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Jew vs. Jew: The Struggle for the Soul of American JewryAt a time when American Jews should feel more secure and cohesive than ever, civil war is tearing apart their community. Congregations, neighborhoods, even families are taking sides in battles about Jewish identity and Jewish authenticity. The conflict pits fundamentalist against secularist, denomination against denomination, even liberal against conservative within each branch of Jewry. Jew vs. Jew tells the story of how American Jewry has
At a time when American Jews should feel more secure and cohesive than ever, civil war is tearing apart their community. Congregations, neighborhoods, even families are taking sides in battles about Jewish identity and Jewish authenticity. The conflict pits fundamentalist against secularist, denomination against denomination, even liberal against conservative within each branch of Jewry. Jew vs. Jew tells the story of how American Jewry has increasingly -- and perhaps terminally -- broken apart in the last forty years. Jew vs. Jew stretches in time from 1960 to 2000. It travels the country from Florida to New England, from Los Angeles to the Catskills in New York, from Cleveland to Denver, and it also crosses the ocean to Israel to show how tensions within the Jewish state inflame those among American Jews. The flash-points range from conversion standards to the role of women, from the peace process in Israel to the sexual climate on an Ivy League campus. But behind them all, as Samuel Freedman writes, lie common causes. First, far from unifying American Jews, Israel now divides them on both political and religious grounds. Second, neither America nor the larger world presents Jews with a single enemy against whom to coalesce. Third, and most important, nothing in the Jewish history of persecution, oppression, and exile prepared the Chosen People for the challenge posed by America, the challenge of being absorbed into a tolerant and diverse nation, being accepted so thoroughly that the intermarriage rate tops 50 percent. Jew vs. Jew introduces readers to memorable places and characters. Freedman describes one of the final summers at a Labor Zionist camp in the Catskills whose brand of secular Jewishness is becoming obsolete because Zionism succeeded in creating Israel. He tells the story of Orthodox and Reform Jews in a Cleveland suburb who are fighting about the construction of several synagogues -- and, on a deeper level, about whether unity or pluralism ought to be the goal of Jewish life. He portrays a Florida Jew so violently opposed to the Oslo peace accords that he planted a bomb in a synagogue where Shimon Peres was speaking. He tells about a Los Angeles congregation that spent three years debating whether or not to honor the Biblical matriarchs in its liturgy.We come to know the Long Island neighbors who cannot tolerate sharing even a property line because their versions of Jewish identity are so irreconcilably different. Jew vs. Jew is a work of vigorous reporting, lucid writing, and intellectual curiosity. And even as it chronicles an embittered and polarized community, it refuses to take sides or pass judgment. Instead, with compassion and acuity, Jew vs. Jew bears witness.Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 09/21/2007
ISBN: 9781416578000
Pages: 400
Weight: 1.29lbs
Size: 9.03h x 6.09w x 0.95d
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4.5 ★★★★★
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★★★★★ 5
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Size: 60 Count (Pack of 1)
Vitamins are the best vegan option available at this time, which is not made with coconut oil.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2026
★★★★★ 5
Really effective supplement combo I trust
Size: 60 Count (Pack of 1)
I've been very happy with this vitamin D3 and K2. The plant-based D3 and vegan K2 are great for my health. Max absorption with organic olive oil makes a difference. I feel better overall, and my bones and heart seem healthier. The 60 softgels pack is convenient. Overall, a high-quality product I recommend.
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Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2025
★★★★★ 5
Most Illuminating Psych Book I've Read
Format: Hardcover
As a psychiatrist, I have yet to read a more illuminating book on how mental illnesses can develop, and how to help patients' to become free of them.
Existential Psychotherapy presents a theory of the existential forces that drive all human beings--knowledge of death, of our aloneness in the world, and of "meaninglessness" (the utter inconsequence of our one life in the entirety of the universe). It shows how these forces are powerful influences in shaping human mental health and illness.
Other reviewers here point out that the basic existential issues Yalom presents are well-known to academics and to many literate people who are exposed to them in that good, broad, liberal arts education we (still?) get in college. But what Yalom achieves in this book, has not to my knowledge been accomplished before (nor since): a presentation of these ideas to an audience of clinicians in a lucid, beautifully written, way that is salient to the daily practice of psychotherapy.
Yalom is a rare psychiatrist who is not only a master of the art of teaching and practicing psychiatry, but for this book, ventured into philosophy, literature, history, and sociology, and then integrated the wisdom each brings to the study of human nature, into a clear and cohesive whole, a beautifully written theory of the existential dimension of men's fears, drives, and actions, and how this dimension creates mental illness or health, depending on how each person handles it.
What is amazing is how such a book is now buried in the archives of (relative) obscurity, while others, recycling the same old tired ideas, reign on.
So what do these lofty insights in Yalom's book contribute that is unique and powerful to us lowly practitioners toiling daily in our offices in the (seemingly more banal) task of helping patients with daily crises, complaints, resistance to change, and painful repetitions of self-destructive life choices?
One very important tool: a true understanding of the power of existential concerns, not only in creating mental illness and self-destructive life paths, but, by shining a light on them-- capturing that elusive force of change: MOTIVATION. This force, and how to harness it to help patients overcome their suffering, has for me been one of my greatest challenges as a doctor. And one for which most books on psychotherapy have fallen short in helping me tackle.
