The Jewish Mind

A Landmark Exploration of Jewish History and Culture

First published in 1977, The Jewish Mind provides a penetrating insight into the complex collective reality of the Jewish people. Raphael Patai examines how six great historical encounters, spanning three millennia, between the Jews and other cultures led to both change and continuity in Jewish communities throughout the global diaspora.

A Timeless Analysis by a Prominent Scholar

Patai, a noted cultural anthropologist and historian, drew on a lifetime of research and personal experience to explore the contemporary Jewish mind in its many manifestations, including an exploration of the notion of Jews as a race, an investigation into Jewish intelligence and talents, a discussion of Jewish self-hate, and a profile of Jewish personality and character.

An Insightful New Foreword by Ari L. Goldman

Bestselling author and journalist Ari L. Goldman places the book in the context of recent turbulent events, especially in the Middle East, and confirms Patai’s conclusion that Judaism remains of enormous value to humankind. Goldman calls the book “a brilliant and absorbing survey of everything poured into the Jewish mind over the millennia.” The Jewish Mind is a towering work of scholarship that remains relevant to anyone trying to understand Jewish culture and society around the world today.

Raphael Patai was the author of more than 600 articles and thirty books, including The Arab Mind, The Hebrew Goddess, Hebrew Myths, and The Myth of the Jewish Race. He lived for more than fifteen years in Palestine before coming to the United States, where he taught at Princeton, Columbia, and other universities. A prolific cultural anthropologist, historian, folklorist, and biblical author, Dr. Patai died in 1996.