Noah Feldman Knihy

The Arab Spring aimed to end dictatorship and promote self-governance across the Middle East, but outside Tunisia, it often resulted in renewed dictatorship, civil war, or extremist terror. Noah Feldman argues that this period was not a complete failure; rather, it was a significant, albeit tragic, moment where Arabic-speaking peoples engaged in collective political action for self-determination. By examining the Egyptian revolution, the Syrian civil war, the rise and fall of ISIS, and Tunisia's quest for Islamic constitutionalism, Feldman offers a unique perspective on the political aftermath of the Arab Spring. He highlights the reaffirmation of pan-Arab identity, the decline of Arab nationalisms, and the collapse of political Islam with ISIS's defeat. Feldman counters the narrative that the Arab Spring was non-transformative and that Arabs are less capable of democracy. He emphasizes that the tragic outcomes should not overshadow the human significance of the Arab Spring. It marked a moment when people sought to reclaim their political agency, and while it did not lead to constitutional democracy or improved lives for many, the efforts made are historically and futuristically significant.

A leading public intellectual’s timely reckoning with how Jews can and should make sense of their tradition and each other. What does it mean to be a Jew? At a time of worldwide crisis, venerable answers to this question have become unsettled. In To Be a Jew Today, the legal scholar and columnist Noah Feldman draws on a lifelong engagement with his religion to offer a wide-ranging interpretation of Judaism in its current varieties. How do Jews today understand their relationship to God, to Israel, and to each other—and live their lives accordingly? Writing sympathetically but incisively about diverse outlooks, Feldman clarifies what’s at stake in the choice of how to be a Jew, and discusses the shared “theology of struggle” that Jews engage in as they wrestle with who God is, what God wants, or whether God exists. He shows how the founding of Israel has transformed Judaism itself over the last century—and explores the ongoing consequences of that transformation for all Jews, who find the meaning of their Jewishness and their views about Israel intertwined, no matter what those views are. And he examines the analogies between being Jewish and belonging to a large, messy family—a family that often makes its members crazy, but a family all the same. Written with learning, empathy and clarity, To Be a Jew Today is a critical resource for readers of all faiths.