Who is a Jew: Conversations Not Conclusions

Journalist Hyman has gathered the voices of more than 35 religious leaders, including Dr. Eugene J. Fisher, the associate director of the Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Jim Sibley, coordinator of Jewish ministries of the Southern Baptist Convention, to address the question of Jewish identity. Rabbis from the full range of Jewish traditions in Israel, Europe and the United States offer their own answers to questions like, ""Why is it crucial for Jews to establish the definition of Jewish identity?"" and ""What impact does Israel's answer to the question Who is a Jew? have on Jews in the rest of the world?"" Many of the writers assert that there exists no collective Jewish identity that can be regulated in any fashion, while others contend that elements such as the existence of the Israeli state as the place to which all Jews will one day return or the religious force of halakhic observance are the hallmarks of Jewish identity. Hyman's volume is a sober and balanced collection of voices struggling to come to terms with the fraught question of Jewish identity. (June)