To be a Jew today : a new guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish people / Noah Feldman.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A New York Times Bestseller

A leading public intellectual's timely reckoning with how Jews can and should make sense of their tradition and each other.

What does it mean to be a Jew? At a time of worldwide crisis, venerable answers to this question have become unsettled. In To Be a Jew Today , the legal scholar and columnist Noah Feldman draws on a lifelong engagement with his religion to offer a wide-ranging interpretation of Judaism in its current varieties. How do Jews today understand their relationship to God, to Israel, and to each other--and live 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 shared "theology of struggle" that Jews engage in as they wrestle with who God is, what God wants, or whether God exists. He shows how the founding of Israel has transformed Judaism itself over the last century--and explores the ongoing consequences of that transformation for all Jews, who find the meaning of their Jewishness and their views about Israel intertwined, no matter what those views are. And he examines the analogies between being Jewish and belonging to a large, messy family--a family that often makes its members crazy, but a family all the same. Written with learning, empathy and clarity, To Be a Jew Today is a critical resource for readers of all faiths.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Harvard law professor Feldman (The Broken Constitution) delivers a sweeping overview of Jewish ideas "as they exist today, and as they are being transformed for the future." Eschewing the traditional classifications of Judaism (Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, etc.) in favor of categories that better reflect "how God and spiritual morality are conceived internally," Feldman breaks down what he defines as Traditionalists, Progressives, Evolutionists, and Godless Jews. He examines the benefits and drawbacks of each group (Traditionalists, for example, live in highly supportive communities that are rife with sexism and gender hierarchies), and their views on issues related to God, Jewish life, and Israel. Rather than anointing one group as the future of Judaism, he advances an inclusive notion of all Jews as members of a family that finds in God and one another "love and embrace along with contention." The same holds true even for "godless Jews and cultural Jews," who in their nonbelief are "struggling with God too, whether they like it or not." Feldman's methodical analysis takes little for granted--not even the value of Jewish survival in and of itself ("We should hope to preserve Jewishness only if doing so reflects our deepest values," he writes). This will be a welcome resource for readers curious about Judaism's past, future, and purpose. (Mar.)

Kirkus Book Review

A multifaceted exploration of Jewish identity in the modern world and the place Israel has come to hold in it. In this personal, analytical, nonpolemical work, Harvard law professor Feldman, author of The Broken Constitution and Divided by God, walks readers through the different versions of Jewish belief today--including "ultra-Orthodox, Modern Orthodox, Religious Zionist, Conservative, Reconstructionist, Reform, and Humanist"--and how the state of Israel plays a central role in them all. With an intentional nod to Moses Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed, published in 1190, Feldman employs deep scholarship and a nondidactic tone to revisit the essential stories of Jewish struggle and faith. First, he looks at the beliefs of various Jewish sects, regarding them all inclusively, even the atheist. "Even conscious rejection of Jewishness may be meaningfully Jewish," he writes. In the second part of the book, the author posits, "the idea of Israel has fundamentally transformed all strands of Jewish belief." He delves deeply into the early secular Zionist ideal; how the early 1970s brought Israel to the forefront for Diaspora Jews because of renewed Holocaust awareness and the Yom Kippur War; the powerful appeal of messianism; and the debate over how Jews are the "chosen" people. He offers a warning that Israel is exhibiting the sin of excessive pride. Finally, the author examines Jewishness as an embrace of family, community, and God. "A nationalism that tries to take God out of the picture and transmute Jewishness into an expression of pure peoplehood," he writes, "will not provide access to experiences of transcendent meaning that make life worth living." Feldman calls this work a map or field guide, and he seems to have in mind young readers who are confused and angry about the raging Israel-Palestine war. An eloquent, accessible, well-written reflection on the significance of being a Jew. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Noah Feldman is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard University, where he is also founding director of the Julis-Rabinowitz Program on Jewish and Israeli Law. A leading public intellectual, he is a contributing writer for Bloomberg View and the author of numerous books, including The Broken Constitution, Divided by God , and The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State.