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Jon D. Levenson


2012: A Year in Books 2012: A Year in Books
Wednesday, January 2, 2013 by D. G. Myers | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Books are dying—everyone says so—but you couldn’t prove it by the Jews. 2012 was a very good year for Jewish books: here are the best 40. 
Inheriting Abraham Inheriting Abraham
Tuesday, November 27, 2012 by Jon D. Levenson | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

On August 28, Jon D. Levenson, the Albert A. List Professor of Jewish Studies at Harvard University, spoke with the current class of Tikvah fellows about his latest book, the first volume in the Library of Jewish Ideas: Inheriting Abraham. Here, an edited transcript of the event.
Whose Akedah Was It, Anyhow? Whose Akedah Was It, Anyhow?
Friday, October 26, 2012 by Moshe Sokolow | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Today, October 26, 2012, the world’s Muslims will celebrate `Id al-Adha, commemorating Abraham’s willingness to demonstrate his love of God by sacrificing his son.  While most Muslims assume that the son Abraham intended to sacrifice was Ishmael, this was not the unanimous opinion of early Muslims and Qur’anic scholars.
Is Romantic Love a Jewish Value? Is Romantic Love a Jewish Value?
Friday, August 3, 2012 by Ben Greenfield | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Today is the happiest day in the Hebrew calendar.  According to the Mishnah, Tu b’Av (the 15th of the month of Av) was a joyous occasion on which the unmarried women of ancient Jerusalem would dance in the vineyards, hoping to find a match.
Jewish-Christian Dialogue Today Jewish-Christian Dialogue Today
Monday, February 21, 2011 by Yehudah Mirsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

How do today's Jews and Christians encounter one another? The most obvious way is in the countless interactions of Jewish and Christian colleagues and acquaintances in a host of daily settings, including exchanges on their respective religious attitudes and experiences.
Editors' Picks
To Each His Abraham Peter Monaghan, Chronicle of Higher Education. In Inheriting Abraham, Bible scholar Jon D. Levenson shows that while Jews, Christians, and Muslims all consider themselves the patriarch's children, they aren't talking about the same Abraham.
Category Error Jon D. Levenson, Jewish Review of Books. The focus of Yoram Hazony's History of Israel, and of most of the Hebrew Bible, is not on "discover[ing] the true and the good in accordance with man's natural abilities," as he thinks . . .