Howard Lovy

Tag: Howard Lovy for Publishers Weekly

Publishers Weekly is kind enough to allow me to interview some great Jewish authors and publishers for their Religion section. This is a fun gig and I’m happy to have the opportunity. Through these authors, I explore issues ranging from the nature and history of antisemitism to Jewish views on God (turns out, we have many opinions on that. Who knew?) to what it means to be an affiliated Jew. This page links to my work for Publishers Weekly. Stop by now and then for updates. — Howard Lovy

  • Ask 72 Jews About God, Get Infinite Opinions

    Ask 72 Jews About God, Get Infinite Opinions

    To study Judaism is almost like studying physics. Everything seems to follow straightforward rules, until you take a closer and closer look and you see those bizarre quantum effects. Jews have no pope, no central authority, so not only does practice of Judaism vary greatly, so does the Jewish concept of God.

    Now, add in the Jewish philosophers (as opposed to theologians), and the Jewish concept of God can vary even more. So, what is the Jewish concept of God, exactly? That’s the heavy question for which I sought answers when I interviewed Andrew Pessin, professor of philosophy at Connecticut College.

    He had just finished a book called The Jewish God Question: What Jewish Thinkers Have Said about God, the Book, the People, and the Land. He put together a set of questions using different voices throughout history—everyone from the secular Zionist leader Theodor Herzl to Chabad’s Rabbi Sholom Dov Baer Schneersohn.

    The result was a great collection of writings from Jewish thinkers throughout history.

    In this article for Publishers Weekly, we discussed what Jews think about when they think about God. But, here is the “writer’s cut” version, with more questions and answers than PW can fit. Thank you to Andrew for a great interview.

    Howard Lovy: Everything seems to follow rules when you look at Judaism, but the closer you look the more chaotic everything seems. What was your goal in putting this book together?

    Andrew Pessin: One is the selfish goal of, I wanted to learn this material. I realized I was becoming an expert on medieval Catholic theology, but it started occurring to me I knew almost nothing about my own Jewish background and heritage. When you’re reading Western philosophy, the Jews are largely excluded from the canon. So I had this kind of awakening a few years back where I said, “What were the Jews saying during all these centuries that I’ve been studying?”

    The second is over the past 10 years or so I’ve developed a general interest in spreading the wealth of philosophy to nonprofessional philosophers. I would write a scholarly article on Descartes, and 10 people would read it and, as I like to say, eight of them would ignore it and two would criticize it.

    Howard Lovy: When Jews think about God, do they think about a different kind of entity than does a Christian or a Muslim?

    Andrew Pessin: That’s a really deep question and it presupposes that there’s some single unified notion of God within each of those three religions. They have really extremely different conceptions of the divine being within each religion. And what I’m discovering — and this is kind of exhilarating for me — is that a lot of these Jewish thinkers end up not only disagreeing among themselves about the nature of the divine being, but end up saying exactly the same sorts of things the Christians and Muslims have said in their disagreements.

    A lot of these Jewish thinkers end up not only disagreeing among themselves about the nature of the divine being, but end up saying exactly the same sorts of things the Christians and Muslims have said in their disagreements.

    Howard Lovy: Do you approach this subject as a philosopher or a theologist? What is the difference?

    Andrew Pessin: Great question. The distinction would be based on the idea that for the philosopher, there are no constraints on what he or she thinks other than sensory experience, historical experience, and reason. In theology, they start off with certain givens and those givens might be, for example, there’s a scripture and that scripture is accepted to be divine in nature. It’s sort of roughly the distinction between reason and revelation, where the philosopher is guided by reason and the theologist — not being irrational or anti-rational — has an additional constraint in his or her reasoning.

    Howard Lovy: You put together a really ambitious set of questions through these different voices throughout history. What is God? Is there life after death? Is there a soul? Why are we here? After reading this, will I get a better idea of the answers?

