Books published by Academic Studies Press

Offers an introduction to the most important works of Russian literature of the last fifty years. Organised both chronologically and thematically, it is a structured presentation of significant cultural developments and literary works intended for wide use in undergraduate courses on Russian literature and culture.

An original interpretive history of the origins, rise, and eventual fall of the New Odessa Jewish commune formed by members of Am Olam and an analysis of the process of their transformation from Russian revolutionary intelligentsia who rejected any outward forms of Judaism to Americans who in large measure came to terms with their Jewishness.

In addition to his numerous works in prose and poetry for both children and adults, Daniil Kharms (1905-42), one of the founders of Russiäs ¿lost literature of the absurd,¿ wrote notebooks and a diary for most of his adult life. Published for the first time in recent years in Russian, these notebooks provide an intimate look at the daily life and struggles of one of the central figures of the literary avant-garde in Post-Revolutionary Leningrad. While Kharms¿s stories have been translated and published in English, these diaries represents an invaluable source for English-language readers who, having already discovered Kharms in translation, desire to learn about the life and times of an avant-garde writer in the first decades of Soviet power.

Russian Silver Age writers were full participants in European literary debates and movements. Today some of these poets, such as Akhmatova, Mandelstam, Mayakovsky, Pasternak, and Tsvetaeva, are known around the world. This volume introduces Silver Age poetry with its cultural ferment, the manifestos and the philosophical, religious, and aesthetic debates, the occult references and sexual experimentation, and the emergence of women, Jews, gay and lesbian poets, and peasants as part of a brilliant and varied poetic environment. After a thorough introduction, the volume offers brief biographies of the poets and selections of their work in translation--many of them translated especially for this volume--as well as critical and fictional texts (some by the poets themselves) that help establish the context and outline the lively discourse of the era and its indelible moral and artistic aftermath.

Russian Silver Age writers were full participants in European literary debates and movements. Today some of these poets, such as Akhmatova, Mandelstam, Mayakovsky, Pasternak, and Tsvetaeva, are known around the world. This volume introduces Silver Age poetry with its cultural ferment, the manifestos and the philosophical, religious, and aesthetic debates, the occult references and sexual experimentation, and the emergence of women, Jews, gay and lesbian poets, and peasants as part of a brilliant and varied poetic environment. After a thorough introduction, the volume offers brief biographies of the poets and selections of their work in translation--many of them translated especially for this volume--as well as critical and fictional texts (some by the poets themselves) that help establish the context and outline the lively discourse of the era and its indelible moral and artistic aftermath.

Tel-Aviv's annual Purim celebrations were the largest public events in British Palestine, and they played a key role in the development of the urban Jewish experience in the Promised Land. Carnival in Tel-Aviv presents a historical-anthropological analysis of this mass public event in order to explore the ethnographic dimension of Zionism.

"This volume brings together a number of modern treatments emphasizing theTriassic and Jurassic brachiopods of Israel and nearby countries. It provides aconvenient basic resource for students of the Triassic and Jurassic of this biogeographically important region. Important comments are made on the biogeography of the marine faunas, with emphasis on brachiopods, plus useful summaries of lithofacies relations through most of Triassic and Jurassic time for this region. There are also useful accounts on marine ecological phenomenaand depositional environments for some of the fossils. The illustrations areexcellent. The volume is highly recommended for paleontologists and stratigraphers."- Arthur J. Boucot, Distinguished Professor, Department of Zoology,Oregon State University

Bo, Jenny and I is a memoir describing the life of a young woman growing up in unusual circumstances, as well as a discussion of political and sociological effects of troubled times upon "e;ordinary people."e; After an early childhood in pre-war Antwerp, the author, her formidable grandmother, and her young, unconventional working mother fled to England in 1940, upon Germany's invasion of Belgium. As refugees, the family adapted to its changed circumstances and to life in World War II England. The political upheavals of the times are reflected in the life of this small family and its remarkable experiences.

Explores important questions in both modern and premodern Jewish philosophy regarding the idea of faith. This book presents various manifestations of the concept of faith in Judaism as a tradition engaged in a dialogue with the outside world. It will function as an opening and an invitation to an ongoing conversation with faith.

The third of a three-volume series, this book contains Eva Jospe''s ''Reason and Hope: Selections from the Jewish Writings of Hermann Cohen,'' together with two essays examining Cohen''s enduring importance and relevance. As Dov Schwartz suggests in his Introduction to the volume, she believed that Cohen''s Jewish Writings had the potential for influence and impact on the American Jewish intellectual, and would enrich the ethical and religious life of the Jewish community in America. Her selection of passages to be translated, and her decisions regarding what to omit, served these purposes. Volume One of this series contains her study of the "Concept of Encounter in the Philosophy of Martin Buber," and Volume Two her translations of Moses Mendelssohn.

If it can be said that theology is the philosophical examination of a religion by an insider, then the present collection of essays by Shubert Spero offers us the proper formula for a truly authentic work. The author sets out to rigorously yet sensitively investigate some of the basic concepts and principles of classical Judaism.

