Explores the full diversity of Black Jews, including bi-racial Jews of both matrilineal and patrilineal descent; adoptees; black converts to Judaism; and Black Hebrews and Israelites, who trace their Jewish roots to Africa and challenge the dominant western paradigm of Jews as white and of European descent. The book showcases the lives of Black Jews, demonstrating that racial ascription has been shaping Jewish selfhood for centuries. It reassesses the boundaries between race and ethnicity, offering insight into how ethnicity can be understood only in relation to racialization and the one-drop rule. Within this context, Black Jewish individuals strive to assert their dual identities and find acceptance within their communities. Putting to rest the notion that Jews are white and the Black Jews are therefore a contradiction, the volume argues that we cannot pigeonhole Black Hebrews and Israelites as exotic, militant, and nationalistic sects outside the boundaries of mainstream Jewish thought and community life. it spurs us to consider the significance of the growing population of self-identified Black Jews and its implications for the future of American Jewry.

Dan Munteno (this is a pseudonym) was born in Romania, into a middle-class secular Jewish family. He lived through the unpleasantness of the communist regime until age 17 years, when the whole family emigrated to Israel in the 70's. After finishing high school, he went to the military, then left Israel for medical studies in Italy. He returned to Israel for specialist training and was later sent to Africa, on an internationally-supported Israeli medical mission. Since 1991 he lives and works in South Africa and was naturalized a South African citizen in 1994. His hobbies are long-distance trips to the surrounding countries of Swaziland and Mocambique, and collecting Southern African paintings. Dan Munteno is divorced, his 23-years old daughter is a student in Jerusalem and his 20-year old son is still in the military. " This is the power of memory combined with an expressive, almost journalistic style. Dan Munteno is able to convey his feelings of hope for a better, united world, and to share his joy of living even in times of sorrow. Very pleasant to read" Concetta De Vivo Dukes, lawyer, Johannesburg "This book comes from the heart. The stories, written in an unpretentious narrative, present ordinary people who behave unexpectedly in challenging moments of their lives. I have enjoyed them a lot. They brought tears to my eyes, as well as laughter. Because after all the differences between us are lifted, we connect with our souls and discover joy and peace." Mirjana Lovric, physician, Boksburg, South Africa " I have enjoyed reading this work. In each short story I felt like having a glimpse of people, events and countries, through a window that was opened only for a fraction of time. The personages were real in their life-time, and they are real in my mind ." Emmanuelle Kabamba, physician, preacher and writer, Boksburg, S Africa "Munteno's book is fun, witty and easy to read. I have "traveled" with it along the Mediterranean Sea toward South Africa, "met" different people, customs and faiths, and enjoyed most of them" Tracy Matthews, medical technologist, Boksburg, South Africa

Shlomo Sand was born in 1946, in a displaced person’s camp in Austria, to Jewish parents; the family later migrated to Palestine. As a young man, Sand came to question his Jewish identity, even that of a “secular Jew.” With this meditative and thoughtful mixture of essay and personal recollection, he articulates the problems at the center of modern Jewish identity. How I Stopped Being a Jew discusses the negative effects of the Israeli exploitation of the “chosen people” myth and its “holocaust industry.” Sand criticizes the fact that, in the current context, what “Jewish” means is, above all, not being Arab and reflects on the possibility of a secular, non-exclusive Israeli identity, beyond the legends of Zionism.

This book is a collection of letters from a religious Jew in Israel to a Christian friend in Barcelona on life as an Orthodox Jew. Equal parts lighthearted and insightful, it's a thorough and entertaining introduction to the basic concepts of Judaism.

Winner of the 2021 National Jewish Book Award for Con­tem­po­rary Jew­ish Life and Prac­tice Finalist for the 2021 Kirkus Prize in Nonfiction A New York Times Notable Book of the Year A Wall Street Journal, Chicago Public Library, Publishers Weekly, and Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year A startling and profound exploration of how Jewish history is exploited to comfort the living. Renowned and beloved as a prizewinning novelist, Dara Horn has also been publishing penetrating essays since she was a teenager. Often asked by major publications to write on subjects related to Jewish culture—and increasingly in response to a recent wave of deadly antisemitic attacks—Horn was troubled to realize what all of these assignments had in common: she was being asked to write about dead Jews, never about living ones. In these essays, Horn reflects on subjects as far-flung as the international veneration of Anne Frank, the mythology that Jewish family names were changed at Ellis Island, the blockbuster traveling exhibition Auschwitz, the marketing of the Jewish history of Harbin, China, and the little-known life of the "righteous Gentile" Varian Fry. Throughout, she challenges us to confront the reasons why there might be so much fascination with Jewish deaths, and so little respect for Jewish lives unfolding in the present. Horn draws upon her travels, her research, and also her own family life—trying to explain Shakespeare’s Shylock to a curious ten-year-old, her anger when swastikas are drawn on desks in her children’s school, the profound perspective offered by traditional religious practice and study—to assert the vitality, complexity, and depth of Jewish life against an antisemitism that, far from being disarmed by the mantra of "Never forget," is on the rise. As Horn explores the (not so) shocking attacks on the American Jewish community in recent years, she reveals the subtler dehumanization built into the public piety that surrounds the Jewish past—making the radical argument that the benign reverence we give to past horrors is itself a profound affront to human dignity.

"This essay, originating in a speech delivered in 1956 at an Israel Independence Day celebration, discusses the religious significance of the creation of the State of Israel and the obligation that its existence imposes upon Jews."--BOOK JACKET.