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Orthodox

Product Description
This is a gripping biography of Rabbi Kahane written by his wife Libby Kahane. Contrary to expectations this is not a hagiography, but rather an objective exposition of his activities. Her research combines with her first-hand knowledge of events to present a comprehensive survey of Rabbi Kahane’s ideology and political strategy, beginning with the childhood experiences that shaped him The religious nature of Jewish life was his passion, and it informed everything he did. He realized that assimilation was a very real danger, and worked in many capacities to promote Jewish observance, as teacher, community leader, Rabbi, and writer, with a column in the Jewish Press that ran for 30 years. It was his response to the wave of violence that swept America in the late 1960s that led him to found the Jewish Defense League. Soviet Jewry soon became the JDL’s primary concern and the group’s violent demonstrations resulted in publicity that brought world awareness to the plight of Soviet Jews and led to their freedom. The book traces Rabbi Kahane’s involvement in Israeli politics, his efforts – still relevant – to preserve the country’s Jewish character and to oppose appeasement, and quotes from his writings to to give the reasoning behind his various actvities. This combination of memoir and biography works well. The narrative is structured around a combination of interviews and careful archival research painstakingly footnoted, that lets readers draw their own conclusions.

Paperback: 684 pages