Gary Saul Morson's ideas about life and literature have long inspired, annoyed, and provoked specialists and general readers. His work on "prosaics" (his coinage) argues that life's defining events are not grand but ordinary, and that the world's fundamental state is mess. Viewing time as a "field of possibilities", he maintains that contingency and freedom are real.

Throughout history, Judaism has been under attack by other religions, attacks which strengthened the identification of the group as a whole. Modern challenges, however, are coming from different directions, and are producing different results. Kaplan argues that the multiplicity of threads in Jewish life today represents the process of a radical transformation "nothing less than metamorphosis".

Asher Ginsberg (1856-1927), also known as Ahad Ha-am, was a prominent pre-state Zionist thinker and considered the founder of Cultural Zionism, fi ghting for what he described as "a Jewish state and not merely a state of Jews." This 1912 collection of essays, translated by Leon Simon, expresses his philosophy and beliefs on Zionism and other Jewish topics, helping the reader buildan understanding of Ahad Ha-am and his era.Sir Leon Simon was among the original members of the Zionist Commision to Palestine, and was particularly interested in the cultural aspect of Jewish nationalism and the Hebrew revival. He published several translations of Ahad Ha-am''s work and wrote Studies in Jewish Nationalism (1920) and Essays onAncient Greek Literature (1951; in Hebrew).

''Teaching Nineteenth-Century Russian Literature: Essays in Honor of Robert L. Belknap'' grew out of a conference in honor of Robert Belknap, an outstanding teacher and scholar. The collected essays present concrete strategies for teaching the works of some of Russia''s best-known writers: Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Turgenev, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Chekhov. They address the teaching of these iconic works of Russian literature in different contexts and to different audiences, from undergraduate students reading Russian classics in the context of general education courses to graduate students exploring the larger context of Russian print culture. Most of the essays address teaching inEnglish translation, a few in the original, but all offer useful strategiesthat can be adopted for teaching to any audience.

Hadassah, the Women's Zionist organization of America, has wielded power in the halls of American political institutions and in the minds of many Jews in the United States. This book enriches our understanding of both modern Jewish history and American women's history. Hadassah is important not only for what it tells us about women but also for what it reveals about Jewish history and politics, about Zionism, and about America. In the post-World War II era, Hadassah played a significant role in shaping Jewish women's political action and identity. Widely known for its work in Israel, Hadassah played a central role in shaping the way generations of American Jewish women thought about themselves and about their involvement on the American political scene.

This groundbreaking book was among the most important of those that presented the teachings of Maimonides, as represented by his many published works, as a unified whole, thus bringing about a renaissance in the study of this seminal scholar. The author, the Reverend Abraham Cohen, states in his original introduction that ¿the spirit which animated [Maimonides¿] mind and pervades his writings is as much needed now as ever before.¿ Academic Studies Press is proud to make this important work once again available in printed form.

Library of Congress does not carry the original title.

As a manifestation of asymmetrical violence coming from the bottom up, terrorism in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries is qualitatively different from terrorism in earlier times. Against a backdrop of globalization, the spread of new forms of mass communication, and the threat of uncontrolled proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the problem of extremism and terrorism acquires a totally new meaning, becoming an important factor not only in the foreign and domestic policy of most countries, but also in the everyday lives of billions of people all over the world. Without a clear understanding of the roots of terrorism, it is extremely difficult (if not completely impossible) to comprehend this phenomenon, which has become a major threat to world security in recent decades. And without such an understanding, we cannot effectively combat the threat. In this study, Emanuilov and Yashlavsky investigate the religious aspects of modern terrorism from its origins to the present day.

British Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks - now Baron Sacks of Aldgate in the City of London - launched his tenure of office in 1991 with the aim of an inclusivist Decade of Jewish Renewal. Within a few years, fulfilling his installation prediction that 'I will have failures, but I will try again, another way, another time,' he was attracting calls, from opponents and supporters, for his resignation and the abolition of his office. Reviewing Sacks' early writings and pronouncements on the theme of inclusivism, Another Way, Another Time demonstrates how, repeatedly, the Chief Rabbi said 'irreconcilable things to different audiences' and how, in the process, he induced his kingmaker and foremost patron, Lord (Stanley) Kalms, to declare of Anglo-Jewry: 'We are in a time warp, and fast becoming an irrelevance in terms of world Jewry.' Citing support from a variety of sources, this study contends that the Chief Rabbinate has indeed reached the end of the road and explores other paths to the leadership of a pluralistic - and, ideally, inclusivist - community.

Bieganski is a stereotype of Poles and other Eastern Europeans. In the 'Bieganski' stereotype, Poles exhibit the qualities of animals. Their special hatefulness is epitomized by their Polish anti-Semitism. This book discovers this stereotype in the mainstream press, scholarship, film, in Jews' self-definition, and in responses to the Holocaust.

Neil Gillman has been a part of the JTS community for over 50 years as a student, administrator and member of the faculty. His most enduring contribution as a scholar and a teacher has been a renewed focus on the importance of theological reflection in rabbinic education and Jewish education, both in the Conservative movement and Jewish life generally. This volume seeks to honor Professor Gillman's contributions to Jewish scholarship and education by collecting essays by his colleagues and students that discuss the issues most central to his work, namely Jewish theology, Conservative Judaism and Jewish education.