A Response to Daniel Juster's "Review" of Daniel Gruber's Copernicus and the Jews
Several years ago Daniel Juster wrote a lengthy but rather dismissive review of an outstanding book by Daniel Gruber, Copernicus and the Jews, and posted it on his website. His article has remained on the web until now (June 2010). Unfortunately, it seems that a fair number of people continue to read Juster's comments about Copernicus and to be influenced by them. The main problem with this is that most of what he says has nothing whatsoever to do with the book. Rather, Juster used his "review" simply as a platform to promote his own interests and considerations, without engaging the book itself in any meaningful way. Though leery of giving Juster more exposure, I feel that someone who appreciates the actual content and arguments of Copernicus should finally provide at least some response to his supposed review of the book. My hope is to reduce the influence of his misguided evaluation by countering some of his misleading statements.
At first glance, Juster's article may seem like a "balanced review." The words he uses are a mix of complimentary and critical. The deeper problems appear only when one compares what he writes to the actual content of Copernicus. Most of Juster's bewildering "review" can be summarized as consisting of the following elements:
