Ezra Margulies, Author at Friends of Louis Jacobs

‘We Have Reason to Go Further’ – John D. Rayner

WE HAVE REASON TO GO FURTHER Louis Jacobs’ Progressive Conservatism John D. Rayner When in 1957 I first read We Have Reason To Believe, the book that sparked ‘The Jacobs Affair’, I could not see what all the fuss was about. Surely its thesis, that ... Continue Reading ➨

Theology and religious beliefs

Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle. Date unknown: “All Israel have a portion in the world to come.” What does this mean? The saying is found in the Mishna (Sanhedrin 10, 1). It is not, however, as exclusive as it appears to be on ... Continue Reading ➨

‘Fantasies of Cheescake’ – A review of ‘Ask the Rabbi’ by Reuven Ben Dov

Originally published in The Jerusalem Post, 20 May 1999. An ideal book for an easy browse on Shavuot night is Ask The Rabbi. Questions and Answers on Judaism by Louis Jacobs (London, Valentine Mitchell: 237 pp.; price not stated). This ... Continue Reading ➨

Norman Cohen, ‘The Religious Crisis in Anglo-Jewry’

Originally published in Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Thought, 8:2 (Summer 1966), pp. 40-57. Norman Cohen The Jacobs affair has become a cause celebre, repercussions of which are still felt far beyond the confines of Great Britain. In this ... Continue Reading ➨

Alexander Altmann (ed.), Jewish Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Jewish Medieval and Renaissance Studies. Edited by Alexander Altmann. Harvard University Press, London: Oxford University Press. 80s. This volume contains essays of outstanding scholarship but with an appeal for the general reader as well as the ... Continue Reading ➨

The Love of Law and the Law of Love

Lecture delivered on the occasion of the 11th St. Paul's Lecture, in the Crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral, London, 1972. The St. Paul’s Lecture was founded by the London Diocesan Council for Christian-Jewish Understanding and is given by Jewish and ... Continue Reading ➨

The Jacobs Affair – Report in Commentary Magazine by Alfred Sherman

Originally published in Commentary, 38:4 (1 October 1964), pp. 60-4. The fundamentalist tenet that God actually dictated the whole Torah—including the Talmud—verbatim and in its authorized text to Moses on Mount Sinai would seem an unlikely matter ... Continue Reading ➨

Bernard Spears, Letter to the Editor of Tradition about the Jacobs Affair

Originally published in Tradition 8:4 (Winter 1966). Jacobs Affair To the editor of TRADITION: Mr. Norman Cohen (“The Religious Crisis in Anglo-Jewry,” Tradition, Summer, 1966) purports to tell the inside story of “the Jacobs affair” and in ... Continue Reading ➨

‘A Newsman in Divinity School’ – New York Times piece by Ari Goldman

Originally published in the New York Times, 8th November 1987. At Harvard, the author began a dialogue between his Jewish beliefs and the religious ideas he encountered. In the first days of the 1985-86 school year at Harvard, the course called ... Continue Reading ➨

Elliot Dorff – Louis Jacobs’s Philosophy of Law

Originally published in Elliot Dorff, The Unfolding Tradition: Philosophies of Jewish Law (New York: Rabbinical Assembly, 2005), pp. 270-307; (second, revised edition, 2011), pp. 254-291. The editor would like to thank Prof. Rabbi Dorff for kindly ... Continue Reading ➨

The Nature of the Babylonian Talmud – Part 4: A Work Requiring Explanation

Manuscript of one of four lectures delivered at the Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies, Trinity term (Spring) 1992. THE NATURE OF THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD OXFORD CENTRE FOR POSTGRADUATE HEBREW STUDIES THE JACOBS LECTURES The Oxford Centre ... Continue Reading ➨

The Nature of the Babylonian Talmud – Part 3: A Comprehensive Work

The Nature of the Babylonian Talmud – Part 2: A Literary Work

The Nature of the Babylonian Talmud – Part 1: A Composite Work

A New House

Sermon preached on the Consecration of the New Hall of the New London Synagogue on 10 September 1967. “When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof. . . .” (Deut. 22: 8). Three years ago, almost to the day, this venerable ... Continue Reading ➨

Three Books on Jewish Faith – Norman Solomon reviewing ‘Beyond Reasonable Doubt’, ‘Must a Jew Believe Anything?’ and ‘Revelation Restored’

Originally published in Journal of Jewish Studies, 52:1 (Spring 2001), pp. 146-154. David Weiss Halivni, Revelation Restored: Divine Writ and Critical Responses. Westview Press, Boulder, 1997. 144 pp. $20.00 / £12.50. Louis Jacobs, Beyond ... Continue Reading ➨

Elliot Dorff – Intellectual Portrait of Louis Jacobs

Originally published in Steven T. Katz (ed.), Interpreters of Judaism in the Late Twentieth Century Washington, D.C., 1993), pp. 167-188. Louis Jacobs [1920- ] Elliot N. Dorff Synthesizing Tradition with Modernity Jews face modernity in a ... Continue Reading ➨

Menachem Kellner, ‘Must a Jew Believe Anything?’

Originally published in Judaism Today, November 1999, p. 29. Nearing retirement, Rabbi Louis Jacobs considers a book on Judaism and ‘belief’. How Orthodox is Orthodoxy? In his penetrating study on Jewish belief—“Must a Jew Believe ... Continue Reading ➨

Thirty years on, revelation reviewed – by Emma Conway

Originally published in Le'ela (December 1999), pp. 67-8. Beyond Reasonable Doubt, Louis Jacobs, London, Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 1999, 267 pages, £24.95 cloth. Perhaps the clearest expression of the tensions and conflicts within ... Continue Reading ➨

Review of ‘Principles of the Jewish Faith’ in The Jews and Ourselves

Originally published in The Jews and Ourselves: Judaism and Christianity in the World of Today, 3:1 (Winter 1965), pp. 35-8. Principles of the Jewish Faith. An Analytical Study. By Louis Jacobs. Vallentine and Mitchell, London, 1964, pp. ... Continue Reading ➨