Jew vs. Jew - by Samuel G Freedman (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

At a time when American Jews should feel more secure and cohesive than ever, civil war is tearing apart their community. Congregations, neighborhoods, even families are taking sides in battles about Jewish identity and Jewish authenticity. The conflict pits fundamentalist against secularist, denomination against denomination, even liberal against conservative within each branch of Jewry.

Jew vs. Jew tells the story of how American Jewry has increasingly -- and perhaps terminally -- broken apart in the last forty years.

Jew vs. Jew stretches in time from 1960 to 2000. It travels the country from Florida to New England, from Los Angeles to the Catskills in New York, from Cleveland to Denver, and it also crosses the ocean to Israel to show how tensions within the Jewish state inflame those among American Jews. The flash-points range from conversion standards to the role of women, from the peace process in Israel to the sexual climate on an Ivy League campus. But behind them all, as Samuel Freedman writes, lie common causes. First, far from unifying American Jews, Israel now divides them on both political and religious grounds. Second, neither America nor the larger world presents Jews with a single enemy against whom to coalesce. Third, and most important, nothing in the Jewish history of persecution, oppression, and exile prepared the Chosen People for the challenge posed by America, the challenge of being absorbed into a tolerant and diverse nation, being accepted so thoroughly that the intermarriage rate tops 50 percent.

Jew vs. Jew introduces readers to memorable places and characters. Freedman describes one of the final summers at a Labor Zionist camp in the Catskills whose brand of secular Jewishness is becoming obsolete because Zionism succeeded in creating Israel. He tells the story of Orthodox and Reform Jews in a Cleveland suburb who are fighting about the construction of several synagogues -- and, on a deeper level, about whether unity or pluralism ought to be the goal of Jewish life. He portrays a Florida Jew so violently opposed to the Oslo peace accords that he planted a bomb in a synagogue where Shimon Peres was speaking. He tells about a Los Angeles congregation that spent three years debating whether or not to honor the Biblical matriarchs in its liturgy.We come to know the Long Island neighbors who cannot tolerate sharing even a property line because their versions of Jewish identity are so irreconcilably different.

Jew vs. Jew is a work of vigorous reporting, lucid writing, and intellectual curiosity. And even as it chronicles an embittered and polarized community, it refuses to take sides or pass judgment. Instead, with compassion and acuity, Jew vs. Jew bears witness.

Review Quotes

David Brooks "The Washington Post Book World" It is hard to imagine a more exciting introduction to the state of the contemporary Jewish soul than "Jew vs. Jew."

Jonathan Rosen "The New York Times" A thought provoking and timely tour of Jewish-American religious ferment.

Melissa Fay Greene "Chicago Tribune" Fascinating, groundbreaking. Freedman, a natural storyteller...is even-handed, nonjudgmental, caring most of all about getting it right.

Stephen J. Whitfield "The New York Times Book Review" Freedman demonstrates novelistic gifts...he can make a zoning dispute in Beachwood, Ohio, as suspenseful as a thriller.

Jack Miles

author of "God: A Biography," winner of the Pulitzer Prize

In "Jew vs. Jew," Sam Freedman gives an informed and sympathetic account with an eye for the telling detail. "E pluribus unum," the noblest of American ideals, lands differently on every group included in the "pluribus." This account of how it has landed on the Jews will be of interest to every reader concerned about the future of the ideal itself.

Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg

author of "Jews in America"

Samuel Freedman's "Jew vs. Jew" is an able and fascinating account of the religious ferment, and the conflicts, among American Jews today. He has listened especially to the young adults in their living rooms and in their synagogues, so that he can tell us about their quarrels and their hopes. This is the book that I have long wanted to read.

Rebecca Goldstein

author of "Mazel," winner of the National Jewish Book Award

Samuel Freedman brings the abundances of his intelligence, integrity, and empathy to bear on the contradictory soul of the American Jew. The result is a book that is compellingly absorbing, salutarily disturbing, an inspiring model of informed objectivity and honesty.

Robert F. Drinan, S.J.

Professor of Law, Georgetown University

After centuries of persecutions and pogroms, about one half of the Jewish people in the world have finally found acceptance and prosperity in America. But their demons have not disappeared. This book dramatizes the agonies and the aspirations of those who were born into the faith of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This volume is filled with the moving personal stories of those who have to choose between faith and secularism. "Jew vs. Jew" is filled with insights and challenges for both believers and nonbelievers. It is meticulously researched, persuasively written, and amazingly readable.

Senator Joseph I. Lieberman

From Sam Freedman's eloquent and fair new book, there emerges a provocative picture of the Jewish community in America that has both flourished in the unprecedented freedom and acceptance this country has provided and been divided and diminished by that freedom. I read the book as a challenge to the religiously observant to remember two fundamental lessons Judaism teaches: love of, not just tolerance for, their fellow human beings and involvement in, not withdrawal from, the broader American community which has given them such an extraordinary opportunity to thrive.

About the Author

Samuel G. Freedman is a columnist for The New York Times and a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is the author of six acclaimed books, four of which have been New York Times Notable Books of the Year. Freedman also has written frequently for USA TODAY, New York magazine, Rolling Stone, The Jerusalem Post, Tablet, The Forward, and Salon.com. He lives in Manhattan with his fiance and his children