Thursday, February 02, 2006

B-b-b-b-banned...banned to the bone

In Censorship and freedom of expression in Jewish history by Moshe Carmilly-Weinberger (pub. 1979) it is noted that roughly 300 books were subject to internal censorship among Jews over the past 2000 years, most since the 17th century. Carmilly-Weinberger's study makes the case that internal book bannings were relatively rare, although they were promulgated for a variety of reasons and were of a variety of types.

300 in 2000 years? Even thought several more works have been banned and/ or modified or censored since 1979, somehow it seems like the most recent brouhaha (what a fun word!) began with "One People, Two Worlds," (pub. 2002). If that be the start of a recent trend then we're looking at 3 out of 300 or so--1% of the toal--in the past three-four years alone.

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