Modern Jewish Thinkers: An Introduction

Rating:
Summary: Funny, learned, easy to read
Review: At last a book that makes all the major modern Jewish thinkers accessible without dumbing-down to sixth grade levels. I know the author is a great teacher, but I was surprised that he was able to capture his clear and vivid style in writing.

Now I understand who Spinoza, Mendelssohn, Heschel, Buber, Kaplan were, what shaped their lives and thought, and why they are relevant to modern Jews.

I enjoyed the author's introductions to each thinker most of all. The biographical details--family life, education, travels, friendships made these figures much more human. I also really appreciated the suggestions on further reading: I'm never going to read everything by Heschel or Buber, so it's good to be told what's worth my time and what isn't. I'm certainly going to recommend this book to friends in college classes, because the author also includes short bibliographies on every thinker (if I want to know what has been written about them.)

I really liked the range of coverage: from the 17th century up until today; from Orthodox figures (Hirsch, Soloveitchik, Salanter)to secular Jews and Zionists (Herzl, Ahad Ha'Am). I liked the division into sections, and the length of each chapter (10-15 pages) was perfect.

What was the worst part of this book? Despite the author's helpful questions, some of the orginal writings by these great thinkers were still pretty difficult--I think I would have enjoyed studying this part of this book with some help - maybe in a class or book group. In the end I often read Levenson's introductions and just skimmed the reproduced passages from the great thinkers. But this book is good enough to read again--I hope next time I'll do it with some friends or in a class...