The Complete Black Book of Russian Jewryis a collection of eyewitness testimonies, letters, diaries, affidavits, and other documents on the activities of the Nazis against Jews in the camps, ghettoes, and towns of Eastern Europe. Arguably, the only apt comparism is to The Gulag Archipelago of Alexander Solzhenitsyn. This definitive edition of The Black Book, including for the first time materials omitted from previous editions, is a major addition to the literature on the Holocaust. It will be of particular interest to students, teachers, and scholars of the Holocaust and those interested in the history of Europe.

By the end of 1942, 1.4 million Jews had been killed by the Einsatzgruppen that followed the German army eastward; by the end of the war, nearly two million had been murdered in Russia and Eastern Europe. Of the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust, about one-third fell in the territories of the USSR. The single most important text documenting that slaughter is The Black Book, compiled by two renowned Russian authors Ilya Ehrenburg and Vasily Grossman. Until now, The Black Book was only available in English in truncated editions. Because of its profound significance, this new and definitive English translation of The Complete Black Book of Russian Jewry is a major literary and intellectual event.

From the time of the outbreak of the war, Ehrenburg and Grossman collected the eyewitness testimonies that went into The Black Book. As early as 1943 they were planning its publication; the first edition appeared in 1944. During the years immediately after the war, Grossman assisted Ehrenburg in compiling additional materials for a second edition, which appeared in 1946 (in English as well as Russian).

Since the fall of the Soviet regime, Irina Ehrenburg, the daughter of Ilya Ehrenburg, has recovered the lost portions of the manuscript sent to Yad Vashem. The texts recovered by Ms. Ehrenburg include numerous documents that had been censored from the original manuscript, as well as items that had been hidden by the Grossman family. In addition, she verified and, where appropriate, corrected the accuracy of documents that had already appeared in earlier editions of The Black Book.

Shoah and Torah systematically takes up the task of reading the Shoah through the lens of the Torah and the Torah through the lens of the Shoah.The investigation rests upon (1) the metaphysical standing that the Nazis ascribed to the Torah, (2) the obliteration of the Torah in the extermination of the Jews, (3) the significance of the Torah for an understanding of the Shoah, and (4) the significance of the Shoah for an understanding of the Torah.The basis for the inquiry lies not in the content of a certain belief but in the categories of a certain mode of thought. Distinct from all other studies, this book is grounded in the categories of Jewish thought and Judaism-the categories of creation, revelation, and redemption-that the Nazis sought to obliterate in the Shoah.Thus, the investigation is itself a response to the Nazi project of the extermination of the Jews and the millennial testimony of the Jews to the Torah.

By the time Joseph Chaim Brenner arrived in London (where Out of the Depths was written) in 1904, his literary reputation was already established by a volume of short stories and a previous novel, In Winter. Born in Russia in 1881, Brenner at the age of twenty-four had fled the disorders of the Russian Empire for the mean peace of London's East End. Out of the Depths is concerned with a group of Russian immigrants in London who work for a Jewish daily newspaper. They are caught up in a conflict with the owner when he seeks to introduce a typesetting machine into the newspaper shop. Following an unsuccessful strike, the impoverished workers decline into a general collective misery that is relieved only by the strength and honesty of the central character. The language of Out of the Depths has a remarkably modern energy. Brenner anticipates literary techniques that came into wide use only later. The employment of stream of consciousness, shifting perspectives, and emotive presentation and the use of vocabulary from the Yiddish, Russian, German, and English languages have a startling impact, a texture that Dr. Patterson faithfully captures while conforming to the demands of English idiom. Employing an ancient language in a modern idiomatic style, this little-known work by a writer of remarkable honesty gives intense expression to the social upheavals of the time and to the profound moral questioning that for some was almost a consequence of living in the first years of this century. David Patterson's translation of Out of the Depths received the Webber Prize for translation in 1989.

John Cage: Music, Philosophy, and Intention, 1933--1950 explores the early part of John Cagea (TM)s life and career, concentrating on the "pre-chance" period from roughly 1933 to 1950. These essays consider influences on Cagea (TM)s work, his early percussion pieces, his evolving aesthetic, and his movement toward an ideology that would later shape his own work, arguing that a reevaluation of this early period is crucial to understanding his later work. It includes contributions from an international group of music and art scholars.

This book provides a well-structured, lyrical, and fictionalized account of the narrator's earlier years in the village of Bialik's birth. It describes the awakening curiosity of the gifted child, his wonder at the riddle of the mirror, and his inability to read the symbols of the alphabet.

Drawing on more than three hundred Hebrew roots, the author shows that Jewish thought employs Hebrew concepts and categories that are altogether distinct from those that characterize the Western speculative tradition. Among the key categories that shape Jewish thought are holiness, divinity, humanity, prayer, responsibility, exile, dwelling, gratitude, and language itself.
While the Hebrew language is central to the investigation, the reader need not have a knowledge of Hebrew in order to follow it. Essential reading for students and scholars of Judaism, this book will also be of value to anyone interested in the categories of thinking that form humanity's ultimate concerns.

What makes Jewish thought Jewish? This book proceeds from a view of the Hebrew language as the holy tongue; such a view of Hebrew is, indeed, a distinctively Jewish view as determined by the Jewish religious tradition. Because language shapes thought and Hebrew is the foundational language of Jewish texts, this book explores the idea that Jewish thought is distinguished by concepts and categories rooted in Hebrew. Drawing on more than 300 Hebrew roots, the author shows that Jewish thought employs Hebrew concepts and categories that are altogether distinct from those that characterize the Western speculative tradition. Among the key categories that shape Jewish thought are holiness, divinity, humanity, prayer, responsibility, exile, dwelling, gratitude, and language itself. While the Hebrew language is central to the investigation, the reader need not have a knowledge of Hebrew in order to follow it. Essential reading for students and scholars of Judaism, this book will also be of value to anyone interested in the categories of thinking that form humanity's ultimate concerns.

