Reddit reviews Jews, God, and History

I'm in no way an expert but the book Jews God & History did a good job of explaining it. According to the book the Jews have always put a strong emphasis on knowledge and learning. They were able to acquire knowledge from their conquerors and outlast their oppressors. When a new conqueror came along they helped to facilitate the change of leadership and taught the new conquerors the ways of the subjugated people. This led to them gaining an usual amount of power in many cultures. I highly recommend reading the book. Jews are a small group but make up a huge number of nobel prizes in science and mathematics.


Update: In case you want to read it It's simply written and very interesting. It even goes over how Christianity began. I've read many books but this is by far one of my favorites. I also recommend "Unholy Alliance" By: Peter Levanda. It explains how the Nazis came to believe what they did and the Occult/Secret Societies influence on Hitler.

• Jews, God, and History would actually be a good pairing for your book now - while Johnson is more Zionist and philosemitic, Dimont takes a stance similar to Spinoza, which - while still of course being 'pro-Jew,' is more cultural in the context of the world than religious as the 'Chosen People.'
  
• Jewish Literacy is what you are guaranteed to find on every single rabbi's shelf on Earth. Telushkin is an excellent writer, and is concise in his explanations of why we are the way we are and why we do what we do. It's less about a strict history than explaining all those things, but it's still valuable if you want to really get to your roots.
  
• History of the Jewish People - I read this in college. More of a text for students, but valuable all the same.
  
• Josephus is a historical text by one of the greatest historians from the turn of the first millennium. If you choose to get this, I highly recommend having Wikipedia open as you read it.

I understand some of your situation pretty well. I came from a background of no religion at all and a negative feeling of what I thought organized religion was about before becoming a Jew. Also my wife came from a very traditional Buddhist background before becoming a Jew and she also shared concerns about this "getting in the way of a normal life".

The rabbi we first met with insisted that if I was interested in the conversion process that even before starting I had to bring her to meet with him because so much of being a Jew is family oriented so if I wanted to do this, his condition was that we both had to learn. He happens to be Conservative but of the old school variety, closer to what we would now call Modern Orthodox. The thing was that I was very fortunate that my wife was at least willing to learn with me for the sake of learning what this thing I was interested in was about. Even more fortunately she came to her own conclusion that this was for her as well. I cant say if this will be the same for you and your partner or not, but if you two communicate well then perhaps they may be willing as my wife was to see what is what just because it is important to you. As it turns out we ended up affiliating with the local Orthodox community as time went on but thats another story.

The books LazarA mentioned are all great. All I might add would be:

• God, Jews & History by Max Dimont. This is not a religious text per se but gives a decent overview of our history as a people in context of where we have been. Being a Jew isnt just about religious practice, its about being part of a people with a complex history and that history has very much shaped our practice.
  
  
• To Be a Jew by Hayim H. Donin was a decent overview as I recall. It covered about the events of the Jewish calendar and lifecycle among other topics.
  
  If you live in an area with several types of Jewish communities, I'd say meet with several rabbis if possible. Even you think now that you might look at Conservative Judaism, there's a range within that as well as within Orthodoxy and I assume but dont know for myself about the other flavors as well.
  
  Feel free to ask us here any and I do mean any questions you may have as well. I'm also available to answer questions by PM as I'm sure are several other of the regulars here in case you feel you dont want to ask in public. You may get conflicting answers but that is perfectly normal. We have a saying to the effect of if you ask two Jews you will get three opinions.

Great history review here: https://www.amazon.com/Jews-God-History-Max-Dimont/dp/0451529405

An 'interesting' perspective, though I think Max Dimont in Jews, God and History gives a much better and more balanced perspective not just on anti-semitism but also a rather good overview of history of the Jewish people. I read it to try and understand the nature of anti-semitism as one of my close friends is Jewish, which are reasonably uncommon in Australia (outside Bondi)

Can't appreciate modern Israel without also learning about ancient Israel and Jewish history. I would recommend:

https://www.amazon.com/Jews-God-History-50th-Anniversary/dp/0451529405/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1468822616&sr=8-5&keywords=jewish+history