Choosing Survival: Strategies for a Jewish Future

by Bernard Susser and Charles S. Liebman

Book Overview

Throughout history, the persecutions of the Jewish people have been central to their identity and to the cohesion of their religion and cultural heritage. But now, with the success of the Jewish State of Israel and the prosperity of Jews in the United States, the collective sufferings that have forged the Jewish identity are disappearing. The compelling question Bernard Susser and Charles Liebman ask in Choosing Survival is: Will...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195127455
• ISBN13: 9780195127454
• Release Date: June 1999
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.4" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Raising the question is in itself of great value

The question of how the Jewish people are to ensure their own survival is one which troubles most concerned Jews. On the one hand there is the Divine assurance and promise that the Jewish people will always continue to be. This should be in itself enough, in one sense. On the other hand there is the Shoah, the murderous destruction of more than one- third of the Jewish people in an effort to wholly destroy them. When the authors undertook this work in 1999 the wave of increased anti- Semitism ( often disguised as Anti- Zionism) which has been building especially in the Islamic world in the past five years did not really have the strength it has today. Thus they could look outside traditional thoughts of Jews as a people of affliction. I also do not believe that focusing on that particular point of suffering is the wisest basis for survival but the fact is that the Jews are singled out, that the nation of Israel is the only one in the world which many other nations aim to destroy. In other words while I understand the strategies spoken of in this book, especially the learning from Orthodox experience, I think the first priority in regarding Jewish survival must be in looking at the threats today facing the heart of the Jewish people, the state of Israel. Nonetheless I would heartily recommend this work , a work done by two devoted caring Jews with deep understanding of Jewish society in modern times.