Members of the Tribe: On the Road in Jewish America

by Ze'ev Chafets

The great diversity of American Jewry comes to light in a cross-country study that includes the country's last Cajun Jews, a gay synagogue, Jewish Texan cowpokes, orthodox Black Jews, and other manifestations of Jewish faith.

259 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1988

Reviews

[Etta Kaufman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and often amusing book. An American writer who moved to Israel years prior to this writing comes to the U.S. and visits different parts of the U.S. to interview American Jews. The author interviews people from different sects of the religion, different views of the religion, different kinds of people who are Jews, from gangsters, to the rabbi of a gay schul,to a "rabbi" who teaches converts in 24 hours, to N.Y. Jews,small town Jews,southern Jews and on and on. Not only educated observations but many chuckling stories. Much better read than I expected.

[Sara Goldenberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was published in 1988 so presumably he did the research some time before that ... a lot of what he saw doesn't exist anymore. It's a cute book and I enjoyed it. It's a glimpse into life at that time, though - it's not necessarily true now.

My favorite part was when he made "a lechaim toast". I'm not sure who his target audience is, but you'd think anyone reading this book knows that Lechaim is a toast.

Anyone?