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WORK TITLE: Turning Points in Jewish History
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1946
WEBSITE:
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY: Israel
NATIONALITY: American
telephone (H) 972-4-9902463, (W) 972-544-790904
RESEARCHER NOTES:
| LC control no.: | n 2010000512 |
|---|---|
| LCCN Permalink: | https://lccn.loc.gov/n2010000512 |
| HEADING: | Rosenstein, Marc, 1946- |
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| 005 | 20171030104754.0 |
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| 010 | __ |a n 2010000512 |
| 040 | __ |a DLC |b eng |c DLC |d DLC |e rda |
| 100 | 1_ |a Rosenstein, Marc, |d 1946- |
| 372 | __ |a Jews–History |2 lcsh |
| 373 | __ |a Harvard College (1780- ). Class of 1968 |2 lcsh |
| 373 | __ |a Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion |2 naf |
| 374 | __ |a Rabbis |2 lcsh |
| 375 | __ |a Males |2 lcdgt |
| 400 | 1_ |a Rosenstein, Marc J., |d 1946- |
| 670 | __ |a Rosenstein, Marc. Galilee diary, c2010: |b ECIP t.p. (Marc Rosenstein) introd. (from Glencoe, Ill.; made alyah in 1990 and settled in Shorashim, a small moshav in the central Galilee) |
| 670 | __ |a E-mail from publisher, Jan. 05, 2010 b (Marc Rosenstein, b. Sept. 20, 1946) |
| 670 | __ |a Turning points in Jewish history, c2018: |b E-cip t.p. (Marc J. Rosenstein) data view (Marc Rosenstein (BA Harvard College, 1968; MA and Rabbinic Ordination HUC-JIR, 1975, and PhD Hebrew University, 1986) … From 1993 to 2013 he was the executive director of the Galilee Foundation for Value Education, Shorashim, Israel. Publications include … Galilee Diary, New York, URJ Press, 2010; and co-author of Our Place in the Universe: Judaism and the Environment, New York, Behrman, 2014.) |
PERSONAL
Born September 20, 1946; married; wife’s name Tami; children: three.
EDUCATION:Harvard College, B.A., 1968; Hebrew University, M.A., 1986, Ph.D., 1986; Hebrew Union College, rabbinic ordination, 1975,
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, educator, administrator, and rabbi. Worked as a pulpit rabbi, Port Washington, NY; then s a principal at the Solomon Schechter Secondary School, Chicago, IL, and then at Akiba Hebrew Academy, Philadelphia, PA; then Galilee Foundation for Value Education Shorashim, Israel, executive director, 1993-2013; Hebrew Union College, Jerusalem, Israel, director then director emeritus of Israel Rabbinical Program, 2009–.
WRITINGS
Contributor to books, including Educational Eclectics: Essays in Memory of Shlomo Fox, edited by S. Wygoda and I. Sorek, Mandel Foundation (Jerusalem, Israel), 2009.
SIDELIGHTS
Marc Rosenstein grew up in Highland Park, Illinois, and studied biochemistry as an undergraduate and Jewish history as graduate student. He was ordained a rabbi by the Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion in 1975. In 1990 Rosenstein and his wife moved with his wife to Israel. Rosenstein served as a rabbi while living in the Unite States then as a principal at high schools.
As director of the Galilee Foundation for Value Education at Shorashim, Rosenstein was involved in curicculum development and numerous other education projects, including the development of a Jewish-Arab youth circus and a Hebrew-Arabic online newspaper. Rosenstein’s primary academic interest is Jewish history, including Israeli society and educational history. Rosenstein also conducts public lecutres on topics ranging from the challenge of being a democratic Jewish state and uses and abuses of the Holocaust to what it means to be modern-day Zionist and Jeremiah as a profit of our time.
Rosenstein is author of The Galilee Diary, which began as a weekly essay posted by Rosenstein on the URJ Press website. The press is the book-publishing arm of the Union for Reform Judaism. The posts are a teaching aid to teachers in the Reform Movement. He also coauthored Universe: Judaism and the Environment. Targeting a juvenile audience, the book addressed topics such nature in Jewish laws and customs, sharing public resources, and responsibility to future generations.
