- Table View
- List View
The Land Agent
by J David Simons'A genuine tour-de-force' --Lesley McDowell on 'An Exquisite Sense of What Is Beautiful'. Palestine, 1920s. Working as an agent for one of the richest men in the world, Polish-Jewish immigrant Lev Sela finds himself swept into a relationship with Celia Kahn, a mesmerising Scottish pioneer, after stumbling upon a strategic area of land that doesn't exist on any map. An outstanding historical novel, The Land Agent brims with passion, tension and conflicting ideals, and is populated with an extraordinary cast of characters reflecting the melting pot of the era. Effortlessly navigating the labyrinths of its time and place, it evokes a troubled, yet beautiful land.
The Credit Draper
by J David Simons"A truly fine debut" Rodge Glass. 1911. Avram Escovitz, a young Jew, arrives in Glasgow from Russia. He dreams of playing football until WWI intervenes and he begins work as a credit draper, peddling goods to Highlanders. A stranger in a strange land, Avram must set up a new business and capture the heart of a Highland lass. But how easy will it be to shake off his Jewish roots? *New revised edition
The Liberation of Celia Kahn
by J David Simons"A quietly brilliant book" The Skinny. Suffragettes in Scotland. With rent strikes, anti-war sentiment, Cat and Mouse wrangling in London and a revolution brewing in Russia, a young Jewish woman in Glasgow discovers a taste for protest and the empowerment made possible by birth control. Her political sensibilities are fired up even further by a personal trauma. How will Celia respond to the difficult choices posed by a passionate new love affair?
WJEC AS Religious Studies: An Introduction to Philosophy of Religion and an Introduction to Religion and Ethics (PDF)
by Karl Lawson Andrew PearceEndorsed by WJEC, and written by senior examiners, this is the only study and revision guide that precisely matches the WJEC AS Religious Studies - Introduction to Philosophy of Religion and Introduction to Religion and Ethics course. It contains essential course notes, revision advice and support for every topic in the specification.
WJEC AS Religious Studies: An Introduction to Philosophy of Religion & An Introduction to Religion and Ethics - Study and Revision Guide (PDF)
by Karl Lawson Andrew PearceEndorsed by WJEC, and written by senior examiners, this is the only study and revision guide that precisely matches the WJEC AS Religious Studies - Introduction to Philosophy of Religion and Introduction to Religion and Ethics course. It contains essential course notes, revision advice and support for every topic in the specification.
WJEC A2 Religious Studies: Study and Revision Guide (PDF)
by Delyth Ellerton HarrisEndorsed by WJEC, and written by a senior examiner this is the only study and revision guide that precisely matches the WJEC A2 Religious Studies - Studies in Philosophy of Religion course. It contains essential course notes, revision advice and support for every topic in the specification.
WJEC A2 Religious Studies: Study and Revision Guide (PDF)
by Delyth Ellerton-HarrisWritten by an experienced examiner and endorsed by WJEC, this study and revision guide is designed to accompany you through your course as well as prepare you for the final exams.
WJEC / Eduqas Religious Studies for A Level Year 1 & AS - Christianity (PDF)
by Gwynn Ap GwilymWritten by an experienced examiner with an in-depth understanding of teaching, learning and assessment at Year 1 and AS Level, this book's engaging visual style and tone will support you through the course and help you prepare for your exams.
WJEC/Eduqas Religious Studies for A Level Year 1 & AS - Buddhism (PDF)
by Richard GrayWritten by an experienced examiner with an in-depth understanding of teaching, learning and assessment at Year 1 and AS Level, this book's engaging visual style and tone will support you through the course and help you prepare for your exams.
WJEC / Eduqas Religious Studies for A Level Year 1 & AS - Islam (PDF)
by Richard GrayWritten by an experienced examiner with an in-depth understanding of teaching, learning and assessment at Year 1 and AS Level, this book's engaging visual style and tone will support you through the course and help you prepare for your exams.
WJEC / Eduqas Religious Studies for A Level Year 1 & AS - Philosophy of Religion and Religion and Ethics (PDF)
by Richard Gray Karl LawsonWritten by an experienced examiner with an in-depth understanding of teaching, learning and assessment at Year 1 and AS Level, this book's engaging visual style and tone will support you through the course and help you prepare for your exams.
