Ezra-Nehemiah takes its readers on a literary tour of an era in which cohesiveness between Jews in Israel and the Diaspora is being tested, the parameters of Jewish identity are being re-assessed, political tact is being learned by necessity, and biblical literacy is at long last becoming the centerpiece of the Jewish community. Students of this remarkably relevant work are likely to learn as much about the times through which they are living, as they are about the trailblazers of their past.