Rating: 
Summary: Insightful and inspiring bridge between Jews and Christians!
Review: There is no doubt that Rabbi Daniel Lapin's America's Real War is one of those rare books destined to inspire and enlighten readers for generations to come. Like Bastiat's classic The Law, Lapin's Real War reveals timeless truths about man, society, and government while devastating the contemporary proponents of ideas that destroy freedom, prosperity, and happiness. Moreover, Lapin scores his intellectual points while simultaneously building a bridge between two groups that have frequently found themselves on opposite ends of the ideological spectrum, American Jews and Christians.The message of Real War consists of three parts. First, Rabbi Lapin develops the evidence that America was expressly founded as a Christian nation. This will not surprise readers familiar with the writings of the Founding Fathers or those who understand how liberty blossomed as Biblical ideas made their way into European political and economic thought in the centuries from the signing of the Magna Carta to the writings of Blackstone. But Lapin approaches the subject from a fresh perspective, demonstrating how America's Founders appreciated uniquely Jewish customs and ideas at a time when "Hebrew was an accomplishment of gentlemen." Second, Rabbi Lapin demonstrates how moral ideas that can only be completely found in the Jewish and Christian scriptures work to produce wealth, liberty, and fulfilling lives. Lapin leads the reader to see how ideas like personal accountability and private property create incentives for people to use their God-given talents to get ahead by serving the needs of others. At the same time, Lapin shows that the causes of the political left - like abortion and opposition to capital punishment - are logically inconsistent, and that the sole idea uniting today's jackboot liberals is opposition to God's ideas revealed in the Torah and Bible. Woven throughout Real War is Rabbi Lapin's third theme, a call to American Jews to return to the principles of Torah. In fact, with a chutzpah only a Rabbi could muster, Lapin unabashedly bases all of his social, economic, and political arguments solely on the Old Testament, as explained in the 2500 year old oral tradition of the Rabbis, the Talmud. But it is this very approach that will make the book especially endearing to Christian readers. Christians know that Jesus came not to destroy the law or the prophets but to fulfill them. (Mt. 5:17) On page after page as I read, I found myself coming to a fresh and deeper appreciation of the Bible thanks to Talmud's ancient insight. There can be no doubt that the real challenge facing America today is a war of ideas. In showing that this war is really the timeless battle between good and evil, between ideas born of God and ideas born of rebellion against Him, Rabbi Lapin has crafted a work that will be relevant for years to come.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent insights into what is going on in America
Review: This book will enlighten anyone who really wants to know whatis going on in the culture war. Many Christians, and the politicallyuninvolved are blithefully unaware of the driving forces behind the rabid secularism that we see now so often, in the media, politics, and schools. The war is not between Jews and Christians, the war is between secularized Jews and other atheists on the one side, and orthodox Jews, conservative Catholics, and evangelical Christians on the other. Rabbi Lapin explains how there has always been those Jews, ever since Sinai, who have rejected the Ten Commandments, and instead chosen to worship the golden calf of money, and refuse to let anything interfere with their sexual freedom. It is these types that make up many of the political action groups that we see trying to "de-Christianize" America, i.e. the ACLU, People for the American Way, Planned Parenthood, and others. I gained tremendous insights from reading this book. I also read "The Fatal Embrace," by Ben Ginsburg, another Jewish author who explains how the Jewish people have repeatedly, throughout history, sought the protection of the state in order to escape persecution from surrounding peoples, but have made some of the same mistakes they are making now, in Rabbi Lapin's opinion. I never knew before reading these authors how much many Jewish people FEAR the rise of Christianity, and think that secularizing America is protection against another Holocaust. Dr. Lapin argues just the opposite; attacking the Christian heritage has a corrosive effect, and his people should stop acting loud, aggressive and antagonistic. No matter where you are coming from on the political spectrum, this book will give you tremendous food for thought. One thing is sure: political views are always informed by one's religious and metaphysical beliefs. It cannot be otherwise.
Rating:
Summary: One of the most influential books I've ever read...
Review: Recommended to me over three years ago by one of my mentors, few books have influenced me so powerfully as America's Real War. Rabbi Daniel Lapin, a brilliant Torah scholar, studied under the 20th century's greatest Torah luminaries, including Rabbis Avigdor Miller, Yaakov Kamenetzky, Simcha Wasserman, Yechezkel Abramsky, and his famed great-great-uncle, Rabbi Elya Lopian. Additionally, Rabbi Lapin merited a yechidus with the Lubavitcher Rebbe in 1974, from whom he gained tremendous insight. With spiritual masters such as these, coupled with Rabbi Lapin's own brilliance, passion and insight, his writings never fail to educate, challenge, and inspire. In this magnum opus, Rabbi Lapin forcefully spells out the current landscape and culture war in America. This second American civil war essentially consists of those who fight to secularize America versus those who ache to return America to its true origins as a Judeo-Christian nation. As Rabbi Lapin insists in Chapter Fifteen, "Either America has no religious roots and no special spiritual destiny, or it has both. The past is a matter of fact; the future is our choice." The links between Judaism and America are delineated, as is the correlation between "America and the Jewish vision." In Part Four, Rabbi Lapin addresses the state of American Jewry. An entire twenty pages are devoted to the elusive and perplexing question, "Why ARE Jews so liberal?" Countering the rampant chillul Hashem and widespread misconception that liberal Jews somehow speak for Judaism (chapter forty-four, "The Redefining of Judaism"), Rabbi Lapin demonstrates that a true Jewish outlook is infinitely closer to that upheld by the conservative wing of the Republican Party. Making the case that Jews should unite POLITICALLY with conservative Christians to restore America's values and morals to the public sphere, Rabbi Lapin devotes Part Five: The Road Back, to offering practical advice to actually achieve this objective. I urge you to read this invaluable work- and then go out and share it with your friends.
