Judaism

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Judaism, 2nd Edition
$18.95
It's a good book for people who have questions and know very little. It's a good reference book for those who have questions.

Conversion to Judaism: A Guidebook
$46.95
This book has helped me in understanding the conversion process.

I especially appreciated the author's even treatment of the different Jewish movements, mainly Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist.

He explains not only the conversion process in these different movements, but also gives the reader an introduction to the Jewish faith. He talks about Jewish beliefs, texts, and practices. He also gives a list of resources in the back of the book that appear to be quite helpful, especially for the new Jew.

Essential Judaism: A Complete Guide to Beliefs, Customs & Rituals
$20.00
Judaism is Judaism, we don't change anything, our belief's are firm and sacred. I wanted to share some basic information with a friend, thank you.

Judaism: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
$11.95
Norman Solomon's JUDAISM: A Very Short Introduction is a fairly typical installment in this Oxford University Press series. Within 150 pages, Solomon tries to give a very basic but nonetheless wide-ranging introduction to Judaism. Solomon was a fellow in Modern Jewish Thought at Oxford, and one of the major themes of his book is that Judaism is very difficult to define exactly. He emphasizes that Judaism is not a direct continuation of the religion of ancient Israel, but has its real beginnings in the dogma of rabbinic Judaism. This dogma has then been engaged by new religious movements, or left behind by those or see Judaism as just an ethnic identity or a general outlook on life. What Solomon gives us in his book is less one coherent faith, and more a variety of sometimes mutually contradictory beliefs and traditions that have all been referred to as Jewish.

A book in this format is probably never going to be completely satisfying. At a time when lame antisemitism is making a comeback due to the political situation in the Middle East, I wished he could have offered some response to the argument that Judaism is a "racist religion", with membership in the faith and ethnic origin almost always tightly interwined. In fact, the entire phenomenon of conversion to Judaism is not discussed at all. Also, the book was first published in 1996 with a reprinting in 2000. A revised version is necessary to add to the history of Israel in chapter 8, which ends on a hopeful note with Oslo II.