Scholar Jonathan Sarna Heralds "Rebirth" of Secular Judaism in new issue of Contemplate

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NEW YORK, April 7 - Writing by Grace Paley and Jonathan Sarna - who heralds the return of a robust secular Judaism in his essay “The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of Secular Judaism” - anchors the latest issue of Contemplate: The International Journal of Cultural Jewish Thought, published by the Center for Cultural Judaism.

The new issue, which collects the best international writing on secular Judaism, includes poetry by Yehuda Amichai; an excerpt from Freethinkers, by Susan Jacoby; a lengthy interview with novelist Rebecca Goldstein; a lovely vignette by the late Ms. Paley; and polemical essays by Douglas Rushkoff (Nothing Sacred) and Yossi Beilin (His Brother’s Keeper).

Contemplate is rare among Jewish literary journals for collecting writing from around the world (much of it seldom translated into English). Each issue presents a fusion of the literary and the scholarly; the essayistic and the polemical; new books and books under review. And it doesn’t shy away from the controversial.

Past issues have included opinion pieces by Amos Oz and A.B. Yehoshua. In the current issue, scholars Caryn Aviv and David Shneer explore the history of Diaspora - before arguing that the word itself should be disregarded. “The majority of Jews… no longer see themselves as ‘in Diaspora,’” the professors write. They see themselves as “at home, not pining for a Promised Land.”

A discussion takes place across the pages of Contemplate between several writers on the perennial question of “Who was the first secular Jew?” Was it Heinrich Heine, as Yigal Lossin claims in an excerpt from his biography of Heine? Or was it the Dutch polymath Benedict Spinoza, as Rebecca Goldtsein, author of Betraying Spinoza (Schocken/Nextbook, 2006), implies in a lengthy, erudite interview?

“Our intention is to familiarize the wider audience with secular Jewish writing of unsurpassed quality,” said Contemplate’s editor, Myrna Baron. “With nearly half of American Jews now calling themselves secular, according to the 2001 American Jewish Identity Survey, writing of this nature takes on a new role: to educate and stimulate the freethinking secular mind.”

Jewish freethinkers will delight especially in the keystone piece by Jonathan Sarna. Writing about Jews who, “without setting foot in a synagogue…felt intensely Jewish,” Dr. Sarna traces the ups (the 1920’s) and downs (the Red Scare 50’s) of secular Judaism in America.

“And now, like the proverbial Phoenix, Jewish secularism has made something of a comeback,” Dr. Sarna argues, citing an explosion of secular Jewish culture, literature, and discussion. It’s a sentiment that Contemplate shares, and to which it loudly attests.
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Contemplate is published by the Center for Cultural Judaism, which was established in 2003 in response to emerging new insights into American Jewish demography that confirm a secular majority among American Jews. Contemplate is available through the Center for Cultural Judaism at 212-564-6711 x 305, online at www.culturaljudaism.org, and from various booksellers.

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