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Bad Jews: A History of American Jewish Politics and Identities
Maybe someday
27
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
37/100Critics
17/100Scholars
Author:
Emily Tamkin
Publisher:
Harper
Date:
October 18, 2022
Emily Tamkin examines the last 100 years of American Jewish politics, culture, identities, and arguments.
What The Reviewers Say
Her honesty is appreciated, and her sense of being an outsider seeking acceptance, knowledge and understanding propels this book. The more pertinent question is not whether Tamkin is qualified to undertake this project but whether she is discerning and insightful enough to add to the considerable conversation on Jewish religious, cultural and political identity that already exists.
Tamkin writes in a very accessible, conversational tone, and enlivens her historical narrative with anecdotes and personal comments. In addition to key political episodes — Rabbi Stephen S. Wise’s equivocal role as an advocate for Jews during the Holocaust; the trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg — she animates her account with frequent references to popular-culture figures...It’s an inviting introduction to American Jewish history.
Focusing on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the book draws from scores of interviews to make its various points. Some, like the discussion with Susannah Heschel, the daughter of civil rights icon Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, are enlightening. Others, like those with Heschel’s other family members, are less so. Though Tamkin raises a wealth of questions about everything from religious observances to neoconservatism versus liberalism, there are not many answers, and that, ultimately, is the point when it comes to the identity of a group as diverse in beliefs and practices as American Jewry. This book is very wide-ranging, not always very deep, but always thought-provoking, and it offers many ideas for readers to explore further..
... vibrant.
