부산대학교 도서관

This biography details the life of British Jewish physician and polymath Redcliffe Salaman (1874–1955). Salaman published on subjects ranging from Jewish history and theology to the genetics of agriculture—his book on the social history of the potato remains in print. His first wife, Nina, was a well-regarded intellectual in her own right for her work as a translator of medieval Hebrew poetry. Although both were active in Jewish communal affairs, the Salamans lived most of their lives as English country gentry, residing far from any organized Jewish community. Endelman (emer., Univ. of Michigan) argues that Salaman’s religious beliefs represented a distinct English form of Orthodoxy that was more open and tolerant than modern Anglo-Jewish Orthodoxy, which he classifies as insular and intolerant. A major turning point in Salaman’s life came during WW I, when he served in the Royal Medical Corps with the Jewish Legion in Palestine, becoming an ardent Zionist. More than a narrow study of Salaman’s life, this detailed biography provides insight into the world of the old Anglo-Jewish elite as it confronted, and in some cases was subsumed by, the modern world. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers through faculty.