Shuva

Offers a roadmap for revitalizing the connection between the Jewish people and the Jewish past

An outstanding book, original, well written, and incisive. It will become the point of departure for all other research in the area.-William B. Helmreich, author of The World of the Yeshiva Danzger's volume treats a subject that is both fascinating and complex. Especially noteworthy is his exploration of an inclusionary strain in Orthodox Jewish life that is often overlooked by sociologists and other contemporary observers.-Norman Lamm, Yeshiva University The issues raised in this book are critical for our times.-Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, Founding Rabbi, Lincoln Square Synagogue In a clear and lucid style, he examines the reasons for return, the schools established by Orthodox Judaism to deal with this return, and the values and conflicts thus engendered.-Library Journal If one were to select the most important of the books on baalei teshuvah, 'returnees to Judaism, ' the choice would clearly be Danzger's Returning to Tradition. This book goes far beyond the work of Janet Aviad and others. It offers the reader a clear, unified, and comprehensive approach to understanding the world of the baal teshuvah.It is based on many years of careful research into that community, both in Israel and in the United States. The author is intimately familiar with the ins and outs of the group he has chosen to study. He knows where they hang out, what their problems are, and the diversity of backgrounds from which they originate...First rate.-William B. Helmreich, American Jewish Histor

“Mukti: Free to Be Born Again” is a history-based autobiographical nonfiction created on three decades of fieldwork in Muslim-majority Bangladesh and Hindu-majority India. Many strands of real-life drama have been weaved together with 1947 Hindu-Muslim, secular-Islamic, and 1971 Islamic-secular, ruling-minority vs. oppressed-majority partitions of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Because of precarious plight, individual and village names have been fictionalized. The story focuses on transformation of a society by the oppressor, oppressed, Islam, and Hinduism. The story ties Indian and Bengali history, views of Muslims and Hindus, role of Bangladeshi Hindu refugee elites in India, pogroms, devastation of minority communities, role of anti-Hindu Islamism and anti-tradition Communism, life of poor oppressed-caste Hindus left behind in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, and more. Dastidar is the first to break a taboo by writing in 1989 about the poor, oppressed Hindu minority left behind by the Hindu-refugee elites in India.

"For too many students, first-year contracts is a heartache, plaguing them perpetually with this demoralizing thought: "I do my work, I go to class, I listen, I participate, and still - I don't know what it's all about or what my teacher wants me to know." We're here to spare you that sorrowful plight - to grab hold of contract law, tear away its veil of mystery, and flood it with such bright light as lets you see it for what it is: a course, like any other - easily understandable with ordinary work and thought"--

Rabindranath Tagore is the life force of Bangla literature. His contributions to the cultural life of West Bengal and Bangladesh are beyond measure. In fact, there is no area of Bangla literature that he did not touch. He composed more than 1,000 songs, including the national anthems of both India and Bangladesh; numerous dances such as Shyama, Chandalika; plays such as Raja, Raktakaravi; 200-plus short stories like Drishtidaan, Kabuliwala; many essays and letters; and last but not least, a dozen witty, pithy, and insightful novels, such as Naukadubi, Bou Thakuranir Haat, in addition to numerous volumes of poetry exploring a number of issues. I pay my tribute to Tagore with translations of some of his beautiful stories. I hope my tiny effort pleases my readers, and that they forgive any mistakes that I may have made inadvertently.