A luminous collection that locates spiritual fulfillment in a rapt engagement with earthly problems.
Progressive social values sit at the heart of Jewish ethics, according to this heartfelt anthology.
The social justice NGO Women of Reform Judaism presents poems, songs, prayers, haiku, essays, and memories that examine sociopolitical issues through the lens of Jewish faith. The subjects run the gamut of progressive causes, including feminism and abortion rights; environmentalism and climate change; longings for a peaceful resolution to the Gaza war and the return of Israeli hostages; inclusion of marginalized gender and racial identities; the ongoing battle against antisemitism; and the perennial duty to, as Sherri Feuer’s militant poem “It’s Time” admonishes, “Stand up, speak out, take action / Protest, scream, and cry /…. Be boisterous and act boldly / Don’t just question why.” The contributors write in a wide range of styles and registers. Susan D. Pittelman indicts the gender pay gap with blunt statistical wonkery: “In 2002, women earned eighty cents to the [male] dollar. Progress? Yes. But in 2022, women earned only eighty-two cents for every dollar earned by men…Are we standing still or moving forward?” Gloria Tetewsky’s plangent, keening “Bilhah and Zilpah” explores the plight of unvalued women through the Torah story of Jacob’s concubines: “Was there that yearning in Bilhah and Zilpah for a share of his love? / A voice that said, ‘Notice me, I am a woman!’” Denise Sherer Jacobson delivers a tart, unsentimental take on living with cerebral palsy: “I don’t need pity or to be told I’m ‘such an inspiration!’ / Those words don’t lift my spirits / or help me feel accepted. / They just make me feel so little is expected of me.” And Rhoda Turitz London recites a limpid, tender kaddish for her mother, who led a life of social commitment: “She is a cherished memory: / An educator of minority children, / A role model for her three daughters, / A quiet seeker of justice, / A Jewish mother.” Readers will find here a stirring evocation of Reform Judaism’s moral core in a humble but tenacious mission to repair the world.
A luminous collection that locates spiritual fulfillment in a rapt engagement with earthly problems.Pub Date: April 1, 2025
ISBN: 9780881236606
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Central Conference of American Rabbis Press
Review Posted Online: April 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Cogent, well-timed ideas for meeting today’s biggest challenges.
Helping liberals get out of their own way.
Klein, a New York Times columnist, and Thompson, an Atlantic staffer, lean to the left, but they aren’t interrogating the usual suspects. Aware that many conservatives have no interest in their opinions, the authors target their own side’s “pathologies.” Why do red states greenlight the kind of renewable energy projects that often languish in blue states? Why does liberal California have the nation’s most severe homelessness and housing affordability crises? One big reason: Liberal leadership has ensnared itself in a web of well-intentioned yet often onerous “goals, standards, and rules.” This “procedural kludge,” partially shaped by lawyers who pioneered a “democracy by lawsuit” strategy in the 1960s, threatens to stymie key breakthroughs. Consider the anti-pollution laws passed after World War II. In the decades since, homeowners’ groups in liberal locales have cited such statutes in lawsuits meant to stop new affordable housing. Today, these laws “block the clean energy projects” required to tackle climate change. Nuclear energy is “inarguably safer” than the fossil fuel variety, but because Washington doesn’t always “properly weigh risk,” it almost never builds new reactors. Meanwhile, technologies that may cure disease or slash the carbon footprint of cement production benefit from government support, but too often the grant process “rewards caution and punishes outsider thinking.” The authors call this style of governing “everything-bagel liberalism,” so named because of its many government mandates. Instead, they envision “a politics of abundance” that would remake travel, work, and health. This won’t happen without “changing the processes that make building and inventing so hard.” It’s time, then, to scrutinize everything from municipal zoning regulations to the paperwork requirements for scientists getting federal funding. The authors’ debut as a duo is very smart and eminently useful.
Cogent, well-timed ideas for meeting today’s biggest challenges.Pub Date: March 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781668023488
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Avid Reader Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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