Robert M. Seltzer
Satlow's insightful, lucid, and often daring account locates each period of Jewish history in its larger immediate context yet linked in complex, unforeseen ways to antecedent Jewish collective identities, sacred texts, and ritual practices. Judicious, erudite, and speaking in his own personal voice, Satlow adroitly describes how the Jewish heritage has repeatedly remolded itself—and what that flexibility signifies today. A book of great value to sophisticated novices and informed academics alike.
— Robert M. Seltzer, professor of Jewish history, Hunter College, and the author of Jewish People, Jewish Thought: The Jewish Experience in History
David Ellenson
Creating Judaism is a work of uncommon synthesis that draws upon frameworks provided by the academic study of religions to offer a sympathetic and insightful overview of the nature and development of Judaism from ancient to modern times. Michael Satlow displays exceptional erudition and range in these pages, and he allows the reader to understand the dynamism and diversity as well as the coherence that has marked Judaism as a religious tradition throughout the ages. Creating Judaism will be of genuine interest and import to students of Judaism and scholars of religion alike. I recommend it most highly.
— David Ellenson, President, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
