By
– September 1, 2011
Central to the history, culture, intellectual life, and religion of Jews and Judaism is the concept of the Jewish Journey, that singular experience of travel, whether actual, virtual, or metaphorical, that forms a necessary foundation for the full development of Jewish consciousness. The editors have gathered in this one volume a raft of scholarly ideas from around the world, gleaned from those submitted to a joint conference held at the University of Cape Town in 2007. Both Jewish studies and migration studies are fully represented by the 17 selected articles that comprise the four parts of the book: The Nature of Jewish Journeys; Body, Identity and Gender; Intellectual and Cultural Transmission; and Journeys and Families.
The multi-disciplinary nature of the essays represents a new path in Jewish studies, one that deals with both the physical and spiritual aspects of growth and the cultural and intellectual sides of the Jewish experience. While its reach is global and its themes are scholarly, it is easily accessible to a wide readership because of the clear writing, richly wrought imagery and logically developed ideas. For example, Veronica Belling’s piece on women’s journeys from Eastern Europe to South Africa explains how that nation’s Jewish identity and quality of life was shaped by two waves of immigration, before World War I and immediately after. Tony Kushner studies the Jewish family, with an emphasis on the role of the husband and father, and contrasts the elite Jews who boarded the ill-fated Titanic with the obscure Jewish immigrants who were their poorer cousins. The book is the newest entry in the Parkes-Wiener Series on Jewish Studies series, whose aim is to publish new research and reissue classic studies in the field. Abstracts, index, notes on contributors.
The multi-disciplinary nature of the essays represents a new path in Jewish studies, one that deals with both the physical and spiritual aspects of growth and the cultural and intellectual sides of the Jewish experience. While its reach is global and its themes are scholarly, it is easily accessible to a wide readership because of the clear writing, richly wrought imagery and logically developed ideas. For example, Veronica Belling’s piece on women’s journeys from Eastern Europe to South Africa explains how that nation’s Jewish identity and quality of life was shaped by two waves of immigration, before World War I and immediately after. Tony Kushner studies the Jewish family, with an emphasis on the role of the husband and father, and contrasts the elite Jews who boarded the ill-fated Titanic with the obscure Jewish immigrants who were their poorer cousins. The book is the newest entry in the Parkes-Wiener Series on Jewish Studies series, whose aim is to publish new research and reissue classic studies in the field. Abstracts, index, notes on contributors.
Linda F. Burghardt is a New York-based journalist and author who has contributed commentary, breaking news, and features to major newspapers across the U.S., in addition to having three non-fiction books published. She writes frequently on Jewish topics and is now serving as Scholar-in-Residence at the Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center of Nassau County.
