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A leading thinker's witty, wide-ranging journey to understanding what it means to be a Jew today.
What does it mean to be a Jew? As intermarriage, political upheaval, and new forms of spirituality spread, venerable answers to this question have become unsettled. In “Bad Jew”, the legal scholar and columnist Noah Feldman draws on his Jewish studies scholarship and his religious education to offer a new account of Judaism in its contemporary varieties. How have Jews understood their relationship to God, to Israel, and to each other—and lived their lives accordingly? Writing sympathetically but incisively about diverse outlooks, Feldman clarifies what's at stake in the choice of how to be a Jew, and discusses the "theology of struggle" that lies at the heart of Jewish belief (and unbelief). He shows how the founding of Israel has transformed Jewish life over the last century—and explores the tricky consequences of that transformation for all Jews, including for those who insist that eternal Judaism should not be so intertwined with an actually existing state. And he examines the analogies between being Jewish and belonging to a large, messy family—a family that continues to struggle with God, or the idea of God, together.
Ranging from ancient rabbis and Maimonides to contemporary revisers of the faith, from messianic expectations to the old teaching that there is no such thing as a "bad Jew," Feldman's book offers a novel view of the rewards and dilemmas of contemporary Jewish life.
What does it mean to be a Jew? As intermarriage, political upheaval, and new forms of spirituality spread, venerable answers to this question have become unsettled. In “Bad Jew”, the legal scholar and columnist Noah Feldman draws on his Jewish studies scholarship and his religious education to offer a new account of Judaism in its contemporary varieties. How have Jews understood their relationship to God, to Israel, and to each other—and lived their lives accordingly? Writing sympathetically but incisively about diverse outlooks, Feldman clarifies what's at stake in the choice of how to be a Jew, and discusses the "theology of struggle" that lies at the heart of Jewish belief (and unbelief). He shows how the founding of Israel has transformed Jewish life over the last century—and explores the tricky consequences of that transformation for all Jews, including for those who insist that eternal Judaism should not be so intertwined with an actually existing state. And he examines the analogies between being Jewish and belonging to a large, messy family—a family that continues to struggle with God, or the idea of God, together.
Ranging from ancient rabbis and Maimonides to contemporary revisers of the faith, from messianic expectations to the old teaching that there is no such thing as a "bad Jew," Feldman's book offers a novel view of the rewards and dilemmas of contemporary Jewish life.
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Reviews
"Judicious, sober . . . Invite[s] a more capacious understanding of Jewish lives and Jewish futures in the diaspora . . . Important . . . Cannot be written off."
Gideon Lewis-Kraus, The New Yorker
"Feldman's analysis is notably free of judgment or bias; while he glancingly refers to his own Jewish path and predilections, he is refreshingly open in describing the theology (or lack thereof), the politics and the challenges of his fellow Jews."
Jane Eisner, The Washington Post
"[To Be a Jew Today] reconciles competing understandings by putting forth his vision of Jewishness: that to be a Jew is to struggle lovingly, with ourselves, with other Jews, and with Israel, because Judaism itself is a loving struggle . . . [Feldman] has written an appealing guide, or at least mapped out a starting point, for being a Jew today."
Emily Tamkin, The Forward