Part of the 'What Do We Believe?' series, this title explores the variety of ways Jews live their lives. It also explains what Judaism means, what it means to be a Jew and how and why such a small number of people have played such a significant role in our planet's history.
Having always been surrounded by countless personal and professional contacts who are Jewish, I felt compelled to read this slim volume to try and gain a better understanding of this ancient faith. This book is very well written and was a great primer to the faith. However, in order to fully absorb the content, I need to reread this text. This is due to my own shortcomings, rather than that of the book. I am so limited in what I know about the faith that it would take me quite a while to gain any sort of working knowledge of the religion. When I am able to revisit the study of the faith again, I'll certainly look for this book once more.
This is a relatively small book which I hope has served to introduce me to Judaism and pave the way to greater understanding of this ancient and venerable religion and tradition. Surprisingly, Judaism has several strands of interpretation and degrees of devotion, not unlike Christianity. There is no central body of authoritative teachings as the Catholic magisterium of bishops, aside from the Torah, of course. In that sense, it seems to me to resemble the dissolution of the Christian Church following the protestant 'reformation'.
This is an excellent little book with lots of good information, told with a blend of facts and stories. It gets you started in a balanced, informative way.
I'd honestly feel weird reviewing this book with any star-rating, as I only read it for a school project on Judaism. However, it was completely informative and to-the-point, as well as just short enough to finish while the project still went on.