism. By Neela Bhattacharya Saxena. London: Lexington Books, 2016. ix + 208 pages

Auto-da-fe in Lwów in 1728 : the Jan Filipowicz trial and Jewish re-conversion to Judaism in the early modern Poland

This article discusses the question of neophytes’ return to Judaism, especially the case of Jan Filipowicz, who was condemned to death for this crime in 1728 in Lwów. The return of Jewish converts to their religion of origin was a relatively frequent occurrence in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but those charged with this crime, especially Jews from Lwów accused of persuading the neophytes to return, were not usually treated as harshly as Filipowicz. The exceptionally harsh sentence given to the rabbis responsible for the return of Filipowicz to Judaism resulted from the judges’ belief in the existence of a ritual of dechristianization, a special blasphemy against Christianity. The relationship of the courts and the Church in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to the problem of apostasy among converts from Judaism is addressed. The penitential practices described in the court documents are similar to those described by the inquisitor Bernard Gui in the fourteenth century and to the ritual of dechristianization described by Jan Serafinowicz, the most famous eighteenth century convert

Menorah Review (No. 63, Summer/Fall, 2005)

Affirming Life -- Anti-Semitism, The Holocaust and Christianity -- Beginnings Departures Endings -- Christians and Israel -- Judaism and Superstitions -- Noteworthy Book

gender & Judaism: in three popular texts

gender & Judaism in A Serious Man [Coen Bros, 2009], An American Dream [Norman Mailer, 1965] and the Pericope Adulterae