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Modern Jewish Theology

The First One Hundred Years, 1835–1935

By Samuel J. Kessler and George Y. Kohler  

Modern Jewish Theology is the first comprehensive collection of Jewish theological ideas from the pathbreaking nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, featuring selections from more than thirty of the most influential Jewish thinkers of the era, explorations of Judaism’s identity, uniqueness, and relevance, the origin of ethical monotheism, and the possibility of Jewish existentialism. These works—most translated for the first time into English by top scholars in modern Jewish history and philosophy—reveal how modern Jewish theology developed in concert with broader trends in Jewish intellectual and social modernization, especially scholarship (Wissenschaft des Judentums), politics (liberalism and Zionism), and religious practice (movement Judaism and the struggles to transcend denominational boundaries).

This anthology thus opens to the English-language reader a true treasure house of source material from the formative years of modern Jewish thought, bringing together writings from the very first generations, who imagined biblical and rabbinic texts and modern scientific research would produce a synthetic view of God, Israel, and the world. A general introduction and chapter introductions guide students and non-specialists through the key themes and transformations in modern Jewish theology, and extensive annotations immerse them in the latest scholarship.

Praise

“Exciting! This anthology has the potential to help reframe the entire field of modern Jewish thought. Its study tends to leave out the nineteenth century almost totally—and yet, as the editors show, this was an extremely important period for the development of Jewish thought and the attempt to negotiate modern sensibilities about religion and science.” — Robert Erlewine, Professor and Director of the Center for Jewish Studies at Eastern Michigan University and Author of Judaism and the West: From Hermann Cohen to Joseph Soloveitchik

“What a gold mine! You have before you the keys to a world of rich, provocative, and often still startlingly relevant Jewish thinking. There was a robust Jewish theological conversation before Heschel and Soloveitchik, before Kaplan and Levinas, before Plaskow and Adler, but only now, with this wonderful volume, has this vital world opened to non-specialists and non-German readers.” — Shai Held, President and Dean at Hadar and Author of The Heart of Torah

“Modern Jewish Theology will be an indispensable and enduring resource for scholars, students, and teachers.” — Asher D. Biemann, Professor in the Department of Religious Studies, Jewish Studies Program, University of Virginia

Samuel J. Kessler

Samuel J. Kessler is Lyons Chair in Judaic Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University and the Author of The Formation of a Modern Rabbi: The Life and Times of the Viennese Scholar and Preacher Adolf Jellinek.

George Y. Kohler

George Y. Kohler is an Associate Professor in the Department of Jewish Philosophy and Director of the Joseph Carlebach Institute for Jewish Theology at Bar Ilan University. He is the Author of Kabbalah Research in the Wissenschaft des Judentums (1820-1880): The Foundation of an Academic Discipline and Reading Maimonides’ Philosophy in 19th Century Germany: The Guide to Religious Reform.

Learn more about the book here: https://jps.org/books/modern-jewish-theology/

Exile and the Jews

Literature, History, and Identity

By Nancy Berg and Marc Saperstein

This first comprehensive anthology examining Jewish responses to exile from the biblical period to our modern day gathers texts from all genres of Jewish literary creativity to explore how the realities and interpretations of exile have shaped Judaism, Jewish politics, and individual Jewish identity for millennia. Ordered along multiple arcs—from universal to particular, collective to individual, and mythic-symbolic to prosaic everyday living—the chapters present different facets of exile: as human condition, in history and life, in holiday rituals, in language, as penance and atonement, as internalized experience, in relation to the Divine Presence, and more. By illuminating the multidimensional nature of “exile”—political, philosophical, religious, psychological, and mythological—widely divergent evaluations of Jewish life in the Diaspora emerge. The word “exile” and its Hebrew equivalent, galut, evoke darkness, bleakness—and yet the condition offers spiritual renewal and engenders great expressions of Jewish cultural creativity: the Babylonian Talmud, medieval Jewish philosophy, Golden Age poetry, and modern Jewish literature.

Exile and the Jews will engage students, academics, and general readers in contemplating immigration, displacement, evolving identity, and more.

Praise

“Carefully researched and beautifully presented to create cross-generational conversations, moving from universal and existential to collective Jewish expressions of the diasporic condition, Exile and the Jews is accessible to the general reader as well as providing an invaluable resource for the student or scholar of Jewish studies.”—Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi, Author of Booking Passage: Exile and Homecoming in the Modern Jewish Imagination

“I enthusiastically endorse this fascinating anthology as a textbook for higher education.”—Rifat Sonsino, Rabbi Emeritus, Temple Beth Shalom, Needham, Massachusetts, and Author of Modern Judaism

“The selection of texts reflects remarkable erudition with deep familiarity with the Hebrew Bible and Jewish liturgy as well as the diversity of voices in the modern intellectual world. Entrenched in this background, the choice to bring together in conversation, under each section, texts that are historically and culturally distinct provokes insights on the topic. This choice makes the collection a stimulating resource for researchers and teachers…”—Yael Almog, Journal of Modern Jewish Studies

Nancy E. Berg

Nancy E. Berg is a Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at Washington University in St. Louis. She is the Author of Exile from Exile: Israeli Writers from Iraq and coeditor with Naomi B. Sokoloff of the National Jewish Book Award–winning What We Talk about When We Talk about Hebrew (And What It Means to Americans).

Marc Saperstein

Marc Saperstein served as Principal and Professor of Jewish history and homiletics of the Leo Baeck College, London. His dozen books include “Your Voice like a Ram’s Horn:” Themes and Texts in Traditional Jewish Preaching, a National Jewish Book Award winner in Scholarship, and Agony in the Pulpit: Jewish Preaching in Response to Nazi Persecution and Mass Murder, 1933–1945.

Learn more about the book here: https://jps.org/books/exile-and-the-jews/

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