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Judaism

$US15.30
$US30.60

Salo Wittmayer Baron

Date Added: Sunday 30 May, 2010

The Russian translation of the late Professor Isidore Epstein's JUDAISM will fill a major lacuna in the existing Russian scholarly and educational literature about the historic evolution of the Jewishfaith.For the last seven decades Soviet Jewry has been deprived of any significant new contributions in this field. At first, the Russian regime, still rather sympathetic to its Jewish minority, tolerated, occasionally even promoted, research relating to modern Jewish history and contemporary affairs. But these were principally concerned with socioeconomic developments in accordance with the regnant materialistic conception of history. Even the few biblical studies published at that time stressed these secular, rather than religious aspects, since all religions were to be discouraged as "opiates" forthe masses.In the last forty years, however, even these limited studies, along with all other aspects of Jewish culture, were increasingly repressed. For more than a generation the voice of the Jewish people in the Soviet Union was completely muted; it found fewer and fewer outlets for its intellectual curiosity concerning its own heritage. Schools, theatres, the press, and almost all synagogues were closed down, leaving but a remnant of the once flourishing, truly creative cultural life of the Jewish population. Under these circumstances the overwhelming majority of the Jews living in the Soviet Union -including the residents of the former Baltic s.. Read More »