Monday, December 21, 2015

Jews and Words by Amos Oz Fania Oz-Salzberger



Jews and Words by Amos Oz  Fania Oz-Salzberger is an engaging series of essays by Amos Oz and his daughter Fania on the relationship of Jews and Judaism to the written word.  They handle many diverse topics which revolve around this theme: the resurrection of Hebrew as a spoken language, the growing importance of English as a Jewish language, and, overall, the centrality of language in the history and story of Jewish people.


This book is trying, and largely succeeding, in taking back Hebrew from religious zealots; Oz wants to read Jewish religious books from a secular perch, and teaches the reader how this can be successfully done.  Both Oz father and daughter have a profound respect for the stories of the Jews, even when they do not believe their overt religious content.

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