Stealing Home is an at times witty, at times grave, at times hopeful, and at times cynical, but always thought-provoking collection of autobiographical essays. This book is a man's bold yet humble analysis of his own choices, particularly of his decision to give up a modest, bucolic, and secure academic life in California for an even more rewarding and meaningful one in Israel. These twenty-eight wonderfully written essays leave no delicate subject untouched. Chertok exposes the materialistic shallowness of many American assimilated Jews. He describes his experiences in the Israeli army and...

A collection of conversations, held over a period of five years, between Chertok (an American-born writer who has lived in Israel since 1977) and eighteen leading Israeli authors. They talk about literature, contemporary Zionism, the lure of Diaspora, women in Israel, the Palestinians, and Judaism's official, cultural, and religious faces. A fine composite portrait of contemporary Israel and an illuminating view of the writers' personal styles and beliefs.

Stealing Home is an at times witty, at times grave, at times hopeful, and at times cynical, but always thought-provoking collection of autobiographical essays. This book is a man's bold yet humble analysis of his own choices, particularly of his decision to give up a modest, bucolic, and secure academic life in California for an even more rewarding and meaningful one in Israel. These twenty-eight wonderfully written essays leave no delicate subject untouched. Chertok exposes the materialistic shallowness of many American assimilatedJews. He describes his experiences in the Israeli army and...

Ranging from the critical and adversarial to the credulous and celebratory, this collection of articles calculates a running tab of persisten Israeli preoccupations, chiefly, coming to terms with Palestinians, and the conditions facing women in the Jewish state. The essays are not so much confessionalas they are intelligently and sensitively written in Chertok's own personal voice. Indeed most of his preoccupations are poignant observations are born of the daily quirks, vexations, and beguilements of many years spent awakening and lyind down inside a very particular town in the Negev. In the...

This exhaustive, full-scale biography of the twentieth century's most dedicated Gentile fighter against antisemitism is a key resource for those who would like to learn more of Parkes the man and his work in reconciling Christianity and Judaism. Virtually alone among Christians, James Parkes could audaciously announce to a Jewish audience that he spoke also as a Jew and be greeted not by suspicion but by applause. From his birthplace on the island of Guernsey, the book focuses on the formative influences on this important but neglected thinker. Tracing his career as a maverick historian and...

This exhaustive, full-scale biography of the twentieth century's most dedicated Gentile fighter against antisemitism is a key resource for those who would like to learn more of Parkes the man and his work in reconciling Christianity and Judaism. Virtually alone among Christians, James Parkes could audaciously announce to a Jewish audience that he spoke also as a Jew and be greeted not by suspicion but by applause. From his birthplace on the island of Guernsey, the book focuses on the formative influences on this important but neglected thinker. Tracing his career as a maverick historian and...