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283 pages. Oversized book, measuring 11-1/3 inches by 8-1/2 inches. Topics

283 pages. Oversized book, measuring 11-1/3 inches by 8-1/2 inches. Topics covered include Laying the Foundation (Hillel, Akiba ben Joseph, Berurih, Judah Hanasi, Saadia Gaon, Samuel Hanaid, Rashi, Judah Halevi, Maimonides, Nahmanides, Joseph Caro, Gricia Mendes Nasi, and Isaac Luria; Shapers of Modern Judaism (Israel ben Eliezer, the Baal Shem Tov, Elijah ben Solomon Zalman, Moses Mendelssohn, Rebecca Gratz, Moses Montefiore, Leopold Zunz, Samson Raphael Hirsch, Abraham Geiger, Isaac Mayer Wise, Solomon Schechter, Lily Montagu, Martin Buber, Mordecai Menahem Kaplan, Franz Rosenzweig, Joseph Dov Soloveitchik, and Abraham Joshua Heschel; Shapers of the Jewish State (Theodor Herzl, Henrietta Szold, Chaim Weizmann, David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, Menachem Begin, Yigal Yadin, Yitzhak Rabin). Also includes Glossary, Chronology, Further Reading, and Index. This volume is divided into three sections: Laying the Foundation, Shapers of Modern Judaism, and Shapers of the Jewish State. Each section profiles, in chronological order, men and women who influenced the development of Judaism in a variety of ways, ranging from scholarship to philanthropy to spiritual or political leadership. In assessing what their Jewish identities mean to them, Jews today sometimes describe themselves as links in a chain of tradition that stretches back to biblical times. In this collection of biographies of Jewish thinkers from ancient times to the present, the links in that chain come to life through the dramatic stories of 41 shapers of Jewish tradition. From Hillel, whose teaching more than twenty centuries ago set Judaism on its post-biblical course, to Yitzhak Rabin, the Noble Peace Prize-winning Prime Minister of Israel who helped to broker a peace settlement between the Israelis and the Palestinians, these men and women all left an indelible mark on Jewish practice, scholarship, or nationalism. In individual biographical essays, Naomi Pasachoff explores the contributions of philosophers, poets, and philanthropists; of mystics, statesmen, and scholars; of religious organizers and Zionist leaders. In so doing she uncovers surprising facts about well-known figures. For example, Theodor Herzl is widely honored as the father of the modern state of Israel, but did you know that he once dreamed of leading all the Jews of Vienna to St. Stephan Cathedral to undergo mass baptism? Readers who recognize Rashi as the most famous of all biblical commentators may be startled to learn that his concise style was a function of his tight budget. 41 extended essays profile the lives and contributions of Jewish heroes, including: Johanan ben Zakkai, the spiritual and intellectual leader who reshaped Jewish life after the destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E. Dona Gracia Nasi, the outstanding 16th-century leader who led the equivalent of an underground railroad to lead fugitive Marranos to safety. Rebecca Gratz, said to have been the model for the character Rebecca in Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, who spearheaded the development of Jewish Sunday schools in the United States. Leopold Zunz, whose transformation of Jewish scholarship in the 19th century ultimately led to the existence of Judaica departments and programs in major universities. Lily Montagu, whose unsatisfying Orthodox childhood as a child of privilege in Victorian England transformed her into a 20th-century leader of British and world liberal Judaism. Isaac Mayer Wise, the early leader of Reform Judaism in the United States, who conceived of and helped bring into existence many of the institutions of contemporary American Judaism. Eliezer Ben Yehudah, the father of modern Hebrew, who nearly singlehandedly transformed Hebrew from an ancient religious language into a spoken modern one.