Tablets Shattered

Praise

Praise for Tablets Shattered:

“Tablets Shattered contains more wisdom, empathy, and eloquence about the past and present of Jews in the U.S. and in Israel than any other book I know.  Both sobering and inspiring, it is an extraordinary work that might even help lead us to a more decent future.”
—Michael Kazin, author of What It Took to Win: A History of the Democratic Party and professor of history at Georgetown University

 ”A thoughtful and deeply felt meditation on where American Jewry has been and where it might be going. I very rarely say this, but I learned a lot, and unlike the Talmudic learning of my youth, enjoyed every last bit of it.”
—Gary Shteyngart, author of Our Country Friends

“If the drama of Jewish life is convulsion and reconstitution, now it is American Jewry’s turn, with the shattering of a century-long synthesis that gave our community its unity. In the best of Jewish traditions, journalist and scholar Joshua Leifer has emerged as an essential voice in chronicling this process and sensing its opportunities, and not just its risks. Following his own family’s story, Leifer eloquently documents that neither the centrist liberalism, nor the default Zionism, nor the exceptionalist patriotism of American Jewry’s history predetermines its future. “
—Samuel Moyn, Chancellor Kent Professor of Law and History at Yale University, and author of Liberalism Against Itself

“When I began Tablets Shattered, I was exhilarated by the pace of its journalism, the scale of its history, and the voice of its author, whose journey through Judaism, Zionism, and the Left speaks so acutely to my own. As I approached its end, I didn’t want to say goodbye to this Buddenbrooks-like tale, which has been such a companion to me as I try to make sense of the past, present, and future of American Jewry.”
—Corey Robin, author of The Reactionary Mind

“There have been many stories told of the evolution of American Jewry. Joshua Leifer’s Tablets Shattered offers a lucid and fresh account, from a Millennial Generation perspective, deeply informed historically, prescient, impassioned, and deftly woven with autobiographical insight and humor. Many readers will find themselves in this story, and others will become aware of a new generation of American Jews; unafraid, Jewishly literate, politically engaged, and deeply committed to the Diaspora and the opportunities it presents.”
—Shaul Magid, Harvard University, and author of The Necessity of Exile: Essays from a Distance