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The Will to Live On: This is Our Heritage – A Passionate Nonfiction on Jewish Identity, the Holocaust, and American Diaspora
Herman Wouk has ranged in his novels from the mighty narrative of The Caine Mutiny and the warm, intimate humor of Marjorie Morningstar to the global panorama of The Winds of War and War and Remembrance. All these powers merge in this major new work of nonfiction, The Will to Live On, an illuminating account of the worldwide revolution that has been sweeping over Jewry, set against a swiftly reviewed background of history, tradition, and sacred literature. Forty years ago, in his modern classic This Is My God, Herman Wouk stated the case for his religious beliefs and conduct. His aim in that work and in The Will to Live On has been to break through the crust of prejudice, to reawaken clearheaded thought about the magnificent Jewish patrimony, and to convey a message of hope for Jewish survival. Although the Torah and the Talmud are timeless, the twentieth century has brought earthquake shocks to the the apocalyptic experience of the Holocaust, the reborn Jewish state, the precarious American diaspora, and deepening religious schisms. After a lifetime of study, Herman Wouk examines the changes affecting the Jewish world, especially the troubled wonder of Israel, and the remarkable, though dwindling, American Jewry. The book is peppered with wonderful stories of the author's encounters with such luminaries as Ben Gurion, Isidor Rabi, Yitzhak Rabin, Saul Bellow, and Richard Feynan. Learned in general culture, warmly tolerant of other beliefs, this noted author expresses his own other beliefs, this noted author expresses his own faith with a passion that gives the book its fire and does so in the clear, engaging style tha-as in all Wouk's fiction -- makes the reader want to know what the next page will bring. Herman Wouk writes, in The Will to Live On : "And so the Melting Pot is beginning to work on Jewry. Its effect was deferred in the passing century by the shock of the Holocaust and the rise of Israel, but today the Holocaust is an academic subject, and Israel is no longer a beleaguered underdog. Amkha in America is not dying, it is slowly melting, and those are very different fates. Dying is a terror, an agony, a strangling finish, to be fought off by sheer instinct, by the will to live on, to the last breath. Melting is a mere diffusion into an ambient welcoming warmth in which one is dissolved and disappears, as a teaspoon of sugar vanishes into hot tea.... Yet here in the United States, for all the scary attrition I have pictured, we are still a community of over five million strong....At a far stretch of my hopes, our descendants could one day be a diaspora comparable to Babylonia. At the moment, of course, that is beyond rational expectation. We have to concentrate on lasting at all...."
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
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About the author
Herman Wouk
161 books1,389 followersHerman Wouk was a bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning Jewish American author with a number of notable novels to his credit, including The Caine Mutiny, The Winds of War, and War and Remembrance.
Herman Wouk was born in New York City into a Jewish family that had emigrated from Russia. After a childhood and adolescence in the Bronx and a high school diploma from Townsend Harris High School, he earned a B.A. from Columbia University in 1934, where he was a member of the Pi Lambda Phi fraternity and studied under philosopher Irwin Edman. Soon thereafter, he became a radio dramatist, working in David Freedman's "Joke Factory" and later with Fred Allen for five years and then, in 1941, for the United States government, writing radio spots to sell war bonds. He lived a fairly secular lifestyle in his early 20s before deciding to return to a more traditional Jewish way of life, modeled after that of his grandfather, in his mid-20s.
Wouk joined the United States Navy and served in the Pacific Theater, an experience he later characterized as educational; "I learned about machinery, I learned how men behaved under pressure, and I learned about Americans." Wouk served as an officer aboard two destroyer minesweepers (DMS), the USS Zane and USS Southard, becoming executive officer of the latter. He started writing a novel, Aurora Dawn, during off-duty hours aboard ship. Wouk sent a copy of the opening chapters to Irwin Edman who quoted a few pages verbatim to a New York editor. The result was a publisher's contract sent to Wouk's ship, then off the coast of Okinawa. The novel was published in 1947 and became a Book of the Month Club main selection. His second novel, City Boy, proved to be a commercial disappointment at the time of its initial publication in 1948.
While writing his next novel, Wouk read each chapter as it was completed to his wife, who remarked at one point that if they didn't like this one, he'd better take up another line of work (a line he would give to the character of the editor Jeannie Fry in his 1962 novel Youngblood Hawke). The novel, The Caine Mutiny (1951), went on to win the Pulitzer Prize. A huge best-seller, drawing from his wartime experiences aboard minesweepers during World War II, The Caine Mutiny was adapted by the author into a Broadway play called The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, and was later made into a film, with Humphrey Bogart portraying Lt. Commander Philip Francis Queeg, captain of the fictional USS Caine. Some Navy personnel complained at the time that Wouk had taken every twitch of every commanding officer in the Navy and put them all into one character, but Captain Queeg has endured as one of the great characters in American fiction.
He married Betty Sarah Brown in 1945, with whom he had three sons: Abraham, Nathanial, and Joseph. He became a fulltime writer in 1946 to support his growing family. His first-born son, Abraham Isaac Wouk, died in a tragic accident as a child; Wouk later dedicated War and Remembrance (1978) to him with the Biblical words, "He will destroy death forever."
In 1998, Wouk received the Guardian of Zion Award.
Herman Wouk died in his sleep in his home in Palm Springs, California, on May 17, 2019, at the age of 103, ten days before his 104th birthday.
Herman Wouk was born in New York City into a Jewish family that had emigrated from Russia. After a childhood and adolescence in the Bronx and a high school diploma from Townsend Harris High School, he earned a B.A. from Columbia University in 1934, where he was a member of the Pi Lambda Phi fraternity and studied under philosopher Irwin Edman. Soon thereafter, he became a radio dramatist, working in David Freedman's "Joke Factory" and later with Fred Allen for five years and then, in 1941, for the United States government, writing radio spots to sell war bonds. He lived a fairly secular lifestyle in his early 20s before deciding to return to a more traditional Jewish way of life, modeled after that of his grandfather, in his mid-20s.
Wouk joined the United States Navy and served in the Pacific Theater, an experience he later characterized as educational; "I learned about machinery, I learned how men behaved under pressure, and I learned about Americans." Wouk served as an officer aboard two destroyer minesweepers (DMS), the USS Zane and USS Southard, becoming executive officer of the latter. He started writing a novel, Aurora Dawn, during off-duty hours aboard ship. Wouk sent a copy of the opening chapters to Irwin Edman who quoted a few pages verbatim to a New York editor. The result was a publisher's contract sent to Wouk's ship, then off the coast of Okinawa. The novel was published in 1947 and became a Book of the Month Club main selection. His second novel, City Boy, proved to be a commercial disappointment at the time of its initial publication in 1948.
While writing his next novel, Wouk read each chapter as it was completed to his wife, who remarked at one point that if they didn't like this one, he'd better take up another line of work (a line he would give to the character of the editor Jeannie Fry in his 1962 novel Youngblood Hawke). The novel, The Caine Mutiny (1951), went on to win the Pulitzer Prize. A huge best-seller, drawing from his wartime experiences aboard minesweepers during World War II, The Caine Mutiny was adapted by the author into a Broadway play called The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, and was later made into a film, with Humphrey Bogart portraying Lt. Commander Philip Francis Queeg, captain of the fictional USS Caine. Some Navy personnel complained at the time that Wouk had taken every twitch of every commanding officer in the Navy and put them all into one character, but Captain Queeg has endured as one of the great characters in American fiction.
He married Betty Sarah Brown in 1945, with whom he had three sons: Abraham, Nathanial, and Joseph. He became a fulltime writer in 1946 to support his growing family. His first-born son, Abraham Isaac Wouk, died in a tragic accident as a child; Wouk later dedicated War and Remembrance (1978) to him with the Biblical words, "He will destroy death forever."
In 1998, Wouk received the Guardian of Zion Award.
Herman Wouk died in his sleep in his home in Palm Springs, California, on May 17, 2019, at the age of 103, ten days before his 104th birthday.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
May 17, 2019
Herman Wouk died today. He was a great religious writer but you will not see that in the newspapers This book and also This is my God are both well done. I am an evangelistic Christian who loves my Jewish teachers.
April 7, 2011
Considerably more organized than his later THE LANGUAGE GOD TALKS, but not as well structured as his earlier THIS IS MY GOD, Herman Wouk’s THE WILL TO LIVE ON is an interesting, if somewhat scattered, reflection on “the Third Destruction” (the Holocaust) and the problem (from an Orthodox Jewish perspective) of Jewish assimilation. At least it starts out that way. About the third of the way in Wouk notifies you that this is not actually the subject of the book but a mere precursor to the subject of the book, which is Jewish heritage (thus the subtitle).
That shook me up a little because I was really getting into the questions he raised about the “Third Destruction” and Jewish assimilation and had been hoping for further thoughts on the issue. He does go back to the issue by the end of the book, but then doesn’t really have a great deal to say about it, at least not nearly as much as I would like, and by then I had been distracted by other topics. There is some meandering.
Much of the book is a survey of the Jewish religious and cultural heritage, covering in broad literary strokes the Tanakh, the Talmud, and the history of the Jews until the fall of the second temple and then skipping far ahead to the Holocaust and modern day Israel. In general, he talks more about Jewish “heritage” than about Jewish “religion.” The intended audience seems considerably narrower than for THIS IS MY GOD.
I keep reading the nonfiction of Wouk hoping to be as deeply impressed as I was when I read THIS IS MY GOD, but it seems he really doesn’t have much of significance to add to that earlier work.
That shook me up a little because I was really getting into the questions he raised about the “Third Destruction” and Jewish assimilation and had been hoping for further thoughts on the issue. He does go back to the issue by the end of the book, but then doesn’t really have a great deal to say about it, at least not nearly as much as I would like, and by then I had been distracted by other topics. There is some meandering.
Much of the book is a survey of the Jewish religious and cultural heritage, covering in broad literary strokes the Tanakh, the Talmud, and the history of the Jews until the fall of the second temple and then skipping far ahead to the Holocaust and modern day Israel. In general, he talks more about Jewish “heritage” than about Jewish “religion.” The intended audience seems considerably narrower than for THIS IS MY GOD.
I keep reading the nonfiction of Wouk hoping to be as deeply impressed as I was when I read THIS IS MY GOD, but it seems he really doesn’t have much of significance to add to that earlier work.
February 16, 2025
Was Eichmann right?
Was it really a matter of killing enough of those Jews, who still carried the religious and cultural (as Jews are different from all other nations in that there is no culture that is separate from religion) legacy to ensure that it will destroy this legacy forever, turning the remaining Jews into "Americans with bagels?"
This is the primary question that Herman Wouk tackles in "The will to live on." As usual for Mr. Wouk, there are very few stones unturned. As it is always typical with Jewish history, the answer is far from clear. But if this is a question that nags you, boy will you enjoy the ride!
By way of the review, this is where I am compelled to stop: the topic covered is so broad, with so many details, that any attempt to go deeper in the review would just look pathetic. However it is worth mentioning that Herman Wouk's books on the topic are not merely information but also intensely motivational. From "This is my God" which I was lucky to get my hands on in the early days of Perestroika, when Judaism stopped being a forbidden topic, to this book - I can confidently say that Mr. Wouk's books have contributed significantly to my (pardon the cringingly banal term) spiritual path. For which I am tremendously grateful.
Was it really a matter of killing enough of those Jews, who still carried the religious and cultural (as Jews are different from all other nations in that there is no culture that is separate from religion) legacy to ensure that it will destroy this legacy forever, turning the remaining Jews into "Americans with bagels?"
This is the primary question that Herman Wouk tackles in "The will to live on." As usual for Mr. Wouk, there are very few stones unturned. As it is always typical with Jewish history, the answer is far from clear. But if this is a question that nags you, boy will you enjoy the ride!
By way of the review, this is where I am compelled to stop: the topic covered is so broad, with so many details, that any attempt to go deeper in the review would just look pathetic. However it is worth mentioning that Herman Wouk's books on the topic are not merely information but also intensely motivational. From "This is my God" which I was lucky to get my hands on in the early days of Perestroika, when Judaism stopped being a forbidden topic, to this book - I can confidently say that Mr. Wouk's books have contributed significantly to my (pardon the cringingly banal term) spiritual path. For which I am tremendously grateful.
June 2, 2010
Another great read from Herman Wouk. His personal interpretations of tradition and liturgy are always enlightening. This book focuses on the present day issues and future of Judaism as a faith. His perspective is fascinating, worrisome and, hopefully, wrong.
July 9, 2019
I enjoyed reading The Will to Live On by Herman Wouk. Growing up, I had read This is My God, the first book about Judaism he wrote in 1959. The Will to Live On was published forty years later. Herman Wouk, who passed away recently, was a bestselling author of many books, a few actually made into movies. Similar to his first book, he explains why religion is integral to his life. In 1959, Orthodox Judaism was rarely in the news--most Jews had no interest in traditional Judaism and Wouk's steadfast observance was considered going against the tide. In his second book, Israel had already gone through wars that endangered its very existence and there has been renewed interest in traditional Judaism. Still, Wouk expressed doubts whether Jews would continue on as a people or just fade away through intermarriage and lack of interest. His instincts told him they would continue going on as a people somehow, perhaps in innovative ways.
Wouk had a life most writers would envy. He was able to write full-time, travel the world for background for his writing, and meet famous people and world leaders. He briefly summarizes the history of the Jewish religion and ends by discussing the Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform camps and the choices individual Jews make concerning their religiosity. However, I felt Wouk missed one important component--even in America, the land of the free, many employers require their employees to work on Friday after Shabbat begins and even on Saturday. The Jewish holidays throughout the year, always occurring on different dates due to the Hebrew lunar calendar, make it difficult to take so many days off work. Added to that, Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods are often located in expensive neighborhoods. To walk to a synagogue and observe with other Jews, a person or family must make a very good income. What's more, the cost of Jewish day schools is soaring and many simply cannot afford them. I wish Wouk would have addressed these issues rather than just focusing on the allure of living a secular life. These are very real obstacles to living an observant lifestyle.
Otherwise, a good recap of Jewish history and Jewish life today.
Wouk had a life most writers would envy. He was able to write full-time, travel the world for background for his writing, and meet famous people and world leaders. He briefly summarizes the history of the Jewish religion and ends by discussing the Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform camps and the choices individual Jews make concerning their religiosity. However, I felt Wouk missed one important component--even in America, the land of the free, many employers require their employees to work on Friday after Shabbat begins and even on Saturday. The Jewish holidays throughout the year, always occurring on different dates due to the Hebrew lunar calendar, make it difficult to take so many days off work. Added to that, Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods are often located in expensive neighborhoods. To walk to a synagogue and observe with other Jews, a person or family must make a very good income. What's more, the cost of Jewish day schools is soaring and many simply cannot afford them. I wish Wouk would have addressed these issues rather than just focusing on the allure of living a secular life. These are very real obstacles to living an observant lifestyle.
Otherwise, a good recap of Jewish history and Jewish life today.
August 19, 2020
I read Wouk's The Hope and The Glory a little while back. I thought this book would be a memoir- writings on what he believes and why he believes it. It is not. That book, the one about the what's and why's of faith, is entitled This Is My God and was published in 1959.
This book is about the state of Judaism in the year 2000. It asks the question, is Judaism finished and are the Jewish people doomed to disappear? Wouk posits this question as a response to the Holocaust, or, as he calls it, The Third Destruction.
The First Destruction was the destruction of the first Temple in 586 BC.
The Second Destruction was the destruction of the second temple in 70 AD.
Wouk contends that the Holocaust was greater than all previous persecutions, pogroms, and wars. Given historical facts, I agree with him.
That said, the book involves a lot of technical discussions of Jewish culture. Wouk explains well and keeps the narrative moving at a brisk pace. Even so, it's easy to miss his point because 1) at times his stories meander and don't directly connect and 2) he seems to be writing to a Jewish audience.
I'm Catholic. I know very little about modern Judaism. I enjoyed this book. I wish I could sit down with Wouk and ask him all about his life and times. Unfortunately, he died in 2019.
One of the big things I would love to ask him is this: what makes a person Jewish? This simple question has no easy answer. Wouk spends a lot of time blurring the line- is Jewishness racial, or is it a religion? What I get from the book is, it's both. Another thing that I get is that people argue about it. A lot. With passion. They've even come to blows and killed each other over that question.
So I recommend this book to any interested readers. You might not understand all of it, but you will be entertained and enlightened.