Unchosen: The Memoirs Of A Philo-semite
by Julie BurchillWhat if your first love was not one person but an entire culture?This is a loud and heartfelt celebration of one woman's relationship with the Jewish people. Growing up as a blonde, popular, West Country schoolgirl, Julie Burchill was the unlikeliest convert to militant Zionism but learning of the cruelty the Jewish people faced throughout history turned her into their biggest champion. From her marriage to a 'not Jewish enough husband' to drunken holidays in Israel, arguments with lesbian rabbis to being banned from her local synagogue, this is a brilliantly funny and unflinchingly honest account of a philo-Semite that will shock and delight in equal parts. Join Julie as she examines her 40-year obsession with the Jewish people and recounts a love affair that is as hedonistic, passionate and outspoken as its author. This is a frivolous book about a serious subject that is now more important than ever. It's An Education, but with more sex, more violence and a lot more Jews.
Other People’s Houses
by Lore SegalNine months after the Nazi occupation of Austria, 600 Jewish children assembled at Vienna station to board the first of the kindertransports bound for Britain. Among them was ten year old Lore Segal. For the next seven years, she lived as a refugee in other people’s houses, moving from the Orthodox Levines in Liverpool, to the staunchly working class Hoopers, to the genteel Miss Douglas and her sister in Guildford. Few understood the terrors she had fled, or the crushing responsibility of trying to help her parents gain a visa. Amazingly she succeeds and two years later her parents arrive; their visa allows them to work as domestic servants – a humiliation for which they must be grateful. In Other People’s Houses Segal evokes with deep compassion, clarity and calm the experience of a child uprooted from a loving home to become stranded among strangers.First published in serial form in The New Yorker in the early 1950s, and as an autobiographical novel in 1958.“A brilliant novel in the form of a memoir”New York Times“Immensely impressive”The New RepublicFirst published in 1958, this is a new edition with an afterword – philosophically astute and beautifully written – by Lore Segal in 2018
Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth
by Reza AslanFrom the internationally bestselling author of No god but God comes a fascinating, provocative and meticulously researched biography that challenges long-held assumptions about the man we know as Jesus of Nazareth. Two thousand years ago, an itinerant Jewish preacher from Galilee launched a revolutionary movement proclaiming the 'Kingdom of God', and threatened the established order of first-century Palestine. Defying both Imperial Rome and its collaborators in the Jewish religious hierarchy, he was captured, tortured and executed as a state criminal. Within decades, his followers would call him the Son of God. Sifting through centuries of mythmaking, Reza Aslan sheds new light on one of history's most influential and enigmatic figures by examining Jesus within the context of the times in which he lived: the age of zealotry, an era awash in apocalyptic fervour, when scores of Jewish prophets and would-be messiahs wandered the Holy Land bearing messages from God. They also espoused a fervent nationalism that made resistance to Roman occupation a sacred duty. Balancing the Jesus of the Gospels against historical sources, Aslan describes a complex figure: a man of peace who exhorted his followers to arm themselves; an exorcist and faith healer who urged his disciples to keep his identity secret; and the seditious 'King of the Jews', whose promise of liberation from Rome went unfulfilled in his lifetime. Aslan explores why the early Church preferred to promulgate an image of Jesus as a peaceful spiritual teacher rather than a politically conscious revolutionary, and grapples with the riddle of how Jesus understood himself. Zealot provides a fresh perspective on one of the greatest stories ever told. The result is a thought-provoking, elegantly written biography with the pulse of a fast-paced novel, and a singularly brilliant portrait of a man, a time and the birth of a religion.
