This book explores the question 'Who is a Jew?' Jonathan Kirsch takes us on a three-thousand-year tour of Jewish identity and diversity and offers answers to this complex and difficult question. For every accepted tradition in Jewish faith there are counter-traditions rooted in biblical antiquity: the Maccabee freedom fighters who closed the Bible and picked up swords, dervish-like ecstatics who claimed to enjoy direct communication with God even after they had been excommunicated by a distrustful rabbinate, and courageous men and women who were the forgotten heroes of the Holocaust. Kirsch explores the complex characteristics and uniqueness of those who identify with Judaism. 336 pages, paperback.