    Andrew Pessin: I wasn’t attempting to answer those questions. I was attempting to raise them because in the history of Jewish thinkers, these are among the major questions that they grapple with. You know the famous adage: you ask two Jews, get three opinions. As I like to say about this book, I asked 72 Jewish thinkers and got more opinions than I could actually count. I leave it to the reader to decide in the end.

    Howard Lovy: Will this book answer questions about what Jews believe about X, Y, or Z?

    Andrew Pessin: It may not give you the definitive answers. You’ll notice that even though Maimonides was certainly the towering figure of the Middle Ages, and arguably the towering figure in the whole history of Jewish philosophy, that doesn’t stop people from disagreeing with him on absolutely every single issue. Maimonides is not the pope and you can quote me on that.

    Howard Lovy: Who was the best writer?

    Andrew Pessin: Abraham Isaac Kook, the first official state rabbi in Palestine, is just a beautiful poetic mystical writer. It’s so very challenging to figure out exactly what he’s saying and to put it into comprehensible English. I did try to do that in one short chapter in the book, but reading him is really stimulating in a kind of mystical way. So that’s what comes to mind for me.

  • Author Says Enough Already with Tikkun Olam, or Healing the World; That’s Not Judaism

    Author Says Enough Already with Tikkun Olam, or Healing the World; That’s Not Judaism

    The first interview I did as Publishers Weekly’s Senior Jewish Correspondent (I just invented that title. I freelance for PW on Jewish issues.) was with conservative author Jonathan Neumann. He argues that Tikkun Olam, or “repairing the world,” is a dangerous hijacking of what was once a minor liturgical metaphor and turning it into a call for liberal politics.

    The author is English and he critiques American Jews’ perspective of Jewish values, including Tikkun Olam, which he says has redirected the Jewish community toward liberalism. He thinks this is a bad thing.

    My own opinions on this were immaterial to the story. But here’s what I think about Tikkun Olam (which has definitely reached peak saturation in cultural Judaism). Judaism has stayed alive and relevant for millennia because of its ability to adapt with the times. Tikkun Olam was a little-known Talmudic metaphor before progressive Jews took it as a central tenet.

    Tikkun Olam: Just a Minor Metaphor?

    One generation’s minor liturgical metaphor can be another’s most-visible trappings of religious fervor. The Haredim base some of their dress and behavior on single Torah passages that could arguably even be metaphors not meant to be taken literally. So it is with Tikkun Olam.

    I realize that this is probably an inadequate, largely semantic, defense of Tikkun Olam. I’m still working it through. It comes down to how every single Jewish thinker of every denomination has told me in multiple interviews over 35 years that “cultural Judaism” is not sustainable. Yet, still, it survives.

    One generation’s minor liturgical metaphor can be another’s most-visible trappings of religious fervor. The Haredim base some of their dress and behavior on single Torah passages that could arguably even be metaphors not meant to be taken literally. So it is with Tikkun Olam.

    Is Social Justice Judaism Sustainable?

    There have been generations of Jews sustaining their Jewishness on social justice — if not specifically by that name, then in how they live their lives and careers they choose. So, is rabbinic Judaism  needed for Jewish values? When I was at JTA, I used to write stories about alleged lack of affiliation of US Jews. But what I found was a great amount of devotion to salad-bar Judaism. I never knew why this was always explained to me as a bad thing.

    During my wilderness years, those 16 years between when I quit JTA and stopped writing about Judaism and when I picked it up again in 2016, I was still very grounded in Jewish thought even as I went through various crises. I’m not the only one. I’ll write more on this in future.

    On a side note: For this story, I also interviewed Adam Bellow, editorial director St. Martin’s Press imprint All Points Books. Adam is the son of one of my literary heroes, Saul Bellow.

    Here’s an excerpt and link to the story.

    Author Asks, is Repairing the World Ripping Judaism Apart?

    “I’m not trying to make a partisan argument. It’s more a question of [are] these politics, and particularly the more liberal, the more radical politics we see within the Tikkun Olam movement, justified by biblical and rabbinic texts in the way that is claimed? I would suggest that they’re not.”

    Read my interview with Jonathan Neumann in Publishers Weekly.

