Judaism Book Reviews Samples For Students

Elie Wiesel’s Night, the author’s autobiographical tale of his experiences in German concentration camps during the Second World War, is a harrowing story of family, helplessness and the simple human drive to survive. While the story focuses primarily on the Jews who are imprisoned, tortured and killed in Auschwitz and Buchenwald, one fascinating perspective is how the German soldiers are portrayed. The Nazi soldiers of the book are depicted as largely inhuman monsters, who strip the Jews of their identity and agency; while there are the occasional moments where the Germans are shown to just be following orders, ...

Anti-Semitism and the American Far is written by Left by Stephen H. Norwood. It is a systematic study reflecting over the American’s the role in combating and propagating anti-Semitism which is far forgotten. This book summarizes the communists as early as 1920 onwards and the Trotskyites. It also covers the New Left together with the allies who were black nationalists, the New Left’s present-day remnants. It analyzes the opposition which was shown to the Jewish culture by the far left’s and the occasional efforts which were employed to promote the same Jewish culture. It traces the far ...

Shaul Magid’s (2013) idea of Jewish identity is very different from the views of the past. Instead of looking at the people who make up the community as a whole, he took the elements outside Judaism and helped those factors shape the overall identity of Jews or what it means to be a Jew. Unlike the stereotypical images of the past, Magid (2013) fuses these different elements and separates Jewishness in a way that it makes sense in a post-modern world. His post-ethnic idea of Judaism is groundbreaking because he defines culture in such a multifaceted way. Instead of taking a look at Jews ...

The conflict between Tradition and Modernity

The ideas of tradition greatly differs and conflict with the ideas of the people living in the modern world. The people in the traditional world views the world in a different way from the way those in the modern world do. The conflict of traditions and modernity is clearly elaborated by Chaim Potok in this book where the two main characters viewed the world differently due to the aspects of modernity and tradition with respect to the Jewish religion. The book shows the different views the people with respect to the how the children were raised in the Jewish community. ...

Uri used representation of historical events in this book in order to define his strong Jewish identity. He intended to show that he could support and strengthen the morale of the Jewish Americans who were present in the post-Holocaust America. The book provides vast information about Jewish history, providing examples of Jewish heroism that erased more controversial, “lachrymose” accounts of the Jewish history. Therefore, the book was crucial in Jewish recovery of the self-confidence after devastation of the Holocaust and inspired American Jews to display openly their ethnic pride state (Uris c. 18). In this book, Leon Uris portrays the ...

Introduction: Book Information

This book is a memoir that is non-fiction of a Hungarian medical doctor that is Jewish. This man had operated and not horrible "research" on his fellow Jewish inmates. This man participated in killing Jews alongside with the help of the evil Dr. Josef Mengele who was known as the "Angel of Death." When the Nazis invaded the country the book explains how in 1944, the Nazis took most of the Jews from Hungary straight into Auschwitz death camp. Dr. Miklos Nyiszli, a Jew and a medical doctor, managed to escape from death in order to become a pawn of evil. This evil was ...

Genocide involves the mass killing of certain ethics, race or group of individuals. The motive of mass killing may be due to political difference, religious difference, culture difference and mistrust among different group. Increase in frequencies of the genocide has made historian explore on the main causes of the genocide. Their researches are aimed to prevent cases of genocide. Jan Gross, the writer of the book Neighbors has done extensive analysis of what led to the Jewish genocide. The book exposes the perpetrator of the Jewish genocide. A contrast to the historical believes that the genocide was facilitated by ...

Book Review: Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eye­witness Account by Dr. Miklós Nyiszli

Introduction: Book Information

This book is a memoir that is non-fiction of a Hungarian medical doctor that is Jewish. This man had operated and not horrible “research” on his fellow Jewish inmates. This man participated in killing Jews alongside with the help of the evil Dr. Josef Mengele who was known as the "Angel of Death." When the Nazis invaded the country the book explains how in 1944, the Nazis took most of the Jews from Hungary straight into Auschwitz death camp. Dr. Miklos Nyiszli, a Jew and a medical doctor, managed to ...

