by Marc Saperstein

A JPS bestseller, this is the definitive work of scholarship on the medieval conception of the Jew as devil—literally and figuratively. Through documents, analysis, and illustrations, the book exposes the full spectrum of the Jew’s demonization as devil, sorcerer, and ritual murderer. The author reveals how these myths, many with origins traced to Christian Europe in the late Middle Ages, still exist in transmuted form in the modern era.

Harold I. Saperstein served as rabbi of Temple Emanu-El of Lynbrook, N.Y., from 1933 until his retirement in 1980. The specific contours of his career reflect a sustained effort to use the pulpit of this suburban temple to communicate a Jewish perspective based on personal encounters with great issues of the day-including the rise of Nazism and the Holocaust, the civil rights era, the McCarthy era, and other turning points in American history. The fifty-two sermons in this book have been s...

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:...

This book addresses Judaism and Orthodox Christianity, and particularly their points of similarity and difference, congruence and conflict. The city of Jerusalem stands at the heart of both these age-old faiths, but today it is a divided city in which Jews and Orthodox Christians seem to find themselves on opposite sides of history. Must this story be one of continuing conflict, or is there scope for reconciliation and common effort? How do religions that cherish tradition face up to the c...

The Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences, commonly known as The Ninety-Five Theses, were written by Martin Luther in 1517 and are widely regarded as the primary catalyst for the Protestant Reformation. Luther used these theses to display his displeasure with some of the Church's clergy's abuses, most notably the sale of indulgences; this ultimately gave birth to Lutheranism. Luther's popularity encouraged others to share their doubts about the Church and to protest a...

The "riveting" story of Erasmus, Martin Luther, and the rivalry between the reformer and the dissident: "An impressive, powerful intellectual history." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)At a time when Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael were revolutionizing Western art and culture, Erasmus of Rotterdam was helping to transform Europe's intellectual and religious life, developing a new design for living for a continent rebelling against the hierarchical const...

This intellectual history of a rumored book of heresy reveals a persistent undercurrent of atheism from the Middle Ages into the 18th century.In 1239, Pope Gregory IX accused Frederick II, the Holy Roman Emperor, of heresy. Without disclosing evidence of any kind, Gregory announced that Frederick had written a supremely blasphemous book— De tribus impostoribus, or the Treatise of the Three Impostors—in which Frederick denounced Moses, Jesus, and ...

The riveting story of the Germania and its incarnations and exploitations through the ages.The pope wanted it, Montesquieu used it, and the Nazis pilfered an Italian noble's villa to get it: the Germania, by the Roman historian Tacitus, took on a life of its own as both an object and an ideology. When Tacitus wrote a not-very-flattering little book about the ancient Germans in 98 CE, at the height of the Roman Empire, he could not have foreseen that the Nazis would extol it as "a b...

Luther's Small Catechism was written by Martin Luther and published in 1529 for the training of children. Luther's Small Catechism reviews The Ten Commandments, The Apostles' Creed, The Lord's Prayer, Holy Baptism, The Office of the Keys & Confession, and The Sacrament of the Altar. It is included in the Lutheran Book of Concord as an authoritative statement of what Lutherans believe.The Small Catechism is widely used today in Lutheran churches as part of youth education and Confirmation. ...

" . . . lively and intellectually stimulating . . . " —Speculum"Wunderli . . . has lucidly reconstructed a controversial conflict in 15th-century south-central Germany. . . . this engaging narrative takes off from Hans Behem—the peasant who claimed to see the Virgin and gained followers until crushed by the established church—to explore larger forces at work in Germany on the eve of the Reformation. . . Wunderli also attempts to sort out the violent conflict that ensued and Hans's ...

'Gripping ... An exquisite conversation between two people who know each other, like each other, and have mutual respect for one another' - Catholic TimesSince resigning from the papacy in 2013, the first Pope in over 700 years to do so, Pope Benedict has lived quietly in a convent in the Vatican gardens in Rome. He has devoted himself to a life of prayer and study and has vowed to remain silent, until now.So much controversy still surrounds Pope B...