Best Contemporary Jewish Writing
1st Edition
Published on 5. October 2001
Book
Paperback/Softback
464 pages
978-0-7879-5936-4 (ISBN)
Description
Jewish culture, identity, and spirituality through the eyes of the brightest and best authors
Best Contemporary Jewish Writing is a treasure trove of short stories, poetry, and essays from such renowned contributors as Naomi Wolf, U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman, William Safire, and Marge Piercy. Dive into this rich arrayof writing and you ll see that the Jewish experience reflects universal themes.
The writers in this collection have something to say to Jews, not only to those struggling with their Jewish identity, and also to the wider world. Whether your main interest is in poetry or politics, spirituality or cultural identity, social healing or individual transformation, you ll find Best Contemporary Jewish Writing to be a collection that inspires, excites, and provokes. It also reflects the diversity of thought, opinion, and sensibility of today s best known Jewish thinkers and writers.
This volume is the first in the much anticipated annual series "Best Jewish Writing."
Best Contemporary Jewish Writing is a treasure trove of short stories, poetry, and essays from such renowned contributors as Naomi Wolf, U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman, William Safire, and Marge Piercy. Dive into this rich arrayof writing and you ll see that the Jewish experience reflects universal themes.
The writers in this collection have something to say to Jews, not only to those struggling with their Jewish identity, and also to the wider world. Whether your main interest is in poetry or politics, spirituality or cultural identity, social healing or individual transformation, you ll find Best Contemporary Jewish Writing to be a collection that inspires, excites, and provokes. It also reflects the diversity of thought, opinion, and sensibility of today s best known Jewish thinkers and writers.
This volume is the first in the much anticipated annual series "Best Jewish Writing."
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Publishing group
John Wiley & Sons Inc
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 27 mm
Weight
754 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7879-5936-4 (9780787959364)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Michael Lerner
Best Contemporary Jewish Writing
Book
09/2001
1st Edition
Jossey-Bass
€35.00
Shipment within 10-20 days
Person
Michael Lerner is the editor of TIKKUN magazine and rabbi of the neo-Hasidic Beyt Tikkun Jewish Renewal synagogue in San Francisco. His most recent book, Spirit Matters: Global Healing and the Wisdom of the Soul, was selected as "one of the most significant books of 2000" by the Los Angeles Times Book Review and won a PEN award. His previous writings include Jews and Blacks: Let the Healing Begin, a dialogue with Cornel West, and Jewish Renewal: A Path to Healing and Transformation (described by Conservative Judaism journal as "stunning, miraculous and faith-renewing"). Rabbi Lerner, designated by Utne Reader as one of America's 100 Most Important Visionaries, has been featured in the New York Times, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, U.S. News and World Report, and Newsweek. He holds Ph.D.s in philosophy and clinical psychology.
Content
Introduction: Jewish Writing and Healing the World xiii The Many Identities of a Jew To Jewishness 3
The Melting Pot and Beyond: Jews and the Politics of American Identity 8
Poems: Reversion and What Kind of Times Are These 15
Justify My Love 17
Ten Ways to Recognize a Sephardic 'Jew-ess' 29
Redemption on East Tremont: The kindness of Christians and a seder's matzah helps the daughter of Mendel Beilis fix the old fears 36
News About Jews 40 Gay and Orthodox 42
Slipping the Punch 55
The Night Game 70
From The Roots of a Public Life 73
From And What Is My Lifespan? 79
Stories: Grandmother Eve, Consecrating the Ordinary, Blessing, and The Reward 80
The Legacy: A Parable About History and Bobe-mayses, Barszcz, and Borscht and the Future of the Jewish Past 86
Reclaiming the Spirit in Judaism Nishmat 95
Starting on My Spiritual Path 97
On Renewing God 103 Eternity Utters a Day 113