In the sections "death" and "will", (two of the four main sections in the book), Yalom forges a path that I could follow, to help my patients free themselves of the fears that block motivation for change. In short, Yalom shows how the anxiety about, (and thus avoidance of) awareness of our death and aloneness, can cripple us into denial, and resistance to changing those of our behaviors that shield us from these truths. But, these very fears, when faced and reframed--as the awareness of one's finite limits, and of the freedom that comes along with one's aloneness, become extremely potent engines for change. Other peoples' judgements, and fear of failure, lead us to believe that the human "judges" are the most important threat in our lives. But in Yalom's world, these feared judgements pale in comparison to the the consequences of inaction. When we live with acute awareness that we waste our only life when we are beholden to judges who are after all, mortal and alone just like us, this can shake us up to MOVE and LIVE, in this finite life, in a way other insights cannot.
This example of how avoidance of existential fears leads to anxiety, low self-worth, and depression, is but one vignette in this book. Yalom applies his theory to the gamut of mental illness, and includes discussion of how narcissism, perversions, obssessions, masochism, sadism, ...the list goes on, are fueled by existential concerns. Yalom argues that they all boil down to one of two main strategies we humans employ to "forget" Death, Aloneness, and Meaninglessness: Either we escape too much into the protective cover of the GROUP, and become mindless group robots who drone through life until illness, or loss forces us to suddenly face our mortality, at which point many of us panic, or become depressed, OR, we get sucked into this defiant delusion : "I am SPECIAL"...smarter, more rebellious, unfettered by the social conventions of meek men, thus free of death's jaws". This reaction then can lead to reckless, impulsive, pseudo "powerful" behaviors that are often the fuel of many "acting out" mental problems: addiction, sociopathy, sadism, and narcissism.
Enough of my words-read and feel the power of Yalom's words in this great book.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2006
★★★★★ 5
A Great Work on the Dynamics of the Human Condition
Format: Hardcover
Irvin Yalom, Professor Emeritus at Standford in psychiatry, has written a masterful book on the human condition (published in 1980).
"Existential Psychotherapy" is singularly one of the best books I have ever read. Why? Yalom has combined 1) his intellectual insights in psychology with 2) his practical observations in therapy with 3) existential thought. He seeks to show that much of the anxiety we face as human beings, and seek comfort for in psychotherapy (or religion), originates from the existential facts of being a mortal, free being. He focuses on four main areas:
death (our inner structure will go to nothing),
freedom (we are forced to make momentous decisions without full information),
isolation (we are alone in many fundamental ways) and
meaninglessness (we don't have a clear picture of what it really means).
From literature, psychology, philosophy and some theology (Tillich), Yalom has created a definitive text on what it means to open our eyes fully to our existential situation. It is not a depressive text, as the goal is to come to terms with our condition. And ironically, facing the truth of death, for example, makes life richer. This is much more than a self-help book, it is a philosophical-psychological masterpiece.
I have a Ph.D. in the philosophy of religion and have published several articles in leading journals and don't give out the kind of praise I am giving here easily. It is one of the best books I have ever read, and I think a wide range of people would profit from it. Yet it's a difficult book, not an easy self-help read. But Yalom is such a clear writer that most readers could follow it. When he uses technical psychological or philosophical terms, he usually explains them. Otherwise, the dictionary must be used.
This text would be helpful for people in the helping professions in giving an existential aspect to their work. Religious thinkers and those interested in philosophy should pick it up at any cost. Any educated person could profit from it greatly. It's a long text, and I had to break it up by carefully reading some from each of the main four parts simultaneously to get a view of the whole. It's a bit dry at times, but thoughtful, perceptive, educational in many fields, --it's ....wisdom literature....I can't think of a higher compliment.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2013
★★★★★ 5
The best of its kind.
As a clinical psychologist who has been practicing, doing research on, and teaching assessment and therapy for more than 25 years I have encountered many books and many more articles and research papers on psychotherapy. While some have real value, most do little more than take up space and help the people who wrote them advance their careers. All too rarely one comes across a book that changes one's way of looking at things and helps one to approach this field in a new and qualitatively better fashion. Yalom's book on Existential Psychotherapy is one such book. I first read this when I was in graduate school in the early 1980's and just learning about psychotherapy, and about life. This book opened my eyes and gave me an over-arching way of thinking about myself, my patients, and the things that I was doing. Unlike most texts on therapy, it was not limited to the parochial "theoretical orientations" and mechanistic models of therapy technique that I was learning then and have seen proliferate ever since. Since this time I have re-read this book many times, and each time I have gotten more from it.
Yalom tries to go through the collected wisdom of mankind, not just in the narrow world of scientific psychology, but in philosophy, art, and religion, to explain how everyone must face certain existential realities such a mortality, temporality, resonsibility and isolation, and how the struggle to face these basic issues underlies many of the symptoms and complaints that lead people to seek the help of mental health professionals. Unfortunately, as Yalom points out, all too often we fail to see these as such, and offer help in the form of superficial, pseudoscientific psychologizing, technical trivialities and medications that often do more harm than good. While, used humbly and wisely, these things are not without value, their value is often fatally limited by their failure to see the larger context of life and its challenges. Once having read and really thought about Yalom's book, that becomes much harder to do; and thereby inevitably enriches one's practice and one's life.
Regardless what kinds of therapies and what kinds of patients one works with - or even if one's practice is limited primarily to assessment or research - this book provides a philosophical and conceptual bedrock that can inform and enrich what one does. I am so happy to see that this book is still in print, and I would encourage anyone who plans to make a living trying to be seriously involved in other people's lives to avail themselves of this book. It is a treasure and a masterpiece. I intend to us it in my classes this year and for as long as it remains in print.
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Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2013