Judaism Book

Several eminent professors of Jewish studies have praised Solomon's introduction to Jewish identity, history and practices, but I found it curiously disappointing. I kept wondering who is the intended audience? It's too spotty to help a complete novice, and I'm not sure how non-specialist Jews would respond. Is it written for a mainly English audience (probably, given its Oxford publication). What about America, which scores mentions in later chapters on Judaism today?

Part of my disappointment is because Solomon grounds his discussion on Jews and Jewishness in a non-defined Christian Europe, starting with the observation that this book is in the English language, that English evolved in a Christian culture and that in turn colours how Jews and Jewishness are described.

It took me a second reading to pick up what is to Solomon a key point: Christianity grew out of a conflict within 1st century Judaism, and defined itself against Judaism.

So he begins the first chapter, Who Are the Jews? s by describing who they used to be in medieval Christendom - the 'chosen people' of God', who had not only rejected Jesus but been complicit, if not actually responsible for, his death. Both Christian and Islamic societies, he notes, devised measures to keep them outside political and social structures, pushing them into lowly status, but there are no details and virtually nothing about Sephardic Jews and those living in Muslim countries.

Jewish separateness, he argues, stemmed both from Jewish tradition and the surrounding cultures, Christian and Muslim, which 'reinforced one another in drawing sharp lines to set Jews apart from their geographical neighbours' until the ideas of the Enlightenment began to percolate, Jews began to be released from ghetto restrictions and began to argue that public law should treat all people equally.

I realise that VSIs are by their very nature very brief summaries, but over and again I found myself thinking that things had been simplified to the point where a whole view, even of northern Europe let alone the rest, was just not there.

Solomon looks very briefly at three factors identified by Michael Meyer as contributing to the formation of contemporary Jewish identity - the Enlightenment, anti-Semitism and the formation of the State of Israel, and moves on to a quick overview of how Judaism and Christianity split up.

Rather than attempt a narrative, Solomon deals with the question of how Judaism evolved by summarising the ideas of key thinkers and commentators over many centuries, ending abruptly with Moses Mendelssohn's post-Enlightenment 'synthesis between tradition and modernity'. Again, I found this approach unsatisfactory.

Chapters on the Jewish calendar and events, Jewish prayers and household rituals are followed by brief discussions of the emergence of the Reform movements in the 19th century and ongoing issues within the various Jewish communities (Orthodox, Reform, Conservative etc) on issues such as the place of women; medical ethics; marriage; homosexuality; attitudes to Zionism and church-State relationships - the extent to which life should be lived under religious or secular law.

I found the last two chapters to be the most interesting -quick discussions of Zionism, religion and the State of Israel; the Holocaust; and abortion, euthanasia and artificial insemination which are challenging moral issues for many religions and societies.