Reddit reviews The New Joys of Yiddish: Completely Updated
We found 2 Reddit comments about The New Joys of Yiddish: Completely Updated. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Harmony
Will check at home!
Oh vey, the chutzpah of this mensch:
https://www.amazon.com/New-Joys-Yiddish-Completely-Updated/dp/0609806920
Also, simply awesome:
https://youtu.be/vWF3IDk9Gek
> Russian Jew raised secular want to learn about my people but not be
> indoctrinated.
This pretty much won’t happen no matter what you read. Judaism has been a non-proselytising religion for getting on to 2,000 years now.
Among the Orthodox, the standing rule is to turn those looking to convert away at least three times before you even begin to start talking about the process and whether it’s something they should undertake.
Among the Conservative and Reform and Reconstructionist, things aren’t quite so daunting, but the basic underlying theology — that one’s relationship with divinity (assuming there is one: Reconstructionists are atheists, for example) is not dependent in any fashion on whether you are an MoT or not — still informs the process. Conversion is, of course, possible, but it’s not considered necessary in any sense.
Even in Judaism’s ancient sort-of-proselytising days it was mostly a ‘give it a try, you might like it’ kind of sales pitch.
> Book recommendations?
Oi, where to start?
Jews aren’t called ‘the people of the book’ for nothing. We’ve been writing everything down for thousands of years. So there’s a lot of history to explore and there are literally thousands of histories out there to read.
The list below is not in a particular order. And it is idiosyncratically chosen. It is, quite literally, a list of what I can see on my shelves from where I’m currently working that immediately makes me think ‘oh, yeah, that’s got something for the new reader’.
The story of the Jews: finding the words (1000 BCE – 1492 CE)
Simon Schama, 2014.
The story of the Jews: when words fail (1492 – present day)
Simon Schama, 2015.
The Talmud — a biography: banned, censored and burned. The book they couldn’t suppress
Harry Freedman, 2014.
Pirkei Avot (the sayings of the fathers): a modern commentary on Jewish ethics
Leonard Kravitz & Kerry Olitzky (eds), 1993.
The essential Kabbalah: the heart of Jewish mysticism
Daniel C Matt, 2009.
Engendering Judaism: an inclusive theology and ethics
Rachel Adler, 1999.
Hillel: if not now, when
Joseph Telushkin, 2010.
The new joys of Yiddish
Leo Rosten, 2003.
Other lists to meander through:
A best world Jewish history books list on GoodReads.
The top 100 Jewish books according to Rabbi Miriam Spitzer.
The 18 essential texts every Jew should read as put together for Huffington Post back in 2011 (and chosen by people who are relatively eclectic but entirely American).
Hope this is at least diverting, if not helpful.