His Brother's Keeper: Israel and Diaspora Jewry in the Twenty-first Century [Hardcover]

Yossi Beilin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 22, 2000

In His Brother's Keeper, Yossi Beilin, Israel's outspoken Minister of Justice, offers a bold prescription for renewing and enriching Jewish life in the twenty-first century. Viewing the status quo as the greatest enemy of the Jewish people, Beilin challenges the notion that there is nothing to be done about the shrinking number of Jews in the world or the growing gap between Israel and the Diaspora communities.

Beilin's approach calls for a new partnership of equals between Israel and Diaspora Jewry.  The goal, he explains, is to strengthen Jewish identity now so that future generations will have a viable tradition to pass along to their children.  Beilin was the initiator of the Birthright program, which aims to bring thousands of Jewish teenagers on fully subsidized trips to Israel in the hope of awakening within them an interest in learning about their Jewish roots.

Among Beilin's other suggestions for creating a world-wide Jewish community are recognizing "secular conversions" as a point of entry into the Jewish people, radically overhauling existing Jewish institutions and, in a new era of peace, redirecting Israel's historic sense of mission by providing assistance to Third World countries, in cooperation with the Diaspora.

Timely, provocative, powerfully reasoned and argued, His Brother's Keeper will be widely read and passionately debated.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

For five decades, according to Beilin, a longtime Israeli politician currently serving as Minister of Justice, the relationship between Israelis and world Jewry has been clearly defined: Jews in the Diaspora (particularly in the United States) gave moneyAnow in the hundreds of millions annuallyAto support the struggling young nation and felt complacent about their role; Israelis accepted the donations with a sense of smug superiority because they lived on the front lines, facing war and terrorism. Beilin, best known in the West for his pivotal role in crafting the Oslo peace accords (see Touching Peace, reviewed below), wants to reform this relationship, which he claims is no longer relevant. Israel, he notes, is a technological hotbed whose GNP ranks in the top 10% of the world. The funds raised by Jews outside Israel, he writes, "would be better used for the welfare of the Jewish world and for Jewish continuity worldwide." The strongest point of this book is Beilin's frankness in describing the outmoded relationship between Israel and the Diaspora. Among his proposals for crafting a more effective relationship are the elimination of some moribund groups (the United Jewish Appeal's contributions to Israel's social welfare system are superfluous, he argues), a new organizational structure to reflect the fluidity and unity of Jewish life today (as opposed to the old notion that Israeli and American Jewish communities are separate and shouldn't intervene in each other's affairs), the creation of a "virtual Jewish community" through use of the Internet and a program (which is in fact already underway) that would offer a free trip to Israel to every young Jew. While this book may offend some who have devoted their lives to supporting and defending Israel, Beilin's words also come as a breath of fresh air. (Aug.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Beilin, Israel's justice minister and a keen observer of trends in Jewish life, presents his prescription for halting the quickening pace of assimilation and intermarriage in the United States. He proposes some radical changes in how Jewish identity is to be created, principally by forging a new kind of cooperation between the Israeli and American Jewish communities so that future generations will have a viable tradition to pass on to their children. Beilin also favors ending the Orthodox monopoly on setting Israeli social and religious policies and having Israel replace America as the center of world Jewish culture to ensure the survival of a vibrant religious and cultural heritage. Forcefully argued and lucidly written, this book is recommended for academic and larger public libraries.DHarry Frumerman, formerly with Hunter Coll., New York
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Schocken (August 22, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805241752
• ISBN-13: 978-0805241754
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,453,973 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Yossi Beilin IS his Brother's Keeper, A GREAT thing, January 9, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: His Brother's Keeper: Israel and Diaspora Jewry in the Twenty-first Century (Hardcover)

I think many reviews, here and elsewhere, are devolving into right wing vs. left wing. A book should be judged by its content, its wording and phrasing, its rhythms. A book is not an election and we who love to read are not giving stars based on our politics, or we should not, in my opinion. There are other places for that. Here we are readers. I found Yossi Beilin's "My Brother's Keeper" engaging, readable, informative and educational. I want to read it again. But my blood boils when I see reviews that have nothing to do with text and everything to do with one's relation to Israel. I enjoy books from all spectrum. I would give 5 stars to any book well written. This is almost, not quite, that good.

10 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Judaism at Risk, September 19, 2000

By 

L. Pfeffer (Jerusalem Israel) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: His Brother's Keeper: Israel and Diaspora Jewry in the Twenty-first Century (Hardcover)

Anyone concerned about continuity of Judaism must be aware of this book. Yossi Beilin is a soft-spoken, sincere Israeli thinker and politician. His doctrine is quite dominant in the Israeli post-Zionist and increasingly post-Jewish milieu. Much of the book is probably factual about topics like languishing old Jewish and Zionist institutions/bureaucracies. Yet, Beilin's broad brushstrokes are a master plan to redefine and eliminate Judaism, which many in Israel perceive as old folkways, superstition, an obsolete culture rather than a religion. Israel is the centerpiece of Jews since the Holocaust, there was an over investment in Israel at the expense of Judaism and by now Jewish and anti-religious Zionist icons, values, imagery are enmeshed - this book indicates the enmeshment is sinister. Readers with critical minds must ask, "Is Israel centered secularism to replace Judaism world-wide in the long-term?" Is that the solution to the "Jewish problem"? If this sounds implausible (after all Israel is presented as the "Jewish State") readers should learn about dramatic/destructive past changes in Judaism during the Shabtai Zvi and Jacob Frank movements, anti-Jewish practices in leftist kibbutzim since pre-State days, understand Herzl's own views about Judaism and details of his family, or at least read current Israeli headlines about "The Secular Revolution" and where religious Jews are often portrayed as the new "Enemy" - replacing the "Arab" as the evil icon.