Reviews for A Concise History of American Antisemitism

The average rating for A Concise History of American Antisemitism based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-01-23 00:00:00 Stephen Proffitt Excellent, well-researched and presented information that is crucial for all audiences.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-08-05 00:00:00 John C Wilt As others have mentioned, the book title is somewhat misleading. Most of the chapters are a general introduction to Judaism, only the last third deals explicitly with Modern Orthodox responses to contemporary topics. These are clearly written and can be covered within a short afternoon. A thorough web search or a good discussion round online or offline can give you similar insights. The sixth chapter was one of the more informative ones, particularly Freundel's explanation and discussion of Theodicy and insights on the book of Job. The latter are, as he mentions himself, based on over ten years of experience teaching this particular text. This is where Freundel offers clarity of thought and language I would have liked to see in other chapters. Two examples of confusing word choice or insufficient editing from pp. 59-60: "Can there be prophets today? Maimonides certainly thought so." Does certainly mean with certainty, being sure of it, or is it Freundel's opinion that there cannot be any doubt about Maimonides' belief in prophecy? Although the adverb indicates the first option, it is still unclear what Freundel meant here. Another example: "Some claim that it emerges from the fact that parts of the tradition were lost." This is a basic faux-pas (see e.g. Strunk and White's Elements of Style) and can be avoided with ease: "Some claim that it emerges from a partial loss of the tradition."