The Passion of Max von Oppenheim: Archaeology and Intrigue in the Middle East from Wilhelm II to Hitler
by Lionel GossmanBorn into a prominent German Jewish banking family, Baron Max von Oppenheim (1860-1946) was a keen amateur archaeologist and ethnologist. His discovery and excavation of Tell Halaf in Syria marked an important contribution to knowledge of the ancient Middle East, while his massive study of the Bedouins is still consulted by scholars today. He was also an ardent German patriot, eager to support his country's pursuit of its "place in the sun". Excluded by his part-Jewish ancestry from the regular diplomatic service, Oppenheim earned a reputation as "the Kaiser's spy" because of his intriguing against the British in Cairo, as well as his plan, at the start of the First World War, to incite Muslims under British, French and Russian rule to a jihad against the colonial powers. After 1933, despite being half-Jewish according to the Nuremberg Laws, Oppenheim was not persecuted by the Nazis. In fact, he placed his knowledge of the Middle East and his connections with Muslim leaders at the service of the regime. Ranging widely over many fields—from war studies to archaeology and banking history—The Passion of Max von Oppenheim tells the gripping and at times unsettling story of one part-Jewish man's passion for his country in the face of persistent and, in his later years, genocidal anti-Semitism.
Angels Come in Strange Disguises
by Mavis Thompson"Angels Come in Strange Disguises", gives meaning to the true stories therein. They are a light hearted compilation of experiences from many unconnected events, occurring over a wide span of years and encompassing travels to various countries and destinations. The poems at the back of the book have come to mind quite spontaneously and the words have never been changed. This gives credence to the fact that angels are there to guide us. It is hoped that the book will entertain, inspire, encourage and assist readers to recognise that angels are a reality in their own lives.
The Wooden Walls of Thermopylae
by Nick BrownThe Athenians have won their battle at Marathon. Now they await the Great King's revenge as he works to assemble a massive army unlike any the world has ever seen. In Athens, a city seething with treachery and intrigue, Mandrocles and his friends live, love and observe-bystanders among politicians and factions fighting for power as the ultimate conflict draws near. The Wooden Walls follows Mandrocles and the greatest figures of ancient Greece as they come to terms with their threatened civilization and the date with destiny at Thermopylae. The fast-paced and meticulously researched sequel to Luck Bringer. "Fascinating and entertaining, makes the reader feel present at the events together with Mandrocles the Luck Bringer". Antonis Mistriotis, author of 507-450 B.C. The Years that Gave Birth to Democracy
The Power & Intelligence of Karma & Reincarnation
by The DharmaIn the distant past, life was pretty harsh - most work was manual labor, medicine was primitive and there was little law & order - the perfect opening to religions that promised an easy afterlife. Life was mocked as sin, "up there" awaited a magical land of plenty. These religions kept us weak, God made in the image of the local King reduced followers down to slaves/servants, down on their knees begging for mercy and seeking pity. This book asks for a paradigm change - are we still weak? Do we still think we can just run away from problems? This book is for the Strong, the Warrior, for those who see Life as a Great Gift from God, God as our Teacher, as we build the paradise right here on Earth and make Her Proud of us! Create and build a great Future for all life on earth. Only Reincarnation gives us such an opportunity.
Behold Sarah
by Lindy HennySarah's autobiography will interest anyone who is curious about life's meaning, the value of self-discovery, and the search for some form of God. It is, in itself, a blueprint of self-analysis, and at the same time a description of Sarah's raw, rich life, and her restoration from despair to wanting to live. In reading 'Behold Sarah' you will time travel with her through her singular, often murky, ever emerging past. She shares her story with an italicisedgod - but whose voice are we actually hearing? Perhaps Sarah's voice and God's are one and the same. Prepare to float on the flotsam-jetsam Thames, be guided through quirky parts of London, be banged up blissfully in a high security prison, fall in and out of love, and out and into sex , and, deep breath, find yourself in the painfully comfortable paradox of the therapy room. I, Lindy Henny (like Sarah in many respects!) am a psychotherapist, and an author. I love to write in different styles and genres - plays, poetry, novels, both profane and sacred. Accompanying Sarah on her journey, she and I spend time in an imaginary place which she calls The Hut, or The Willow Cabin; there we reflect and ponder on such things as old age, adoption, sex, love, writing poetry, relationships, croquet and tennis. I hope you enjoy 'Behold Sarah', and might be encouraged to 'Behold Yourself' and like Sarah find understanding, meaning, and whatever it is you are seeking.
