PREFACE

For more than twenty years I have taught courses dealing with the history of Jewish
thought at the University of Kent in Canterbury, England. During this time I have
frequently directed students to such multi-volume encyclopedias of Judaism as the Jewish
Encyclopedia and the Encyclopedia Judaica. These vast repositories of material provide a
wealth of information about key thinkers in the history of the Jewish faith. Nonetheless,
very often students find these works overwhelming as well as difficult to gain access to if
they are much in demand in the library.
Aware of these difficulties, I suggested they look at a number of single-volume
encyclopedias and dictionaries as well as specialized monographs dealing with Jewish
thought. Many of these works, however, failed to meet their needs: they were either far
too brief or overly detailed. Increasingly I came to see that what was needed was a
single-volume survey of major Jewish thinkers. Such a handy reference book would not
take the place of either multi-volume reference works or studies of individual thinkers;
rather, it could serve as a first point of entry into the fascinating world of Jewish
thought.
This book, Fifty Key Jewish Thinkers, was thus designed to fill a gap in the types of
introductory books available to students as well as to teachers and more general readers.
Inevitably such an overview of Jewish thought must be highly selective, and many
important figures have been omitted. Yet, the aim of this survey is to introduce readers
to some of the most important thinkers in the history of Judaism from post-biblical
times to the present day. My intention has been to provide the type of general
information most commonly sought by students who wish to explore the richness of
Jewish philosophical, theological and mystical reflection as it developed through the
centuries.