A Jew in America: My Life and a People's Struggle for Identity

by Arthur Hertzberg

Book Overview

"I became an American by refusing to assimilate, writes Arthur Hertzberg in this long-awaited memoir. Throughout his life this world-renowned rabbi, activist, author, historian, public servant, and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0062517120
• ISBN13: 9780062517128
• Release Date: October 2003
• Publisher: HarperOne
• Length: 480 Pages
• Weight: 1.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Arthur Hertzberg

A Jew In America: My Life and a People's Struggle for Identity By Arthur HertzbergSan Francisco: Harper (October, 2002)Review by Elliot FeinThe late Howard Cosell, the great radio and television broadcaster at ABC Sports, used to pride himself on "telling it like it is," on saying in public on the air the absolute truth about individuals and events in the world of sports. For over six decades, Arthur Hertzberg has been "telling it like it is" about people and events in the world of contemporary Jewish life in North America, in Israel, and throughout the world. Without the distinct Brooklyn nasal tone accent that made Cosell famous, but in a distinct voice all his own, Hertzberg has been saying and writing the absolute truth in his long and distinguished career as a rabbi, as a university professor and scholar, and as a CEO leader of various national and international Jewish communal organizations. His book, A Jew in America: My Life and a People's Struggle for Identity, an autobiography on the famous people that he has met (usually on a first name basis) and the events that he has experienced (often as a first hand participant) is a good read because history has often proved his predictions right. Soon after the 1967 Six Day War, Hertzberg was one of the first voices (perhaps the first American Jewish voice) that warned of the danger Israel would face if it did not return immediately most of the territories it obtained to its Arab neighbors. Hertzberg prophesized that it would rip the moral, democratic, and Jewish soul of the country if Israel attempted to keep the West Bank and Gaza and subsequently put itself in the position of occupying a growing and hostile Palestinian Arab refugee population. Hertzberg was one of the first to fulminate against the theology that has developed among many Orthodox Jews since 1967 that the outcome of the Six Day War sets the stage for the onslaught of the world's messianic redemption. For a small country that is struggling to live among, not against, the nations of the world, Hertzberg saw from its inception how this nationalistic and fundamentalist interpretation of contemporary events could (still) easily alienate Israel among the nations of the world and lead the contemporary state on a future suicidal path. In the early 1970's, Hertzberg was part of a contingent of American Jewish leaders who met in Israel with the then Prime Minister, Golda Meir. Golda, from a recent visit with President Nixon in the United States, wanted to talk with members of this contingent about race relations in America. She wanted to express her concern about militant African American leaders publicly articulating separatist, nationalistic, and anti-Semitic attitudes after the assassination of Martin Luther King and the decline of the Civil Rights Movement. Hertzberg responded in this public discussion to her concern by expressing his own about Israel. He warned the Prime Minister that a `Black Panther' problem of their own was de