Non­fic­tion

Mem­oirs of a Jew­ish Extrem­ist: The Sto­ry of a Transformation

  • From the Publisher
January 12, 2015

From Yos­si Klein Hale­vi — the crit­i­cal­ly acclaimed author of Like Dream­ers, win­ner of the Jew­ish Book Coun­cil’s Everett Fam­i­ly Foun­da­tion Jew­ish Book of the Year Award — comes a mem­oir, pub­lished in paper­back for the first time with a new intro­duc­tion, about his jour­ney from Jew­ish extrem­ism to inter­faith reconciliation.

The child of a Holo­caust sur­vivor, Yos­si Klein Hale­vi grew up in 1960s Brook­lyn per­ceiv­ing real­i­ty through the lens of his fam­i­ly’s bru­tal past. Deter­mined to take action — and seek ret­ri­bu­tion — he became a dis­ci­ple of the late Rab­bi Meir Kahane and a mem­ber of the rad­i­cal fringe of the Amer­i­can Jew­ish community.

In this wry and mov­ing account, Hale­vi explores the deep-root­ed anger of his ado­les­cence and ear­ly adult­hood that fueled his mil­i­tant pol­i­tics. He reveals how he began to ques­tion his beliefs and see the world from his own clear per­spec­tive, free­ing him­self from being a hostage to rage.

Speak­ing to a new gen­er­a­tion strug­gling to under­stand what it means to be Jew­ish in Amer­i­ca, Mem­oirs of a Jew­ish Extrem­ist explains how such a trans­form-ation can hap­pen — giv­ing hope that peace­ful coex­is­tence among faiths is possible.

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