Book Description
Haggadah commentary and the laws of Passover and the Seder, based on the 'Shulchan Aruch' and contemporary Sephardi authorities.With diagrams and richly colored plates. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Journal of the American Oriental Society, published by American Oriental Society on January 1, 1998. The length of the article is 971 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Sephardi Religious Responses to Modernity. (book reviews)
Author: Susan Einbinder
Publication: The Journal of the American Oriental Society (Refereed)
Date: January 1, 1998
Publisher: American Oriental Society
Volume: v118Issue: n1Page: p109(2)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Book Description
Following the rise of Islam, many Jewish communities lived in predominantly Muslim lands. Muslim-Jewish co-existence was not seriously challenged until the modern period when European colonialism and the emergence of Zionism and Arab nationalism led to growing friction and conflict, resulting in the mass departures of Jews from these lands in the middle of the twentieth century.

Jews and Muslims throws light on the history of these communities and on the developments that led to the snapping of ties between Jews and Muslims by focusing on the century before the end of Jewish life in these areas. It interweaves analysis with translations of primary documents drawn from the archives of a French-Jewish organization, the Alliance Israelite Universelle, that had an extensive Jewish school network around the Mediterranean basin and whose teachers reported extensively on local events and trends over the decades. It illuminates the political, socio-economic, and cultural changes that eroded the place of Jews in Middle Eastern societies and offers a unique perspective, from within, on the historical background of some of the most vexing problems of the modern Middle East.

National Jewish Book Awards Honor Book ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent history of the Sephardic Jews
Because most of the Jews in the USA today are Ashkenazim (descended from the Jews of Eastern Europe), I knew very little about the Sephardic Jews until I read this book many years ago.Since then, I have learned that the FIRST Jews to arrive in the Americas were Sephardic, many of them fleeing the Spanish Inquisition.

"The Road from Babylon" traces the history of the Sephardim from theBabylonian Captivity (hence the title) to the present day (or at least to 1985, when this book was published.)According to the text, "Sephardic" orignally referred to the Jews who fled Spain in 1492, but is now applied to "Jews whose ancestors lived in the Balkans, Asia Minor, North Africa, and all round the Mediterranean in the Near and Middle East." (P.1)We should also note that the majority of Jews in Israel today are Sephardim, descended from Jews who fled persecution in the Arab countries after Israel was founded in 1948.(121,000 left Iraq in 1951 -- see p. 231.)

In terms of format, the book is well-written and researched, and includes two sections of B&W photos, showing Sephardic communities, synagogues, and traditional dress down through the centuries. ... Read more

Book Description
Genealogists are now using molecular genealogy—comparing and matching people by matrilineal DNA lineages—mtDNA or patrilineal Y-chromosome ancestry and/or racial percentages tests. People interested in ancestry now look at genetic markers to trace the migrations of the human species. Here’s how to trace your genealogy by DNA from your grandparents back 10,000 or more years.

Anyone can be interested in DNA for ancestry research, but of interest to Jews from Eastern Europe is to see how different populations from a mosaic of communities reached their current locations. From who are you descended? What markers will shed light on your deepest ancestry? You can study DNA for medical reasons or to discover the geographic travels and dwelling places of some of your ancestors.

How do Europeans in general fit into the great migrations of prehistory that took all to where they are today based on their genetic DNA markers and sequences? Where is the geographic center of their origin and the roots of all people? Specifically, how can you interpret your DNA test for family history as a beginner in researching ancestry and your own family history? ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The most sloppy book I have ever seen
Other than copying and pasting from various Web sites, no attempt was made to structure the material or coordinate its flow in different chapters. No editing work can be traced in the whole text.A good alternative to buying this book is to type in Google a few words from the title. An average reader should be able to do a better job compiling the references than the author did. ... Read more

Product Description
In addition to the narration of his daily life in the camps, Isaac Bourla jotted down the thoughts, impressions and feelings of the young idealistic boy that he was then, the boy who was suddenly taken from one world and transplanted in another completely alien one. Like millions of other people he would never have believed that such a world existed. After the two darkest years of his life he emerged from this hell realizing to just what extent the human conscience can be debased, to what levels of degradation a human being can be led, and how much can be endured to secure one s survival. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Requiem for an Era
I believe that every adult should read at least one or two autobiographies on the lives of those persons who were unlucky enough to be caught up in the horror that the Nazi Regime perpetrated in Europe from 1939-1945. Every book that I have previously read in this category has been immensely moving in its own distinct way. This book is no exception. The narrator, the young man the author once was, cannot help but remain in your mind long after you have finished the book. It could have been you. It could be you if we do not assume our responsibility towards our fellow man in a more positive and consistent way than we seem to be doing at present... Read the book. ... Read more