Jews and Words Amos Oz, Fania Oz-Salzberger

Why are words so important to Jews? Novelist Amos Oz and historian Fania Oz-Salzberger roam the gamut of Jewish history to explain the integral relationship of Jews and words. Through a blend of storytelling and scholarship, conversation and argument, father and daughter tell the tales behind Judaism's most enduring names, adages, disputes, texts, and quips. These words, they argue, comprise the chain connecting Abraham with the Jews of every subsequent generation. Framing the discussion within such topics as continuity, women, timelessness, and individualism, Oz and Oz-Salzberger deftly engage Jewish personalities across the ages, from the unnamed, possibly-female author of the "Song of Songs" through obscure Talmudists to contemporary writers. They suggest that Jewish continuity, even Jewish uniqueness, depends not on central places, monuments, heroic personalities, or rituals, but rather on written words and an ongoing conversation between the generations. Full of learning, lyricism, and humour, "Jews and Words" offers an extraordinary tour of the words at the heart of Jewish culture and extends a hand to the reader, any reader, to join the dialogue.

Amos Oz is an internationally acclaimed author of more than fifteen works of fiction and numerous essays on politics, literature, and peace. He is also professor of literature at Ben-Gurion University in Be'er Sheva. Fania Oz-Salzberger is a writer, historian, and professor at the University of Haifa. She also holds the Leon Liberman Chair in Modern Israel Studies, Monash University, Australia.

'[A] provocative, playful, speculative journey through the rich, centuries-old heritage of Jewish literature.' Natasha Lahrer, Jewish Chronicle

'A charmingly funny book--not just humorous but sometimes downright hilarious. The essence of it is that the natural condition of the Jewish people--and the source of their resilience--is being in argument with the world, with one another and, to be sure, with God himself. But you cannot get the taste of this book, let alone its essence, without reading it.' Martin Peretz, Wall Street Journal

'An exhilarating essay'. John Nettles, The Scotsman