Customer Reviews

Why Be Jewish?: Intermarriage, Assimilation and Alienation

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

 

 

The book by Rabbi Kahane was a true eye opener. It had me thinking in ways that I, an American assimilated Jew NEVER thought of.

It is about time that someone spoke up and helped Jews feel proud of how special and unique they are, and how rather then hiding these facts, we should embrace them and honor them.

This book is a masterpiece and I strongly suggest it.

Kahane has, in this one work, described the problem of assimilation in terms that make it easy for anyone to understand. More so, he has expressed quite succinctly why it is a problem.

Rabbi Kahane fiercely and accurately documents and decries the inability of the American Jewish establishment, and particularly Reform and Conservatism, to instill in young Jews any reason to be Jewish. Kahane states the reason, clearly and to the point. The last portion of the book is, however, marred by angry digressions.

I really hate that this book is right on target. It would be my natural inclination to want to dismiss people like Meir Kahane as fanatics. However, the proof is in the pudding. I don't see how any Jew who truly cared about the Jewish people and who was intellectually honest could read this book and not admit that the Reform-Conservative styles of Judaism are failing to keep their larges percentages of Jews proud and Jewish. And to think he wrote this thirty years ago.