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Summary: Well written, enjoyable and on the mark
Review: A well-written easy-to-read book that right on the mark as it tackles one of the most difficult problems in contemporary judaism. As with all of Dershowitz' books, this one is filled with humor, meticulously researched and contains compelling arguments in support of his view that organized judaism is failing to provide the proper educational foundation to ensure the continuation of reform and conservative judaism in the USA.
Even if you, like me, do not share Mr. Dershowitz' orthodox background or left-wing politics, don't let that deter you from reading this excellent book.
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Summary: This book in absolutly amazing
Review: After coming back from living in Israel this book puts things in perspective of what is happening to the American Jews.
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Summary: Dershowitz sounds like the flip side of David Duke sometimes
Review: Aren't we all just a little sick and tired of listening to so-called leaders of various segments of society demanding that everyone remain identity-conscious and refrain from being plain old individuals? Dershowitz is promoting collectivism in a nation founded upon rugged individualism.Besides, if hallmarks of Jewishness ought to be retained (valuing education and success), then why not promote these values as things all Americans should strive for? There is nothing unique about being a Jew that others cannot emulate. Nothing. Just cultural values, and those are accessible to all. Good news, Alan! Lots of non-Jews in America care about education and treating minorities with respect. America is going totally Jewish anyways! You're not vanishing. You are watching your best values become mainstream, and that is why so many Jews feel no need to feel uniquely Jewish in a nation where some very cool Jewish "memes" (to borrow from Dawkins) are propagating themselves in the minds of the mainstream. Now everyone wants their kid to go to Harvard. Have a bagel and relax, Alan.
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Summary: Another offensive turn of the screw
Review: Dershowitz argues that Jews ought to "preserve themselves" but not because they have been persecuted. After all, he implies, Jews are better than other people. As an oppressed woman, I do not feel the need to comment on the subtle racism/bloodline-ism in the text. I only urge him to turn his attention to more pressing matters than how wealthy and powerful Jews ought to remain "untainted" from other ethnic groups in the society in which they live. After all, he writes, he doesn't love his grandchildren any less because they are only half-Jewish. How big of him! How liberal! This man is a disaster waiting to happen. Try reading something more ecumenical. Try reading something with a heart for the common man.
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Summary: Interesting
Review: Dershowitz conveys a genuine worry that Jewish people will lose their identity in the years to come. He is concerned about Jewishness getting lost in the struggle and furiousness of America. He says time and again in the book that the Jewish people need something to fight against to be great. He did not totally convince me of this. I think there are great Jewish doctors, professors, businessmen and women. Intellectual and business prowess. Isn't that something to be proud of?
I also wish that Dershowitz would have included more examples, perhaps little vignettes of various Jewish people and how they struggle in the world, or perhaps how they try to retain their identity in a fast-paced, sometimes fickle world. This would have been a good direction to take.
On the whole a very interesting topic for a book. Thank you for writing the book Dr. Dershowitz.
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Summary: A brilliant start, but doesn't tell the whole story.
Review: Dershowitz's work is vital and important for all American Jews. In my own lifetime, I have witnessed the development of a demographic crisis within our community. Indeed, the situation is no better than when Prof. Dershowitz published these prophetic words. At the present time, it is possible to appreciate the factors which have contributed to the vanishing of American Jews. Dershowitz fails to emphasize the role of the single-minded pursuit of laurels and professional advancement in creating our current situation. So much has been sacrificed to achieving the goals of wealth, fame, and influence. Within my own family I have observed how the avid use of birth control as a means to enabling professional success has diminished our numbers. Moreover, Judaism is not a proselytizing religion. Our traditions are perpetuated only to the extent that we are able to reproduce. The widely-held perception (not unjustifiably) of the Jews as being greedy, dishonest, and obnoxious has not helped to recruit converts to our numbers. It is no small irony that Prof. Dershowitz writes these words from his perch at Harvard University, whose Jewish population better exemplifies these stereotypes than any I have encountered, particularly with their espousal of liberal causes and their competitive zeal. We do well, then, to question what the long-term outlook is for secular Jews in America. My own sense is that the height of our influence over American culture is at its apex. The inexorable decline that will follow in the coming decades will be welcomed by many, particularly those who rightly perceive the Jews as the prime motivators of the legal and cultural assault on traditional Christian values (of which there is no better example than Prof. Dershowitz himself). The essay by E. Michael Jones on "The Apology in Context" is a superb explication of this view.
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Summary: Factual as well as easy to read.
Review: Gave a different perspective, and was mentally provocative. I'm still thinking about Dershowitz' views, and it has been several weeks since I read the book.
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Summary: Important problem faced by World Jewish Community
Review: I agree with Mr. Dershowitz that education is the ideal solution to the "Vanishing World Jew" problem, buth how will we be able to involve the great majority who is not interested in reading, attending conferences or think about certain profound questions. The majority of people are conformists, they are only in search of professional, social or economic successes. There are those who also do not want to know because they feel unconfortable to face their Jewishness, so they hide behind the thought that we are all the same and that G-d is universal. It would be wonderful to find a way to make "being Jewish" fashionable. How to do it is the big question.
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Summary: Dershowitz on Jews is like Carl Rowan on black culture.
Review: I found "The Vanishing American Jew" to be appalingly entertaining. As a non-Jew I found Dershowitz to be quite the racist. I agreed with Rabbi Meir Kahane in comparing his racism to Aryan racism in Germany. If you are looking for a text for a new "Jewish Supremacy Militia" then you will love this book.
