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Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
Intelligent and interesting I have read many of the very short introduction series and have found them thorough, interesting but not too heavy. This has proven the same with Solomon's book. As a intellectual blank on Judaism prior to reading this book it ahs proven an able step in developing a solid knowledge of the subject. Solomon is able to explain a lot about Judaism without going too far into scripture itself. This is undoubtedly a plus when reading it in a obstensibly secular vein such as myself. A very good read.
Solomon's good judgment It must be a daunting prospect for a scholar, having to condense a vast store of knowledge into one of these little books, deciding what to include and what must go, but Solomon judges this well. He emphasizes the diversity and continuing evolution of Judaism, correcting common misconceptions about how ancient or orthodox certain aspects of Judaism are. He also lays special stress on the importance of the Holocaust and of the existence of a modern state of Israel in shaping contemporary Jewish thought.more info
Patchy in Places I love these Very Short Introductions to, they are invariably spot on in finding a way into what can be some tricky issues or ideas. This one however, did not live up to expectation. It did help me out in giving me a reasonable grounding in understanding the basics of Judaism, but I felt that the author had a bit of an axe to grind about what he perceived other people thought of as 'the jews'. this is totally understandable given the long history of persecution that the Jewish people have endured from... more info
Handy, concise guide to the most important basics of Judaism The "very short introduction" series is useful in that the most important facts and aspects of a topic are presented to you clearly and concisely - no need to flick through pages and pages, no need to look in the index or anything. The book itself is divided in chapters such as Festivals, Why Judaism and Christianity split etc. Norman Solomon has successfuly selected the most intriguing bits of Judaism to present to us in this 150 page book.
Not only does the book provide the facts about the religion like... more info
