Customer Reviews

The Half-Jewish Book: A Celebration

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I didn't want to like this book, since I don't believe you can be half-Jewish in religious terms, since religions have differing beliefs, and one may not believe simultaneously in philosophies with opposing world and cosmic views. But this book is discussing Jewishness as a pop culture, and I have to admit, that it is very entertaining and well designed. I will even overlook that it puts a stereotypical half-bagel on the cover, just as Asian American books use red or a bowl of rice, and African American books use bold colored cover art. According to the authors. in the United States, there are more half-Jews than "full Jews" under the age of eleven. Daniel Klein and Freke Vuijst live in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, where they are raising their half-American-Jewish, half-Dutch-Christian daughter. Half Jewish is a new and rapidly growing identity (if we disregard the Biblical children of Joseph and Moses (Hebrews)). The Half-Jewish Book celebrates this unique identity that until now has been dissed and avoided. The authors fill this book with profiles, interviews, and quotes from half Jewish literary characters (Margaret Simon from Judy Blume's 1970 book, "Are You There God? It's Me Margaret"); cartoon characters (Tommy and Dyl Pickles from Rugrats); and real part Jewish personalities from American pop culture (Joan Collins, Gwyneth Paltrow, Amy Irving, Paulette Goddard, Jayne Seymour, Lisa Bonet, Barbara Hershey, Michael Douglas, Michael Landon, Oliver Stone, Sean Penn, Kevin Kline, Douglas Fairbanks, Goldie Hawn, Dyan Cannon, Harrison Ford, David Duchovny, Noah Wyle, Alicia Silverstone, Peter Sellers, Geraldo, Ben Stiller, Fiorello La Guardia, Barry Goldwater, Dianne Feinstein, Roseanne Arquette, Boris Becker, Jose Bautista, Proust, Brad Ausmus, James McBride, Courtney Love, Xavier Hollander, Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker, Carly Simon, and General Wesley Clark to name a handfull). The book is filled with entertaining quips, as well as serious topics on identity and life choices. The authors also include an essay on the history of half-Jews in the Holocaust and the Nazi laws about who was a Jew. Also included are holiday cards, some weird holiday menus, poetry, paintings and lots of celebrity photographs. If you're "half Jewish" and you ever felt excluded from both Sunday School and Hebrew School, sit a spell and read this book.

This book is a wonderful affirmation of those of us who are half-Jewish. As an adult child of intermarriage (Jewish dad and Catholic mom) who grew up in a secular home, I have struggled with spiritual and ethnic identity issues for awhile and have felt very alone in my mixed heritage. While the Christian religions are very welcoming toward us, Judaism is not accepting of intermarriage in general and is somehow threatened by our existence. Unfortunately many interfaith children, myself included, find that Judaism is their intrinsic "faith of residence." After all the muddling I have done and have yet to do to work out these issues I am so happy to see a book that validates us with humor and seriousness and pop culture references :) Another wonderful book on the subject is "Between Two Worlds: Choices for Grown Children of Jewish-Christian Parents" by Leslie Goodman-Malamuth and Robin Margolis.

"Half-Jewish" is an affirmation and celebration of children who are "Half-Jewish". This book celebrates, rather than denies, who they are, their heritage and unique contributions to the world. A mix of pop culture, humorous anecdotes and an intelligent argument for embracing the idea of a "Half-Jewish" cultural identity, this is a must read for "Half-Jewish" children AND their parents. As a non-Jewish parent of Half-Jewish children, this book has helped me think about ways in which to help my children embrace their "Jewish half." Besides, the book also celebrates Adam Sandler's "Channukah Song". :-)

I loved this book. My brothers and I fit the bill, and we now treasure our dual heritage. The authors explore many fields where half Jewish people shine. I enjoyed the literary references, and will try to read the fiction books which address this situation. If you are confused about the political and religious status of being half-anything, read this book. It will make you proud of yourself and your parents.

