title was brilliant: What I Wish My Christian Friends Knew About Judaism. I had no doubt this book a) would be published, and b) should be read.
Taking the box home, I absorbed his chapters on my sofa. Once more, Bob improved my vision. Here I encountered the man I’d already met during the eye exam: pleasant-mannered, thoughtful, funny, sincere. I’d written books introducing Catholicism to the curious, so this genre was familiar territory: How to explain to outsiders the contents of your own heart? How to present what may seem strange so that it’s demystified—without losing its sacred character?
Bob’s approach is an invitation to that kind of conversation. He explains what it means to be Jewish and all the ways one might find oneself inside that rather expansive box. He offers plain and simple tidbits of history, belief, practice, and custom. As a Jewish man, alert to many aspects of Christian practice, he’s able to comfortably connect the dots and offer comparisons of concepts we share like confirmation, confession, priesthood, and liturgy. An avid student of Scripture myself, I was grateful for the chance to see the longer part of my Bible from his astute, and often wry, perspective.
Reading What I Wish ... has been the invitation to many more conversations since. Bob and I dove into our own Jewish-Catholic dialogue, one dynamic lunch at a time. In our enthusiasm for what we were discovering, we decided to take the conversation public, staging a dialogue Bob artfully entitled “Bob and Moses and Jesus and Alice.” Movie fans may appreciate the reference. We threw down an area rug, provided two easy chairs and a pole lamp as stage props. We tried to give the show a parlor-chat feel.
What we discovered that night, and on other occasions since, is how vast the chasm of unknowing between religions can be. Never mind that Christianity is to Judaism as the United States is to England. No matter our differences, we share a history that will always bind us together. But as Bob points out, it’s a mistake to imagine that the Jewish person you’re talking to knows the story of Jesus. Most Jews have never read what Christians call the New Testament. They have no knowledge of the gospels or Saint Paul. They only know the pogroms and persecutions of history Jews suffered in so-called Christian nations. The most urgent question many Jews have for Christians often is: What are your views about the nation of Israel?
In the same way, many Christians have only the sketchiest notion of what’s in our Old Testament: something about Adam and Eve, Noah’s ark, Ten Commandments, and a Promised Land. They may know next to nothing about what goes on in a synagogue or what a believing Jew actually believes. The main question Christians have in a Jewish-Christian dialogue inevitably is: Why don’t Jews believe in Jesus?
Both questions harbor a bit of defensiveness, and can seem accusatory. We still have a long way to go just to hear each other; then farther toward acceptance; until we finally creep into the territory of a long-overdue embrace. The twenty-first century needs more folks dedicated to reaching across differences, however prolonged and deeply maintained, to genuine understanding. This book can be the first step for its readers into that kinder, better world.
Preface to the Second Edition
I remember the day I decided to write this book.
I was in a branch of the Oakland Public library browsing the new non-fiction books, and there I saw a volume that I’d been hoping to see for years—a book that would explain Judaism to non-Jewish readers.
Although I’d grown up Jewish in post-World War 2 America, had attended Hebrew school, had a bar mitzvah, I’d never felt comfortable answering many of the questions about Judaism that would come up in conversation with my Christian friends.
The books about Judaism that I’d come across that purported to accomplish this task—including this one—were never right for some reason. Either they were written by an Orthodox rabbi and did not reflect the more liberal Judaism I knew and lived, or they were too technical and not particularly readable. Why would I recommend such a book to a non-Jewish friend?
So I began to think. What would an average Christian or Catholic person want to know about Judaism? What would they already know or not know, and how much detail or depth would they want? And who might they be?
“I’m thinking about writing a book,” I told my wife that night. And so began a seven-year journey from conception to publication.
The good news was that I had a degree in Communication and had some writing and editing skills. But I’d changed career directions and never put these skills to professional use.
Fortunately, as I wrote I began to find “my voice” and identified my imaginary reader—an intelligent person, curious about how and why Jews did what they did; someone who was interested in the history of the Jewish People and wanted an overview of Jewish Holidays as well as descriptions of the primary life-cycle events.
My greatest challenge was (and continues to be) that there exists an extremely wide range of Jewish practice and belief, from ultra-Orthodoxy to ultra-liberalism. The saying goes that if two Jews are discussing a problem, they’ll come up with three opinions.
But I did my best, and when I finished my first draft I made photocopies of the manuscript and asked friends, family, and strangers for feedback. And boy, did I get it! “What about kosher food?” “You need to talk about the Holocaust! Intermarriage. Conversion. Circumcision. Music. Art. Israel.” I wrote a second draft and repeated the process. By the third round of feedback, including comments from members of the clergy, I thought I was pretty much finished. When Loyola Press agreed to publish the manuscript, they asked for additional changes.
Almost two more years went by before the book’s release. The big surprise was a “starred review” in Publishers Weekly, which resulted in my little book being acquired by public libraries all over North America.
This second edition, issued by Stone Bridge Press, allows me to make a few tweaks to the original. But what pleases me most is that I did accomplish what I set out to do—write a book that answers the basic questions: What is Judaism all about? Why do Jews do what they do? What do they believe? And, is Hanukkah the Jewish Christmas?
The feedback we received from Christian readers was both satisfying and humbling. But I was also happy to find that the book benefited Jewish readers as well, and was used for Introduction to Judaism classes as well as being recommended by rabbis to adults considering conversion.
Whatever your question, I hope you find some answers here.
Preface to the First Edition
Kermit the Frog has said that it’s not easy being green. Well, it’s not easy being anything. Being Jewish presents its own problems, and through the years I have often wished I could explain to my non-Jewish friends, in a simple, non-threatening manner, what my religion is all about.
From the Sabbath to circumcision, from Hanukkah to the Holocaust, from bar mitzvah to bagel, how do Jewish religion, history, holidays, lifestyles, and culture make Jews different, and why is that difference so distinctive that we carry it from birth to the grave?
So, I present here a compendium of facts, lore, and opinion. I’ve checked the facts and the lore in a number of sources. The opinions (and humor) are mine. If you disagree with anything written on these pages, it’s okay. As a matter of fact, it’s part of the Jewish tradition to disagree.
Robert Schoen
Oakland, California
