Meir Persoff's Faith Against Reason: A Ground-Breaking Study

GROUND-BREAKING (Jewish Political Studies Review, Jerusalem and Baltimore):

Faith Against Reason: Religious Reform and the British Chief Rabbinate, 1840-1990 (Vallentine Mitchell, London)

Meir Persoff's informative and enlightening study shows how successive Chief Rabbis, in their effort to prevent schism, fell into the trap of confusing Jewish unity with religious uniformity. A well-known author, journalist and former editor on the influential weekly, the Jewish Chronicle, he brings an insider's knowledge of, and insight to, the workings and history of the Anglo-Jewish community and its religious leadership. Describing the history of the rabbinate and the community elegantly and cogently, Faith Against Reason is a ground-breaking work, the first of its kind to make extensive use of untapped archive material, especially private correspondence ... Is it likely to attract readers outside the British Commonwealth? The answer may be found in the growing number of American scholars, such as Todd M. Endelman and Lloyd P. Gartner, who have become experts in one period or another of Anglo-Jewish history. Clearly, Dr Persoff's book will provide material for researchers throughout the world in years to come.