In new book, journalist Joshua Leifer offers a scathing take on American Judaism
Top Stories Tamfitronics (RNS) — In journalist Joshua Leifer’s new book, a sweeping historical account of American Judaism, is an impassioned indictment of a fractured and contentious religious tradition. His central charge is that Judaism is hampered by its embrace of Zionism, which has become a substitute for the faith itself.It was therefore ironic that last week, a Brooklyn bookstore canceled a book talk with Leifer, where he was slated to discuss “Tablets Shattered: The End of an American Jewish Century and the Future of Jewish Life,” with a prominent Reform rabbi. The reason for the cancellation? The rabbi’s professed Zionism. (The book talk was later rescheduled and took place earlier this week at another venue.)In his book, which spans an entire century, Leifer, 30, now a Ph.D. candidate in history at Yale University, describes...
