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Title: Real Jews: Secular Versus Ultra-Orthodox: The Struggle for Jewish Identity in Israel by Noah J. Efron, Noah Efron ISBN: 0-465-01854-8 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: 27 May, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.82 (11 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Fascinating, unnerving, heartbreaking and moving
Comment: This is an astonishing book. Reading it is something like watching a train wreck in slow motion: frightful but at the same time so compelling that you cannot turn away. Efron manages to describe the fears and antagonisms between secular and religous Jews with great sympathy for both sides. He writes with such elegance that the book is a joy to read, even if it is ultimately upsetting. If you read one book about Israel, or about Jews for that matter, this should be it.
Rating: 4
Summary: A Good Explanation of Anti-Semitism In Israel
Comment: If you are a religious Jew, reading this book could save your life. This book covers one of the most shocking and disturbing trends in Israel. It documents an intensely violent anti-semitism that would rip the country apart. Were it not for external pressures, the secular would gun down religious Jews in the streets of Israel.
Mr. Efron writes in a compelling style. I got through his book in an afternoon, then went back and read it again, partly because I couldn't believe what I had read the first time.
There are some small flaws, like when the author describes the reason why religious women cover their hair. These small mistakes worry me, but the main difficulty I have with this book is the author's tendancy to describe the "Ultra-Orthodox" as a monolithic group.
Also, there is almost no attempt to demonstrate the diversity of culture and opinion among religious Jews. The author's vision of "Haredim" as a vast amorphous group demonstrates the problem of polarization better than the rest of the book.
Read this book. It's a good start to examining the roots of the coming civil war in Israel between the secular and religious.
Rating: 5
Summary: A MASTERPIECE OF HONESTY, CLARITY AND VISION
Comment: What a thrilling cliffhanger! No, no. REAL JEWS is not a novel; it's a real picture of human nature that serves as the engine driving people to act in their own "best" interests. Efron has delved into the mind of the Chiloni, into his psyche and unearthed not only how he sees the Charedi, but also shines the light on why he sees him that way. When I finished reading I was left with the feeling that, the Chiloni, in Kafkaesque fashion, is trapped in his own historical web and is almost compelled to see the Charedi as a parasitic, greedy, self-righteous primitive buffoon. He sees him as the "Tartuffe, Shylock, Falstaff, and Ruth" of society. He does so, in Dr. Efron's view, because the Charedi now has become the "other" antagonist (replacing the traditional anti-Semite) against whom the modern Zionist Jew reacts in his attempt to find his place in the world.
The artistry of the writer develops the picture to the ultimate that it carries the reader with that argument as if it were the last word. But alas! Like a magician, he flips over the coin and uncovers the weaknesses imbedded therein. He demonstrates that what the Secular Jew accuses the Ultra-Orthodox Jew of doing is the blemish that stains the accuser himself, the Chiloni. Noah Efron demonstrates that there exists a different set of values and rationale that motivates the Charedi Jew, and that the fear the secular Jew experiences toward the ultra-Orthodox is based more on irrationality and anticipation, and his failure to accept that the ultra-Orthodox act in the same self-interest as much as the secular Jew does.
In this turn again he delves into the mind of the Charedi Jew and unearths not only how he acts and how he sees the secular Jew, but also why he sees him that way.
It's a tearful commentary to read the last paragraph of the author's book.........."My grandparents did not live to see the self-assurance of secular Israel disintegrate. They did not live to be hated by people whom they loved so deeply, and for this I am relieved. Even in these very troubled times, I sometimes think that this relief saddens me most of all."
The unique quality I find in this work, REAL JEWS, is not merely the purposeful concealment of the author's viewpoint, but the clarity of the presentation of all sides of the argument. It is left to the reader to weigh them and to evaluate their merits. Noah Efron enhances his integrity in this effort as an "honest broker".
This achievement is in line with Jewish juridical procedure. It is axiomatic in Halacha, that if one cannot see all sides of an argument he does not see a complete picture of the event. It is for this reason the Talmud states in Sanhedrin 17a that in a capital case if all 23 judges vote guilty, the accused is not executed. This is based on a premise that if no one can present an opposing argument in defense of the accused, then there is a blinding, incomplete vision of the event, and society may not take a life without a clear decision.
Efron placed all sides on the table for all to see.
It's a great work!
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Title: The Rebbe's Army : Inside the World of Chabad-Lubavitch by Sue Fishkoff ISBN: 0805241892 Publisher: Schocken Books Pub. Date: 15 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: The Case for Israel by Alan Dershowitz ISBN: 047146502X Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 01 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Never Again? : The Threat of the New Anti-Semitism by Abraham Foxman ISBN: 0060542462 Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: 21 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Living a Year of Kaddish : A Memoir by Ari Goldman ISBN: 0805241841 Publisher: Schocken Books Pub. Date: 26 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: The New Anti-Semitism : The Current Crisis and What We Must Do About It by Phyllis Chesler ISBN: 078796851X Publisher: Jossey-Bass Pub. Date: 11 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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