By
– September 1, 2011
On the day after the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in April 1968, Cincinnati high school student Ben Kamin saw his friendship with Clifton Fleetwood severed by the tensions and chaos of the day. Over the years, the loss of his African-American friend gnawed at Kamin, who became a Reform rabbi and an accomplished advocate of multiculturalism. This slender volume recounts his efforts to reconnect with his friend and sort out the racial baggage from the 1960’s, and its lingering effects today.
Kamin is an interesting thinker, and his writing is earnest and well-meant. There’s no doubt that racial divisions weigh deeply upon him, particularly those based on fear and ignorance. That said, it’s a shame that the narrative that binds the book together feels so slight. Ultimately, the book is not as moving or compelling as it hopes to be. Bibliography.
Kamin is an interesting thinker, and his writing is earnest and well-meant. There’s no doubt that racial divisions weigh deeply upon him, particularly those based on fear and ignorance. That said, it’s a shame that the narrative that binds the book together feels so slight. Ultimately, the book is not as moving or compelling as it hopes to be. Bibliography.
David Cohen is a senior editor at Politico. He has been in the journalism business since 1985 and wrote the book Rugged and Enduring: The Eagles, The Browns and 5 Years of Football. He resides in Rockville, MD.; his wife, Deborah Bodin Cohen, writes Jewish children’s books.
