Customer Reviews

Far from Zion: In Search of a Global Jewish Community

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Far from Zion" is more of a travelogue with insight than a straight-out story telling or novel. The author is a non-practicing Jew from Baltimore (who happens to be gay) who discovered that his grandmother was born in an Yiddish speaking community in ...Virginia?
That community has dissolved but Mr. London started his own personal search of what it means to be a Jew in the Diaspora. His travels take him to visit Jewish communities in Burma, Arkansas, New Orleans, Bosnia, Uganda, Iran, Cuba and finally Israel.

The Jewish communities he encounters are fascinating and probably deserve a book by their own right. From the community in Bosnia who is there to help all, to the one in Cuba where many join just for the material benefits. There are fascinating descriptions of communities which come together through struggle and hardship, only to build a better place for themselves and their neighbors.

Along the way Mr. London's inner struggle of his religious identity, traditions and his connection to Zion is a constant subtext in these stories. The author makes some personal and observational insights - some illuminating and some superficial as well as displaying a range of emotions towards Zionism - from understanding to hostility.

I always said that one's moral compass is in direct relationship with their distance from the problem. At one point Mr. London proves me right.

I found this book to very interesting, not so much from a historical angle but from the personal and intimate journey of discovery that the author makes along the way.

I just happened to pick this up at the library, intrigued by the title and jacket information, and expected to browse lightly and return. Imagine my surprise when I found it immensely readable and dropped everything else to finish it. It is the sincere spiritual journey made by an assimilated and secularly raised member of Generation X as he visits far flung Jewish communities across the globe. Overall, this is a very good read. I'm a bit older, but can certainly relate to the sense of trying to find true meaning in the over the top Bar Mitzvah celebrations and the sense of having to step away from the Jewish experience as he knew it, in this case, the abundance of such experiences in the Northeast of the US, to truly find and appreciate his Jewish identity. London traverses diverse and unexpected Jewish communities throughout the world, and gives a vivid account of the personalities and peculiarities of their political, geographic and social makeup. It is fascinating to experience Jewish life in Uganda, Arkansas and Iran for example. I throughly enjoyed the author's sincere interest and observations of these disparate communities and how different his experience has been in lively suburban American Jewish communities. I did, however, have difficulty with his presumption that the reader shares his particular political point of view regarding Israel. I too, share questions and concerns, but I felt that his agenda in this regard was naive and heavy handed and as a result, distracting. Overall, however, this is a very good read for anyone interested in exploring Jewish identity and practice with a view of Judaism in some very unexpected places.

I grabbed this book off a public library new title shelf and couldn't put it down. I found the descriptions of unusual Jewish communities around the world to be journalistically skilled and astute, and I appreciated London's weaving in of his personal quest for Jewish identity. As one who started off from a very different Jewish background but ended up in a similar place, I thought London's commentary into the nature of community, tzedakah, nationalism, ritual, pilgrimage, and diaspora to be insightful and thought-provoking. I plan to present this book at my congregation's next book club meeting, and I would recommend it to anyone who is intrigued by offbeat Jewish communities in odd parts of the world and to any questioning and reflective Jew trying to find a place within the Jewish world.

This book describes the author's travels to numerous small Jewish communities around the world (as well as a visit to Israel at the end). At the start of his journey, the author, a secular Jew, is not particularly interested in Judaism. By the end, he is inspired to be at least a little more religious.

Some of the chapters were just interesting enough for me to keep reading, but not much more so. But I really liked the chapters describing the Jewish communities of Bosnia and New Orleans. These two small, mostly not-too-ritually observant communities "demonstrated the power of the ancient traditions to become a living, saving ideal" (in the author's accurate words) by doing good works after disasters- in the first case the siege of Sarajevo, in the second Hurricane Katrina. For example, the Bosnian Jews were able to use their worldwide contacts to become a major source of health care for Sarajevo.

Although the author is not particularly religious, I think this book would actually be most inspirational for more religious Jews, to remind them that their not-so-religious brethren are sometimes, in the words of the Talmud, as "full of mitzvot like a pomegranate [is full of seeds]."

I too stumbled on this one on the public library shelf. Though a bit cliche - a 20-something trying to find himself - the particular issues involved are not the more familiar. I have to agree with M4 who had "difficulty with his presumption that the reader shares his particular political point of view regarding Israel. I too, share questions and concerns, but I felt that his agenda in this regard was naive and heavy handed and as a result, distracting." But I'd take it one step further.

The writer tells us from the beginning that he is secular, that he doesn't know Hebrew, the prayers, the particulars of Jewish practice, etc. But he's liberal, and gay, and is troubled by what Israel does, and that background - those prejudices - come through in almost every chapter. His experience, therefore, differs from that of someone who was more versant in Jewish tradition and history - or middle east politics for that matter.

It's hardly surprising, therefore, that the writer who starts out indifferent or hostile to Israel, ends up almost where he started. He goes on about the checkpoints and the "wall", apparently oblivious to their late arrival. (Checkpoints didn't start appearing until 1994, after Arafat and his militants ignited the terror war, and the "wall" - which is actually over 90% fence - didn't start going up until 2003.) And while he acknowledges that Jews were massacred in Hebron in 1929 and expelled in 1948, he apparently thinks it was provocative of Jews to return in 1967.

He notes the ethnic cooperation that takes place in Bosnia and asks why this doesn't happen in Israel, and of course blames Jewish particularism. But I could tell him of the efforts of Kibbutz Metzer to work with and support their Arab neighbors, or the funds raised by the Jews of Efrat to support schools and medical clinics in the neighboring Arab village. Palestinian terrorists attacked and killed their people anyway. But this is not something that his Peace Now and ISM guides will help him understand.

I also find it curious that, after lauding the good works of the Jews of New Orleans and Bosnia - which he suggests is a product of the "universalist" impulse that comes from living as a minority, he ignores the myriad good works performed overseas by the supposedly nationalist or particularist Jews of Israel. Certainly that brings his thesis in question.

So while his personal journey was interesting, that search should also be deemed anecdotal, and one should beware of drawing the wrong lesson. He notes how the Jews of Uganda, Bosnia, Iran and Cuba aren't particularly Zionist (reinforcing his own sentiments). He would have had a very different experience with the larger, and very Zionist, community in, say, South Africa.