Document Type
Book Review
Publication Date
1994
Publication Information
56 Rev. Politics 775 (1994) (book review).
Abstract
David Novak: Jewish Social Ethics. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. Pp. xii, 252. $45.00.)
Jewish participation in American public life has been either genuinely or constructively de-Judaized. (Admittedly, many orthodox Jews - the Hasidim among them - have steered clear altogether of the public square.) "Genuinely" de-Judaized Jews are simply those like Frankfurter who have a thoroughly secular outlook. "Constructively" de-Judaized Jews include the orthodox, observant Pfeffer. For them religious conviction (and practice) are private matters, checked at the entrance to the "naked public square." Quite obviously, Jews had good reason, especially in 1947, to prefer a secular - practically speaking, a deChristianized - politics. But no matter why, the question remains: Where is the voice of Judaism brought to bear upon important contemporary public issues? Where, one might say, is the Jewish Murray?
Nowhere to be found, until the publication of this book. David Novak is professor of Modern Jewish Studies at the University of Virginia, an ordained rabbi, and the author of numerous books, including an important work on Jewish-Christian dialogue. With the collection of these ten (revised, previously published) essays on matters ranging from AIDS to criminal justice to nuclear deterrence, along with a new introduction, the voice of Judaism is audible, instructive, cogent.
Recommended Citation
Gerard V. Bradley,
A Jewish Voice in the Public Square,
56 Rev. Politics 775 (1994) (book review)..
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/law_faculty_scholarship/1839