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Books: For Discussion
The Union for Reform Judaism recommends two Significant Jewish Books each quarter for individuals and book groups. Study and discussion guides are available at http://urj.org/books .
Legend has it that Rembrandt was a great friend of the Jews in his native Amsterdam because so many of his paintings, etchings, and drawings deal with Jewish subjects. Living in a Jewish neighborhood, Rembrandt often used Jewish sitters for his biblical scenes and portraits. Whether or not Rembrandt had a special sympathy for the Jews, Steven Nadler uses the question of Dutch attitudes toward Jews—as seen through the lens of Dutch art—as the starting point for a unique history of the Jews of Amsterdam. Other Dutch artists were attracted to Jewish themes as well—and not just because wealthy Sephardic Jews could afford to buy and commission paintings. “Jewish history and Jewish legend, even Jewish belief and ceremony, held great allure for the Dutch in the seventeenth century,” Nadler explains. In this century, the Dutch fought off the domination of Catholic Spain and repelled an invasion by France. Achieving their independence, they pictured themselves as “the New Israelites.” They needed these images of Judaism, he suggests, to buttress their sense of self and understanding of their own mission. Jews found an unprecedented level of tolerance in the Netherlands, and this too is reflected in art. The most remarkable thing about depictions of Jews in Dutch paintings is their “ordinariness”—in contrast to the degrading images of Jews in Christian art from the Middle Ages through the Renaissance. Or as art historian Simon Schama puts it: “Michelangelo’s Moses has horns; Rembrandt’s does not.”
Rashi’s Daughters (reviewed in RJ Fall 2005) has a publishing history as interesting as the story it tells. Author Maggie Anton was tired of rejections from literary agents who thought this novel would not have a market. She knew it would: “Jewish women readers are hungry for books that feature Jewish heroines, especially historical ones, and I knew where to find that niche audience.” She published it herself and launched it at the Women’s Rabbinic Network conference. The self-published edition sold over 25,000 copies before rights were acquired by Plume (Penguin), which will be reissuing the novel this summer. Rashi (the acronym of Solomon ben Isaac of Troyes, 1040–1105) was one of the greatest biblical and talmudic commentators of all times; he was also one of the most liberal interpreters of Jewish law. This novel is based on legends about his three learned daughters—who reputedly could write responsa (rabbinic letters) for him, studied Talmud with him, and even wore tefillin when they prayed. The fact that Rashi permitted such practices in his own household lends support to Jewish feminists today. Rashi’s Daughters presents an intimate portrait of the daughters as young girls in Rashi’s home and a rare view of family and religious life of Ashkenazic Jews in medieval France. The author has now completed Book 2: Miriam, the second volume in the prospective trilogy, also to be published by Plume in August.
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Rembrandt’s Jews by Steven Nadler 
Rashi’s Daughters: Book I: Joheved by Maggie Anton 
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