  • Comrade Stalin Met His Match With Author Arkady Polishchuk, Former Jewish Refusnik

    Comrade Stalin Met His Match With Author Arkady Polishchuk, Former Jewish Refusnik

    Arkady Polishchuk, a former Soviet Jewish Refusnik, reminds me of my grandfather, with his Old World sense of irony and humor, mixed with the slight pathos of age and long suffering.

    I first came into contact with Arkady when I interviewed him for this Publishers Weekly feature I wrote about him when he released his previous book, Dancing on Thin Ice: Travails of a Russian Dissenter (Doppelhouse Press, July 2018). I was impressed not only by the depth and breadth of his experiences as a witness to history, but the compelling way in which he tells the stories of his life—with both wit and wisdom.

    I was privileged to have received an early draft of a few chapters of his next book, As I Was Burying Comrade Stalin. Again, he not only made history come alive through excellent storytelling, he presents this history from a unique perspective. There are very few living people who can relate this story of life under communist rule—first being taught to worship Stalin, then slowly, as he came of age, realizing that he had been lied to all his life. We are there with him, experiencing these historic moments from Arkady’s point of view.

    Arkady and I have corresponded a great deal since then. I hope to be his editor for when he finds a publisher for Comrade Stalin. He’s a great guy to talk to. Humble, but with a sharp wit.

    Meanwhile, please enjoy this feature I wrote about Arkady for Publishers Weekly.

    A Jewish Refusnik Who Fights for Evangelical Rights? Only in Russia

    How did a Soviet Jewish Refusnik, raised an atheist communist, come to be a powerful voice on behalf of Russian evangelical Christians? No, this isn’t one of those “walked into a bar” jokes. It’s a true story of Cold War bravery and danger told in Dancing on Thin Ice: Travails of a Russian Dissenter(Doppelhouse Press, July) by Arkady Polishchuk.

    Read the whole article here.

    You can also read more of my Publishers Weekly work here.

  • Rabbi Firestone Opens My Eyes on Holocaust Trauma Inherited by Future Generations

    Rabbi Firestone Opens My Eyes on Holocaust Trauma Inherited by Future Generations

    My Publishers Weekly interview with Rabbi Tirzah Firestone was an eye-opener to me inherited Holocaust trauma because it helped me fill in the gaps on why anti-Semitism anywhere in the world has such an impact on me. When I read about anti-Jewish violence or bigotry, I do feel like it’s happening to me, personally, even if it’s halfway around the world to people I do not know.

    In our interview, we talk about how descendants of Holocaust survivors inherited the trauma, and how we can channel it productively. This hit home for me.

    The phenomenon is real—kids, grandkids of Holocaust survivors suffer from extreme stress.

    The solution is to do what many Jews already do—channel that pain into easing the suffering of others. Yes, she used the words “Tikkun Olam,” which causes many an eye-roll these days because it is an overused expression. But, you know, I have no problem with the idea of repairing the world and making it a part of your own private Judaism. I’ll explore Tikkun Olam more in future posts.

    For Firestone, though, doing things for other people, picking “Jewish” professions like medicine, social work, is all part of healing from this genetic memory of suffering.

    “The main point is that that we can’t change past events, but we can change the outcome of those events. And we can’t change tragic history, but we can choose the legacy that we want to pass on,” Firestone said.

    Read the whole interview, linked below.

    Rabbi Examines Inherited Holocaust Trauma

    In August 2017, when neo-Nazis rallied in Charlottesville, Va., Rabbi Tirzah Firestone received calls from her worried congregants in Boulder, Co. who, perhaps for the first time in their lives, felt personally victimized by Nazis. They couldn’t sleep at night. It seemed to them it was happening all over again. More here

  • From Lipstadt, I Learned How Antisemitism is the World’s Oldest Conspiracy Theory

    From Lipstadt, I Learned How Antisemitism is the World’s Oldest Conspiracy Theory

    antisemitism
    I learned a great deal from my Publishers Weekly interview with Holocaust scholar Deborah Lipstadt. When I talked to her, it was just before the 2019 Women’s March, and Jews were trying to decide whether to ignore the antisemitism of the movement’s leaders and attend, or skip the march entirely. Deborah was strongly on the side of not attending.
     