Red Stilettos
by Ruth JosephThis sensational collection of quality short stories is perfect for the mainstream fiction market. The writing style is deft and stylish but accessible on many levels making it attractive to those buying for book groups and readers who enjoy quality short fiction.Ruth Joseph lives in Cardiff, Wales where she is part of the strong Jewish community. She has a strong, evovative voice which speaks directly to the reader about guilt, love and food. Her work has previously been published by Honno, Parthian and Loki.
The Expulsion of the Jews from Spain (The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization)
by Haim BeinartThe Expulsion of the Jews from Spain is a detailed study of the events surrounding this infamous chapter in Spanish history. Based on hundreds of documents discovered, deciphered, and analyzed during decades of intensive archival research, this work focuses on the practical consequences of the expulsion both for those expelled and those remaining behind. It responds to basic questions such as: What became of property owned by Jewish individuals and communities? What became of outstanding debts between Jews and Christians? How was the edict of expulsion implemented? Who was in charge? How did they operate? What happened to those who converted to Christianity in order to remain in Spain or return to that country? The material summarized and analyzed in this study also sheds light on Jewish life in Spain preceding the expulsion. For example, Jews are shown to have been present in remote villages where they were not hitherto known to have lived, and documents detailing lawsuits between Christians related to debts left behind by Jews reveal much about business and financial relations between Jews and Christians. By focusing on the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in such detail - for example, by naming the magistrates who presided over the confiscation of Jewish communal property - Professor Beinart takes history out of the realm of abstraction and gives it concrete reality.
Jewishness: Expression, Identity and Representation (Jewish Cultural Studies #1)
by Simon J. BronnerThe Jewish Cultural Studies series offers a contemporary view of Jewish culture around the globe. Multidisciplinary, multi-focused, and eclectic, it covers the cultural practices of secular Jews as well as of religious Jews of all persuasions, and from historical as well as contemporary perspectives. It also considers the range of institutions that represent and respond to Jewishness, including museums, the media, synagogues, and schools. More than a series on Jewish ideas, it uncovers ideas of being Jewish. This volume proposes that the idea of 'Jewish', or what people think of as 'Jewishness', is revealed in expressions of culture and applied in constructions of identity and representation. In Part I, 'Expression', Elly Teman considers how the kabbalistic red string found at sites throughout Israel conveys a political and psychological response to terrorism. Sergey Kravtsov examines Jewish and non-Jewish narratives concerning a synagogue in eastern Europe. Miriam Isaacs looks at expressions of cultural continuity in DP camps in the aftermath of the Holocaust, and Jascha Nemtsov discusses how Jewish folk music was presented as high art in early twentieth-century Germany. In Part II, 'Identity', Joachim Schlor enquires how the objects taken by emigrants leaving Germany for Palestine after Hitler's rise to power represented their identities. Hanna Kliger, Bea Hollander-Goldfein, and Emilie Passow examine how survivors' narratives become integrated into family identities. Olga Gershenson offers close readings of how the identities of Jews as enacted in post-perestroika films highlight conflicting Russian attitudes towards Jews. Ted Merwin considers commercial establishments as 'sacred spaces' for Jewish secular identities. Part III, 'Representation', opens with stories collected in Israel by Ilana Rosen from Jews who lived in Carpatho-Russia, while Judith Lewin considers the characterization of the Jewish woman in French literature. Holly Pearse and Mikel Koven, respectively, decode the Jewishness of modern radio comedy and Hollywood film. The idea of Jewishness is applied in the volume with provocative interpretations of Jewish experience, and fresh approaches to the understanding of Jewish cultural expressions. CONTRIBUTORS Simon J. Bronner, Olga Gershenson, Bea Hollander-Goldfein, Miriam Isaacs, Hannah Kliger, Mikel J. Koven, Sergey R. Kravtsov, Judith Lewin, Ted Merwin, Jascha Nemtsov, Emilie S. Passow, Holly A. Pearse, Ilana Rosen, Joachim Schlor, Elly Teman
Maimonides the Rationalist (The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization)