Introduction

The book explores the tragedy which struck the family of Israel-American Miko Peled. The scene is believed to have occurred in the year 1997. The book examines the thirteen years old nice by the name Smadar of Miko Peled had been killed by the suicidal bombers in Jerusalem. Peled had been born into a prominent family. The family was described as the Zionist military.
The father to Peled was a very prominent general in the military. However, after the Israel aggression war that took place in the year 1967, his father turned to be an advocate of peace. The tragic ...

Book Review:

Introduction:
The Sunflower is a book written by Simon Wiensethal who had an experience in a concentration inmate in Germany. It gets its title from an experience Wiensethal had in the concentration camp. One day, when the Jew prisoners were being transported, they passed by a Nazi cemetery. The cemetery had sunflowers surrounding the graves of the SS soldiers. Wiensethal was really struck by this. He felt jealous of the dead SS soldiers because they had a connection to the living world through the sunflowers and butterflies could visit their graves. On the other hand, he compared his situation to theirs (Wiensethal, ...

Joseph Smith’s religious vision has lead to the development of a uniquely American region. Smith was the founder of the latter day saints church (LDS) which holds 14.4 million members worldwide. In the United States, the church is rated as the 4th largest Christian denomination by the American council of churches. The church has led to the development of both the American religion and the economy because of its highest population in the United States. It is one of the most widespread churches in America and the wealthiest compared to other denominations. Through its expansion in the United States, ...

Introduction

Judaism is one of the five main world religions. The other four include Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam. Evidence available from archaeological and historical work shows that human beings in virtually all societies have since their humble beginnings held beliefs in supernatural beings they revered and worshiped. Religion is a set of beliefs that involves attributing the origin and cause of the universe as well as all things found in it and nature to a supernatural being (s) commonly known as God(s) who is held to be all knowing and all powerful. Religion can also be understood as an associative ...

Judaism

Founded by Moses, Judaism was formed in the Middle East and was one of the three original Abrahamic religions (the other two being Christianity and Islam). Although formally founded by Moses, most Jews follow their heritage back to the days of Abraham and because of this, they believe in their covenant with God, who often communicated through Abraham. A covenant is where God speaks to someone on Earth and asks them to perform tasks in his name; this is why the Jews are dubbed ‘the chosen people.’ The Jewish people refer to ‘the first covenant’ as being the first ...

The book thief is a highly acclaimed and bestseller novel by the Australian author Markus zusak. The story of the book starts with a unique narrator which is death in the novel, and it tells the story of Liesel Meminger, a young German girl who lives in the Molching with Hans. Liesel was given up by her mother to live with this family just before the beginning of the Second World War. The book thief is a detective story with Nazi German background and it presents an account of humanity, inhumanity, hope and poverty. Since the author had learnt a lot from his parents ...

The central theme that the author, Sadeh, is trying to portray is that act of liberalism. Long ago, there was no form of religious equity. There was a constant feud between the Jews and the Christians. The Jews because they were few in numbers, they found a way to protect themselves by using a Golem. The author starts by stating that the Jews underwent exiled from their land and in the hopes of carrying their faith with them; they took up stones from their land to the new one. The priests used the stones to make the synagogue in ...

Wiesel Elie was among the few survivors who escaped death narrowly during the Holocaust World War II. Such names as Auschwitz, Buchenwald, and Treblinka remind Elie of nightmares of pains and sufferings the Jews went through in Holocaust. Sometimes a person might wonder about the presence of God in such situations and fail to understand why people are left to suffer and die in pain like those experienced in Holocaust. Elie trusted upon the Lord ever since he was a child, and waited upon God to intervene in every challenging situation. It was not until the outbreak of war in Germany ...

1) Ruth’s original name is Rachel Deborah Shilsky, a Jewish name – when she converted to Christianity after her mother’s death, she gave up that name, which “had to die in order to for me, the rest of me, to live,” most notably to avoid anti-Jew prejudice against her (McBride 2).
2) In this metaphor, Ruth likens her father to a fox – an animal that is extremely crafty and smart. By calling him ‘a fox, especially when it came to money,’ Ruth compliments her father for his intelligence and craftiness, presumably being extremely fiscally responsible and able to ...

