Judaism for all

In Judaism for All, Bernardo Sorj defends the plurality of the Jewish religion. He shows how most Jewish thinkers and modern Jewish social movements have defined their Judaism without reference to belief in God and his commandments. The author provides a brief overview of the history of the religion and reveals the causes of the current crisis facing modern Judaism. The book presents a vision of Jewish history in which doctrine adapts to society and new values. The central issue, according to the author, is choosing the Jew each person wants to be. Bernardo Sorj reveals how, today, a large proportion of Jews do not affiliate with religious movements and are skeptical about the existence of God. He explains that this is due to the declining appeal of non-religious Jewish movements, such as Zionism or the Bund, which revived Judaism in the 20th century. According to the author, the crisis of modern Judaism is a result of the transformations that Jewish communities and societies in general have undergone in recent decades. For Sorj, globalization, the spread of human rights discourse, and multiculturalism have minimized the conflicts of Jewishness. This new status has revealed the problems and contradictions of the previously prevailing perception of reality. The author's ideas can be exemplified by great historical figures who adopted a distinct stance toward Judaism: Freud, Einstein, Spinoza, Hannah Arendt, Modigliani, Chagall, and Kafka did not rely on sacred books or divine commandments to affirm a Jewish identity.