Rating:
Summary: An Invitation to Join America's Culture War
Review: Rabbi Daniel Lapin, head of the organization Toward Tradition, addresses several audiences with "(You Are In) America's Real War: An Orthodox Rabbi Insists That Judeo-Christian Values are Vital for Our Nation's Survival." These include Jews who feel out of step with the politics of most Jewish organizations, Christians who wonder why most American Jews demonize the Religious Right, people of all faiths who suspect that separation of Church and State has gone too far, and anyone who worries that America is on the wrong cultural and spiritual track. The central metaphor in this book is a tug-of-war between Godliness on one side and godlessness on the other. This metaphor rests on two fundamental assumptions: that faith in God is central to the American experiment, and that the political divide between Right and Left hinges on acceptance or rejection of traditional Judeo-Christian values. Rabbi Lapin establishes these assumptions convincingly. He turns to America's roots, from the original nature of the Colonies to the views of the Founding Fathers, to show that the very idea of the American nation arose from Judeo-Christian faith. Indeed, he shows how many of the central ideas of Colonial and Revolutionary America came directly from the Hebrew bible. He traces the supremacy of God in American political life through the mid-20th century, showing how judges and political figures continued into the 1960s to appeal to the Judeo-Christian God and His values in support of their positions. Since that time, Rabbi Lapin argues, traditional religion has clearly delineated the sides in the culture war. Rabbi Lapin shows how, despite the presence of many clergymen in the ranks of the American Left, traditional Judeo-Christian belief and practice stand in direct opposition to many positions of the Left. A central irony of this divide is that the political values of most American Jews are antithetical to the traditional Jewish values expressed in the Torah and Talmud. For example, as Rabbi Lapin points out, mainstream Jewish organizations denounce as "homophobia" any criticism of homosexuality, yet the Western proscription against homosexuality originates in the Hebrew Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament). The source of this contradiction, Rabbi Lapin maintains, is the tension between the liberalizing tendency in non-Orthodox Judaism and the stubborn desire of Jews to cling to their Jewish identity. Rather than simply renounce Judaism once they have abandoned its tenets, many Jews stridently argue that the religion has changed to match their views - even to the point of no longer requiring a belief in God. This is why, Rabbi Lapin argues, traditional Judaism has more in common politically with the Christian Coalition than with many Jewish political organizations. Both traditional Jews and Christian conservatives share a belief in a God-fearing society as the ideal plan for mankind. Indeed, the removal of God from this central role in American society has, in Rabbi Lapin's view, led to the decline in our society's morals, culture, and educational attainment, and will ultimately lead to the downfall of our economic and political systems. Rabbi Lapin reminds us that illegitimacy, abortion, welfare dependency, crime, and other societal evils have all soared in the decades since God lost his place in American public life. Thus, though he faces criticism from many Jews (who view the Religious Right as the enemy) and distrust from some Christians (who identify Judaism with liberalism), Rabbi Lapin places himself squarely on the side of religious faith and traditional values in the tug-of-war against ungodly liberalism for America's future. He invites all Americans of faith and good will to join him.
Rating: 
Summary: This was a great Conservative Book!
Review: The book, America's Real War, was a good outlook for our nation. The author, Daniel Lapin, had many strong views religiously on how our nation is and how it should be. In many instances, he directly stated that in a tug of war of our nation being a secular or religious one, that it was a religious one. He also said that our nation has derived from Judeo-Christian values and that our nation needs them to continue without many problems. I agree with him completely. Another aspect that Lapin touches on is how people deal with issues in our nation. Liberals, which he points out seems to be on one end of the rope, seem to go for choice laws, such as abortion. However, most Christians go along with the bible in its statement that we are using these bodies and that we shall not "defile the temple". Thus, many Christians seem to be strongly conservative. Throughout the book, Daniel Lapin clearly states what issues that America has, how it relates to daily life, and what his opinions are about them. He often lets you know several times over that what he says is clearly just his opinion, but that his opinion matters and should not be taken lightly. I completely agree with everything that Lapin said and opinionated. He seems to be a very intelligent person and would seem to make a great rabbi. I would refer this book to anyone who is looking to catch on some of the problems of our country, wants to practice opinionating, or just for a bit of reading material. The issues that Lapin brings out are compelling and makes you just want to keep on reading.
