Theo Todman's Book Collection (Book-Paper Abstracts)

Cover Blurbs

• Few subjects invoke more controversy than the past history and current influence of Diaspora Jews in Western societies and the nature of their relationship with the state of Israel. David J. Goldberg discusses these issues with authority, wisdom and humour: the role of Israel in Jewish life, the question of Jewish identity in an increasingly multicultural world and the minimal hold of religious belief on what nowadays is an overwhelmingly secular people.
• Goldberg argues that many of the shibboleths of the Jewish establishment, especially in the USA, are exaggerated or false. It is wrong automatically to equate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. One can be a critic of Israeli policies without being hostile to all Jews: 'Zionism as an ideology should no more be protected from critical analysis than capitalism, socialism, colonialism or Islamism.' Israel is often treated too indulgently, he argues, by the Diaspora. It is becoming an alien place for secular or religiously liberal Jews who find its aggressive nationalism and assertive fundamentalism increasingly difficult to take. And the axiomatic identification of Israel with the Holocaust - always using the enormity of the latter to justify the actions of the former - has had baneful results for both.
• His discussion of the perennial 'Who is a Jew?' question is equally succinct. He rejects all previous rabbinic criteria for defining Jewish status, proposing that a Jew is simply anyone who insists that he or she is one, because ultimately what can be truer than self-definition?
• Forthright, challenging and witty, this humane and provocative overview of a remarkable people whose contribution to world culture has been enormous will stimulate debate, criticism and approval in equal measure.
• Rabbi Dr David J. Goldberg OBE was educated at Manchester Grammar School, Oxford University and Trinity College, Dublin. He received his rabbinic ordination in 1971. Rabbi Emeritus of the Liberal Jewish Synagogue, London, Europe's oldest and largest liberal community, he served the congregation as Associate then Senior Rabbi from 1975 until his retirement in 2004. He is well-known in Anglo-Jewry and beyond for his radical theological views and trenchant criticisms of Israeli policy in the Occupied Territories.
• 'In memory of Tony Judt, one relative whom I wish I had known better'.
• 'Great writing always takes us from the particular to the universal. Though This Is Not the Way is ostensibly about Jews, Judaism and Israel, it actually spreads its light upon the deceits and hypocrisies of all religious forms today. A brave and passionate book, it should be read by anyone interested in the healing of the nations.'
  → Richard Holloway, author of "Holloway (Richard) - Waiting for the Last Bus: Reflections on Life and Death"