Samuel Heilman holds the Harold M. Proshansky Chair in Jewish Studies and Sociology at Queens College, City University of New York. He is the author of Synagogue Life (1976), The Gate Behind the Wall (1984), A Walker in Jerusalem (1986), Cosmopolitans and Parochials (1989), The People of the Book (1993), and Portrait of American Jews (1995).
"""On the evidence of this remarkable portrayal of a world long thought to be an anomaly, there is no reason to underscore the shortcomings of the ultra-Orthodox without recognizing their virtues as well.""--Murray Polner, ""New York Times Book Review"""