Beautiful but Askew

Berenbaum, Michael

Beautiful but Askew Encyclopedia of Jewish History. Events and Eras of the Jewish People Edited by liana Shamir and Shlomo Shavit Facts on File Publications, 1986 288 pp, $35 00 Reviewed by...

...The Encyclopedia of Jewish Histoiy is a beautiful and well-written book...
...Obviously, no insult is intended, since Maimonides is given half as much space...
...The narrative is set at the top of the page, neatly organized and concisely written In the center of a two-page spread—much as in the center of talmudic folio—is a guide directing the reader to related chapters in the book...
...The appendices on Jewish art and artifacts, on ancient Hebrew manuscripts and Jewish costumes, are again beautifully illustrated, but they do not reflect a serious program of learning, merely the eclectic, idiosyncratic interests of the editors and authors...
...The section is informative and attractive, but even as ardent a Zionist as this author must ask whether this is an accurate reading of the totality of Jewish history...
...But in modern Israel, the Histadrut, Israel's Federation of Labor, receives two stunning pages Something is obviously askew...
...Unfortunately, it is not encyclopedic and it does not cover Jewish history...
...Imagine if someone were to write an encyclopedia of American history and give Jefferson a paragraph and Lincoln a brief mention and then spend five times the space and expend six times the energy describing the work of the AFL-CIO It just doesn't make sense and it calls into question the judgment of the editors...
...Events and Eras of the Jewish People Edited by liana Shamir and Shlomo Shavit Facts on File Publications, 1986 288 pp, $35 00 Reviewed by Michael Berenbaum The pages of this encyclopedia are beautifully arranged...
...Granted that the Mishnah only lasted as the basic text of Judaism for some 1,500 years and gave rise to the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmuds Granted also that Rashi's work has remained essential to all Jewish students of the Bible and the Talmud for only 850 years and granted Maimonides was both a distinguished philosopher and a great posek, whose work on Jewish law is still authoritative—nevertheless, in the span of Jewish history as sketched by this encyclopedia, their work merits scant mention...
...Each illustration provides information on the events and eras of the Jewish people...
...Clear and lucid, well captioned and properly positioned, they present the viewer with a visual feel for the texture of Jewish life throughout the ages and make this work appropriate for cocktail tables where it will be scanned and not read, consulted occasionally for its visual power but not used as a reference book...
...The well-crafted narrative is skimpy and often inappropriate to its subject...
...For example, in this encyclopedia, the Mishnah is given two paragraphs, Rashi, the great biblical and talmudic commentator, is introduced to us by three or four lines and cited as an ' 'Old Testament" commentator...
...The bottom half of each of these exquisitely illustrated pages filled with multicolored, multi-textured illustrations that can range from an illuminated manuscript to an archaeological find, from an ancient coin to a detailed map...
...At the righthand corner is a key illustration that provides a link to the material on the page...
...So much for well-deserved praise...
...Forty percent of the encyclopedia is devoted to modern Israel, to one hundred years in the four millennia of Jewish life...
...Michael Berenbaum is a lecturer in theology at Georgetown University and a senior fellow of the Religious Action Center in Washington, DC...
...The illustrations are magnificent...

Vol. 12 • January 1988 • No. 10


 
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