Rodger Kamenetz, Harper Collins, 1994
This book, subtitled ‘a poet’s rediscover of Jewish identity in Buddhist India’, is one of the odder books in my library. Kamenetz, an admirer of the Dalai Lama, assembled a group of creative and unusual Jewish thinkers, to go to visit him in Dharamsala. The book is a record of that visit, the conversations within the group and with the Lama, and the thoughts on Judaism and the Jewish world that the author develops on route. While a little long, I found the book quite compelling, although I found that Kamenetz’s critique of traditional Judaism demonstrated a lack of exposure to some important experiences. The author seems to have found the trip personally enriching, and the record of his informal contacts with the other travellers makes fascinating reading. His comparison of Jewish and Tibetan responses to exile is particularly interesting.
The Jew In The Lotus
