BOOKS 2024 #כרמל

What is secularism and what is modernity? Are we all secular? Have we lost the ability to believe and live a religious life? And in general, what is religious belief? The essays of the Canadian philosopher Charles M. Taylor (born 1931) which are presented here deal with these very questions.

Andre Gide (1869-1951), later one of France's leading writers but at the time of writing the book was still a writer at the beginning of his career, created a combination that has no equal, between poetry and prose and between different literary genres. Following the experiences and transformations that took place in those years of his life, Zide wrote a kind of "New Evangelion", an anthem for the liberation of the spirit and the body.

Stories and essays based on autobiographical, tragic and comedic material. Their author is a former Soviet Jew who describes his family's history in the atmosphere of state and popular anti-Semitism that prevailed in the Soviet Union. He takes his readers to pre-Soviet, Soviet and post-Soviet Ukraine to introduce them to the history of Ukrainian Jews.

Relying on a wide variety of sources, Michael Meir tells the life story of Rabbi Leo Beck (1873-1956), one of the most significant Jewish religious thinkers of the twentieth century. In his book, he emphasizes Beck's dual work - both as a spiritual man urging man to realize the image of God in him and to respond to the demand of the moral order, and as a brave leader of his community living in the shadow of the Nazi regime.