People of the Book

"A brave exploration of the link between Jewishness and scholarship, Jewishness and feminism, Jewishness and the passion for the word. A fascinating collection."--Erica Jong

"What is fresh and exhilarating about this volume is the articulation of a wide area of very personal views on Jewish identity that are thoughtful, interesting, often moving and inspiring. Most interestingly, they emanate from scholars in secular fields who are uninterested in pleading a cause, staking a claim, organizing a movement, or promoting an agenda, yet whose emotional ties to Jewish peoplehood, values, and ideals are pronounced and eminently worth discovering."--Rabbi Stanley M. Wagner, Center for Judaic Studies, University of Denver

"Within living memory, Jewish access to the American academy was sharply limited. Jewish students at many American universities and colleges were restricted to a small quota, and faculties routinely rejected well-qualified applicants because they were Jewish. People of the Book is a remarkable collection of essays by professors well aware of this legacy but no longer silenced by the old constraints. The authors bear witness, in a wide range of voices, to the complex self-awareness of Jewish academics. Ironic, enraged, brooding, learned, anxious, and often excruciatingly funny, these meditations record an extraordinary array of responses to the perils and pleasures of contemporary Jewish life."
--Stephen Greenblatt, University of California, Berkeley