Sure to generate great controversy as it
provides new insights, "Who Is a Jew?" courageously
takes on this timely and controversial question. It provides
the full range of perspectives necessary to let us draw our own
conclusions.
A seasoned journalist, Meryl Hyman weaves
her own life experiences into this complex and controversial
subject, exploring profound and highly personal questions of
identity in conversations with Jew and non-Jew. The daughter of
a Jewish father and a Christian mother, she set out to find out
why so many Jews say she is not a Jew, even though she has
practiced Judaism and identified herself as a Jew since birth.
She found a people struggling with its own history, customs,
and laws; a people who fear that their unity may be sacrificed.
Featured in "Who Is a Jew?" are
leaders from all parts of the Jewish world, eminent scholars,
and others from all spectrums of belief—from Israel, England,
and the United States—who speak out on the subject and delve
into such questions as:
- What are the many-faceted "answers" to this seemingly simple question?
- Why are these answers crucial for all Jews?
- Why does Jewish identity have a bearing on all cultural, religious, and ethnic groups?
- Why and how does Israel's answer to the question matter to Jews everywhere in the world?
"Penetrating, thoughtful and
thought-producing."
—Booklist Starred Review
"Should be required reading for
anyone with an opinion on the Jewish continuity or 'Who is a
Jew' issue."
—J. J.
Goldberg, Gannett Newspapers
Some people interviewed in “Who
Is a Jew?” argue. . . .
“The law is stronger than us. Israel
will not cease to be. We can be diluted, we can be watered
down, we can lose a lot of blood, we can lose six million
physically and six million spiritually in almost the same
generation. We will not vanish. A tenth will remain, and from
that tenth everything will be rebuilt.”
—Rabbi
Nachman Bulman, Mashgiach
Ruchni (Spiritual Leader) and Dean of Students, Ohr Somayach
Yeshiva, Jerusalem (Orthodox)
“I believe that Israel needs to be a
Jewish state. It cannot be an Orthodox state and to make it an
Orthodox state will shrink it, and render it insignificant to
the Jewish people.”
—Rabbi
Dr. Ismar Schorsch, Chancellor, The
Jewish Theological Seminary of America, the academic and
spiritual center of Conservative Judaism worldwide, New York
City
“You can’t bridge the
unbridgeable. The issue was, and remains, what will the State
of Israel do?”
—Rabbi
Eric H. Yoffie, President,
Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the congregational arm
of the Reform Movement in North America, New York City
“Israel is the only country in the
free democratic world which . . . denies Jews religious
freedom.”
—Rabbi
Uri Regev, Director and Counsel,
The Israel Religious Action Center, and member of the Neeman
Commission, Jerusalem (Reform)
“We are in the process of redefining
what constitutes the Jewish identity.”
—Rabbi
Prof. Jonathan Magonet, Principal,
Leo Baeck College, the Progressive (Reform and Liberal)
rabbinic seminary in Europe, London
“These things don’t have an
answer, they’re part of a conversation.”
—Chief
Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Sacks, The
United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, London
(Orthodox)
Meryl Hyman, a veteran reporter and editor, has worked for most of her career at Gannett Newspapers.
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