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Jews and Words

Jews and Words

Israeli novelist Amos Oz and his daughter, an Israeli historian, Fania Oz-Salzberger team up in this collection of four essays regarding the relationship between the Jewish people and the written word. Their source material is as old as Judaism itself, but they approach the way words are valued, understood and debated in ways that were new to me. The thesis of the book is that for Jews, as they write on the opening page, “ours is not a bloodline but a textline” (1). Jewish people find their unity and pride in identity in the written words of Jews generations before them; the Ozs demonstrate that Jewish heritage can be found within stories. The idea of a “bookish” culture propels them to unpack the consequences of what the emphasis on the written word and dissent means for Jewish people in the diaspora today. The father-daughter dynamic of the authorship shines through strongly, and the combination of story-telling and academia works particularly well. The essay on “Vocal Women” stood out to me, as a deft combination of humor and real textual analysis that navigated Jewish feminism, Israeli politics, and women in Judaism. One quote that I loved, and I believe sums up the nature of the essay collection, can be found in the “Vocal Women” chapter:

“Throughout the Diaspora—by which we mean diasporic space and diasporic time—being Jewish depended on spoken words, and increasingly on written texts. Women have no inferiority when it comes to words. Even the Talmud conceded that ‘ten measures of speech descended to the world, and the women took nine.’ If this is meant to be an insult, it is working the opposite way.” (96)

The combination of the Talmudic reference, the historical context and the aside to outspoken Jewish women today is an expertly crafted bit that is consistent throughout the book. In an interview with NPR, Amos Oz explains that the book is “meant to propose to Jews in Israel, in America and everywhere — and it means to propose to non-Jews — to relate to a wonderful line of texts, full of wisdom, full of humor, full of inventiveness, full of chutzpah.” Readers, in Oz’s mind, are therefore anyone who is interested in learning further about Jewish heritage through words. I would highly recommend it. Rating: ★★★★★

I, Iago

I, Iago

The Man in High Castle

The Man in High Castle