David Biale

David Biale edited Cultures of the Jews, a collaborative history published in its complete form as Cultures of the Jews: A New History. A scholar of Jewish history and professor emeritus at the University of California, Davis, he assembled work by nearly two dozen historians rather than presenting Jewish culture as one continuous, isolated tradition. The contributors study communities through their exchanges with surrounding societies and through evidence such as literature, art, architecture, food, language, and religious practice. Schocken published the volume, which received a National Jewish Book Award. Its essays range across ancient, medieval, and modern settings, with attention to communities in Europe, the Mediterranean, the Islamic world, and the Americas. Biale's editorial framework asks how migration, local customs, creative expression, and encounters with neighboring cultures produced many forms of Jewish life. That comparative structure makes the collection both a large historical survey and a set of focused studies by specialists.