The Conversion of the Jews

by Philip Roth

Do your students enjoy a good laugh? Do they like to be scared? Or do they just like a book with a happy ending? No matter what their taste, our Creative Short Stories series has the answer.

We've taken some of the world's best stories from dark, musty anthologies and brought them into the light, giving them the individual attention they deserve. Each book in the series has been designed with today's young reader in mind. As the words come to life, students will develop a lasting appreciation for great literature.

The humor of Mark Twain...the suspense of Edgar Allan Poe...the danger of Jack London...the sensitivity of Katherine Mansfield. Creative Short Stories has it all and will prove to be a welcome addition to any library.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, School, Literary Fiction, Classics, Jewish, Literature

40 pages, Library Binding

First published March 1, 1958

About the author

Philip Milton Roth was an American novelist and short-story writer. Roth's fiction—often set in his birthplace of Newark, New Jersey—is known for its intensely autobiographical character, for philosophically and formally blurring the distinction between reality and fiction, for its "sensual, ingenious style" and for its provocative explorations of American identity. He first gained attention with the 1959 short story collection Goodbye, Columbus, which won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction. Ten years later, he published the bestseller Portnoy's Complaint. Nathan Zuckerman, Roth's literary alter ego, narrates several of his books. A fictionalized Philip Roth narrates some of his others, such as the alternate history The Plot Against America.
Roth was one of the most honored American writers of his generation. He received the National Book Critics Circle award for The Counterlife, the PEN/Faulkner Award for Operation Shylock, The Human Stain, and Everyman, a second National Book Award for Sabbath's Theater, and the Pulitzer Prize for American Pastoral. In 2005, the Library of America began publishing his complete works, making him the second author so anthologized while still living, after Eudora Welty. Harold Bloom named him one of the four greatest American novelists of his day, along with Cormac McCarthy, Thomas Pynchon, and Don DeLillo. In 2001, Roth received the inaugural Franz Kafka Prize in Prague.

Reviews

[Berengaria · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Free PDF here:
https://www.macalester.edu/religious-...

short review for busy readers:
Laugh-out-loud funny story of an independently thinking Jewish boy butting heads with the conventional rabbi who teaches his Bar Mitzvah prep class. Told with verve and typical Jewish wit and style, the story races towards a highly unconventional and provokative ending.

If you like Jewish humour/ Roth's early style or theological comedy, you'll love this one. I did! (Originally published 1958 in Goodbye, Columbus)

[Joselito Honestly and Brilliantly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a story that swings from comic to tragic, from young to old, from lighthearted to serious, and from surprise to surprise. An exhilarating ride. No kidding: 4.18 average GR rating. Well-executed, a gem of rare brilliance.

Read it.

[Lizzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was surprised when I learned that this story is funny. I thought it was sad? I don't know. I'm weird like that. Chekhov is the same for me. I know they're comedies, I just really want them to get to Moscow.

Anyway. I guess the sadness is what interested me in the story, so I'm going to hold on to it. There is a situational joke at the end, foretold by the story's title, but if that is the purpose of the story then I don't think it's very strong.

But the story of Ozzie and his questions was good. The story is about his need to ask questions of his rabbi at Hebrew school, and his consistent denial. The rabbi wants to teach him to stop asking questions, and the confrontations grow heated as they accumulate. His mother is unhappy with his performance, and slaps him one night. Then at school, the rabbi slaps him. The primary action of the story happens after he runs onto the roof to get away, and they think he plans to jump.

What's so sad, though, is that while this is going on, Ozzie is realizing that nobody knows him. They don't understand what he's thinking -- whether because they're stuck in the obedience of religious belief or because they haven't made the effort -- and he cannot successfully explain. Even his friends start acting like the children they are, taking it all the most un-seriously they possibly can. He's really alone, and it upsets Ozzie so much he starts acting childishly, using the unexpected power of the moment to make silly things happen (like the joke of the title). But this is the kind of childish behavior you root for, that makes up for harm done. This weird situation allows him to get attention for his ideas, and ask his questions, and demand answers.

I like Ozzie and what he's going through, and I liked thinking about how his needs compare to what his community expects him to need. But personally I wanted a little more than that from the story in the end, because to me, it really doesn't seem like a joke. Something about it disappoints me, but maybe I'm taking things too seriously.

[Joan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short, sweet, wonderfully funny and significant.

[Roger DeBlanck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Roth’s remarkable debut work of fiction from 1959 Goodbye, Columbus compiles the memorable self-titled novella along with five brilliant short stories, arguably the best of which is “The Conversion of the Jews.” It has an edge to its concern in addressing religious beliefs through a young boy’s curiosity, and its conclusion is laugh-out-loud hilarious in highlighting Roth’s comic genius.

[Jossué Baquero · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es llamativo, por lo menos, que esta sea la primera novela de Roth. Goodbye, Columbus es una narración brillante de lo cotidiano. Quizá esta es la forma más apropiada de entrar a Roth: descubrir su genio narrativo en una novela donde la temática carece enteramente de recursos efectistas.

[Lexish · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to read this in a short story class I took. It's certainly unusual. It's the brief tale of a boy in Hebrew school getting ready for his bar mitzvah who essentially challenges the logical limits of what his rabbi is saying. The story is very grounded in the beginning and becomes kind of fanciful at the end. One puts it down and thinks, "Huh. Well. Hmm."

