Best contemporary Jewish writing / Michael Lerner, editor.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Lerner, Michael, 1943-2024.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American literature--Jewish authors.

American literature.

American literature--20th century.

Judaism--Literary collections.

Judaism.

Jews--Literary collections.

Jews.

Israel.

Local Subjects:

Israel.

Genre:

Literary collections.

Literature.

Physical Description:

xxvii, 436 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

San Francisco, CA : Jossey-Bass, [2001]

Summary:

Between the covers of this book is a treasure trove of great fiction, poetry, social analysis, and spiritual insight by renowned contributors such as Philip Roth, Marge Piercy, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Naomi Wolf, Norman Podhoretz, Jonathan Rosen, Robert Pinsky, Yehuda Amichai, Rachel Adler, Nathan Englander, Daniel Boyarin, Adrienne Rich, Arthur Waskow, William Safire, Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi, and many others. Included are famous writers, young and upcoming writers, writers with politics ranging from liberal/progressive to neoconservative. Despite their disparate opinions and points of view, these writers have been chosen by Michael Lerner because they transcend the cynicism and narcissistic self-indulgence of contemporary culture and contribute to the Kabbalistic vision of a world that has been shattered but can be healed. For some writers, the focus is on personal transformation (tikkun atzmi), for others on healing of the world (tikkun olam.) Still others search for ways to bring holiness into our personal lives and social institutions.

You will be astounded at how much creative new thinking is taking place among Jewish writers, and on topics that are extremely sensitive: the Holocaust, the limits of Jewish liberalism, women in Judaism, the current crisis in Israel, and the renewal of Jewish spiritual life. The first volume in a planned series of annual publications, Best Contemporary Jewish Writing is an essential tool for understanding contemporary culture and social reality.

You don't have to be Jewish to be moved by and to learn from these authors. The poetry, fiction, memoirs, and essays in this book are provocative and engaging, entertaining and inspiring, irreverent, and filled with awe.

Contents:

Introduction: Jewish Writing and Healing the World / Michael Lerner xiii

The Many Identities of a Jew

To Jewishness / Kenneth Koch 3

The Melting Pot and Beyond: Jews and the Politics of American Identity / David Biale 8

Poems: Reversion and What Kind of Times Are These / Adrienne Rich 15

Justify My Love / Daniel Boyarin 17

Ten Ways to Recognize a Sephardic 'Jew-ess' / Ruth Knafo Setton 29

Redemption on East Tremont: The kindness of Christians and a seder's matzah helps the daughter of Mendel Beilis fix the old fears / Jonathan Mark 36

News About Jews / William Safire 40

Gay and Orthodox / Steve Greenberg 42

Slipping the Punch / Philip Roth 55

The Night Game / Robert Pinsky 70

From The Roots of a Public Life / Joseph I. Lieberman 73

From And What Is My Lifespan? / Yehuda Amichai 79

Stories: Grandmother Eve, Consecrating the Ordinary, Blessing, and The Reward / Rachel Naomi Remen 80

The Legacy: A Parable About History and Bobe-mayses, Barszcz, and Borscht and the Future of the Jewish Past / Irena Klepfisz 86

Reclaiming the Spirit in Judaism

Nishmat / Marge Piercy 95

Starting on My Spiritual Path / Naomi Wolf 97

On Renewing God / Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi 103

Eternity Utters a Day / David Wolpe 113

A Kabbalah for the Environmental Age / Arthur Green 115

Is God in Trees? / Dennis Prager 127

The Emergence of Eco-Judaism / Arthur Waskow 134

A Theology of Illness and Healing / Nancy Flam 145

Death and What's Next / Rami Shapiro 150

Eros and the Ninth of Av / Mordechai Gafni 152

From The Book of Jewish Values / Joseph Telushkin 155

Poems: Yom Kippur Sonnet and Science Psalm / Jacqueline Osherow 162

Rereading Sacred Texts of Our Tradition

From And Peace and Justice Shall Kiss / Rachel Adler 169

From Imagining the Birth of a Nation / Ilana Pardes 186

From The Red Tent / Anita Diamant 193

From The Bible and You, the Bible and You and Other Midrashim / Yehuda Amichai 199

Aaron's God

and Ours: A Yom Kippur Reflection / Sarah Polster 200

Our (Meaning Women's) Book-of-Esther Problem / Susan Schnur 205

Living in the Shadows of the Holocaust

Cattle Car Complex / Thane Rosenbaum 213

Force Fields / Martin Jay 221

The Sanctuary / Alan Shapiro 228

The Trivialization of Tragedy / Jonathan Rosen 230

Hereditary Victimhood: The Holocaust's Life as a Ghost / Zygmunt Bauman 241

The Meaning of the Holocaust: Social Alienation and the Infliction of Human Suffering / Peter Gabel 252

Israel in Conflict

The New Historiography: Israel Confronts Its Past / Benny Morris 265

Land for What? / Daniel Pipes 281

Occupation and Antisemitism / Jerome Slater 284

A Novelist's Optimism: Reclaiming the Jewish Tradition / Aharon Appelfeld 297

From Booking Passage / Sidra Dekoven Ezrahi 300

Poems: From In My Life, On My Life; Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Why Jerusalem?; and The Jewish Time Bomb / Yehuda Amichai 323

Hovering at a Low Altitude / Dahlia Ravikovitch 326

The Pleasure of Jewish Culture

Making Judaism Cool / Jonathan Schorsch 331

Old Man / C. K. Williams 339

Poems: When You Come to Sleep with Me, Come Like My Father and Hebrew / Yona Wallach 342

Esther and Yochanan / Nomi Eve 346

The Twenty-seventh Man / Nathan Englander 352

Against Logic / Rebecca Goldstein 367

The Healing Power of Jewish Stories / Tsvi Blanchard 371

The Complex Fate of the Jewish American Writer / Morris Dickstein 375

Bellow at 85, Roth at 67 / Norman Podhoretz 392

Jewish Writing and the Spiritual Journey: A Speculative Journey / Rodger Kamenetz 409.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 418-421).

ISBN:

0787959723

0787959367

OCLC:

47045265