The Half-Jewish Book: A Celebration is not only a "celebration," but a brilliant illumination of the unique doubleness of the Jew of mixed parentage as the quintessential insider-outsider. We predict that it will be viewed from the monocular perspectives of religionists, both Jew and Gentile, with rabbinically Jesuitical (an apt oxymoron) dogmatism: "Either you are a Jew or you are not." This book won't dent the armour of certainty worn by such doctrinaires with no sense of paradox, who find only confusion in duality. But the authors'ideas won't yield to the logic of unimaginative Halakhic hair-splitters. No, this book is not for them. Rather, it's for the growing numbers of those who seek affirmation of an identity rooted in their claim to Jewish heritage. As for the tedious old question that some Diaspora and Israeli Jews alike worry at legalistically, "Who is a Jew?": The Half-Jewish Book holds a simple yet infinitely complex answer that describes the uniqueness of selfhood and identity: "It's not what you're called. It's what you answer to." Third-person labels don't count here. The authors insist that the Jew of mixed parentage has a full share of the history of the Jewish people; and like Jews everywhere, he or she experiences the Holocaust as a defining fact of a Jewish identity, a selfhood both unique and common, which can be neither conferred nor denied by others. The book's title is itself disturbing, challenging, and ironic. While the authors refer to half-Jewishness, they reject formulaic fractionalizing: half-Jew, quarter-Jew, and the pernicious Nazi stigma, "Mischling," all reflections of arithmetical minds capable of marginalizing - and murdering - the bodies and spirits of "the Other." Risking an accusation of superficiality, the authors have had the sagacity to skirt the quagmire of genetic, religious, and ethnic definitions of Jewishness. Rather, they stick to real lives - the torments, doubts, and defiant pride of those who haven't "belonged," and the magnificence of the many whose talents and achievements have made them leaders and luminaries in science, the performing arts, literature, and politics. But with so many illustrious examples, speculative hints at an ideal comixture of inherited characteristics are no more necessary or tenable than the "blood" theory the authors otherwise rightly dismiss. However, they may be forgiven an occasional excess coming from an exuberance that soars beyond scholarly rigor. The Half-Jewish Book, at its best when it doesn't try for a dubious "half-Jewish" humour, is in sum profoundly insightful and moving. It IS, after all, a celebration. Novalis wrote, "It is certain my conviction gains infinitely when another believes in it." That is the great gift The Half-Jewish Book has to offer. This critic has written as Celebrant, Jew, and Other - and not by half with gratitude.

Certainly a timely book considering the growing number of individuals - myself included - who in recent years have been made aware of the "dirty little family secret" kept hidden for ages: the heretofore unknown Jewish identity (both half and full) of parents and grandparents. A surprising discovery (to say the least) - particularly so in my case - since I had been raised to believe I was a full-blooded, Grosse Pointe WASP, with all the requisite Mayflower Society ancestry any aspiring Auchincloss, Cabot, Lodge, Saltonstall, or Four Hundred Family member could ever want.

Particularly enjoyable was the section on the dichotomy of the Gentile/Jewish mind: intuitive vs. critical, sensual v. cerebral, unconditional v. conditional, et al. It certainly illuminated for me many of my own amusing, often contradictory, thought processces and helped to answer the albeit banal, yes, but necessary age-old question: why do I think like that?

While the book perhaps focuses a tad too much on celebrity half-Jews (yeah, it's cool Gwyneth Paltrow is sorta M.O.T.), not all of us wind up in Hollywood or win Nobel Prizes for AIDS/Cancer research. And there are far more of us out there than perhaps anyone - myself included - ever realized before. Something for me to think about next Thanksgiving as I carve the family turkey - in deference to my Pilgrim forefathers' courageous sojourn from England nearly four hundred years ago - all the whilst nibbling on matzo balls and sipping some Maniscewitz wine.

This book will probably be of interest and help to a great many people who are concerned about having one Jewish, and one non- Jewish parent. It will show them that they are not alone that there are thousands and thousands of people who share this situation. It will give them examples of very distinguished people from all areas of life who had one Jewish- parent.
It will in some cases give an incentive to them to study about and strengthen their Jewish identity.
But the book has several limitations. There is a fundamental either ignorance or misunderstanding of basic concepts of Judaism. There is an emphasis on pop celebrity and the quick fix of simply pointing out that this or that person is ' half- Jewish' . There is too a total focus on what the individual can get from having a Jewish identity , and not how they are to relate to the Jewish community or world as a whole. It is a narcissitic- trip book.
A few basic points. Judaism through the ages has considered every person born of a Jewish mother to be Jewish. This means that half- Jews born of a Jewish father and non- Jewish mother have not traditionally been considered Jewish .Some years ago the Reform movement altered this ruling and said that those born of a Jewish father and non- Jewish mother are also Jewish.
I believe that every person who wishes to take their own Jewish identity seriously has to study and learn about the Jewish tradition. I believe too that a person who really wishes to be Jewish ( In a world where one can be Jewish ' by choice') has to consider their connection to the Jewish people and Jewish history as a whole, and consider the way that they may contribute to this.
My own personal belief is that being Jewish is a special gift and obligation given by God but confirmed or denied by the individual's own action in life.
My own hope then is that many of those born of one Jewish parent will find meaningful ways of connecting with and contributing to the overall well- being of the Jewish people. And here I would remind that since the destruction of one third of the Jewish people by the Nazis, and with the increasing assimilation in the West the Jewish people are in demographic decline in most areas of the world. In my view the small people that has contributed more to the well- being of mankind than any other is in great need of many of the people born of one Jewish parent who have so much to give.