A Kabbalah for the Environmental Age 115
Is God in Trees? 127 The Emergence of Eco-Judaism 134
A Theology of Illness and Healing 145
Death and What's Next 150
Eros and the Ninth of Av 152
From The Book of Jewish Values 155
Poems: Yom Kippur Sonnet and Science Psalm 162
Rereading Sacred Texts of Our Tradition From And Peace and Justice Shall Kiss 169
From Imagining the Birth of a Nation 186
From The Red Tent 193
From The Bible and You, the Bible and You and Other Midrashim 199
Aaron's God--and Ours: A Yom Kippur Reflection 200
Our (Meaning Women's) Book-of-Esther Problem 205
Living in the Shadows of the Holocaust Cattle Car Complex 213
Force Fields 221 The Sanctuary 228
The Trivialization of Tragedy 230
Hereditary Victimhood: The Holocaust's Life as a Ghost 241
The Meaning of the Holocaust: Social Alienation and the Infliction of Human Suffering 252
Israel in Conflict The New Historiography: Israel Confronts Its Past 265
Land for What? 281
Occupation and Antisemitism 284
A Novelist's Optimism: Reclaiming the Jewish Tradition 297
From Booking Passage 300
Poems: From In My Life, On My Life; Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Why Jerusalem?; and The Jewish Time Bomb 323
Hovering at a Low Altitude 326
The Pleasure of Jewish Culture Making Judaism Cool 331
Old Man 339
Poems: When You Come to Sleep with Me, Come Like My Father and Hebrew 342
Esther and Yochanan 346
The Twenty-seventh Man 352
Against Logic 367
The Healing Power of Jewish Stories 371
The Complex Fate of the Jewish American Writer 375
Bellow at 85, Roth at 67 392
Jewish Writing and the Spiritual Journey: A Speculative Journey 409
The One Hundred Best Contemporary Jewish Books 417
The Editor 423
The Contributors 425
Credits 431
The Melting Pot and Beyond: Jews and the Politics of American Identity 8
Poems: Reversion and What Kind of Times Are These 15
Justify My Love 17
Ten Ways to Recognize a Sephardic 'Jew-ess' 29
Redemption on East Tremont: The kindness of Christians and a seder's matzah helps the daughter of Mendel Beilis fix the old fears 36
News About Jews 40 Gay and Orthodox 42
Slipping the Punch 55
The Night Game 70
From The Roots of a Public Life 73
From And What Is My Lifespan? 79
Stories: Grandmother Eve, Consecrating the Ordinary, Blessing, and The Reward 80
The Legacy: A Parable About History and Bobe-mayses, Barszcz, and Borscht and the Future of the Jewish Past 86
Reclaiming the Spirit in Judaism Nishmat 95
Starting on My Spiritual Path 97
On Renewing God 103 Eternity Utters a Day 113
A Kabbalah for the Environmental Age 115
Is God in Trees? 127 The Emergence of Eco-Judaism 134
A Theology of Illness and Healing 145
Death and What's Next 150
Eros and the Ninth of Av 152
From The Book of Jewish Values 155
Poems: Yom Kippur Sonnet and Science Psalm 162
Rereading Sacred Texts of Our Tradition From And Peace and Justice Shall Kiss 169
From Imagining the Birth of a Nation 186
From The Red Tent 193
From The Bible and You, the Bible and You and Other Midrashim 199
Aaron's God--and Ours: A Yom Kippur Reflection 200
Our (Meaning Women's) Book-of-Esther Problem 205
Living in the Shadows of the Holocaust Cattle Car Complex 213
Force Fields 221 The Sanctuary 228
The Trivialization of Tragedy 230
Hereditary Victimhood: The Holocaust's Life as a Ghost 241
The Meaning of the Holocaust: Social Alienation and the Infliction of Human Suffering 252
Israel in Conflict The New Historiography: Israel Confronts Its Past 265
Land for What? 281
Occupation and Antisemitism 284
A Novelist's Optimism: Reclaiming the Jewish Tradition 297
From Booking Passage 300
Poems: From In My Life, On My Life; Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Why Jerusalem?; and The Jewish Time Bomb 323
Hovering at a Low Altitude 326
The Pleasure of Jewish Culture Making Judaism Cool 331
Old Man 339
Poems: When You Come to Sleep with Me, Come Like My Father and Hebrew 342
Esther and Yochanan 346
The Twenty-seventh Man 352
Against Logic 367
The Healing Power of Jewish Stories 371
The Complex Fate of the Jewish American Writer 375
Bellow at 85, Roth at 67 392
Jewish Writing and the Spiritual Journey: A Speculative Journey 409
The One Hundred Best Contemporary Jewish Books 417
The Editor 423
The Contributors 425
Credits 431