To Heal the World?

There is a strong and growing segment of Jews who are critical of liberal ideology and of their co-religionists who embrace it. Anyone wishing to understand the critics' point of view would do well to read Jonathan Neumann's new book -- a hard-hitting polemic against the Jewish left. -ROBERT P. GEORGE, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University This highly readable book is a devastating expose of one of the worst vices in American Jewish life -- the penchant of many rabbis and communal leaders to pass their own progressive politics off as continuous with the classical Jewish sources. It also opens a window onto a conception of Judaism that is broader, less partisan, and spiritually richer than many Americans have ever known. -JON D. LEVENSON, Albert A. List Professor of Jewish Studies, Harvard University For too long, Jewish leftists have used Jewish sloganeering to serve their leftism, claiming that 'tikkun olam' dictates their politics. Neumann shows that the linkage between Judaism and leftism isn't merely false, but fatally damaging to Jewishness itself, and that those who claim they are healing the world on God's behalf are in fact ripping out the roots of Judeo-Christian civilization while cynically flying the Biblical flag. -BEN SHAPIRO, Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Wire It is all too rare for any intellectual, let alone a Jewish one, to blow the whistle on one of the tragedies of Jewish and modern world history. But that is what Jonathan Neumann succeeds in doing in this consistently absorbing and important book. Keep some tissues handy -- if you love Judaism and Israel, you might shed tears. -DENNIS PRAGER, Nationally Syndicated Radio Host and author of The Rational Bible Nothing short of a lethal indictment - actually a conviction - of the leadership of liberal Judaism, documenting the distortion and destruction wreaked by an assortment of misguided and agenda-driven left-wing icons and activists during the past half century. -RABBI AVRAHAM GORDIMER, Chairman of the Rabbinical Circle of the Coalition for Jewish Values This is a turning point, a moment of awakening about just how bad things have gotten, how distorted Judaism has become. Well written, deep, textually aware, thoughtful, idea-driven rather than ad-hominem. This is the book to return sanity to Judaism. -RABBI GIL STUDENT, Book Editor of the Orthodox Union's Jewish Action magazine, Rabbinical Alliance of America An important new book. The tikkun-olamers, Neuman shows in painful detail, have cherry-picked the Bible to reinterpret the decisive events of Jewish history in their cause... The Jewish Left's version of tikkun olam reduces a robust religious tradition into contemporary progressive talking points, to human will with a mild Yiddish accent... Neumann is a right-winger like me, and I relish his excoriation of the Jewish left. -DAVID P. GOLDMAN, Author of How Civilizations Die, Spengler column in Asia Times and editor First Things A knowledgeable Hebraic critic considers a concept honored by the vast majority of his co-religionists and finds it all wrong. -KIRKUS REVIEWS The work will spark useful discussions about the intersections of Judaism and politics. -PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

Jonathan Neumann is a graduate of Cambridge University and the London School of Economics. He has written for various American, British, and Israeli publications, was the Tikvah Fellow at Commentary magazine, and has served as assistant editor at Jewish Ideas Daily. He is the author of To Heal the World?