I think that Braiterman's critique of the Jewish Review of Books is wide of the mark. I have read almost all of the articles that have appeared. In the cases where it is possible to detect any political leanings of authors, it would be a sort of middle of the road liberalism. It is true, to Braiterman's apparent disappointment, that the reviewers do not subscribe to some of the radical post-Zionist critiques. The reviews of political and historical works are balanced and fair. There is also no evidence of extremely conservative theological reviews. The review of Art Green, in my opinion, was unreasonably nasty and was too negative, but much of the article was a legitimate difference of opinion.
I know one of the senior editors, who was the author of some of the articles that Braiterman found tendentious. This author is in no way a political right winger and is certainly not someone of conservative theological leanings. He goes out of his way to be fair. It is ironic that Braiterman is upset with the review of David Biale's new book, since the critique in the article is extremely mild, and much sharper reviews have been published elsewhere. I have not heard of any political coercion by the Tikvah Fund, nor of any effort by the editors to impose a right wing agenda on the authors. If Braiterman wants to attack the mission of the Tikvah Fund, that's his right. Others can judge where he is accurate or mistaken. In the case of the Jewish Review of Books, he has completely misinterpreted the nature of the articles. I invite Hasafran members to read the articles he particularly attacks and to see how much he has read them through a distorted lens. The Jewish Review of books is a wonderful development. The articles, although written with non-academics in mind, meet the standards of scholarly articles, and open up the rich world of current Jewish literature and research to a very wide community. I hope that the review is at least as successful as the New York Review of Books. Braiterman's poor review will hopefully not in any way keep more and more people from becoming readers. I recommend that every library subscribe to this (very inexpensive) journal. Jim Rosenbloom -- James P. Rosenbloom Judaica Librarian, Brandeis University President, Association of Jewish Libraries James P Rosenbloom Library and Technology Services Mailstop 045 Brandeis University 415 South St. Waltham, MA 02454 9110 781-736-4688 rosenbl...@brandeis.edu --- Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) =========================================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: hasaf...@osu.edu SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: Listproc @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: galron.1 @ osu.edu Ha-Safran Archives: Current: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html History: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/history.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org