Ronald Takaki, in his book A Multicultural History of America in World War II, argues that historians must ensure that those individuals and/or groups that were marginalized in history have been given a voice in major historical events, like the Second World War. Takaki is undoubtedly a revisionist scholar. He claims that certain stories have been methodically ignored and omitted in prevailing histories. In his book, Takaki claims that World War II is an extraordinary event for majority of the American people because it was where the courage and nobility of the American nation were vividly displayed. However, Takaki ...

.
The main idea of this reading is the assertion that there is currently a gap in Jewish scholarship about the religion’s teachings concerning the avoidance of conflict. While there have been some scholars who have managed to identify passages that establish the idea of a “just” war, dating back to Maimonides, and there have been other scholars who have noted that rabbinic literature establishes peace as a “supreme ethical principle” (Gopin, p. 111). Because the country of Israel faces many threats to its continued political existence, there has been significant discussion among rabbinical scholars about how to find a way to ...

Introduction:

In this seminal book which is around 400 pages long, the author manages to cram a detailed history of the Middle eastern problem from the early years of the 1800’s to the present day. He succinctly manages to combine what occurred in the Colonial period where the Arab peoples were consistently exploited for their rich natural resources while he also manages to keep an open mind on other issues such as the traditions of Islam as well as several intrinsic problems which permeate the area and which have continued to this day.
Essentially Mansfield offers a study of the ...

D. D. Guttenplan's decision to make Irving David’s libel suit against Lipstadt Deborah and Penguin Books his subject matter in his book entitled “The Holocaust on Trial” seems to be quite challenging. It is, however, eventually justified. The American writer, Guttenplan who currently resides in London was present in every day of the trial that took place in the year 1999. There were two things of varying importance at stake: the status or the position in the legislation of the Holocaust and its constituents that were definable and the overall outlook of David Irving reputation. On the face ...

Night is a book that was written by Elizer Wiesel during the holocaust period in Europe. During this period, Jewish communities all over Europe had been denied personal human rights. In this autobiography, Wiesel questions the morals of humans who were in Europe during this time by were engaging in acts that showed that their ethics and moral principles in their life were distorted, wrong and corrupted. This paper is a personal response to the book.
The book records the disturbing early childhood experiences of Wiesel in Nazi Death Camps of Auschwitz and Buchenwald during the WWII. Through this ...

‘Bread Givers’ is an acclaimed story written by Anzia Yezierska. The story gives readers a glimpse about a Jewish American family that struggles with financial problems. Anzia Yezeierska is known for depicting problems related to migrated Jews women and other immigrants who migrated into America. This paper intends to discuss the story, ‘Bread Givers’ along with discussing the challenges that Sara Smolinsky faces as a woman in her traditional family.
The story revolves around a Jewish family having Sara Smolinsky, a young girl in the centre. Beginning chapters of the story indicates that Sara’s family is migrated into America for a better life ...

“Night” is a novella published in 1960 by Elie Wiesel. Originally, he wrote a memoir entitled “Un di Velt Hot Geshvign” in 1956 after a vow of silence for ten years. This staggering, eight-hundred page memoir was then condensed and translated from Yiddish to French into “La Nuit”; eventually translated in English and published as “Night”. This revolutionary novella reflected the cruelty and inhumanity millions suffered in the hands of the Holocaust as reflected by its main character, Eliezer (eNotes Editors). Despite all horrors suffered, justice is still arguably found in the story in the form of Eliezer’s faith.

Wiesel was ...

Chapter One: Down is Up

- The chapter starts with John the Baptist’s and Mary’s prophecies about the coming
of the new order, the kingdom of God. This new order, the upside-down kingdom, would bring a radical shift of social patterns in which social pyramid is about to turn the other way around.
- Jesus describes the kingdom of God and other kingdoms of this world as two inverted ladders.
- In Bible God’s kingdom is described as a collectivity, it is not an aggregate of individuals, but the network of people who fully dedicate themselves to the reign of ...

Book Review

Book Review 2: ‘Children of Dust’ by Ali Eteraz
Background Introduction
The book ‘Children of Dust’ by Ali Eteraz focuses on his narrative regarding his religion centered childhood. He grew up in a deeply religious Islamic family, and like most children, he follows in the same religion pathway as his parents. However, Abir Eteraz’s relationship with the religion identity is far way complex than his peers and age mates in his neighborhood in America. With time, the young boy becomes fanatical and obsessed with Islamic faith with the limited comprehension of a child. Largely, his parents are a ...

