How does modern Jewish scholarship navigate the preservation of traditional knowledge while engaging with contemporary academic approaches? A collection of book reviews examining Jewish language, literature, and religious texts reveals persistent tensions in this scholarly balance. Maurice Samuel's "In Praise of Yiddish" demonstrates how Yiddish maintained its Jewish essence while absorbing Germanic and Slavic elements, offering insights into cultural-linguistic adaptation. Ernesto Cardenal's innovative translation of Psalms transforms ancient texts through modern vocabulary and imagery, addressing twentieth-century concerns about human depravity and cosmic complexity. The first English volume of Encyclopedia Talmudica, despite its ambitions, struggles with translation accuracy and organizational coherence, limiting its utility as a reference work. Additional reviews analyze Rabbi Israel Goldman's biographical study of Rabbi David Ibn Abi Zimra, Stuart Rosenberg's examination of Canadian Jewish communities, and discussions from a colloquium on teaching Judaica in American universities. Together, these scholarly assessments illuminate critical challenges in linguistic preservation, religious translation, and academic methodology, while emphasizing the necessity of maintaining rigorous standards in Jewish cultural and religious studies within contemporary academic and communal frameworks.