Will we ever see peace in the Middle East? If so, how will it come about? Currently negotiations are in the works for the creation of an independent Palestinian State. However, it will be located in part of the land, which Orthodox Jews believe was set aside by God exclusively for the Jews. They contend that the Israelites under Moses covenanted with God never to let non-Jews live in any part of the Promised Land. They further believe, that a breach of this sacred Covenant will lead to divine curses for the disobedient Jews, including the conquest of Israel by her enemies and the deportation of the surviving Jews to foreign lands. Dr. Leon G. van Wert now has written a new and exciting eschatological work, which clearly shows that the creation of a new, non-Jewish Palestinian State, within the boundaries of the Promised Land, will bring us one pivotal step closer towards the End Times. Using the Old Testament as his guide to interpreting the book of Revelation, Dr. van Wert has unlocked this mysterious book of the Bible. When is the end? The end is near, says the author, when after the creation of an independent State of Palestine, the Cardinals elect two successive Jewish Popes.

"To what extent do Yiddish language and literature derive from the dominant values of mainstream European culture? How far did this culture shape the self-perception of Yiddish-speaking Jews of Central and Eastern Europe? How far did the ambivalent, antagonistic attitude adopted towards Jews over many centuries in Christian Europe shape modern Jewish identity and culture? Sherman deals with such questions in his close examination of the recurring treatment of the myth of the Jewish Pope in four Yiddish literary texts dating from between 1602 and 1943. The roots of this myth - that one day a Jewish apostate might come to rule the world as Pope - lie deep in the Biblical story of the assimilation of Joseph (Genesis 37-50), from which it branches out into numerous Messianic fantasies informing Jewish existence through two thousand years of exile. Concerned with broader questions of cultural identity, this study should be of interest to a general readership."

Preliminary Material -- Chapter I: THE HISTORIOGRAPHICAL BACKGROUND -- Chapter II: CALIXTUS II AND THE PIERLEONI -- Chapter III: PONTIUS AND ANACLET -- Chapter IV: TENSIONS WITHIN CLUNY AND THE PAPAL SCHISM -- Chapter V: THE DISPUTE AT CLUNY REINTERPRETED -- Chapter VI: MONTECASSINO -- Chapter VII: THE POPES, THE NORMANS, AND THE EMPEROR -- Chapter VIII: LEGALITY AS A FACTOR IN DETERMINING THE OUTCOME OF THE ELECTION -- Chapter IX: LEGALITY AS A FACTOR IN DETERMINING THE OUTCOME OF THE ELECTION -- Chapter X: CARDINALES N0V1TII -- Chapter XI: HAIMERIC AND DIEGO OF COMPOSTELLA -- Chapter XII: INNOCENT II -- Chapter XIII: THE ANACLETIANS -- Chapter XIV: PETRUS PIERLEONI'S RECORD RECONSIDERED -- Chapter XV: THE ANATOMY OF THE SCHISM: THE JEWISH ELEMENT -- Chapter XVI: THE PROPAGANDISTS -- SUMMARY -- SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX.

In Popes and Jews, 1095-1291, Rebecca Rist explores the nature and scope of the relationship of the medieval papacy to the Jewish communities of western Europe. Rist analyses papal pronouncements in the context of the substantial and on-going social, political, and economic changes of the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, as well the characters and preoccupations of individual pontiffs and the development of Christian theology. She breaks new ground in exploring the other side of the story - Jewish perceptions of both individual popes and the papacy as an institution - through analysis of a wide range of contemporary Hebrew and Latin documents. The author engages with the works of recent scholars in the field of Christian-Jewish relations to examine the social and legal status of Jewish communities in light of the papacy's authorisation of crusading, prohibitions against money lending, and condemnation of the Talmud, as well as increasing charges of ritual murder and host desecration, the growth of both Christian and Jewish polemical literature, and the advent of the Mendicant Orders. Popes and Jews, 1095-1291 is an important addition to recent work on medieval Christian-Jewish relations. Furthermore, its subject matter - religious and cultural exchange between Jews and Christians during a period crucial for our understanding of the growth of the Western world, the rise of nation states, and the development of relations between East and West - makes it extremely relevant to today's multi-cultural and multi-faith society.

Lapide, an ex-Israeli diplomat, establishes in no uncertain terms the Church's sorry historical record against the Jews, but nonetheless he defends the actions of Pius XII in saving thousands during the Holocaust.