In his Turning Points in Jewish History, Rosenstein focuses on thirty pivotal moments in the Jewish people’s experience to provide a view of the entire span of Jewish history. From biblical on through modern times, Rosenstein orders these important historical moments chronologically, with eight turning points in the biblical period. “Rosenstein … comprehensively covers Jewish history in a book that’s most likely to be used as a college textbook,” noted a Publishers Weekly contributor. Amos Lassen, writing for the Reviews by Amos Lassen website, noted: “The turning points are distinct yet connected events and each of them could be a topic for a course.” The turning points feature four in Hellenisti-Roman times, five in the Middle Ages, and 13 in modern times, ending with the Fall of the Iron Curtain and the liberation of Soviet Jews in 1989.
“My own understanding of Judaism has always encompassed a … sense of cumulative history,” Rosenstein writes in the introduction to Turning Points in Jewish History, adding: “Each Jew represents an expression of the accumulated experience of the Jewish collective over the centuries. Each epiphany, each migration, each persecution, each innovation in the interpretation of the tradition becomes a link in the ongoing chain that defines any Jew at any moment in history.”
Among the turning points discussed by Rosenstein are the Jews exodus from Egypt and liberation from slavery around 1200 BCE, the Hasmonian revolt of 167 BC, Jews under Roman rule around 70 CE, and the rise of Eastern European Jewry and and the Crusades covering the period around 1100 to 1300 CE. He also includes more recent events such as the rise of Jewish nationalism in connection with Theodor Herzl, the Holocaust, and the feminist revolution within Jewish society and religion. Each turning point includes a timeline, a primary text focusing on providing a better understanding of the period, and a discussion of the turning point’s legacy for later generations.
Rosenstein discusses various controversies and schisms throughout the book as an outcome of Judaism’s experiences with various circumstances an movements in the Jewish community, from power, catastrophe, and exile, to messianism, rationalism, and mysticism. Turning Points in Jewish History includes a bibliography and an index. “Each chapter is supremely readable, understandable, and enlightening, making the book a valuable addition to any library,” wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor. Jewish Book Council website contributor Stu Halpern remarked: “Rosenstein provides an engaging launchpad for in-depth study of these impactful stages of our history,” adding later: “Turning Points in Jewish History is reflective of an experienced educator’s passion for historical material alongside its contemporary relevance.”
BIOCRIT
BOOKS
Rosenstein, Marc J., Turning Points in Jewish History, University of Nebraska Press (Lincoln, NE), 2018.
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 2018, review of Turning Points in Jewish History.
Publishers Weekly, May 28, 2018, review of Turning Points in Jewish History.
ONLINE
Jewish Book Council website, https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/ (September 24, 2018), Stu Halpern, review of Turning Points in Jewish History.
Hebrew Union College website, http://huc.edu/ (October 23, 2018), author faculty profile.
Reviews by Amos Lassen, http://reviewsbyamoslassen.com/ (7/20/2018), Amos Lassen, “Turning Points in Jewish History by Marc J. Rosenstein— Thirty Pivotal Moments.”
Marc J. Rosenstein, Rabbi, Ph.D., MHL, MA
Main Content
Rabbi Marc J. Rosenstein, Ph.D., MHL, MA., Director, Israel Rabbinical Program
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Contact Information
Email:
mrosenstein@huc.edu
Phone:
972-2-6203385
News & Events
A Nice Place to Visit, But…
Director Emeritus, Israel Rabbinical Program
HUC-JIR/Jerusalem
Program/School:
Israel Rabbinical Program, Jerusalem
Administration Department:
Rabbinical School
Academic Field:
Jewish History; History
Research Interests:
Israeli social and educational history
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Marc Rosenstein grew up in Highland Park, Illinois, and received a BA in biochemistry from Harvard College. He was ordained by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1975 and received an MA in Jewish History from Hebrew University in Jerusalem in the same year; later, he earned a PhD from the Hebrew University as a Mandel Jerusalem Fellow. He made aliyah with his wife Tami and three children, to Moshav Shorashim in the Galilee, in 1990.
