Judaisms

 

The study of Jewish history has always had to wrestle with the question of Jewish continuity across time and distance, and discontinuity and difference.  Cultures of the Jews: A New History edited by David Biale, takes more the former stance than the latter.  The scholars in this large volume, 1234 pages, generally see differences and disjuncture across Jewish time and space. But this is not uniformly held. Some Jewish communities had close ties to others at great distances and relied on each other on multiple levels.

But generally, the wide variety of "Judaisms" is explored here.  An overall, ideal form of “Judaism” does not float over these essays.  The plural of the title says it all.