James Rudin
  • Home
  • About
  • Appearances
  • Books
    • Why (Not Me? Searching for God When We Suffer
    • The People in the Room
    • Pillar of Fire - A biography
    • Christians & Jews: Faith to Faith
    • Cushing, Spellman, O'Connor
    • The Baptizing of America
  • Publications & Reviews
  • Contact

How Hitler Was Made: Germany and the Rise of the Perfect Nazi

12/31/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Does the world need yet another book about Adolf Hitler?

To my mind, three British prominent historians – Alan Bullock, Richard J. Evans, and Ian Kershaw – have definitively covered the subject for English-speaking readers.

Still, fascination of the German Fuhrer does not abate, as evidenced by Cory Taylor’s addition to the genre with How Hitler Was Made: Germany and the Rise of the Perfect Nazi (Prometheus Books, Amherst, New York, 2018).  An Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker, Taylor delves into Germany’s post-World War I years (1918-1924), the time when Hitler became “the perfect Nazi.”  
​
The first 104 pages of his 274-page book detail the political upheavals in Munich, the Bavarian capital, during the six chaotic years following the 1918 Armistice and the collapse of the German Empire. We learn of Soviet-style leaders in Bavaria, coups and counter-coups, assassinations, street clashes pitting Communists against armed right-wing army veterans, and the emergence of gangs of thugs who emulated the brutal tactics of Italian fascist leader, Benito Mussolini.

Read More
0 Comments

Mavericks, Mystics & False Messiahs: Episodes from the Margins of Jewish History

12/30/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
In Mavericks, Mystics & False Messiahs: Episodes from the Margins of Jewish History, Pini Dunner provides a series of bizarre stories describing how some Jews crashed through conventional guardrails of staid Jewish tradition and sped forward onto aberrant lanes of false messiahs, forgers of Passover Haggadot, rabbis searching for subversive religious meanings of Hebrew amulets, and an 18th-century British lord who converted to Judaism. Best of all, there is the raffish tale of a 20th-century Jewish con man who makes all other imposters in history look like amateur frauds.

Dunner, an Orthodox rabbi who leads a Beverly Hills, California, congregation, combines an expertise in ancient Hebrew manuscripts with a command of rabbinic texts and Jewish history to bring his band of Jewish miscreants to life.  

Heading Dunner’s list is the infamous Shabbatai Tzvi (1626-1676). Born in Turkey, Shabbatai attracted a large number of Jewish followers who fervently believed he was the long awaited Messiah. Dunner writes:

“…he [Shabbatai]  was …joyful, exuberant, and ecstatic, while at other times he was depressed, anxious, paranoid, and passive…symptoms of acute manic depression, or bipolar syndrome…To [his] detractors his behavior was evidence he was an evil madman. To his supporters… his strange behavior attested to the fact that he was divine and a holy man.”
​
On May 31, 1665 Shabbatai publicly declared he was the “King of the Jews” and the “Redeemer” of Israel. His followers were delirious with joy, especially because Shabbatai Tzvi had repudiated much of the rigorous religious and moral laws of Judaism and encouraged wild sexual excesses.


Read More
0 Comments

Top 10 Jewish stories of 2018

12/29/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
(RNS) — The brutality of anti-Semitism in several forms dominated the top 10 news stories related to Jews and Judaism this year. But there were important and even happy developments as well.
​
1. The Tree of Life synagogue shooting
The “slaughter of the innocents” in a Pittsburgh synagogue in October was the single worst anti-Jewish attack in U.S. history, with 11 worshippers killed (among them were two of my cousins, Cecil and David Rosenthal). The swift public revulsion and denunciation of the massacre cut across all religious, ethnic and racial boundaries and resulted in a vast outpouring of support for the American Jewish community.

2. U.S. embassy moves to Jerusalem
In May, the U.S. embassy in Israel officially relocated from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, as President Trump followed through on a December 2017 announcement. The move, met with both celebration and foreboding from political and faith leaders at the time, has been largely overwhelmed by other events, including violent attempts to breach the Jewish state’s borders by Palestinians in Gaza, Iran’s continued support of the brutal Syrian regime and the terrorist group Hezbollah based in Lebanon, and the discovery of several Hezbollah secret military tunnels that encroached into Israeli territory. Though Saudi Arabia’s King Salman was among those who criticized the embassy move, Israel strengthened its diplomatic outreach to Saudi Arabia this year.
​

Read More
0 Comments

In quiet moments, George H.W. Bush showed that faith mattered

12/1/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
(RNS) — On a chilly, rainy Sunday in April 1991, my wife Marcia and I were among a small number of religious leaders who spent nearly six hours with President George H.W. Bush at Camp David. We were there for the dedication service of the newly constructed interreligious chapel at the presidential retreat in Maryland, which had also served as a relaxed but conducive place for top-level diplomatic negotiations.

For more than two years, Protestant, Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox clergy and laypeople and myself, the sole Jewish member of the group, had worked together to raise private funds for a building to be used for worship, study, and meditation by presidents, their families, camp support staff and, of course, visiting world leaders.
​
FDR was the first chief executive to use the former Boy Scout campsite north of Washington as an escape from the brutal Washington summer heat. Though the exact location was kept from the public — President Roosevelt called the retreat “Shangri-La,” adding to its mystery — it is only seventy-four miles from the capital in the Catoctin mountains of Maryland.

Read More
0 Comments

    Rabbi James Rudin

    Check in often to see the latest publications from James Rudin.

    Archives

    July 2024
    December 2023
    October 2023
    August 2023
    May 2023
    March 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    September 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    October 2014
    March 2012
    February 2011
    December 2006
    August 2005
    April 2005
    September 1987
    June 1987
    February 1987
    September 1986
    May 1984
    December 1974
    August 1972

    Categories

    All
    Appearances
    Articles
    Religion News Service
    Reviews

    RSS Feed

Picture
All Titles
Picture
All Titles
Picture
All Titles
HOME
ABOUT
PUBLICATIONS
BOOKS
APPEARANCES
CONTACT

The Official Website of James Rudin - ©2015-2025 - All Rights Reserved.
​Website by Stage Door Designs