Settings of Silver (Second Edition): An Introduction to Judaism

This book is incredibly informative but fair warning, it’s history book style of informative, meaning it’s a dry read. The authors did not waste space on making the book entertaining— just the facts.

Everything was perfect.

My son, the child of a mixed marriage who was raised with respect for all faiths, but (if we're honest about it) in sort of a rudderless manner, has found ENORMOUS comfort in this book, as with the following book (The Concise Book of Mitzvoth: The Commandments). At a time in his life where this sort of guidance is enormously comforting, this Presbyterian mom is so, so grateful to the author. I look forward to helping him find guidance for and celebrating his Bar Mitzvah.

Great text for a college level history class. I will definitely be assigning it for my Western Civilization class. Covers the history of the Jews very well from 70 CE to present.

Excellent condition. So quickly received. Thank you!

If you are looking for a fairly thorough, balanced, and scholarly approach to the introduction of Judaism, it seems this book should suit your needs. The writing is fairly clear and direct, so it could be used for an introductory course to the Jewish faith, and covers Judaism in more detail than shorter works. The writer tries to avoid introducing biases or preferences for one view of Judaism (Modern, Conservative or Reform) over the other. Historical dimension on the development of Judaism is also included here. On the whole I found it to be a responsible and thorough overview to the Jewish faith, and the concerns of the Jewish people.

This book is an excellent primer for those who are looking to learn more about Judaism, whether for the purpose of gaining general knowledge or wishing to discover whether conversion is a good route for them to take. It is incredibly informative and easy to read without dumbing down things or sounding preachy- in fact, this book makes no attempt to encourage conversion, it just provides information clearly. A refreshing change from many Christian works which encourage conversion first and provide information second, often in false causal chains or assuming unrelated line items to be true. This book is not dogmatic making it great.

Excellent book for those who want to learn about Judaism. Covers a wide range of topics, easy to read. I would enjoy this book even if I was not taking an "Intro to Judaism" class.