The classic overview of the Jewish religion, updated to address such contemporary issues as the rights of women, medical ethics, the Holocaust, Arabs and Jews, homosexuality, and more, integrated with the earlier writings on the key ideas of Judaism: the chosen people, the Law, God, the Holy Land, the cycle of the year, prayer, immortality, sin and atonement, the nature of man, and the purpose of creation.

In his interpretations of the contemporary controversies, Arthur Hertzberg provided moving testimony to the integrity of the Jewish spirit through the ages. Many of the discussions of the first edition were rewritten to take account of the various forms of Judaism in the last two centuries, whether Orthodox, Conservative, or Reform.

This book was the result of a lifetime of study and reflection by one of the most distinguished authorities on Judaism. Rabbi Hertzberg offered the contemporary reader a coherent and meaningful account of one of the world's great religions.