Jews and Gentiles Book

Disclaimers: 1) I am not Jewish myself and 2) this book is dated.

Overall, the book gave an overview of Judaism including its history, traditions, beliefs, and holidays that I felt was accessible and easy to follow. I felt that Part One: The Loom of History did overshadow the rest of the book. Perhaps, this is a result of Trepp's attempt at brevity; however, I believe that he could have exclude some history to have more room to expand on religious aspects of Judaism (Trepp would likely disagree with me and argue that knowledge of history informs religious practices and therefore should take the lion's share of the book).

I also sensed a distaste for Reform and Conservative Judaism. To me, this was evident in his admonitions that the Jewish people return to religious practices that he states Reform Judaism has "thrown out." I feel as though parts of this book were written in response to the Reform movement and given short shrift as a result.

I would highly recommend The Nine Questions People Ask About Judaism as another introductory book to Judaism. It is equally accessible and more balanced than this book (perhaps because of the benefit of hindsight as the Nine Questions was written much more recently).