The Pale God

Imagine God not as a benign force infusing the universe with love and sustaining it with mercy, and not as a stern judge smiting sinners from on high with his cosmic zap-gun, but as a grandfatherly figure, kind but, truth be told, somewhat out of it, sitting in a corner, tolerant of the various paths his children have chosen.

A Portrait of Israeli Jewry  Asher Arian, Ayala Keissar-Sugarmen,  Avi Chai Foundation.  A comprehensive study of religious behavior among Israeli Jews, worshiping Spinoza's pale God. (PDF)  SAVE

Secularism and Its Discontents  Yehudah Mirsky,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  A dependence on the idea of Jewish "tradition" has been a hallmark of Jewish secularists and proto-secularists for nine centuries or so.  SAVE

Spinoza: A Life  Steven Nadler,  Cambridge University Press.  The first complete biography of Spinoza in any language—and a portrait of 17th-century Jewish Amsterdam.  SAVE

Gender Trouble  Yehudah Mirsky,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  Israel's secularists have their work cut out for them in implementing their vision of a moderate, state-friendly Judaism.  SAVE

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Human Rights and Religious Wrongs

Although the discourse on human rights has a long pedigree, traceable at least to early modern natural rights theory and politics, the philosophical case for human rights against one alternative, religion, has yet to be made.

No Human Rights for Jews?  Elena Bonner,  Sakharov Center.  Speaking in May 2009 to the Freedom Forum in Oslo, the late Elena Bonner denounced the blatant anti-Semitism of her fellow human-rights activists.  SAVE

Human Rights Watch vs. Israel: An Inside Story  Ben Birnbaum,  New Republic.  A tale of bias and bigotry in the human-rights organization that is a major force in international politics.  SAVE

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2011: A Year in Books

The holidays are over, the coffee-table books have all been unwrapped and set aside, and winter isn't going anywhere for a while. In short, it's time to settle in for some good reading. The literary critic D. G. Myers here presents the 38 best Jewish books of 2011, all of which merit your attention.

2010: A Year in Books  D.G. Myers,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  From the popular to the scholarly, a reader's and buyer's guide to 34 of the best books of 2010.  SAVE

Retrieving American Jewish Fiction  D.G. Myers,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  A historical symposium of some neglected classics, and an introduction to the avot and imahot of American Jewish writing.  SAVE

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Jerusalem and Athens

The holiday of Hanukkah is, in part, a celebration of the victory of traditionalist Jews over Jews bent on assimilation to Greek Seleucid culture.  As such, the second-century B.C.E. Maccabean revolt has resonated throughout the ages not only as a key historical contest, but as a wellspring for interpretations of the divergent views of the Hebrews and the Greeks. 

Hebraism and Hellenism Reconsidered  Louis H. Feldman,  Judaism.  For almost every supposed difference between the two systems of thought, one can point to exceptions or actual similarities; yet certain very real divisions remain.  SAVE

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