Review of Gardner, The Origins of Organized Charity in Rabbinic Judaism

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW:

Gregg E. Gardner, The Origins of Organized Charity in Rabbinic Judaism. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015. Pp. xvi, 235. ISBN 9781107095434. $99.99.

Reviewed by Danielle Steen Fatkin, Knox College (dfatkin@knox.edu)

Preview

The Origins of Organized Charity in Rabbinic Judaism by Gregg Gardner focuses on the intersection of several fields of study—early rabbinic law, the sociology of power, and late antique history. Gardner’s central arguments—that organized charity in Judaism began after the destruction of the Second Temple and that, unlike later rabbis, the tannaim created charitable organizations in order to maintain the dignity of the poor—are the product of extensive study and the innovative use of sociological and economic theory.

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I noted the book here when it was published in 2015.