Comments on: And speaking of inventions… http://njjewishnews.com/justASC/2009/11/25/and-speaking-of-inventions/ A multilog with NJJN Editor-in-Chief Andrew Silow-Carroll Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:31:49 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Article of faith http://njjewishnews.com/justASC/2009/11/25/and-speaking-of-inventions/comment-page-1/#comment-18923 Article of faith Thu, 26 Nov 2009 03:13:57 +0000 http://njjewishnews.com/justASC/?p=1836#comment-18923 [...] A piece assailing Shlomo Sand’s book on the Invention of the Jewish People in the New York Times the other day drew this applause from Andrew Silow-Carroll of the New Jersey Jewish News: [...] [...] A piece assailing Shlomo Sand’s book on the Invention of the Jewish People in the New York Times the other day drew this applause from Andrew Silow-Carroll of the New Jersey Jewish News: [...]

]]> By: Jeff http://njjewishnews.com/justASC/2009/11/25/and-speaking-of-inventions/comment-page-1/#comment-18922 Jeff Thu, 26 Nov 2009 02:41:39 +0000 http://njjewishnews.com/justASC/?p=1836#comment-18922 The Times has nothing to worry about when it comes to the advocates of "intelligent design" because they don't read the paper anyway, but Jews in big numbers do and the last thing that the Times needs at this point in time is for CAMERA to start another boycott. Forget about the possibility that Sands may be on to something. The book has been a best seller in Israel, but it seems that Israeli Jews are more prepared to read something that may provoke them--witness the differences between what appears in the Israeli and the sanitized American Jewish press--than are American Jews who are only too happy with not having to read or hear the bad news. The Times has nothing to worry about when it comes to the advocates of “intelligent design” because they don’t read the paper anyway, but Jews in big numbers do and the last thing that the Times needs at this point in time is for CAMERA to start another boycott.

Forget about the possibility that Sands may be on to something. The book has been a best seller in Israel, but it seems that Israeli Jews are more prepared to read something that may provoke them–witness the differences between what appears in the Israeli and the sanitized American Jewish press–than are American Jews who are only too happy with not having to read or hear the bad news.

]]> By: Kevin Brook http://njjewishnews.com/justASC/2009/11/25/and-speaking-of-inventions/comment-page-1/#comment-18920 Kevin Brook Thu, 26 Nov 2009 01:11:44 +0000 http://njjewishnews.com/justASC/?p=1836#comment-18920 In the letter "Shlomo Sand responds to Simon Schama's review in the Financial Times", dated November 21, Sand claims "no serious work concerning the origins of the demographic weight of Yiddish-speaking Jews has been carried out" in recent decades. That isn't true because I wrote a study of this very nature titled "The Origins of East European Jews" and it was published in the scholarly journal Russian History/Histoire Russe volume 30 numbers 1-2 (Spring-Summer 2003) on pages 1-22. Sand is familiar with the first edition of my book "The Jews of Khazaria" and cites it in "The Invention of the Jewish People" on page 238. But it is the second edition of my book that carries the full extent of the research on Jewish demographics and origins, with its Chapter 10 (formerly numbered 11) sourcing the new genetic studies as well as the demographic and linguistic research of scholars like Alexander Beider. My evidence disproves Sand's book's ideas about the origins of Ashkenazim and Sephardim, showing that the real story is that Ashkenazim and Sephardim have preserved a large amount of ancestry from ancient Israel up to the present time. My book is available from bookstores all across the United States. Do you or another member of your staff want to review it for New Jersey Jewish News? Contact my publisher for a review copy. In the letter “Shlomo Sand responds to Simon Schama’s review in the Financial Times”, dated November 21, Sand claims “no serious work concerning the origins of the demographic weight of Yiddish-speaking Jews has been carried out” in recent decades. That isn’t true because I wrote a study of this very nature titled “The Origins of East European Jews” and it was published in the scholarly journal Russian History/Histoire Russe volume 30 numbers 1-2 (Spring-Summer 2003) on pages 1-22.

Sand is familiar with the first edition of my book “The Jews of Khazaria” and cites it in “The Invention of the Jewish People” on page 238. But it is the second edition of my book that carries the full extent of the research on Jewish demographics and origins, with its Chapter 10 (formerly numbered 11) sourcing the new genetic studies as well as the demographic and linguistic research of scholars like Alexander Beider.

My evidence disproves Sand’s book’s ideas about the origins of Ashkenazim and Sephardim, showing that the real story is that Ashkenazim and Sephardim have preserved a large amount of ancestry from ancient Israel up to the present time.

My book is available from bookstores all across the United States. Do you or another member of your staff want to review it for New Jersey Jewish News? Contact my publisher for a review copy.

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