American cartoonist Art Spiegelman’s Maus is considered a comic masterpiece and the two-volume telling the horrors of the Holocaust is a winner of Pulitzer Prize. Art’s father, Vladek was a Polish Jew, who survived the Holocaust. The essay looks at MAUS graphic novel, its artwork and how the author uses those images to tell a compelling story. Maus is considered to be as an intellectually substantive graphic novel.
Spiegelman has depicted Germans as cats and Jews as mice and Germans and Poles as pigs cats in the graphic novel. The purpose is to show Germans as the ...

Book Review: Beggar-Thy-Neighbor, Chapter 2

Usury in the early years of the renaissance was seen as a sin against humanity according to this chapter. It was under the power of the pope but he applied regulation very selectively. However interest was acknowledged as a necessary factor for commerce to be conducted. Ideas kept coming up concerning usury and interest hence discussions were bound to come up concerning these factors. Money use brought with it great potential for sin. Many praised it and saw it as a wonderful invention. Others saw the possibilities of doing infinite good by the use of money. People were to ...

Rudolf Hoess, who should not be confused with Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s Deputy Fuehrer who flew to England in 1941, was a career S.S. officer whose memoirs are one of the most important primary sources about the Holocaust. No other camp commander produced an autobiography or wrote so extensively about his career, and none occupied a more important position in the machinery of extermination. Hoess introduced Zyklon-B (Cyclone-B) gas to Auschwitz in 1941, mainly because he thought it would be the most efficient method of mass killing, and his camp became the largest ‘customer’ for this cyanide gas, which had ...

Summary of Chapter 3-7 of American Crucible

American Crucible by Gary Gerstle stems from the racialism and ethnicity. This was after Roosevelt led his riders to victory in a war between America and Spain he boasted a lot about Americans been strengthened by war and years later would still inspire the Americans. The objective of this paper is to analyze the book from chapter 3 to chapter seven focusing on the key points and arguments of the author.

Chapter 3

In chapter 3 Gary tries to focus on the boundaries of the nation, 1917 to 1929. Roosevelt’s dream in this chapter is coming true in a battle where they are ...

The book ‘Fight or Flight: Britain, France, and their Roads from Empire’ written by Martin Thomas is one of the unique books on the concept of decolonization. In the book, the author explains shows how Britain’s imminent withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and the dispatch of troops to the Central African Republic by France are the recent observations of a long-standing trend of decolonization. Author Thomas begins in the book, a vast and impressive study to examine the entire range of acts of decolonization, differentiating those where scurry or flight were the order. In the case of the British, the ...

Introduction:

Palestine: Peace not Apartheid is a strong and general forceful book written by former President Jimmy Carter which attempts to portray the issue of Palestine and Israel in a more clear and factful light. Some writers and especially Jewish scholars have contested several of Carter’s theories in the book where he espouses the dictum that Israel’s hostile control and semi dictatorship in the occupied Palestinian territories are principal obstacles in the peace process. Carter also focuses at length on the talks he had hosted between President Begim of Israel and Anwar Sadat that led to the famous Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty ...

Question 1:

Baryka gets a unique perspective on Polish Society when he actually entered in the city. At the time, it was looked from his point of view of being a place of opportunity. When Baryka returned to the city of Warsaw Cezary Baryka decided that he could better himself. One way that was being done when he decided to enrolled once more in his medical studies and once that was done, he took up residence, at his own invitation, in the room of one of his colleagues, a particular Buławnik. Here as mentioned earlier Cezary Baryka really wants to start over and ...

The book What In The World Is God Doing: The Essentials Of Global Missions: An Introductory Guide by C. Gordon Olson serves as an introduction to missions where the information is based largely on the author’s knowledge and experience, giving the book a balance between practice and theory. It discusses the five dimensions of world missions, namely the Biblical dimension, the historical dimension, the contextual dimension, the regional dimension, and the functional dimension.1

Insights

One insight that I’ve gained from the book is that Christianity has experienced a massive growth over the years, and yet Christians aren’t necessarily knowledgeable ...

