My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Many thanks to Netgalley, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and Amos Oz for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are 100% my own and independent of receiving an advanced copy.
One thing is clear, Amos Oz loves Israel. It is his home, his ancestors’ homeland and it figures that he has very strong views on where its future lies. Amoz Oz is a well known, award winning, Israeli author whose works have been translated all over the world. I am a fan, having read several of his novels, so I was really excited to find this latest work. Dear Zealots is a collection of three essays that explore his views on fanatics, Judaism and a solution for Israel. The first essay looks at fanaticism and how to handle “the little fanatic who hides, more or less, inside each of our souls”. Zealots have been around since the beginning of time. Their seduction is their overwhelming interest in you, the desire to make you at one with his world, to lift you up and help you from the low place you are in. Their level of self sacrifice and knowledge of what is best for you is similar to how a parent is with their child. Oz recognizes that everyone, every race, every religion, can create these zealots, by shrinking their world and removing the ability to see things from another perspective or step in someone else’s shoes, and offers that through creativity, imagination and a little humour we might diminish the creation of fanatics.
The second essay Oz discusses his thoughts on Judaism. He feels the religion should not just be for the Orthodox and there is a need for secular pride. He feels that Judaism and humanism are one and the same. By reaching back in history he illustrates the idea (that, by the way, all Jews know very well and that is) that no two Jews will agree, or have the same interpretation of what it means and every one is valid. There isn’t a hierarchical system of cardinals and bishops that all defer to one man, the pope, who decides how each law should be expressed. He searches for an answer to the question “What is the heart of Judaism?”, really he is asking what is a Jew. He attempts to find the answer by looking back into our history and finding out that we are, as the title for this essay. says, “many lights, not one light, many beliefs and opinions, not one”.
The third essay is Oz’s argument of a two state solution. He has long been a proponent of this idea and has written about it many times before. Whether you agree with him or not (and there is plenty I don’t), this is an important book to read for problems that are current, a threat and difficult to discuss without people getting very heated. Well written, thoughtful commentary that is easy to read and definitely worth your time.
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