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Arthur Hertzberg Jews
HarperCollins (USA) 1998 0060638346 / 9780060638344 Hardcover Near fine Near fine Hardcover
New. Near fine in publisher's quarter-bound boards in rubbed dust jacket. Available in our UK premises for prompt dispatch worldwide.Jews is an earnest, disciplined attempt to do what has often been done recklessly, poorly, and even hatefully--to describe the things all Jews have in common. Arthur Hertzberg and Aron Hirt-Manheimer profile prominent Jews from Abraham to Woody Allen, discerning in their stories the essential Jewish qualities of "the chosen, the factious, and the outsider," and considering how these characteristics can help Jews rebuild their communities at the end of the 20th century. This book doesn't back down from any of the hard questions that Jews and gentiles ask about the Hebrew people: Do Jews contribute to anti-Semitism? Why do so many Jews marry gentiles? Why do some Jews think constantly of the Holocaust, and why do some ignore it? The answers Jews gives are rarely predictable and always provocative, and they're of lasting usefulness for all the children of Abraham. --Michael Joseph Gross .... In a deeply felt, controversial study, the authors (Hertzberg teaches humanities at New York University, and Hirt-Manheimer is editor of Reform Judaism magazine) contend that there is a definable Jewish character that has been manifested in Jews over the centuries. They identify three core components of this reputed personality profile: the self-image of affirming Jews as a chosen people; Jews as a house divided, a fractious group with a history of internal strife; and Jews as the quintessential outsiders in Western civilization. The third characteristic, they argue, is at the root of anti-Semitism: the Jewish people, who, as persistent dissenters in the societies in which they have lived, challenge the majority's beliefs, behavior and prejudices. Hertzberg and Hirt-Manheimer defend their thesis with an unconventional, selective history of Judaism. Their portrait gallery of modern JewsAMoses Mendelssohn, Martin Buber, Freud, Marx, Trotsky, Heine, Herzl, KafkaAserves as a prism for their exploration of Jews' ambivalence over what it means to be Jewish. In one interesting passage, the authors question whether "the Orthodox establishment [can] really claim that its version of Judaism is the only effective antidote to assimilation." Their provocative approach to understanding Jewish identity is certain to stir debate. $40,000 ad/promo; author tour. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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4.53 GBP
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