MacLean, Nancy. Freedom Is Not Enough. Boston: Harvard University Press, 2008.

In Nancy MacLean's Freedom Is Not Enough, the difficult transition between a white-dominant culture into one of greater acceptance is described, particularly as it extends to the workforce of the United States. According to MacLean, after World War II, American society could be classified as a "culture of exclusion"1; whites still had the political and social power to prevent African-Americans and Mexican-Americans from participating in the American workforce on an equal level. However, many different forces came into play that managed to increase and promote diversity in the workplace, ...

April 8,2016

Irshad Manji: The Trouble with Islam; A Muslim’s Call for Reform
Irshad Manji wrote her book The Trouble with Islam in 2003 - 2004 as an open letter. The author expressed her doubts and questions to the Muslim and non - Muslim people regarding the rigidity of Islam religion, seeking true answers. Muslim-born author Menji outlined major challenges for modern Muslims in order to get better and get rid of outdated traditions.
According to Manji, Muslims keep practicing outdated traditions that make many Muslim countries stay backward. In 1972, as a four year old girl, she arrived to ...

The epic battle on the Eastern Front during World War II continues to be arguably the greatest conflict that has been ever fought on earth. Examining the official correspondence and documents of three army security divisions that were responsible for the subjugation of the Russian insurgents, Ben Shepherd, in his book the War in the Wild East: The German Army and Soviet Partisans, primarily emphases on the comportment and inspiration of the field officers, who were essentially the pivotal links that ‘converted the ideological, military, and economic imperatives of the Third Reich’s war of extermination into action.’
War ...

We begin by reading a tragic denouement ending of Mark’s story. Jesus is arrested by the authorities and leads to desertion. Jesus second sermon speaks of powers that are toppled by Human. When Mark narrates the moment, disciples were caught off guard. The passion narrative is filled with execution. We cannot understand this message and the hope it bears unless we come to terms with terrible realism. Mark begins the Passion narrative with two stories where Jesus is the King and the other one a Banquet. Each prepares the reader for the tragic turn. The plot is about to take ...

PART I:

Britain played a crucial role in shaping the economic and political history through the way it colonized various countries in the Middle East and North Africa. The aspects of European imperialism are shown clearly how it influenced the economic and political activities in the countries in the Middle East and North Africa. Several forms of European imperialism were reflected between the period of 1750 to 1914 in countries like Algeria, Egypt and Tunisia. Napoleon brought a great influence and impact in Egypt while French colonization in Algeria contributed to the way various economic and political forces were shaped in such countries. ...

When getting deeper to the real nature of crime and punishment connected to the case of Adolf Eichmann, the author underlines two main challenges that the readers witnesses. The first one is connected with the legal judgment that is closely connected with legal intention. The main issue here is whether the courts had to present the reliable proof of the fact that Eichmann had an intention of the genocide commitment in order to convict him of this terrifying crime (Ardent 19).
Here the main interest represents the fact that Eichmann had a serious lack of real intentions as he ...

Book review: The Renaissance Bazaar: From the Silk Road to Michelangelo

During 1400 to 1600, the remarkable development in European society in the fields of art, politics, philosophy, and, culture is Renaissance. French historian Jules Michelet claimed Renaissance as a French phenomenon but, as per Swiss academic Jacob Burckhardt, birth place of modern world is Italy. From the mythological explanation of the evolution of Europe to the meaning of Renaissance according to Jules Michelet, Jacob Burckhardt, Walter Peter, Erwin Panofsky, Stephen Greenblatt, `The Renaissance Bazaar` is an analytical history of the evolution of Renaissance and explains how the interactions between the east and the west through trade and exchanges influenced the ...

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque and The Book Thief by Markus Zusak are two books that have lots in common and some differences. The Book Thief is a story about a young girl called Liesel Meminger, who ends up staying with foster parents because her ailing mother cannot be able to fend for her. It was during the time Hitler was in control, and there was war everywhere, so the setting of the story is during a war time in German. On the other hand, All Quiet on the Western Front is a story about a young man; Paul ...