This book is about the state of Judaism in the year 2000. It asks the question, is Judaism finished and are the Jewish people doomed to disappear? Wouk posits this question as a response to the Holocaust, or, as he calls it, The Third Destruction.
The First Destruction was the destruction of the first Temple in 586 BC.
The Second Destruction was the destruction of the second temple in 70 AD.
Wouk contends that the Holocaust was greater than all previous persecutions, pogroms, and wars. Given historical facts, I agree with him.
That said, the book involves a lot of technical discussions of Jewish culture. Wouk explains well and keeps the narrative moving at a brisk pace. Even so, it's easy to miss his point because 1) at times his stories meander and don't directly connect and 2) he seems to be writing to a Jewish audience.
I'm Catholic. I know very little about modern Judaism. I enjoyed this book. I wish I could sit down with Wouk and ask him all about his life and times. Unfortunately, he died in 2019.
One of the big things I would love to ask him is this: what makes a person Jewish? This simple question has no easy answer. Wouk spends a lot of time blurring the line- is Jewishness racial, or is it a religion? What I get from the book is, it's both. Another thing that I get is that people argue about it. A lot. With passion. They've even come to blows and killed each other over that question.
So I recommend this book to any interested readers. You might not understand all of it, but you will be entertained and enlightened.
July 25, 2022
This was written relatively late in life (the guy lived to be 104!) by the eloquent author Herman Wouk, author of excellent, Jewish-themed novels such as The Caine Mutiny and Marjorie Morningstar. Wouk was an Orthodox Jew who answered to one of the highest callings by using his considerable literary skill to exposit purposeful Judaism while explaining his personal satisfaction with that life.
This book serves as an extension of his earlier tome "This is My God". While practicing Jews will certainly enjoy it, it is perhaps best suited to the ever-increasing number of Jews who were not raised in the faith in a meaningful way. I am not referring to those whose parents joined Reform Synagogues, but rather those whose parents did next to nothing to foster their childrens' Jewish education, other than secular cultural matters (eating at Delicatessans, watching Seinfeld re-runs, etc.)
Wouk explains everything from biblical history, through the Jewish religion developed from antiquity, to modern day Israel in an easy to read and entertaining way. His literary fame brought him contacts with many important 20th Century Jews. The telling adds tasty spice to an already satisfying concoction of subjects. I wholeheartedly recommend it.
This book serves as an extension of his earlier tome "This is My God". While practicing Jews will certainly enjoy it, it is perhaps best suited to the ever-increasing number of Jews who were not raised in the faith in a meaningful way. I am not referring to those whose parents joined Reform Synagogues, but rather those whose parents did next to nothing to foster their childrens' Jewish education, other than secular cultural matters (eating at Delicatessans, watching Seinfeld re-runs, etc.)
Wouk explains everything from biblical history, through the Jewish religion developed from antiquity, to modern day Israel in an easy to read and entertaining way. His literary fame brought him contacts with many important 20th Century Jews. The telling adds tasty spice to an already satisfying concoction of subjects. I wholeheartedly recommend it.
December 28, 2025
There are days I can read/listen to two books. And there are books that can take me two months to get through. This was one of the latter. It’s dense and hard to get through, but raises some very interesting points. Not recommending for a general audience, but for the right reader, this will be the best book ever. Time to hand it off to my dad…
December 27, 2020
Scattered but interesting
I have read most of Herman Wouk's Books and have joined them immensely Including this is my god. This book is interesting But not as well organized as many of his previous works.
I have read most of Herman Wouk's Books and have joined them immensely Including this is my god. This book is interesting But not as well organized as many of his previous works.
July 8, 2024
Continuation of this is my God
January 5, 2010
Sees potential in a get-back-to-roots movement of younger, half-assimilated Jews of today. Sadly, reports:
that "Yiddishkeit is dead, and it's never coming back". Contains brilliant moments from Wouk's life, as when David Ben Gurion tells him the best beginning for the new state of Israel would be to "Tear down Yad Vashem".
that "Yiddishkeit is dead, and it's never coming back". Contains brilliant moments from Wouk's life, as when David Ben Gurion tells him the best beginning for the new state of Israel would be to "Tear down Yad Vashem".
June 15, 2013
This is a book I keep going back to. It beautifully written, a hymn to faith.
August 13, 2014
excellent
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews