Best Contemporary Jewish Writing

Michael Lerner selected poetry, essays and fiction for Best Contemporary Jewish Writing because they connect to or reflect "the fundamental Jewish project of healing and transformation, both personal transformation (tikkun atzmi) and healing of the world (tikkun olam). Lerner, founder of Tikkun magazine, selects work from a wide array of authors (feminist poet Adrienne Rich, novelist Phillip Roth, U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman, Al Gore adviser Naomi Wolf) writing about a wide variety of subjects (Steve Greenberg's "Gay and Orthodox," Benny Morris's "The New Historiography of the Palestinian Struggle"). The essays, organized by topic, explore identity, spirituality, scripture, the Holocaust, conflicts in Israel, and Jewish culture. Taken as a whole, this volume admirably integrates the personal and political concerns of contemporary Judaism, and provides something for just about everyone to agree with--and, perhaps more importantly, disagree with. --Michael Joseph Gross