Response to Book Reviews

The review provided by this writer is spot-on. As noted, Chrysanthemum is a book meant for children and it does not disappoint because the plot reminiscences of what happens today in most schools. Chrysanthemum’s parents give her name because they think it is lovely just like her, but her classmates in school keep on teasing her because they think the name is weird. This is something which demoralizes Chrysanthemum greatly, and she does not believe in herself anymore. Instead, she wishes to have a “normal” name just like the rest of her classmates.
Enter Mrs. Twinkle, the new music ...

PART ONE

THE OLD TESTAMENT BOOKS
EXODUS
This is a law book, the second book in the Hebrew bible and is also one of the Torah books that are believed to have been authored by Moses himself. The book simply means the act of going out.
The main theme addressed in the book is all about the suffering of the Israelites and their departure from the land of Egypt to their promised land. The theme of salvation and theophany are manifested in this book whereby the meaning of God’s salvation history through actions that give identity to the ...

SUMMARY OF THE BOOKS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

The book of Matthew is under of genre of Gospels and it majorly contains the narration histories, genealogy, sermons and the prophetic oracles. It was apparently by Levi who was a disciple of Christ. The main theme in the book of Mathew is the Kingdom and it has been used up to 28 times. The major characters involved in the text are The Messiah, his parents Mary and Joseph, the twelve disciples, John the Baptist and leaders such as Pilate and the Pharisees.
It was also written to convince the Jews that indeed Christ was the long awaited Messiah ...

PUBLICATION: West Berlin, TOWNSEND PRESS (SEPTEMBER 22, 2008) 148 PAGES

GENRE: FICTION
This is a story of a boy from a humble background and rose to be the most famous magician in the planet. He had a good imagination and strived to entertain his audience.
The book talks about the little boy born in 24th march 1874 in Budapest, Hungary with the name Enrich Weiss. His family moved in the USA in Wisconsin .He had three other siblings and his father Mr. Mayer Samuel Weiss was a Rabbi for the Jewish congregation in Germany called German Zion Jewish Congregation of Appleton.
Harry sold newspapers at the age of 8 as his ...

Hitler’s Table Talk is written in a way to make you feel as if you are having a direct conversation with Hitler over the dining room table. Or maybe it is more like being lectured by him because the talk offered in the book are monologues. The date and time of day is noted as well as who is with him during his talk. His conversations in the book explain the beliefs he holds dear such as the superiority of the Aryan race and who he considers to be a part of that race. He discusses his feelings on breeding pure ...

Introduction

Jane Ziegelman grew up in the Upper West Side of Manhattan. She currently lives with her husband and two kids at Brooklyn Heights. She studied History in college and worked in publishing before she enrolled in NYU for Urban Anthropology’s graduate program. She founded and directed Kids Cook! which is a cooking program for kids. She is also the director of Tenement Museum's culinary center and the co-author of Foie Gras: A Passion.

97 Orchard was published on October 2, 2001. Ziegelman’s inspiration for the book was the tenements itself . When she was still studying at NYU, she ...

The book Levittown by David Kushner narrates of the dark side of the American history. The book mainly illuminates the racial discrimination that was much evident in the United States of America in the 1950’s (Kushner, 12). Trying to review the American history in broad, it is believed that the Africans who were captured as slaves were sold in the United States to work as slaves in the large plantations. After the war had ended and the blacks in the American soil had increased in number, the Africans started to demand for an equal treatment as the whites. ...

Introduction:

In this excellent book, Thompson takes the old myth on the Old Testament God to task explaining the fact that life is not to be taken for granted in any way. Many view God as someone who is forbidding, always ready to castigate and create situations where his obedience is unquestioned and/or without any sort of parallel. Thompson does attempt to dispel that myth accordingly focusing on life in general and how the many episodes in the Bible can be said to dispel this theme accordingly.

The main points of the book:

Principally the book attempts to tackle certain aspects of life which are seen ...

Chapter 1: Down is Up

Here the author discusses prayer and how this can be used to start up and motivate a group of people and get them into the religous feel. It is an interesting start to the book and provides the ideal background for such a spiritual occasion as prayer. As an introduction it is fine and sets the stage for what is to follow quite nicely. I find it interesting as it is compelling and direct.

Chapter 2: Mountain Politics

Here we have a summary on Old Testament history which is pretty deep and spiritual. Although some of the arguments Kraybill use may be slightly outdated, the pieces ...