As a Jew
Reclaiming Our Story from Those Who Blame, Shame, and Try to Erase Us
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3.8 • 6 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
New York Times BestsellerNatan Notable Book Award WinnerRabbi Sacks Book Prize FinalistINCLUDED IN PUBLISHERS WEEKLY HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDECHOSEN AS PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BEST BOOKS OF 2025, RELIGION.
An urgent exploration of how antisemitism has shaped Jewish identity and how Jews can reclaim their tradition, by the celebrated White House speechwriter and author of the critically acclaimed Here All Along.
At thirty-six, Sarah Hurwitz was a typical lapsed Jew. On a whim, she attended an introduction to Judaism class and was astonished by what she discovered: thousands of years of wisdom from her ancestors about what it means to be human. That class sparked a journey of discovery that transformed her life.
Years later, as Hurwitz wrestled with what it means to be Jewish at a time of rising antisemitism, she wondered: Where had the Judaism she discovered as an adult been all her life? Why hadn’t she seen the beauty and depth of her tradition in those dull synagogue services and Hebrew school classes she’d endured as a kid? And why had her Jewish identity consisted of a series of caveats and apologies: I’m Jewish, but not that Jewish . . . I’m just a cultural Jew . . . I’m just like everyone else but with a fun ethnic twist—a dash of neurosis, a touch of gallows humor—a little different, but not in a way that would make anyone uncomfortable.
Seeking answers, she went back through time to discover how hateful myths about Jewish power, depravity, and conspiracy have worn a neural groove deep into the world’s psyche, shaping not just how others think about Jews, but how Jews think about themselves. She soon realized that the Jewish identity she’d thought was freely chosen was actually the result of thousands of years of antisemitism and two centuries of Jews erasing parts of themselves and their tradition in the hope of being accepted and safe.
In As a Jew, Hurwitz documents her quest to take back her Jewish identity, how she stripped away the layers of antisemitic lies that made her recoil from her own birthright and unearthed the treasures of Jewish tradition. With antisemitism raging worldwide, Hurwitz’s defiant account of reclaiming the Jewish story and learning to live as a Jew, without apology, has never been timelier or more necessary.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Former White House speechwriter Hurwitz (Here All Along) makes a full-throated case for Judaism's relevance in an increasingly secular and often openly antisemitic world. Raised on a "cultural Judaism" from which she gleaned mostly "a collection of social justice slogans and self-help clichés," the author had a tenuous connection to her faith until she signed up for an introduction to Judaism class in her 30s. Shedding "false" notions of the faith, Hurwitz came to understand the Torah as less a prescriptive rule book than an account of "who the Jews are" with instructions for building a more moral society. She also came to see Israel not as an inherent bully but an ancestral homeland recovered after thousands of years of "living and dying by others' whims" (though makes clear that she opposes a number of Israel's actions, including today's war in Gaza), and antisemitism as less a bygone problem than a pressing if sometimes subtly disguised threat. Suggesting that growing up in a Christian society had made her "recoil from my own tradition," Hurwitz makes especially trenchant points about the existential challenges posed by a modern America that ostensibly offers Jews more freedom than ever but asks them to prioritize Judeo-Christian values and suppress more cumbersome elements of their culture to fit in. The result is an important and energetic analysis of what it means to be Jewish in America today.
