Dear Zealots
Letters from a Divided Land
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
The acclaimed author presents “three passionate lectures about the state of politics in Israel” in this “humorous, mournful, enraged, and uplifting” volume (Kirkus).
A National Jewish Book Award Finalist
Israeli author Amos Oz has won numerous awards for his novels capturing the cultural and political complexities of his country, including the Frankfurt Peace Prize, the Primo Levi Prize, and the National Jewish Book Award. But these essays on the universal nature of fanaticism and its possible cures, on the Jewish roots of humanism and the need for a secular pride in Israel, and on the geopolitical standing of Israel in the wider Middle East and internationally, “may contain his most urgent message yet.” (Ruth Eglash, Washington Post).
These essays were written, Oz states, “first and foremost” for his grandchildren: they are a patient, learned telling of history, religion, and politics, to be thumbed through and studied, clung to even, as we march toward an uncertain future.
“Concise, evocative . . . Dear Zealots is not just a brilliant book of thoughts and ideas—it is a depiction of one man’s struggle, who for decades has insisted on keeping a sharp, strident and lucid perspective in the face of chaos and at times of madness.” —David Grossman, winner of the Man Booker International Prize
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Readers unfamiliar with Israeli author and public intellectual Oz (Judas) will find this collection of three essays, adapted from a series of lectures, a good introduction to his nuanced perspective. The title entry, about "the nature of fanaticism and the ways we might curtail it," will have the broadest appeal; Oz examines zealotry in general terms, noting that it predates Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and is not currently limited to radical Islam. His unabashed willingness to discuss "the fanaticism in almost all of Jewish-Israeli society" stems from his experiences while growing up in British-ruled Jerusalem. There, along with other children, he threw stones at the occupying troops in what Oz provocatively terms the "original intifada." His refusal to exempt himself from the label of fanatic suggests a way forward of individuals embracing the responsibility of "handling the little fanatic who hides, more or less, inside each of our souls." Oz is similarly clear-eyed in the other two essays, "Many Lights, Not One Light," an analysis of Judaism, and "Dreams Israel Should Let Go of Soon." Providing a worthy companion volume to Yossi Klein Halevi's Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor, Oz's book leaves readers with a strong message about the need for a greater societywide openness to doubt and ambiguity.
