Earlier this year I came across Ron Unz’s article “Oddities of the Jewish Religion” (Unz 2018).
Part of the article discusses the work of Israel Shahak, an award-winning Chemistry professor at Hebrew University and human-rights activist.
One of Shahak’s books is Jewish History, Jewish Religion (Shahak 1994).
Motivated by the article I have started reading the book and recommend it. The book is short but dense. Here is the very first paragraph that sets the stage:
This book, although written in English and addressed to people living outside the State of Israel, is, in a way, a continuation of my political activities as an Israeli Jew. Those activities began in 1965-6 with a protest which caused a considerable scandal at the time: I had personally witnessed an ultra-religious Jew refuse to allow his phone to be used on the Sabbath in order to call an ambulance for a non-Jew who happened to have collapsed in his Jerusalem neighbourhood. Instead of simply publishing the incident in the press, I asked for a meeting which is composed of rabbis nominated by the State of Israel. I asked them whether such behavior was consistent with their interpretation of the Jewish religion. They answered that the Jew in question had behaved correctly, indeed piously, and backed their statement by referring me to a passage in an authoritative compendium of Talmudic laws, written in this century. I reported the incident to the main Hebrew daily, Ha’aretz, whose publication of the story caused a media scandal.
Important to mention, the book has two prefaces, one by Gore Vidal, and the other Edward Said.
Sources
(Shahak 1994) Jewish History, Jewish Religion, the Weight of 3000 Years by Israel Shahak, 1994. Available online: https://ifamericansknew.org/cur_sit/shahak.html
(Unz 2018) American Pravda: Oddities of the Jewish Religion: The Surprising Elements of Talmudic Judaism https://www.unz.com/runz/american-pravda-oddities-of-the-jewish-religion/ by Ron Unz - July 16, 2018 - Unz Review - Archive https://archive.is/hBJrz
Started: Fri, Apr 24, 2026
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