Eyewitness to Jewish History - Hardcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

RABBI BENJAMIN BLECH is an internationally recognized educator, religious leader, author, and lecturer. He is the author of ten highly acclaimed books, including The Complete Idiot?s Guide to Jewish History and Culture as well as Understanding Judaism: The Basics of Deed and Creed. A recipient of the American Educator of the Year Award, he is an associate professor of Talmud at Yeshiva University and was recently ranked #16 in a national poll of the 50 most influential Jews in America.

Von der hinteren Coverseite

Come face-to-face with the major figures and events in Jewish history

Prepare to feel the joy and pain of the Jewish experience as you never have before. In Eyewitness to Jewish History, Rabbi Benjamin Blech takes you aboard a literary time machine in which you?ll do more than read about major events in Jewish history?you?ll witness them, take part in them, and feel their deep and lasting impact.

Featuring hundreds of excerpts from diaries, journals, letters, newspaper accounts, public testimony, official communications, and ancient documents such as the Torah, this unique chronicle provides memorable snapshots of daily life from biblical times to the modern day. These vivid and passionately written accounts, arranged in chronological order, transport you across space and time to witness:

• The birth of the Jewish people
• The building and destruction of the two Temples
• The struggle to survive in the early years of the Diaspora
• The Golden Age of Spain
• Persecutions and expulsions throughout Europe
• The horrors of the Holocaust
• The founding of the modern state of Israel
• And much more

Aus dem Klappentext

Throughout history, Judaism and Jewish culture have enriched the entire world with revolutionary conceptions of God, justice, freedom, learning, and, indeed, the very meaning of history. Eyewitness to Jewish History brings you face-to-face with the people, places, and events that have shaped and been shaped by the Jewish experience, from ancient times to the modern day.

This unique chronicle transports you into the past through the vivid and passionate accounts of people who witnessed and took part in these pivotal moments in history. Drawing from diaries, journals, letters, newspaper accounts, public testimony, official communications, and ancient documents such as the Torah, Rabbi Benjamin Blech enables you to feel each historic moment as if it were happening to you.

Traveling in this literary time machine, you?ll meet Abraham and witness the birth of the Jewish people, flee with Moses from Egypt and ascend Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments, and struggle with the prophet Samuel over the formation of the Kingdom of Judea. You?ll be there the first time the Torah is translated from Hebrew into another language, labor with Talmudic scholars to preserve and interpret Judaic Oral Law, and revel in Jewish accomplishments during the Golden Age of Spain.

You will taste the bitter hatred, violence, and oppression that Jews have endured over two millennia?merciless Crusader attacks, the unspeakable persecution of the Inquisition, pogroms in Russia, countless expulsions from country after country, and, ultimately, the unimaginable horror of the Holocaust.

In every period of Jewish history, however, great evils have been balanced by even greater good. You?ll witness the founding of the modern State of Israel, the remarkable accomplishments of Jews in every aspect of American life, and important steps in the ongoing effort to achieve peace in the Middle East.

Supplemented with Rabbi Blech?s insightful comments, helpful clarifications, and thought-provoking questions, Eyewitness to Jewish History is must-reading for anyone who seeks a deeper and more immediate understanding of Jewish history and the Jewish experience through the ages.