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Title details for Am I a Jew? by Theodore Ross - Available

Am I a Jew?

Lost Tribes, Lapsed Jews, and One Man's Search for Himself

by Theodore Ross
Steve Blane
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
What makes someone Jewish?
Theodore Ross was nine years old when he moved with his mother from New York City to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Once there, his mother decided, for both personal and spiritual reasons, to have her family pretend not to be Jewish. He went to an Episcopal school, where he studied the New Testament, sang in the choir, and even took Communion. Later, as an adult, he wondered: Am I still Jewish?
Seeking an answer, Ross traveled around the country and to Israel, visiting a wide variety of Jewish communities. From "Crypto-Jews" in New Mexico and secluded ultra-devout Orthodox towns in upstate New York to a rare Classical Reform congregation in Kansas City, Ross tries to understand himself by experiencing the diversity of Judaism.
Quirky and self-aware, introspective and impassioned, Am I a Jew? is a story about the universal struggle to define a relationship (or lack thereof) with religion.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    October 23, 2012

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781469054520
      • File size: 235793 KB
      • Duration: 08:11:14

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      July 30, 2012
      In 1982, when Men’s Journal editor Ross was nine, he moved with his divorced mother to a small Mississippi town. She instructed him to hide his Jewishness and to say he was Unitarian. By the time he was an adult, Ross had developed a furtive fascination with Judaism and continually asked himself if he was a Jew and what it really meant to be a Jew. His quest took him around the country, sampling a variety of ways of being Jewish. He met a Catholic priest from Albuquerque, N.Mex., with a genetic marker linking him to the Israelite priesthood. Ross visits “Sukkah City,” which draws 100,000 to New York’s Union Square for an architectural design contest for a ritual “booth.” Ross joins a frenzied all-male circle of dancers at an ultra-Orthodox Brooklyn wedding and visits a Reform temple in Kansas City, Mo., that’s ousting its rabbi for bringing back long-abandoned traditions like bar mitzvahs. This effort lacks the depth, clarity, and originality of the best books on Jewish spiritual journeys like Paul Cowan’s 1982 An Orphan in History, and Ross’s kvetching about the loss of his heritage feels contrived. His encounters with various Jews nevertheless offer moments that are perceptive and provocative.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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