by Herbert A. DavidsonMaimonides was not the first rabbinic scholar to take an interest in philosophy, but he was unique in being a towering figure in both areas. His law code, the Mishneh torah, stands with Rashi's commentary on the Babylonian Talmud as one of the two most intensely studied rabbinic works coming out of the Middle Ages, while his Guide of the Perplexed is the most influential and widely read Jewish philosophical work ever written. Admirers and critics have arrived at wildly divergent perceptions of the man. We have Maimonides the atheist or agnostic, Maimonides the sceptic, Maimonides the deist, Maimonides the Aristotelian, the Averroist, or proto-Kantian. We have a Maimonides seduced by the blandishments of 'accursed philosophy'; a Maimonides who sowed the seeds that led to Spanish Jews' loss of faith and mass apostasy and who was therefore responsible for the demise of Spanish Jewry; a Maimonides who incorporated philosophical elements into his rabbinic works and wrote the Guide of the Perplexed not to propagate doctrines to which he was personally committed but in order to rescue errant souls seduced by philosophy; a Maimonides who was the defender of the faith and defined the articles of Jewish belief for all time. In his own estimation, Maimonides was neither exclusively a dedicated philosopher nor exclusively a devoted rabbinist: he saw philosophy and the Written and Oral Torahs as a single, harmonious domain, and he believed that this view was similarly fundamental to the lives of the prophets and rabbis of old. In this book, Herbert Davidson examines Maimonides’ efforts to reconstitute this all-embracing, rationalist worldview that he felt had been lost during the millennium-long exile.
The Three Temples: On the Emergence of Jewish Mysticism (The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization)
by Rachel EliorIn this ground-breaking study, Rachel Elior offers a comprehensive theory of the crystallization of the early stages of the mystical tradition in Judaism based on the numerous ancient scrolls and manuscripts published in the last few decades. Her wide-ranging research, scrupulously documented, enables her to demonstrate an uninterrupted line linking the priestly traditions of the Temple, the mystical liturgical literature found in the Qumran caves and associated directly and indirectly with the Merkavah tradition of around the second and first centuries BCE, and the mystical works of the second to fifth centuries CE known as Heikhalot literature. The key factor linking all these texts, according to Professor Elior’s theory, is that many of those who wrote them were members of the priestly classes. Prevented from being able to perform the rituals of sacred service in the Temple as ordained in the biblical tradition, they channelled their religious impetus in other directions to create a new spiritual focus. The mystical tradition they developed centred first on a heavenly Chariot Throne known as the Merkavah, and later on heavenly sanctuaries known as Heikhalot. In this way the priestly class developed an alternative focus for spirituality, based on a supertemporal liturgical and ritual relationship with ministering angels in the supernal sanctuaries. This came to embrace an entire mystical world devoted to sustaining religious liturgical tradition and ritual memory in the absence of the Temple. This lyrical investigation of the origins and workings of this supernal world is sure to become a standard work in the study of early Jewish mysticism.
Jewish Theology and World Religions (The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization)
by Alon Goshen-Gottstein Eugene KornNational Jewish Book Awards Finalist for the Anthologies and Collections Award, 2012.Two of the most pervasive aspects of modern Jewish life are interaction with people of other faiths and exposure to their beliefs to a degree unknown in the past. Jewish thinking regarding other religions has not succeeded in keeping pace with the contemporary realities that regularly confront most Jews, nor has it adequately assimilated the ways in which other religions have changed their teachings about Jews and Judaism. Many Jews who grapple with Jewish tradition in the contemporary world want to know how Judaism sees today’s non-Jewish other in order to affirm itself. Re-examining Jewish tradition, they seek guidance in understanding their interfaith relationships in the light of a Jewish religious mission. Jewish Theology and World Religions advances this conversation, exploring critical issues that Jews and Jewish thought face when relating to Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. It also analyses the philosophical issues raised by pluralism, non-exclusive approaches to religious truth, and appreciating the religious other. The contributors to this volume represent a range of disciplines and denominations within Judaism and share the conviction that articulating contemporary Jewish views of other world religions is an urgent objective for Judaism. Their essays show why formulating a Jewish theology of world religions is a priority for Jewish thinkers and educators concerned with reinvigorating Judaism's contribution to the contemporary world, and how it coheres with maintaining Jewish identity and continuity.