After working as a pulpit rabbi in Port Washington, N.Y., and later as a principal – first at the Solomon Schechter Secondary School outside of Chicago and then at Akiba Hebrew Academy in Philadelphia – he became director of the Galilee Foundation for Value Education at Shorashim. The foundation has carried out educational projects on behalf of Partnership 2000, the Mandel School for Educational and Social Leadership, the Melton Centre for Jewish Education, MAKOM Israel Engagement Network, the Union for Reform Judaism, the TALI schools network, and the ORT network of schools in Israel. Among the Foundation's other projects are a Jewish-Arab youth circus, a Hebrew-Arabic web newspaper, and a variety of educational programs at Zippori and other historical sites in the Galilee. Rabbi Rosenstein wrote the original “Dilemmas of Jewish Life” curriculum for the Florence Melton Adult Minischool in 1993, and in recent years has been involved, with other members of the Foundation staff, in curriculum development and teaching in the Gandel Institute – the Israeli version of the Melton Minischool.
Rabbi Rosenstein retired from the directorship of the Galilee Foundation for Value Education in 2013. Meanwhile, in 2009 he was named director of the Israel Rabbinical Program at Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem.
Selected Publications and Edited Works
Galilee Diary, New York, URJ Press, 2010
”Binding and Teaching: a Meditation on the Right to Educate,” in S. Wygoda and I. Sorek, eds., Educational Eclectics: Essays in Memory of Shlomo Fox, Jerusalem, Mandel Foundation, 2009, pp. 149-158.
”Circus in a Frayed Tent,” in R. Kronish, ed,. Peace Education in Israel, Paulist Press – in press (fall 2014)
Current and Future Courses
Rabbinical Authority Historically Considered
Visions of the Jewish State
Public Lecture Topics
Myths, realities, and dreams: value conflicts in imagining - and teaching – Israel.
The challenge of being a democratic Jewish state
Non-Jews in the Jewish state: the Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel – the dilemmas they face, the dilemmas they pose
Uses and abuses of the Holocaust
Teaching Israel in difficult times
What does it mean to be a Zionist today?
Religion, State, and Pluralism in Israel
Are we one? Dissent and division in the Jewish people throughout history
Though he tarry: the messiah and messianism as a force in Jewish history
The New Jew: Jewish identity in Israel
Joseph is us: recurring themes in Israel-Diaspora relations
Jeremiah: a prophet for our time?
Megilat Esther as a satire on Diaspora Jewish life
An educational midrash on Akedat Yitzchak
From generation to generation: parents vs. teachers in the Jewish tradition
State, community, and authority: the dilemma of Jewish law in our time
Partnership vs. patronage: How Israeli and Diaspora Jews see each other
With teachers: workshops on teaching Israel, teaching the Holocaust, Jewish identity in Israel, specific workshops on the calendar, Chanukah, Pesach, Purim, Tu Beshvat, Tisha Be’av, the Oral Law.
With teens or families: “fun” workshops on the oral law, on community
Simulation exercise on the debate over partition of Palestine
Simulation exercise on Israeli coalition negotiations
Marc J Rosenstein
Marc J. Rosenstein is the former director of both the Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion’s Israel Rabbinical Program and the Galilee Foundation for Value Education. He is the author of Galilee Diary and the coauthor of Our Place in the Universe: Judaism and the Environment.
quotes from introduction, pg. xv.
Rosenstein, Marc J.: TURNING POINTS IN JEWISH HISTORY
Kirkus Reviews.
(May 15, 2018): From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Rosenstein, Marc J. TURNING POINTS IN JEWISH HISTORY Jewish Publication Society (Adult Nonfiction) $29.95 7, 1 ISBN: 978-0-8276-1263-1
A rock-solid primer on the history and background of the Jewish people that will appeal to adherents and non-Jews alike.
Surveying more than three millennia--from the Call to Abraham in roughly 1500 B.C.E. to the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989--Rosenstein (Director Emeritus, Israel Rabbinical Program/Hebrew Union Coll.; Galilee Diary: Reflections on Daily Life in Israel, 2010, etc.) highlights 30 events that have shaped Jewish life. The author effectively captures the essence of each turning point, providing both a timeline and a salient primary text explaining the Jewish understanding of each event. Abraham's discovering God and Moses' revelation of the law at Sinai embody the spiritual foundation on which Judaism is built. From there, the author travels through the history of Western civilization, including the Babylonian exile, Greek and then Roman rule, the transformation of oral law into the Mishna, and the experiences of Sephardic, Ashkenazi, and Hasidic Jews. The golden age in Spain (roughly 900 to 1200) saw a toleration of non-Muslims, and the diaspora of the 15th century dispersed Spanish Jews, creating new footholds across Europe. The Enlightenment encouraged Reform Jews to modify their beliefs and practices to better integrate. The end of the 18th century saw the partition of Poland and Jews fleeing to Russia, where they were dealt with by blood libel, expulsions, and pogroms. Ultimately, the only way to survive was to flee, and many went to the United States, joined by Germans, Italians, and Irish. The German immigrants brought the Reform movement and created a truly American Judaism. Into modern times, the Zionists, seeing a nationality, disputed the Reformists. From the beginning, Rosenstein insists that Judaism is a combination of nation, culture, and religion, a fact that will be debated for some time to come. Fortunately, he provides us with the fascinating basics to understand that debate.
