Akron Public Library

Drawing together all the evidence, this timely book explores: The discovery and dating of the Dead Sea Scrolls; their relationship to the Hebrew Bible, Apocrypha, and New Testament; their messianic and apocalyptic messages; the identity, nature, and theology of the Qumran community; the nonbiblical scrolls; and controversies surrounding the scrolls. This comprehensive, guide provides an introduction to all aspects of the scrolls, including their...

Remember those long sultry summer days at camp, the sun setting over the lake as you sang “Kumbaya"? Well, Mindy Schneider remembers her summer at Camp Kin-A-Hurra in 1974 just a wee bit differently. Not a Happy Camper chronicles a young girl's adventures at a camp where the sun never shines, the breakfast cereal dates back to the summer of 1922, and many of the counselors speak no English. For eight eye-opening and unforgettable weeks, Mindy and...

"The weather is turning cool and a mouse, who is looking for a place to spend the winter, makes his way into the synagogue. When the rabbi discovers him, they strike a bargain. Since the somewhat plump Rabbi Saltzman enjoys eating while he works, he often makes a mess with crumbs that rain all over his desk and onto the floor. If the mouse, who the rabbi names Mazel (luck), will keep his study tidy, he can stay. As the weeks and months go by, Rabbi...

1938, Italy. Six-year-old Lia loves to build sandcastles at the beach and her biggest problem is her shyness and quiet, birdlike voice -- until prime minister Mussolini joins forces with Hitler in World War II, and everything changes. Now there are laws saying Jewish children can't go to school, Jews can't work, or go on vacation. It's difficult for Lia to understand why this is happening to her family. When her father loses his job, they must give...

Based on newly opened Vatican archives, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Vatican scholar paints a new, dramatic portrait of what Pope Pius XII, one of the most controversial popes in Church history, did and did not do during WWII as the Nazis began their systematic mass murder of Europe's Jews.

"A young Jewish boy strolls through Vienna and witnesses acts of anti-Semitism during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. At night he dreams of a superhero, Judah Maccabee, who appears to defend Vienna's Jews. When he awakes, he knows there will be no Maccabean rescue and he weeps. Years pass, the boy, now an old man, returns to Vienna and sees the Jewish community and the Temple have been restored. He looks for the eternal light in his Temple and can't...

"With a keen eye and years of deliberate investigation, Spong traces the long period of history in which the Gospels were "cut away from their essential Jewishness" and interpreted as if they were primarily gentile books, distorting their meaning with a deeply prejudiced anti-Jewish bias. To remedy both that bias and the continued misinterpretation of the Gospels' message, Spong believes we must recognize the Gospels as the thoroughly Jewish books...

"Abby Stein was raised in a Hasidic Jewish community in Brooklyn, profoundly isolated in a culture that lives according to the laws and practices of an eighteenth-century Eastern European enclave, speaking only Yiddish and Hebrew and shunning modern life. Stein was born as the first son in a rabbinical dynastic family, poised to become a leader of the next generation of Hasidic Jews. But Stein felt certain at a young age that she was a girl. Without...