Rating:
Summary: The Answer to America's Problems
Review: This book gives the answer to America's economic and social problems -- less government spending and more moral enforcement. Unfortunately, it may be too late already since we all seem to think of those unfortunate folks who are trapped in the welfare system as being "entitled" to welfare. After 70 some years of welfare and social security and "silver platter" treatment, I don't think this country could possibly retreat from that -- although it might still be possible to "wean" people off welfare. But that would mean a works program run by the government -- a WPA type welfare as FDR had initiated in the 1930s. Immoral displays of indecency should NEVER be accepted by the government as free speech.
Rating: 
Summary: Not very good.
Review: I bought this book hoping to read an insightful treatise on the Culture War. What I got was a book mostly devoid of logic. While it's easy to scapegoat all of america's problems on Homosexuals and Liberals, it does nothing to alleviate those problems.
Rating: 
Summary: "War of Ideas" Has Already Been Fought: and The Rabbis Lost
Review: Though a refreshingly well-executed effort in light of some truly unreadable drivel that passes for intellectual discourse these days, the Rabbi's effort is, alas, in vain. The "War of Ideas" is pretty much over, at least as far as faith is concerned, and the faithless have won. While it is admirable for the more articulate spokesmen for traditional religion to recall the founding of this country as an indication that America was not started as a secular nation, after reading enough such commentary one is eventually left with the burning question: if religion is, in fact, the backbone of a free society, why bother with the separation of Church and State? What the Rabbi, and other conservative thinkers conveniently forget, is that while the US was founded by (and for) men who at least nominally practiced some formal faith, these were not, as the Rabbi would have us believe, religious fundamentalists, or zealots. The Founding Fathers were considerably more ambivalent about their sectarian faith (though not the formalities of such) than is the Rabbi, or for that matter folks like Pat Robertson. The genius of their effort was not in founding a society based on man's shared servitude to God, but rather one based on man's essential right to liberty, which is absolutely necessary for man to pursue his own individual goals by his own means, as an end onto himself, provided that his actions do not infringe on the rights of the others to do the same. Note that service to God does not require man to be free, since even an enslaved man can be made to worship a deity, just as he can, and has throughout history been, made to serve the wishes of the various pagan, religious, and collectivist thugs which societies that were NOT based on liberty and individual rights seem to have had no trouble producing in great abundance. All in all, as we stand and contemplate our future in the early years of the new millenium surrounded by the various monumental achievements of mankind, we should be reminded that the greatest threat to that future is posed not by the ever-present secular evil, but by the most fundamental and, some could argue, the most internally consistent manifestation of faith and mysticism -- radical Islam. We will not be able to win the ideological war with these Islamists if our only philosophical argument remains: "our God is better than your God".
Rating:
Summary: Natural Allies
Review: It is about time. Finally someone has broken the silence. Jew and Christians are natural allies. Unlike Muslims, our history doesn't just end with Abraham, but spans the entire Old Testament. It is about time Christians embrace our elder brothers and Jews do the same for their younger ones.
This book is refreshing and explains in full detail perspectives all of us have had. However, since the common man has no voice, the great Rabbi has done so for us. There will always be people who disagree about his book, but more often than not it comes from secular and indifferent voices. I find it funny that some complain in these reviews about freedom of speech, and are afraid of the imposition by the religious right on their lives, even though the secular government has imposed immoral education on our youth. So, as the Rabbi points out, nobody is objective. I recommend everyone to buy this book. Jews and Christians alike will read something special and something to contemplate. Whether you are an Orthodox Jew, Catholic or Protestant, you need to read the Rabbi's book and come together!
Rating:
Summary: An Ambitious Diagnosis of and Treatment of Our Social Rot
Review: Rabbi Daniel Lapin's book opens with an ambitious attempt to deconstruct America's cultural decline. He follows up in later chapters with ideas about ideals to reverse this decline.
Rabbi Lapin's analysis is rock-rib conservative, and heavily slanted towards the past and future of Jews here in the U.S.A.. But great storytelling skills serve the reader well as he shares antecdotes from his world travels, amusing parables from colleagues of the rabbinate, and lessons of history.
The Rabbi makes a case that the key to our problems is a loss of God in personal and political spheres all across America.
I'm a liberal Democrat, but I find myself in agreement with many of the Rabbi's thoughts on popular culture. I part ways with him when he says that religion is a socio-economic and political cure-all. To me, his own evidence points to education, within a matrix of some moral framework as being the real answer.
Nonetheless, Rabbi Lapin's work is a fascinating overview from a fresh perspective. Predominance of his religious conservatism steeped in traditions of Western learning couldn't be too bad. In fact it is the best of all conservativism options from America's right.
|