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Those who fear deep philosophical meanderings can rest easy. Each chapter is supremely readable, understandable, and enlightening, making the book a valuable addition to any library.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Rosenstein, Marc J.: TURNING POINTS IN JEWISH HISTORY." Kirkus Reviews, 15 May
2018. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A538294067 /GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=1d9dd4a3. Accessed 23 Sept. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A538294067
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Turning Points in Jewish History
Publishers Weekly.
265.22 (May 28, 2018): p93. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Turning Points in Jewish History
Marc J. Rosenstein. Jewish Publication Society, $29.95 trade paper (464p) ISBN 978-0-8276-1263-1
Rosenstein (Our Place in the Universe) comprehensively covers Jewish history in a book that's most likely to be used as a college textbook, though it has some appeal to lay readers. Each chapter contains a "text for discussion" (such as Abraham Joshua Heschel's discussion of the revelation at Sinai) and the introduction provides a suggestion for the order of assignments to students. With strong overviews of foundational developments throughout Judaism--the exodus from Egypt, the destruction of the first and second temples, the expulsion of Iberian Jewry, the Holocaust, and the founding of the modern state of Israel--readers will appreciate Rosenstein's evenhanded treatment. Throughout, he adds commentary on primary texts, but his suggestions for further reading are often dated and overly narrow. For example, even with the volume of recent scholarship, all of his four recommended readings about the Holocaust are more than 15 years old and most are more than 40 years old. Despite the lack of suitable references, this book serves as a solid, if sometimes superficial, introductory survey. (July)
Editor's note: Reviews noted as "BookLife" are for self-published books received via BookLife, PW s program for indie authors.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Turning Points in Jewish History." Publishers Weekly, 28 May 2018, p. 93. Book Review Index
Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A541638873/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=ee40a6d7. Accessed 23 Sept. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A541638873
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“Turning Points in Jewish History” by Marc J. Rosenstein— Thirty Pivotal Moments
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Rosenstein, Marc J. “Turning Points in Jewish History”, Jewish Publication Society, 2018.
Thirty Pivotal Moments
Amos Lassen
Don’t ever let anyone say that history is boring. I firmly believe that history can be great fun depending on the way you look at. Mark J. Rosenstein looks at Jewish history, for example, through thirty pivotal moments and I imagine that he did not easily come to just these thirty. Finding thirty important moments over a span of thousands of years means great thought is required and I am sure that if we all did the same, we would all probably have different lists. Rosenstein gives us what he considers to be the most important events in Jewish history. We can look at the major epochs and see which events he has chosen—- eight turning points in the biblical period, four in Hellenistic-Roman times, five in the Middle Ages, and thirteen in modernity. Rosenstein then discusses each formative event with a focused history, a timeline, a primary text with commentary and a discussion of its legacy for subsequent generations. He also analyzes various controversies and schisms that came out of “Judaism’s encounters with power, powerlessness, exile, messianism, rationalism, mysticism, catastrophe, modernity, nationalism, feminism, and more.”
The turning points are distinct yet connected events and each of them could be a topic for a course. Since each chapter also includes discussion questions, we can continue on with the topic. Rosenstein wonderfully shows the importance as well as the essence of each turning point. His insistence that Judaism is a combination of nation, culture, and religion can be felt throughout the text and in itself is debatable. Yet Rosenstein also gives us what we need to debate that. We have had a fascinating history and what better way to look at it than through a series of major turning points? It is important to remember that thirty pivotal moments also become thirty pivotal hours and so on. By looking at our history in this way, we see balance. Below is the Table of Contents with the thirty moments:
Table of Contents
List of Maps
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Additional Notes on Biblical Texts
Imagining the Beginning: The Call to Abraham, ~1500 BCE?
Liberation from Slavery: The Exodus from Egypt, ~1200 BCE?
The Covenant: Revelation at Sinai, ~1200 BCE?
Entering the Promised Land: Crossing the Jordan, ~1200 BCE?
Establishing a State: “Give Us a King!” ~1000 BCE
The Fall of Israel: Exile of the Ten Tribes, 722 BCE
The Babylonian Exile: The Destruction of the First Temple, 586 BCE
The Second Temple: Return to Zion, 538 BCE
Confronting the Challenge of Hellenism: The Hasmonean Revolt, 167 BCE
Roman Rule: The Great Revolt and Destruction of the Second Temple, 70 CE
Finding a Messianic Equilibrium: The Bar Kokhba Revolt, 132–135 CE
The Oral Law Becomes Literature: The Mishnah, ~200 CE
The Golden Age of Iberian Jewry: Maimonides, 700–1100 CE
The Rise of Eastern European Jewry: The Crusades, 1100–1300 CE
Kabbalah Enters the Mainstream: Nahmanides, ~1300 CE
The End of Iberian Jewry: Conversion, Expulsion, Diaspora, 1300–1600 CE
The Rise and Collapse of Polish Jewry: The Cossack Revolt, 1648 CE
The Rise of Hasidism: The Baal Shem Tov and His Disciples, ~1750 CE
The Challenge of Emancipation: The Napoleonic Sanhedrin, ~1780–1880 CE
Reform and Reaction: The Hamburg Temple, 1818 CE
The Rise of North American Jewry: The Great Migration, 1881–1924 CE
Jewish Nationalism: Theodor Herzl, 1896 CE
The Secular Zionist Revolution: Ahad Ha’am, ~1900 CE
Zionist Settlement of the Land of Israel: First and Second Aliyot, 1882–1914 CE
The Destruction of European Jewry: The Holocaust, 1933–45 CE
The Jewish State: Proclaiming and Defending Independence, 1948 CE
East Meets West: The Mass Aliyah from North Africa and the Mideast, 1949–64 CE
Benefits and Costs of Military Power: The Six-Day War, 1967 CE
The Feminist Revolution: The Ordination of Women, 1972 CE
The Fall of the Iron Curtain: The Liberation of Soviet Jewry, 1989 CE
Afterword
Bibliography
Indexhttp://reviewsbyamoslassen.com/?p=65464
Turning Points in Jewish History
Rabbi Marc J. Rosenstein
The Jewish Publication Society 2018
480 Pages $29.95
ISBN: 978-0827612631
amazon
Review by Stu Halpern
The biblical book of Lamentations ends with a plea from the author to God to "renew our days as of old"—a most fitting request, as the story of the Jewish people throughout history, and particularly in our era, is no doubt one of survival and renewal.
In Turning Points in Jewish History, Marc J. Rosenstein tells that story through the prism of thirty transitional stages. Through summaries of these periods, excerpts from salient primary texts, timelines of major events and actors in each era, and suggested further readings, Rosenstein provides an engaging launchpad for in-depth study of these impactful stages of our history. The book’s scope extends from the Bible to our own day, covering theological innovationssuch as God's call to Abraham, the popularization of Kabbalah, and feminism's effect on Jewish law and rabbinic authority. It also deals with geopolitical upheaval, discussing Napoleon and his Sanhedrin, the development of Zionism and its ideology, the fall of the Iron Curtain, and the movement to save Russian Jewry. In the spirit of historian Salo Baron's opposition to the "lachrymose conception of Jewish history," it is not only trials that are covered, but also Judaism's, and the Jewish people's, many triumphs.
Particularly helpful for high school students of Jewish history as well as adult learners, in addition to members of other faiths looking for an accessible and yet substantive introduction to the topic, Turning Points in Jewish History is reflective of an experienced educator's passion for historical material alongside its contemporary relevance. Through varied primary and secondary material—including charts of the Hasmonean family tree, talmudic stories, timelines of the Inquisition's development, tales of the Baal Shem Tov, and excerpts of Moroccan Israeli poetry—readers receive an intellectually stimulating and moving tour of the growth, wandering, survival, and flourishing of the Jewish people. As Rosenstein notes in his conclusion, "There is no GPS for the map of history." In an ever-changing world, there will surely be upcoming challenges, opportunities, thinkers, texts, and ideas that will further shift the tale of the Jews. Studying our adaptation to previous turning points assures us that the Jewish story will continue to evolve and advance.