Britain’s Jews: inside someone else’s world
/Reviews written by Dr Richard Harvey
BRITAIN’S jews
BRITAIN’S JEWS: CONFIDENCE, MATURITY AND ANXIETY
Harry Freedman
(Bloomsbury, November 2022)
368p,hardback, RRP £20
In Britain’s Jews: Confidence, Maturity and Anxiety, Harry Freedman offers a compelling snapshot of the history, culture, and identity of Jews in Britain today. He strikes a balance between academic rigour and readability, making it accessible to a wide range of readers. Primarily written for anyone interested in the Jewish community’s contribution to British society, the book’s strengths lie in its wealth of detail and comprehensive approach, combining historical analysis, personal testimonies, and cultural insights.
It provides valuable insights into the Jewish experience in Britain, encouraging empathy and understanding, and setting Anglo-Jewry in the context of philo and antisemitic trends in British culture. For preachers wanting to understand the Jewish people today in their diasporic presence among us and not just as an ‘ancient people’ now superseded by a new ‘people of God’, this book is a vital shot in the arm.
Britian’s Jews is our Preach book of the month for December
JEWS DON’T COUNT
David Baddiel
(William Collins, February 2022)
160pp, paperback, RRP £7.99
When read together with comedian David Baddiel’s Jews Don’t Count, preachers will benefit from empathising with the challenge an ethnic minority member faces. Despite the long-established place of the Jewish people in the United Kingdom, Baddiel demonstrates effectively the marginalization of Jews within contemporary anti-racism movements, combining personal anecdotes, cultural observations, and incisive analysis in his familiar and engaging style. The book will appeal to individuals interested in social justice, identity politics, and combating racism and anti-semitism. For preachers working with the anti-Judaism and structural supersessionism within Christianity, and dealing with New Testament passages on the Jews and Judaism which are too often read in a way that perpetuate antisemitic stereotypes, the challenge to established narratives will be most refreshing.
THE GOD DESIRE
David Baddiel
(TLS books, April 2023)
112pp, hardback, £9.99
In The God Desire Baddiel is both rhapsodic and whimsical as he explores his own spiritual quest as an avowed Jewish atheist, longing for meaning and purpose in a secular age. He would love to believe in Jesus but cannot accept the reality of God, yet alone the attractiveness of the Christian tradition to which he is paradoxically drawn. Whilst not aware of the depths of Jewish or Christian spiritual and philosophical resources and wishing to be immune from the power of such traditions, he offers the preacher as apologist a useful exercise in engagement with contemporary doubt, confusion and unbelief which can develop into meaningful conversations about spirituality, dialogue and mutual understanding with many Jewish people today.
Reviewer: Dr .Richard Harvey teaches Hebrew Bible and Jewish Studies at All Nations Christian college, and preaches as a senior researcher with Jews for Jesus.
