The Making of Modern Jewish Identity

Reviews / Votes

"The book offers interesting glimpses into the relationship between the psychological, religious, and political biographies of noteworthy Jewish figures. Inbari's invitation to consider the experience of conversion, be it political or theological, as an important theme within the modern Jewish experience is a welcome one, and one can only hope that scholars will further pursue this line of inquiry that promises to challenge common assumptions." - Eva Gurevich, H-Judaic, H-Net Reviews, January 2020 "The book offers interesting glimpses into the relationship between the psychological, religious, and political biographies of noteworthy Jewish figures. Inbari's invitation to consider the experience of conversion, be it political or theological, as an important theme within the modern Jewish experience is a welcome one, and one can only hope that scholars will further pursue this line of inquiry that promises to challenge common assumptions." - Eva Gurevich, H-Judaic, H-Net Reviews, January 2020

"The six personalities chosen by Inbari bring the reader to a more nuanced understanding of the major religious and ideological issues facing Jews in the past century. His choice of juxtaposing examples of radical religious and ideological change gives the reader a comparative perspective that can be brought to bear on further instances of this phenomenon. His useful discussion of the scholarly literature on ideological and religious conversion gives students a helpful theoretical framework into which they can place the individual cases examined. This survey of the scholarly literature on conversion will be of particular interest to those interested in the study of new religions." - Ira Robinson, Concordia University, Nova Religio, April 2020.