To Be a Jew Today

October 1, 2023

At a time of intermarriage and differing approaches to spirituality, Feldman looks at Judaism in contemporary times, ranging across its different forms to ponder how to be a Jew today. His bedrock approach: the ancient teaching claiming that there is no such thing as a "bad Jew." Feldman is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard and founding director of its Julis-Rabinowitz Program on Jewish and Israeli Law. Prepub Alert.

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Starred review from February 1, 2024
A multifaceted exploration of Jewish identity in the modern world and the place Israel has come to hold in it. In this personal, analytical, nonpolemical work, Harvard law professor Feldman, author of The Broken Constitution and Divided by God, walks readers through the different versions of Jewish belief today--including "ultra-Orthodox, Modern Orthodox, Religious Zionist, Conservative, Reconstructionist, Reform, and Humanist"--and how the state of Israel plays a central role in them all. With an intentional nod to Moses Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed, published in 1190, Feldman employs deep scholarship and a nondidactic tone to revisit the essential stories of Jewish struggle and faith. First, he looks at the beliefs of various Jewish sects, regarding them all inclusively, even the atheist. "Even conscious rejection of Jewishness may be meaningfully Jewish," he writes. In the second part of the book, the author posits, "the idea of Israel has fundamentally transformed all strands of Jewish belief." He delves deeply into the early secular Zionist ideal; how the early 1970s brought Israel to the forefront for Diaspora Jews because of renewed Holocaust awareness and the Yom Kippur War; the powerful appeal of messianism; and the debate over how Jews are the "chosen" people. He offers a warning that Israel is exhibiting the sin of excessive pride. Finally, the author examines Jewishness as an embrace of family, community, and God. "A nationalism that tries to take God out of the picture and transmute Jewishness into an expression of pure peoplehood," he writes, "will not provide access to experiences of transcendent meaning that make life worth living." Feldman calls this work a map or field guide, and he seems to have in mind young readers who are confused and angry about the raging Israel-Palestine war. An eloquent, accessible, well-written reflection on the significance of being a Jew.

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April 22, 2024
Harvard law professor Feldman (The Broken Constitution) delivers a sweeping overview of Jewish ideas “as they exist today, and as they are being transformed for the future.” Eschewing the traditional classifications of Judaism (Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, etc.) in favor of categories that better reflect “how God and spiritual morality are conceived internally,” Feldman breaks down what he defines as Traditionalists, Progressives, Evolutionists, and Godless Jews. He examines the benefits and drawbacks of each group (Traditionalists, for example, live in highly supportive communities that are rife with sexism and gender hierarchies), and their views on issues related to God, Jewish life, and Israel. Rather than anointing one group as the future of Judaism, he advances an inclusive notion of all Jews as members of a family that finds in God and one another “love and embrace along with contention.” The same holds true even for “godless Jews and cultural Jews,” who in their nonbelief are “struggling with God too, whether they like it or not.” Feldman’s methodical analysis takes little for granted—not even the value of Jewish survival in and of itself (“We should hope to preserve Jewishness only if doing so reflects our deepest values,” he writes). This will be a welcome resource for readers curious about Judaism’s past, future, and purpose.