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Summary: "The Vanishing American Jew"---NOT so "vanishing" afterall!
Review: Let me say right from the beginning that I am a non-practicing, totally "Secular" American Jew. Apart from the fact that I was born a Jew; have been blissfully married to the same Jewish woman for over thirty-five years; have a son who was bar mitzvah'd (because my mother-in-law would have made our life a hell if he hadn't been); as well as a daughter who WASN'T "bas"-mitzvah'd because she was lucky enough to be born a girl and did not have to be "mitzvah'd" ANYTHING to win family approval as a Jew---apart from , and because of all I have just said, I have often asked myself: "What right do I have to CONSIDER MYSELF A JEW?" I mean--I have rarely stepped foot in a Synagogue for heaven's sake! Attended a Passover service or fasted on the High Holy Days.I don't speak or understand the Jewish language and have only an elementary knowledge of Jewish customs and traditions.(enough to 'get by' and that's about it.)
So AM I A JEW?, I have often asked myself. Do I DESERVE TO THINK OF MYSELF AS A JEW? The easy answer for me has always been YES---because I am a "Reformed" Jew and as such, can be as relgious (or non-religious) as I want and still be thought of as a Jew---at least by other, non religious, secular Jews.
Just one more thing before I address my comments specifically to Dershowitz's, scholarly and extremely readible and informative book, "The Vanishing American Jew"---an extremely IMPORTANT thing: I FEEL that I am a Jew---feel it to the very depths of my being! I LIKE "BEING" A JEW; feel TOTALLY COMFORTABLE being a Jew; and never have wanted to be anything but Jewish or being a Jew!
....
Now to the Dershowitz book and why I feel "The Vanishing American Jew" should be read by all Jews, and even non-Jews alike---in fact, by ANYONE who is interested in the significance and meaning of the Jewish faith in particular, but to those who are Gentile in their beliefs and traditions as well.
A brief synopsis of the book: Dershowitz points out that the Jewish religion is in jeapordy of "vanishing" because anti-Semitism is on the wane throughout our country (as well as in other parts of the world)and because the Jewish people are no longer as beseiged by enemies as in the past and are becoming more and more accepted into the "mainstream" of American life, intermarriage is becoming more and more acceptable by members of the Jewish and Christian faith. Because of intermarriage, there is an increasing likelihood, says the author, that children and grandchildren will no longer feel as closely "bound" to the Jewish faith as in the past---and that, in fact, the very ESSENCE of Judaism is in japordy of disappearing. Whereas being surrounded by enemies and fighting against them was previously the bond for holding Jews together---now, says Dershowitz, the real enemy lies WITHIN OURSELVES. We have become so "successful" (not just in a monetary sense, but in a humanistic sense, as well, that we are on the verge of losing our IDENTITY as a people---the Jewish people are becoming so ASSIMILATED into American life, that the very MEANING of what it is to be a secular Jew is becoming harder and harder to discern.
Dershowitz is an extremely committed Jew. He was raised and educated in the Orthodox, Jewish tradition and later became a committed,Secular Jew. He frankly admits that his son has intermarried into the Christian faith, and gives cogent reasons why he fully accepts his son's choice of a non-Jerish mate. One of the many virtues of his book---and there are too many to be
able to ennumerate them all---is that Dershowitz is able to call upon his rational way of thinking (he is, afterall, one of this nation's premier legal, defense attorneys)to address many of the problems of the Vanishing American Jew, and in a rational and scholarly way, offer his own prescriptions for the future of American Jewery. Dershowitz's book is a fascinating compendium of almost all aspects of the Jewish religion: its various "sects", religious beliefs and rituals, and traditions. His book is well annotated, and his footnotes are as interesting to read as the text itself. Never pompous, or dry, he has the ability to make everything he says, extremely interesting, while, at the same time, injecting a tremendous amount of HUMOR as well.
In fact, one of the most interesting devices Dershowitz uses to put accross his serious and well reasoned ideas is his sprinkling of JOKES throughout the book. These jokes are not only extremely funny in themselves, but every one of them illustrates the more serious points he is making. Humor and seriousness are intertwined throughout the book, and the result is a totally satisfying reading experience that not only addresses some of the most important questions and issues facing American Jewery today--but also provides at least some "tentative" answers and solutions to the question I have long asked myself and which I stated earlier: "Am I really a Jew---and can I really consider myself Jewish in view of my secular beliefs and lack of day-to- day involvement in American Jewish life?
The answer I may as well give you now--and is just one of the reasons I found this book to be so enlightening and an important one to read. The answer is YES! But not for the reasons one might think. Only in the very last Section/Chapter, when the author offers his own, very personal view of whether or not American Jewery can continue to survive into the next century, does Dershowitz succeed in articulating ever so clearly why it is that I FEEL SO GOOD being an American Jew. Some hints: "Justice"; "Give"; "Learn"; "Argue".
The above can only begin to make sense if readers of my review take the interest and the trouble to discover for themselves the wealth of pleasure and meaningful information that Dershowitz provides in his fascinating book. One more hint! You may agree or disagree with everything Dershowitz has to say, but as far as this particular Jew is concerned, he has made me feel.....Oh, so good! Better, in fact, than old fashioned, Grandma's chicken soup. At last I have an answer to why I feel so glad and comfortable to be a Jew. And non-Jews will feel equally at home and comfortable with their religion(s)as well. "The Vanishing American Jew" speaks with uncommon intelligence--as well as with great humor and warmth---to religious (and non-religious) people the world over. Sample its pleasures---you won't be sorry!
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