Reviews:
“This book is important not only because it gives voice to a Jewish scholar steeped in tradition whose jeremiad against Israel and ‘statist’ Zionism was unheard; it is arresting because one can perhaps too easily draw a line connecting Rawidowicz's critique and his fears in the early 1950s to the reality of the conflict in 2009. That is, from reading Rawidowicz, and Myers's excellent assessment of him, one can surmise that the moral crisis in Israel is not the result of the war in 1967 or the intifadas in 1987 and 2000. Instead, the crisis begins in 1948, with Israel refusing to offer protection to the Arab refugees, most of whom were innocent victims of a bloody war, and then making it unreasonably difficult for those who remained to acquire citizenship in a new Jewish state that was envisioned by its architects as a model for tolerance.
“True, today an open-door policy of repatriating Arab refugees and their families might threaten the ‘Jewish’ character of the state (which Rawidowicz wanted to protect). But in 1948 that was not the case, and many at that time knew it. And now, when historians such as Benny Morris have provided evidence to undermine the Israeli myth that Arabs left Palestine primarily on the advice of their leaders (Rawidowicz and others knew this myth was untrue in the early 1950s), we Jews have much to account for…We owe David Myers a debt of gratitude for giving us Simon Rawidowicz's lost voice: a voice of reason, of tradition, of morality, especially at a time when we need to be brought back to our collective senses.”—The Forward
“Anyone who has read Myers' earlier work will be rewarded by the intelligibility, the lucidity of his writing. He clarifies even the most complex ideas and finds no need to demonstrate the subtlety of his learning and intellectual talent by obfuscation. ...
“In Between Jew and Arab, Rawidowicz argues that the Arab refugee problem is neither an Arab problem nor a world problem, but a Jewish problem, one that engages Jewish history and memory, Jewish values and tradition. Rawidowicz is posing a Nietzschean question in Jewish prose. The great German philosopher asked: Is Judaism the religion of the powerless? Would an empowered people share the same values, uphold the same traditions? Rawidowicz asks: ‘Will Jacob become Esau? Has Jacob become Esau?’
“…As for Myers, throughout the work he admires Rawidowicz unabashedly, not only as a brilliant intellectual but as a man steeped in Jewish tradition and Jewish learning, at home in the history of his people, in the values of their religious teaching from the Bible to the Talmud, from midrash to halachah, from Maimonides to Rabbi Nachmun Krochmal, who wants to speak from those traditions to the core issues of his time, speaking truth to power and speaking the truth with power.”—Jewish Journal
“Myers demonstrates his virtuosity at intellectual history as he creates a marvelous context for us to understand this major thinker. He traces Rawidowicz's birth in Grayewo, Poland, the son of Rabbi Chayin Yitzhak Rawidowicz -- a merchant scholar, ardent Hebraist and Zionist -- and young Simon's early education and the impact of his father in shaping the mind of this most promising of students. He follows the family in their migration to Bialystok in 1914 and then journeys with Simon to Berlin, which, before the rise of Nazism was the cultural destination of brilliant Jews who had left the world of the yeshiva to be trained in universities and seminaries. . . . Anyone who has read Myers' earlier work will be rewarded by the intelligibility, the lucidity of his writing. He clarifies even the most complex ideas and finds no need to demonstrate the subtlety of his learning and intellectual talent by obfuscation.”—The Jewish Journal
Endorsements:
“This stirring and exquisite volume restores to vitality an essential principle and an essential man. The principle is that power must answer to morality—and that this is a central teaching of the experience of the Jews in exile, which the Jews in their state cannot evade. The man is Simon Rawidowicz, one of the most original Jewish thinkers of the twentieth century, whose ideas are uncannily pertinent to the Jewish situation now. In the skill with which he blends erudition and engagement, David Myers reminds me distinctly of his hero.”—Leon Wieseltier
“Simon Rawidowicz was one of the most penetrating and original Jewish thinkers of our time. As this volume demonstrates, he was also among the most controversial. At once a ‘lonely man’ of conscience and a ‘lover of Israel,’ Rawidowicz was unafraid to advocate unpopular views that he believed reflected the highest ideals of the Jewish people. David Myers deserves our gratitude for introducing us to this unknown, challenging essay.”—Michael A. Meyer, Adolph S. Ochs Professor of Jewish History, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
