The fifth installment in JPS’s series Jewish Choices, Jewish Voices presents largely familiar arguments in its case studies about terrorism, justifications for war, the conduct of war, and national policies about war. Its essayists agree that armies should act ethically, and none supports the use of torture. Two commentators cite President Eisenhower’s warning about a “military-industrial complex” in connection with national-security policy, and UCLA Professor Steven Spiegel argues against most kinds of arms sales. Temple University Professor Richard Immerman is concerned that defense spending takes money away from schools, transit, and the environment.
Classical Jewish sources are furnished for each of the four case studies as a point of departure. A lot of them relate only obliquely to the topic at hand, however, for instance, the Biblical prohibition of rechilut, a kind of gossip, is cited here in relation to privacy, although gossip (lashon hara) is normally treated as an ethical pitfall for the perpetrator. The voice from heaven announcing that Jewish law follows the School of Hillel is listed under “Free Speech and Its Limits.”
What’s more, these sources do not perceptibly inform the essays that follow. Michael Walzer notes in passing that his book Just and Unjust Wars is actually a secularized version of Catholic just-war theory. Nadav Morag of the American Jewish University argues against profiling not for ethical reasons but because “Jihadist terrorism does not fit a particular ethnic profile.”
The range of viewpoints is also surprisingly narrow. A number of prominent progressive organizations are represented, including Brit Tzedek v’Shalom, Encounter, and Jewish Voice for Peace, as are Rabbi Sharon Brous and Professor Noam Chomsky. Well-known neoconservative Jewish voices such as Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, and Douglas Feith, as well as David Frum and William Kristol, are correspondingly conspicuous by their absence. This volume would have been far richer had it been more rigorous, inclusive, and diverse.
Nonfiction
Jewish Choices, Jewish Voices: War and National Security
- Review
By
– August 24, 2011
Bob Goldfarb is president of Jewish Creativity International.
Discussion Questions
Jewish literature inspires, enriches, and educates the community.
Help support the Jewish Book Council.