John Cage seeks to explore the early part of the composer's life and career, concentrating on the 'pre-chance' period between 1933 and 1950 that crucial to understanding his later work. The essays consider Cage's influences, his evolving aesthetic and his movement toward the ideology that shaped his later work.

In this book, David Patterson offers original insights into the dynamics that underlie the phenomenon of endemic antisemitism, arguing that in all its manifestations, antisemitism is fundamentally anti-Judaism. Structured in a unique matrix of chapters that are linked historically and theoretically, his book elucidates the interconnections that tie antisemitism with the Holocaust, as well as the Judaism that the Nazis sought to obliterate from the world. As Patterson demonstrates this is an ongoing effort and is the basis of today's antisemitism. Spelling out the historical, theological, and philosophical viewpoints that led to the Holocaust and that are with us even now, he offers insights into the basis of the hatred of Jews that permeates much of today's world. Patterson here addresses the 'big questions' that define our humanity. His volume is written for those who wish to have a deeper understanding of both the history and the current manifestations of Antisemitism.

This book articulates a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of Jew hatred as a metaphysical aspect of the human soul. Proceeding from the Jewish thinking that the anti-Semites oppose, David Patterson argues that anti-Semitism arises from the most ancient of temptations, the temptation to be as God, and thus to flee from an absolute accountability to and for the other human being.

Among the topics explored in this book are ways of viewing the soul, the relation between body and soul, environmentalist thought, the phenomenon of torture, and the philosophical and theological warrants for genocide. Presenting an analysis of abstract modes of thought that have contributed to genocide, the book argues that a Jewish model of concrete thinking may inform our understanding of the abstractions that can lead to genocide. Its aim is to draw upon distinctively Jewish categories of thought to demonstrate how the conceptual defacing of the other human being serves to promote the murder of peoples, and to suggest a way of thinking that might help prevent genocide.

By the time Joseph Chaim Brenner arrived in London (where Out of the Depths was written) in 1904, his literary reputation was already established by a volume of short stories and a previous novel, In Winter. Born in Russia in 1881, Brenner at the age of twenty-four had fled the disorders of the Russian Empire for the mean peace of London's East End. Out of the Depths is concerned with a group of Russian immigrants in London who work for a Jewish daily newspaper. They are caught up in a conflict with the owner when he seeks to introduce a typesetting machine into the newspaper shop. Following an unsuccessful strike, the impoverished workers decline into a general collective misery that is relieved only by the strength and honesty of the central character. The language of Out of the Depths has a remarkably modern energy. Brenner anticipates literary techniques that came into wide use only later. The employment of stream of consciousness, shifting perspectives, and emotive presentation and the use of vocabulary from the Yiddish, Russian, German, and English languages have a startling impact, a texture that Dr. Patterson faithfully captures while conforming to the demands of English idiom. Employing an ancient language in a modern idiomatic style, this little-known work by a writer of remarkable honesty gives intense expression to the social upheavals of the time and to the profound moral questioning that for some was almost a consequence of living in the first years of this century. David Patterson's translation of Out of the Depths received the Webber Prize for translation in 1989.

This book articulates a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of Jew hatred as a metaphysical aspect of the human soul. Proceeding from the Jewish thinking that the anti-Semites oppose, David Patterson argues that anti-Semitism arises from the most ancient of temptations, the temptation to be as God, and thus to flee from an absolute accountability to and for the other human being.

Among the topics explored in this book are ways of viewing the soul, the relation between body and soul, environmentalist thought, the phenomenon of torture, and the philosophical and theological warrants for genocide. Presenting an analysis of abstract modes of thought that have contributed to genocide, the book argues that a Jewish model of concrete thinking may inform our understanding of the abstractions that can lead to genocide. Its aim is to draw upon distinctively Jewish categories of thought to demonstrate how the conceptual defacing of the other human being serves to promote the murder of peoples, and to suggest a way of thinking that might help prevent genocide.

Emil Fackenheim was the last in a long line of Jewish philosophers to emerge from Germany, the modern center of Western philosophy, following Moses Mendelssohn, Leo Baeck, and Martin Buber. In this revealing book, David Patterson explores Fackenheim's rigorous pursuit of a philosophical response to the tragedy of the Holocaust. Fackenheim's writing sheds light on the tensions between Jewish thinking and German philosophy, illustrating how elements of the latter were used by the Nazis to justify Jewish annihilation. In addition, he emphasizes the important implications of defining Jewish philosophy as its own entity, separate from the tenets of the Jewish cultural tradition.

The life of a human community rests on common experience. Yet in modern life there is an experience common to all that threatens the very basis of community - the experience of exile. No one in the modern world has been spared the encounter with homelessness. Refugees and fugitives, the disillusioned and disenfranchised grow in number every day. Why does it happen? What does it mean? And how are we implicated? David Patterson responds to these and related questions by examining exile, a primary motif in Russian thought over the last century and a half. By "exile" he means not only a form of punishment but an existential condition. Drawing on texts by such familiar figures as Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Solzhenitsyn, and Brodsky, as well as less thoroughly examined figures, including Florensky, Shestov, Tertz, and Gendelev, Patterson moves beyond the political and geographical fact of exile to explore its spiritual, metaphysical, and linguistic aspects. Thus he pursues the connections between exile and identity, identity and meaning, meaning and language. Patterson shows that the problem of meaning in human life is a problem of homelessness, that the effort to return from exile is an effort to return meaning to the word, and that the exile of the word is an exile of the human being. By making heard voices from the Russian wilderness, Patterson makes visible the wilderness of the world.