[madeline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mmm. I really have been drawn into the complexity and beauty of short stories as of late… This one, however, reached new depths. I was shocked and stunned and my mind reeled as I read of the tension and horror and questions that Ozzie so courageously asked. It awoke within me the desire to ask questions anew… to not be afraid to stand on the roof and scream.

[Shuggy L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A young boy Oscar Freedman challenges Rabbie Binder’s teachings in his Bar Mitzvah class.

Their confrontation is captured in the short story’s title when the Rabbi feels compelled, unwillingly, by Oscar, to concede a point.

Oscar is talking to his friend Itzie Lieberman.

It all starts with the Rabbi’s explanation of Jesus as an historical figure rather than being the son of God.

Oscar conveys to Itzie, Rabbi Binder's lesson information:

“Jesus was a person that lived like you and me.” and:

“He was a real person, Jesus, but he wasn’t like God, and we don’t believe he is God.”

Itzie, in return, mentions other people’s beliefs during his and Oscar’s conversational dialogue:

“The Catholics ( including the Protestants), they believe in Jesus Christ, that he’s God.”

Oscar tries to clarify with the Rabbi if Jesus's position is possible or not?

[Sohail · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the message this story offers about religion, although I don't like the way it conveys it, since although it asks religious people to become more tolerant of other people's opinions, at the end of day it has a pro-religion attitude.

I must confess though, that only a religious person could pull it off, and perhaps only in this way. Only a religious person could show how stupid and insignificant religion can be, especially when faced with the more serious matters in life. And only a religious person has the authority to ask his fellows, as the author does at the penultimate lines of the story, to promise 'not to hit anybody because of God'.

This is a story that can do a lot of good should it be read by (or told to) religious people, particularly the fanatics and the terrorists.

[Elena Carmona · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Leído para mi clase de Multicultural Literature)

Debate teológico en forma de relato corto en el que Roth habla sobre el culto a los rituales, la violencia y las contradicciones del judaísmo. Todo ello con un niño de inclinaciones suicidas como protagonista, que consigue poner de rodillas (una postura de rezo no aceptada por los judíos) a toda su sinagoga, rabino incluido.

A raíz de tener que leerle para clase, investigué un poco acerca de Philip Roth y por lo visto es uno de los personajes más polémicos de la literatura americana. Así como resumen: fue judío de tercera generación, a bit misógino y le encantaba tanto Kafka que escribió una novela en homenaje a su Metamorfosis en la que el protagonista se despierta un día cualquiera convertido una teta de mujer.

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thirteen year old Oscar "Ozzie" Freedman is confronted by his rabbi and his mother as he struggles to comprehend the abstract vs the concrete issues of his religion. When he asks thought provoking questions during open conversations his rabbi avoids his questions, but calls his mother stating that Ozzie is being difficult in class. This leads to a showdown after the rabbi accidently strikes Ozzie, and draws blood leading him to seek refuge on the roof of synagogue.

[Julia Wendland · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this short story more than Goodbye Columbus, but it still wasn’t something I would read again. Once again, manipulation is extremely prevalent in these lines, but this time through the eyes of a child. Adults are unforgiving and relentless to this child who is just curious and wanting to learn more…

[Willy Walsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great and funny story.

[Judy Zingher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bad boy in cheder - he got them!

[Monzenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amusing, probably a poignant look at the Jewish experience especially from a kid's perspective.

[Koda Mueller · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a good short story but it really makes you question things about yourself, specifically religion and questioning what you believe

[Ariffa Jarena Banu · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Student's Curiosity about God and Religion..

[Magdalena · Rating 4 out of 5]

buena historia... cada vez más amiga de leer short stories

[Brent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Powerful and poignant from the vantage of a thirteen year old Jewish kid growing up in New York in the 1950s

[Isabel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting commentary on generational views of religion

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I suppose it's supposed to be funny - but like so much humor, it's based on demeaning someone or something.

[ExeDavid · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short story was mentioned in Abagail Shrier's Irreversible Damage as an example of teenage manipulation of adults. It's short, so I decided to read it.

A kid goes to dire straits (though not entirely on purpose) to point out the hypocrisy of the adults around him.

[Rachel Jackson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm fairly indifferent about this story. "The Conversion of the Jews" was a humorous, quick look at religious doctrine and its discrepancies, especially through the eyes of a pre-bar mitzvah boy, but I wasn't particularly enthralled by it. It's the story of Oscar Freedman, who disagrees with his Rabbi about some tenets of Judaism and constantly gets in trouble for it, until their disagreements come to a real head and cause Oscar to snap. I was waiting for the climax to come, for the action to rise and things to become more interesting, but they never really got there, and suddenly it was over.

[Eg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ozzie is a really interesting character because of the fact that he is a Jew and still trying to convince everyone that Christianity and God is something much higher. As he, the protagonist, states himself, is that "what he wanted to know was always different" thus he is turning back on his intended religion. The story reflects different prejudices and worldview. An another contrast can be found in Yakov Blotnik character that lives in the old world.

[Adriana Pereira · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating story about a young boy who keeps questioning the Jewish faith imposed to him by his Rabbi and his mother. It keeps you on the edge of your seat while you wonder if it will have a happy ending or a tragic one. Highly recommended it.

[Maurice J · Rating 5 out of 5]

See my review of Goodbye Columbus, by Philip Roth.

Hilarious and serious--a great take on Jewish culture and religious views in the 1940s-1950s.

[Rosanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

this story literally left me breathless in an airport waiting lounge.