I cried many tears while reading some of the quotes from fellow-half-Jews in this book. I felt as if they had writtenmy own deepest feelings, for in fact, they had. Although this book did not address the very real feelings of confused identity that so many of my generation felt, they gave me the role models that were lacking my in own childhood, and for this I am grateful.

Although my mother converted to Orthodox Judaism when she married my father (a born Jew), ethnically I always identified myself as half-Jewish....complete with all the ambivalent feelings that brings.

A wonderful collection of stories and quotes about some people you never knew were (half)Jewish and some you thought you did. Humorous and poignant, it really made me think about the mixed attitudes toward them.

Most disturbing to me is that it reveals Sean Penn is half-Jewish. Yikes!

...the number of American half-Jews under the age of 11 now exceeds the number of American full Jews under 11. And this half-Jewish population will only grow older and larger as the general population ages and the percentage of intermarriage increases. Daniel Klein & Freke Vuijst THE HALF-JEWISH BOOK The timing of this review couldn't be better. Multicultural opportunities abound at this time of year when "half Jewish" affords children (and many adults) the opportunity to partake of the holidays' many versions: Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanza. Klein and Vuijst are not a bit distressed at the problematic issues of being half Jewish and half something else. They present a positive view of being a "halfie" in a celebratory manner-a kind of lighthearted thesis of "ethnic-is-in." Many "halfies"--a new species whose sum is greater that its parts--eschew the idea of choosing one or the other religion claiming they are a combination of their half Jewishness plus the other half. Theirs is a rich dual heritage. They take the best from each parent even if it just means-as the book cites in most cases-observing Hanukah and Christmas; Passover and Easter. Except for a few cases, the "halfies" are generally secular and rarely become observant, full-time Jews or whatever the other half believes in. Their religious affiliations appear watered down versions of both sides of their heritage. The book in great part is a standard collection of a who's who in the half Jewish world: Hollywood stars Amy Irving, Paulette Goddard, Joan Collins, Paul Newman, Michael Douglas, Kevin Kline, Dyan Cannon, Goldie Hawn; directors John Houseman, Oliver Stone, Peter Bagdanovich, Francois Truffaut; authors Marcel Proust, J.D. Salinger, Adrianne Rich, Muriel Spark, Gloria Steinem, James McBride; even super sleuths by mystery writers Milton Bass, Linda Barnes, Laurence Shames, Sandra West-Prowell; politicians Fiorello LaGuardia, Barry Goldwater, William Cohen. In some cases the authors go beyond the names, photographs, brief bios and quotes to explore how their Jewishness affected their lives giving them something they would not have had they not been "halfies." However, the authors reach a bit too far when they credit Gary Kasparov's outstanding chess ability to his survival strategy that half Jews develop as they negotiate between two very different sides of their families. And there are some good half Jewish laughs: "When I go to confession, I bring a lawyer" or Jackie Mason's "I've got a friend who is half Polish and half Jewish. He's a janitor but he owns the building." The half Jewish food jokes couple veal medallions with kasha varnichkes (Why not? Sounds good to me). Klein and Vuijst cite "halfies" who choose the "other." For example, Geraldo Rivera celebrates his Puerto Rican heritage more than his Jewishness; Winona LaDuke, the Green Party vice-presidential candidate, chooses his Native American father's background rather than his mother's Jewish heritage. William Cohen denies his father's religion choosing to be a non-Jew. And Lani Guinier is an African American not a Jew like her mother. On the other hand, Laura Schlessinger, the media therapist, is all Jewish, denying her one-half Catholic heritage. However celebratory and lighthearted the authors approach their subject, it seems that it is most difficult to bequeath both religions to children. Choosing one or the other is less likely to burden a child with confused identity. They end their book on a serious note with a detailed account of the Third Reich's laws initiated in the 1930s defining and categorizing Jews according to their parentage. Hitler created a "3rd race" call Mischlinges who were afforded some privileges until the end of the war when many met the fate of their half brothers and sisters in the "final solution." Daniel Klein, an author, and Freke Vuijst, an American correspondent for Dutch television, live in Great Barrington, Massachusetts where they raised their half-Jewish daughter.