Best Jewish Writing 2002 - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0787962104 ISBN 13: 9780787962104

Publisher: Jossey-Bass, 2002

Synopsis

In this much-anticipated annual volume, respected intellectual and spiritual leader Michael Lerner has collected the greatest Jewish writing of the past year. A review in the Los Angeles Times said of Lerner's first volume, "clearly an auspicious beginning." This new collection lives up to the promise of the first and includes poetry, fiction, and essays that highlight universal themes of healing, transformation, spirituality, politics, and cultural identity. No other book explores the challenges of contemporary Jewish life in a global, postmodern culture through all types of aritstic writing, This 2002 volume reflects the diversity of thought, opinion, and sensibility among Jews worldwide, including Susannah Heschel, Arthur Waskow, Wendy Wasserstein, Jonathan Rosen, Letty Pogrebin, Chaim Potok, Philip Levine, and Adrienne Rich, A special section includes a variety of articulate Jewish responses to the September 11 terrorist attacks.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Best Jewish Writing 2002

David Abram
Allen Appel
Uri Avnery
Michael Bader
Nilton Bonder
Aryeh Cohen
David A. Cooper
Leonard Felder
Sylvia Barack Fishman
Shelly R. Fredman
Roger Gottlieb
Michael Gross
Leo Haber
Bonna Devora Haberman
Susan Hahn
Yossi Klein Halevi
Jill Hammer
Susannah Heschel
Loola Khazoom
Michael Kimmel
Binnie Kirshenbaum
Michael Lerner
Philip Levine
Jonathan Mark
Gail Mazur
Stanley Moss
Jacqueline Osherow
Alicia Ostriker
Amos Oz
Robert Pinsky
Judith Plaskow
Letty Cottin Pogrebin
Chaim Potok
Tanya Reinhart
Adrienne Rich
Jonathan Rosen
Danya Ruttenberg
Grace Schulman
Richard H. Schwarz
Jerome M. Segal
Rami Shapiro
David Suissa
Jonathan Tel
Tova
Galina Vromen
Paul Wapner
Rabbi Arthur Waskow
Wendy Wasserstein
Josh Weiner
C. K. Williams
Abraham Yehoshua
Eric Yoffie
David Zaslow

From Publishers Weekly:

Although the title of this book indicates the nature of its contents, it is potentially misleading. Instead of the conventional meaning of "best" as the greatest degree of excellence, editor Lerner offers his own idiosyncratic definition: "I use `best' to mean `most significant,' that is, writing that shapes or has the capacity to reveal the underlying issues facing Jews today." Lerner, a leader of the Jewish Renewal movement, selected 32 essays, 12 poems and eight book excerpts for inclusion in this volume. Unfortunately, his definition of "most significant" turns out to be a restricted one. The choices seem biased in favor of writers who share Lerner's own view of Judaism, social change and the world. Worse yet, 11 of the essays first appeared in Tikkun magazine, which is edited by Lerner, who also founded it. Such a narrow sampling is not representative of the fullness of the excellent recent literature on Judaism, and the particular slant toward Lerner's own flagship publication is troubling. Although many of the writers are obscure, some well-known authors are represented: Arthur Waskow, Wendy Wasserstein, Adrienne Rich, Chaim Potok and Amos Oz, for example. The excerpts from Wendy Wasserstein's autobiographical essays, Shiksa Goddess, and Chaim Potok's Old Men at Midnight are particularly outstanding. As a whole, however, this anthology is crippled by its insularity.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0787962104
• ISBN 13: 9780787962104
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 416
• Editor: Lerner Michael