The Jewish Reader

From the vast textual and pictorial resources of the Jewish past, Cantor has culled 150 selections that offer a ""kaleidoscopic view of Jewish behavior and consciousness through multiple times and places."" He defines 10 patterns of behavior and divides the book accordingly: ambivalence and marginality; growing up among Jews; maturing and dying; intoxication with divine power; victims and martyrs; hoping and coping; Jewish women; striking back against adversity; Jewish individuals who have become ""icons""; and alternative dimensions of Jewish culture and society. His choice of excerpts from short stories, essays, novels, biographies and memoirs shows the imagination and range of Jewish writing, as Cantor balances the wisdom of rabbis and Jewish leaders with the voices of ordinary people and the insights of writers and rebels from Sholem Aleichem to Jack Benny. Cantor (History/New York University) organizes his opus by topic and category rather than chronology. This structure becomes disconcerting when selections about the Holocaust precede those about the Spanish Expulsion of 1492 and the mass suicide of Jews at Masada in A.D. 73. He passes the litmus test of inclusiveness, featuring works by two often-overlooked groups--women and Sephardic Jews. Although the tone of the historical overview and introductory notes in this unconventional anthology is slightly patronizing and professorial, the gems contained in this collection are well worth the effort it takes to mine them. (Jan.)