What Shall I Do With This People?: Jews and the Fractious Politics of Judaism

The distinguished Jewish historian Salo Baron once disparaged the "lachrymose theory" of Jewish history because it emphasized tragic events and a sorry trail of tears. What might he have said about Viorst's reading of Jewish history as an unending chronicle of conflict among Jews? Beginning with the dispute in Exodus when many Israelites questioned Moses and created a golden calf as an idol to worship, Jews have wrangled with one other throughout the ages. Viorst traces the record of these struggles from biblical times to the present, concluding with the sharp arguments in Israel between the Ultra-Orthodox and other Israelis. He sees the 1995 assassination of Prime Minister Rabin by a religious zealot as the lowest point in conflict among Jews, and he wonders whether or not this murder signals such irreconcilable differences within the Jewish community as to threaten Israel's survival. This book should be read alongside Samuel Freedman's Jew vs. Jew, which describes contemporary controversies among American Jews. Freedman shares Viorst's view that internal disputes portend a gloomy future. Viorst's lucid review of Jewish history as a saga of dissension is most effective, though highly selective. His analysis and his presentation benefit from his impressive credentials as a journalist who worked for many years in the Middle East and who has written a dozen books. Viorst is no unbiased observer; he makes clear his strong opposition to Jewish religious extremism, thus inevitably contributing to the internal discord he so vigorously decries. (Oct.)