Читать книгу Prophet in a Time of Priests - Janice Rothschild Blumberg - Страница 2

Advance Praise

“This warts-and-all biography recounts the strange-but-true story of one of America’s most colorful, accomplished, and eccentric religious leaders, Edward Benjamin Morris (“Alphabet”) Browne. At once a rabbi, a doctor, and a lawyer, Browne befriended Ulysses S. Grant, bested the atheist preacher Robert Ingersoll, corresponded with Theodor Herzl, and sprang innocent men from jail. Acquainted with many of the leading figures of his day, he championed causes both great and small, and occupied pulpits from Boston to Peoria. Few recall Browne today, but as this prodigiously researched volume demonstrates, they should. His life illuminates significant chapters in the history of American Judaism.”

– Jonathan D. Sarna

Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History, Brandeis University, and author of American Judaism: A History

“Readers will quickly discover that by examining Browne they will supplement their knowledge of numerous vitally important topics relating to the history of American Jewry, including American Reform Judaism, American Zionism, the American Jewish press, American Jewry and politics, and much more. Janice Rothschild Blumberg deserves much credit for assiduously reconstructing her great grandfather’s complicated, intriguing, and truly illuminating biography. The story of Rabbi “Alphabet” Browne is as instructive as it is enthralling.”

– Gary Phillip Zola

Executive Director of the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives and Professor of the American Jewish Experience at Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati, Ohio

“The narrative is meticulously documented, but lovingly related by Janice Rothschild Blumberg who remembers her great grandfather from her childhood. Browne is honestly depicted as a prophetic figure who held strong and controversial opinions in a generation of rabbis who were committed to compromise. The book is an important contribution to an understanding of American Jewry during the post Civil War era, and particularly the relationship between reform and traditional Jewish beliefs in this era. I would characterize the narrative as a “delightful” read, a term which I would ordinarily restrict to a work of historical fiction.”

– Rabbi Harold S. White

Senior Advisor and Founder, The Program for Jewish Civilizatiom, The School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, Washington D.C.

Prophet in a Time of Priests

Rabbi “Alphabet” Browne

1845-1929

a biography

Janice Rothschild Blumberg

Apprentice House

Baltimore, Maryland