Customer Reviews

Strife in the Sanctuary: Religious Schism in a Jewish Community

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

 

 

When I first picked up Zuckerman's "Strife in the Sanctuary", I was a little dubious, not having much of a background in either religion or sociology. I quickly found that the story Zuckerman is telling is truly interesting, and that his presentation and writing style make complex issues and academic theories relevant and interesting to those of us without a great deal of background in these issues. One of the book's main qualities is the author's ability to delve into the humanity of the people and conflicts he is describing, and the reader gets an excellent sense of the tensions and struggles of factional strife. I have just read Zuckerman's new edited compilation of W.E.B. DuBois's writings on religion, am again very impressed with his work, and look forward to reading more of his insight and analysis in the future.

Strife in the Sanctuary is an interesting read, but doesn't fully explain what it sets out to explore: Why would a small religious community expel some of its members for getting too religious? This fascinating question is raised, but the author does not employ journalistic or scholarly methods or reasoning to find answers and relies a bit too much on gossip and his own opinions and beliefs to make his point. I enjoyed the book, I just wish the research was more thorough.

I found this story fascinating. A real community drama. The author did an excellent job introucing the members of this Jewish coimmunity, laying out the conflicts, interviewing them for their own personal perspectives, and showing the deep divides that can arise among contemporary Jews. There was a lot of acrimony on both sides...but also a lot of humanity. This wasn't simply boring sociological analysis -- a real story, with drama and intrigue. One of the best studies of contemporary Jewish life I've ever read.

The author of Strife in the Sanctuary, Phil Zuckerman, lived in Eugene, Oregon while working on his Ph.D. He studied the emerging divisions between two groups in what was formerly one Jewish community. Zukerman spent time with each group and gained the confidences of everyone in the community in order to write this book. My wife and I were the main antagonists in this book. We were given the names Lynn and Josh Roshefsky, but little else was disguised. After my wife and I read the book we experienced a profound sense of pain. We felt the vulnerability of having quiet disclosures revealed and we revisited all our motives, actions and words. We withdrew further from Eugene's Jewish community, wounded because we saw how our former friends made so little effort to understand or accept us, and how they talked behind our backs. Slowly, with the help of a few close friends who were intimately involved in the early stages of the expansion of Eugene's Jewish life, we began to understand this book. In order to write what he thought would be an interesting book, Zuckerman wanted a hero and a villain. Thus, the rabbi of the community became the hero and we became the villains. Unfortunately, as any good sociologist should be able to describe, life is not that simple. The author has written a partial account of a painful failure in community. He does a good job describing how each group of Jews in a small community(one group leftist, secular and political; the other group religious and spiritual, with a range of politics never described) are unable to communicate. Each group uses different words which mean different things to the opposing group, each group has different values and goals, and most important, each disdains the closely held values of the opposing group. These people, many of whom dabbled in leftist politics in the Sixties split over two fundamental issues of our time; gender and religion. This sounds like the basis for a good sociological study. Unfortunately, it barely gets off the ground. Zuckerman describes gender politics from the narrow perspective of traditional feminism, and he has a consescending attitude toward people who choose other points of view. (Ironically, he seems to have problems with strong Jewish women. The two stongest women in the book, my wife and the Rebbitzen, who are on opposing sides are both treated harshly by him.) Most regrettably, Zuckerman does not analyze basic sociological issues of group rivalry. How did these groups split apart; why did one group become hateful; why did the other group become withdrawn? What actions were taken by leaders in the community? What attracted people to traditional Jewish thought and what caused some to pull back? Zuckerman does not address these critical issues. He focuses on the controversy of getting rid of a long term, charismatic rabbi. Worse, he publishes the most nasty and hateful comments by people criticizing others in our small community. These comments are so extreme one doubts whether these people will be able to face each other again. What purpose does it serve to publish these comments, other than to write a more spicey book. There is a concerted, ongoing effort in modern Orthodox communities to educate about the most powerful destructive force within a community, lashon hora (literally, the evil tongue). This book is an example of lashon hora at its worst, and the author can't seem to get out of this sewer to address the critical issues. He could have written about leftist intolerance, liberal apathy and conservative rigidity. Too bad, it could have been an excellent study, instead it's just a shallow hurtful little book.