Fifty Key Jewish Thinkers

By Daniel Cohn-Sherbok

London and New York: Routledge, 1997 / 132 pages

The author, Daniel Cohn-Sherbok, received his ordination as Reform rabbi at Hebrew Union College. He earned a doctor of philosophy degree at Cambridge University and now holds the post of Professor of Judaism at University of Wales. He was a keynote speaker at UMJCâs national conference, July 2000. Recent work includes his Messianic Judaism: The First Study of Messianic Judaism by a Non-Adherent.

In this slim volume, Daniel Cohn-Sherbok identifies fifty influential Jewish intellectuals and briefly characterizes their work in the context of their times. Clearly, the author can only touch on the lives of these fifty representative thinkers, devoting no more that 2 or 3 pages to each. Yet the book serves as both a useful outline and a good first step to further study.

The author reviews thinkers from Philo [20 BCE-50 CE] to Elie Wiesel and Sherwin Wine [both born in 1928]. The sketches are arranged alphabetically for easy reference, but a chronological table is included which places each writer in his era.

The book is especially valuable to readers who may have heard of such intellectuals as Baruch Spinoza or Moses Hess, Maimonides or the Baal Shem Tov, but could not say for sure when or where each lived, what each taught, or into which Îintellectual schoolâ each may be categorized. Cohn-Sherbok answers these basic questions for all fifty, and then provides recommended additional reading for those who may be interested in pursuing the work of one or more of these thinkers.

An example of Cohn-Sherbokâs methodology is his discussion of Theodor Herzl, author of The Jewish State and the founder of the modern Zionist movement. He begins with a brief biographical sketch, noting Herzlâs birth in Budapest in 1860, his upbringing in Liberal Judaism, his law career in Vienna and Salzburg, and his later association with the Rothschild family. Excerpts from Herzlâs own writings, both fiction and non-fiction, demonstrate the growth of his reasons for, and enthusiasm regarding, the establishment of a Jewish homeland as the only certain solution to the problem of endemic anti-Semitism in Europe.

At the end of each brief biography, Cohn-Sherbok lists references, the thinkerâs major writings, and suggestions for further reading.

I recommend this volume as a helpful reference resource. It offers concise, easily-understood introductions to the work of fifty of the worldâs most influential Jewish intellectuals.

The paperback edition is available from Amazon for $14.39.

Reviewed by Rae Wineland Newstad, PhD

Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Azusa Pacific University / Azusa, CA