Jacob Neusner: An American Jewish Iconoclast

by Aaron W. Hughes

Neusner is a social commentator, a post-Holocaust theologian, and an outspoken political figure.





Jacob Neusner (born 1932) is one of the most important figures in the shaping of modern American Judaism. He was pivotal in transforming the study of Judaism from an insular project only conducted by―and of interest to―religious adherents to one which now flourishes in the secular setting of the university. He is also one of the most colorful, creative, and difficult figures in the American academy. But even those who disagree with Neusner’s academic approach to ancient rabbinic texts have to engage with his pioneering methods.



In this comprehensive biography, Aaron Hughes shows Neusner to be much more than a scholar of rabbinics. He is a social commentator, a post-Holocaust theologian, and was an outspoken political figure during the height of the cultural wars of the 1980s. Neusner’s life reflects the story of what happened as Jews migrated to the suburbs in the late 1940s, daring to imagine new lives for themselves as they successfully integrated into the fabric of American society. It is also the story of how American Jews tried to make sense of the world in the aftermath of the extermination of European Jewry and the subsequent creation of the State of Israel in 1948, and how they sought to define what it meant to be an American Jew.



Unlike other great American Jewish thinkers, Neusner was born in the U.S., and his Judaism was informed by an American ethos. His Judaism is open, informed by and informing the world. It is an American Judaism, one that has enabled American Jews―the freest in history―to be fully American and fully Jewish.

336 pages, Hardcover

Published September 13, 2016

Reviews

[Elliot Ratzman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Browsing through used bookstores for years, I’ve never had the desire to purchase any of the stray Jacob Neusner books I’ve come across. When I first saw in him on Buckley’s The Firing Line—debating with Cornel West—they announced he had written or edited over 500 books. By his death, that number had doubled, so I figured they were all schlock and the politically conservative JN wasn’t worth the effort. This biography changed my mind. I didn’t realize how important JN was to the fields of Jewish Studies and Religious Studies, or the importance of his critical work on post-Biblical Judaism. Hughes makes a great case for JN’s standing as a sound critic of the establishment, of the spiritual emptiness of post-war Judaism, and for de-ghettoizing both Jewish Studies and Jewish life away from Israel and the Holocaust. JN was also a model of how not to behave as an academic colleague. Ok I’m sold, though I wish the bio had explained and suggested some more which of his books were worth buying

[Michael Lewyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book tells the amazing story of Jacob Neusner. He graduated from college with minimal knowledge of Jewish texts other than the Bible, went to rabbinical school and wound up not only being a brilliant student but writing over a thousand books, mostly about the Mishnah and Talmud. This book tells the story of Neusner the man- incredibly industrious, but not at all a team player.

I wish, however, that the book's treatment of Neusner's scholarship had been a little more detailed. The book tells us that Neusner treated the Talmud less literally and reverentially than earlier scholars, and that he made Jewish texts accessible to people without a strong Jewish background. I felt that Hughes could have given more specific examples of how Neusner's approach differed from that of other scholars.

[Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well-written and fascinating study of an important scholar. While Hughes does an excellent job of bringing nuance to a figure whose reputation overshadows the importance of his work, Hughes' approach causes him to underplay some of these issues. For example, though one could debate whether he should have discussed some of the more serious charges (e.g., plagiarism), he never really deals with the claims that Neusner's books are riddled with typos and the accusations by Lieberman and others that Neusner's translations do not reflect a complete understanding of the underlying languages.

[Cliff Kvidahl · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very fascinating look into one of the greatest Jewish scholars America has produced. I found this work to be a interesting look into a man who was not only brilliant, but who comes across as being self-absorbed and very cantankerous. All of this seems to have made Neusner into the scholar he was.