Customer Reviews

Escape from Jesus: One Man's Search for a Meaningful Judaism

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This book has a rather acerbic title, but the author did not create it...his publisher did. Although it doesn't make much of a case for leaving Christianity for Judaism, it does give an inside look at the life of the children of early Jewish Eastern European immigrants in New York City. Because that group is shrinking, it provides an important snapshot in Jewish American life.
Secondly, it illustrates the zeal of the new baal teshuvah (returnee to Jewish observance), one that is often short-lived once the bt sees the negative underbelly of Orthodox life. BT's and the formerly religious will understand and relate to the thinking of Shlomoh at this time in his life, as his passion and enthusiasm are typical.
It does not fulfill its intended purpose, but it does take the reader on an interesting sociological journey through the eyes of the protagonist.
Those who know Shlomoh today would not recognize the author of this book. It is but one of many steps in the evolution of a fully-developed and sophisticated human being.

Sherman's "Escape from Jesus" views Christianity through the lenses of fundamentalism, rather than to examine it from a more scholastic viewpoint. It struck me as being very personal. Ex-patriots from the "Jews for Jesus" years may find it interesting.