    She was promoting her latest book, Antisemitism: Here and Now. We talked about why this ancient hatred is rearing its ugly head again, and how antisemitism is like herpes. “I think of antisemitism as the herpes in society; it keeps asserting itself at times of tension, at times of dislocation, and that’s one of the reasons we’re seeing it.”
     

    ‘Left Wing’ and ‘Right Wing’ Antisemitism?

    Most of all, though, Deborah connected the dots in many ways for me on how anti-Semitism is the world’s oldest conspiracy theory. The Holocaust scholar helped me realize that there is fundamentally, no difference between “left wing” and “right wing” antisemitism, since they all draw upon the same mythology of secret Jewish power, money, control, and dual loyalties. This is why if Israel went away or if Zionism never existed, so-called “left-wing anti-Semitism” would still be around. Anti-Zionism is the excuse, the drawing-room and academic-conference respectability the antisemitism virus feeds upon. But it could always find something else
     
    Deborah also allowed me to use the entire interview in my Emet – Truth podcast. I begin with my own first antisemitic experience from my early childhood in Georgia. Then Deborah and I discuss a range of topics, from the Women’s March to Alice Walker to the roots of antisemitism and what we can do about it.
     
    You can read my Publishers Weekly interview with Deborah Lipstadt here, or click on the arrow below for the full half-hour interview.
     

    Listen to the Podcast

     
  • In Search of the American Jewish Future

    In Search of the American Jewish Future

    Jack WertheimerIn an article for Publishers Weekly, I asked Jack Wertheimer, author of The New American Judaism: How Jews Practice Their Religion Today, whether the current rise in anti-Semitism is leading to increased Jewish religious involvement. His answer did not make the final edit in my piece, but here’s what he said about how anti-Semitism impacts the American Jewish future.

    “Synagogues have served as gathering places at times of stress and Jews who otherwise might not attend on a Friday night or a Sabbath morning do attend when there’s some major crisis. Does that translate into ongoing Jewish religious involvement? I haven’t seen evidence of that.”

    He may be right, but Wertheimer was measuring specifically Jewish religious involvement and not this feeling of cultural solidarity that the rise in anti-Semitism has created between Jews. Most religious Jews dismiss “cultural Judaism” as not sustainable. I am not so certain.

    My complicated relationship with Judaism is handled in my memoir-in-progress, but I’m searching for how others connect. And I’ve interviewed many Jewish thinkers over the years, and most of them say that this notion of Judaism without God or synagogue is not sustainable. I’ve been told this by rabbis of all denominations for 35 years. Yet cultural Judaism endures.

    As for synagogue-based Judaism, Wertheimer seems more positive, since Jews previously on the fringes have been forcing synagogues to change and adapt for them. I know I’m a little out of date, but I remember how attending B’nai Jeshurun on New York’s Upper West Side was almost akin to going to a Broadway show. I’ll have more to say about “BJ” later, since it appears in my memoir, but here’s a link to my full feature on Jack Wertheimer.

    The American Jewish Future May Be Found in the Margins

    Pinning down how Jews in the United States practice their religion can be tricky, since there are so many ways they define themselves. So, is there a way to corral the disparate pieces into a full picture of American Jews? Professor of American Jewish History at the Jewish Theological Seminary Jack Wertheimer says there is, and it’s precisely this diversity and constant state of innovation that gives him some hope in a future for U.S. Jewry. More here.

    Longer Version of Wertheimer Feature

    Or, you can read the unedited, 1,140-word version at this link from my old Patreon page, which goes a bit more into Wertheimer’s thoughts on whether the current rise in anti-Semitism is bringing American Jews back into synagogues. He also talks about Tikkun Olam as a phenomenon among progressive Jews and whether that translates into Jewish religious commitment. You might be surprised by his answers. More here.