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A Heartfelt And Troubling Challenge To American Jews

JL;DR SUMMARY Gary Rosenblatt reviews Joshua Leifer's controversial book, "Tablets Shattered: The End of an American Jewish Century and the Future of Jewish Life," which critiques American Jewish communities, particularly their Zionist affiliations and the evolving societal values over the last century. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

ZionismCriticismAmerican Jewish LifeLiberalismOrthodoxyJoshua LeiferJewish Book AwardTablets ShatteredAlternative Jewish Movements

Places mentioned

Lakewood, New Jersey, United States
"Most surprisingly, Leifer devotes a lengthy chapter to what he calls the Orthodox alternative, namely the charedi, or ultra-Orthodox, world that he came to learn about first-hand from his wife’s large family in Lakewood, NJ."
Brooklyn, New York, United States
"Leifer learned just how toxic his book’s themes are when the planned launch of Tablets Shattered at a progressive book store in Brooklyn last August turned into a widely reported fracas that underscored the deep divisions over Zionism, and what it even means."
Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv District, Israel
"He was raised in an observant Conservative home in New Jersey, attended a Conservative Jewish day school, studied in Israel during his post-high school gap year, lives in Tel Aviv with his charedi-raised wife, and recently told an interviewer that he’d love to spend a year studying Talumd in an Israeli yeshiva."

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