Dear Librarians, ACADEMIC STUDIES PRESS is excited to announce three new Judaic Studies titles for the month of February. Please visit us at www.academicstudiespress.com to learn more or to place an order.
"Religious Zionism: History and Ideology" by Dov Schwartz 160 pages, cloth. $45.00 ISBN: 978-1-934843-26-0 The first book on religious Zionism available in English, Schwartz probes the thoughts and motivations of the religious movement that supported Zionism from its inception, and their contributions towards the creation of the state of Israel. He approaches the creation of the Mizrachi as a genuine revolution, when the rabbinic world entered institutionalized politics and, to some extent, assumed the demands of modernity. Approaching religious Zionism from historical, social, political, and philosophical perspectives, Schwartz has created a new and essential addition to our understanding of Israel's history. An excellent addition to any Israeli studies syllabus. "A Roadmap to the Heavens: An Anthropological Study of Hegemony Among Priests, Sages, and Laymen" by Sigalit Ben-Zion 364 pages, cloth. $80.00 ISBN: 978-1-934843-14-7 In her new book, Ben-Zion explores the complex relationships between the Sages, Priests, and laymen who competed for hegemony in social, cultural, and political arenas during the Tannaitic period (70 C.E. 220 C.E.). In order to achieve political and social power, Ben-Zion uncovers the ways in which the Sages used established hegemonic priestly discourse to undermine the existing social structure, retaining elements of the old order, such as family attribution, group nepotism, endogamy, ritual purity and impurity, and secret knowledge. Thus, social mobility based on education was available only to privileged social classes, leading Ben-Zion to conclude that even though the Sages resisted the priestly hegemony and attempted to disengage from it, they could not free themselves from the shackles of the priestly discourse and praxis. "Marranos on the Moradas: Secret Jews and Penitentes in the Southwestern United States" by Norman Simms 520 pages, cloth. $79.00 ISBN: 978-1-934843-32-1 Two groups were persecuted over four hundred years in what is now the southwestern United States, each dissimulating and disguising who they truly were. The Penitentes are a lay Catholic brotherhood that practiced bloody rites of self-flagellation and crucifixion, but claim this is a misrepresentation and that they are a community and charitable organization. Marranos, an ambiguous and complicated population of Sephardic descendants, claim to be anousim. Both peoples have a complex, shared history. This book disentangles the web, redefines the terms, and creates new contexts in which these groups are viewed with respect and sympathy without idealizing or slandering them. Using rabbinics, literary analyses, psychohistory, and cultural anthropology, Simms consolidates a history of mentalities. Sara Libby Robinson, Ph.D. Associate Editor Academic Studies Press 28 Montfern Ave Brighton MA 02135 617-782-6290 [email protected] www.academicstudiespress.com --- Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) =========================================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: [email protected] SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: Listproc @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: galron.1 @ osu.edu Ha-Safran Archives: Current: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html History: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/history.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org
