Lovesong
Becoming a Jew
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
Julius Lester was born the son of a black Methodist minister in the south. His book Lovesong is a beautifully written account of his spiritual journey away from the conventions of his Southern heritage and Methodist upbringing, culminating in his personal self-discovery through a conversion to Judaism.
Growing up in the turbulent civil rights era South, Lester was often discouraged by the disconnectedness between the promises of religion and the realities of his life. He used the outlets available to him to try to come to grips with this split and somehow reconcile the injustices he was witnessing with the purity of religion. He became a controversial writer and commentator, siding with neither blacks nor whites in his unconventional viewpoints. He became a luminal figure of the times, outside of the conventional labels of race, religion, politics, or philosophy.
Lester’s spiritual quest would take him through the existential landscape of his Southern, Christian upbringing, into his ancestry, winding through some of the holiest places on the planet and into the spiritual depths of the world’s major religious cultures. His odyssey of faith would unexpectedly lead him to discovering Judaism as his true spiritual calling.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lester, son of a black southern Methodist minister, writes of the eventful odyssey that culminated in his conversion to Judaism. The private journey was often at odds with his public life. As writer, radio commentator in New York and college professor at the University of Massachusetts, Lester's outspoken and unconventional views often angered blacks as well as whites, and placed him in a political and philosophical fray between blacks and Jews. His spiritual quest, begun here with a lovingly detailed sketch of his southern heritage, took many turns, involving visits to sites of faith (Gethsemani Abbey, Wounded Knee, Shakertown) and intensive exploration of religious cultures, until he acknowledged the pull of the Jewish faith. He discusses his interracial marriage and fatherhood, and pays moving tribute to the fulfillment he finds in celebrating the Jewish faith. Lester is the author of Look Out, Whitey! Black Power's Gon' Get Your Mama! and To Be a Slave.
