Turmoil still grips the Middle East and fear now paralyzes 
post-9/11 America. The comforts and challenges of this book thus 
remain as relevant as when first published in 1987. But with the 
addition of further reflections on the future of Judaism and Israel 
written during the 1990s, Ellis has surely shown that the ideas he 
advocates still address a fundamental problem of justice.

    Ellis's deft use of liberation theology to make connections 
between the Holocaust and contemporary communities from the 
Third World reminds both Jews and oppressed Christians that they 
share common ground in the experiences of abandonment, suffering, 
and death. The connections reveal that Jews and Christians also 
share a common cause in the battle against idolatry, represented 
now by affluence, national security, and survival no matter the costs. 
But Ellis, prophetically, further points to a shared ethical challenge:
the reality of anti-Semitism should never become an excuse to evade 
solidarity with the oppressed peoples—e.g., African, Asian, and Latin 
Americans and especially Palestinian. Indeed, Ellis boldly suggests 
that for Jews to be truly Jewish they must embrace the pain and 
suffering of the Palestinians.

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MARC H. ELLIS is University Professor of American and Jewish 
Studies and director of the Center for American and Jewish 
Studies, Baylor University. Ellis has authored fifteen books and 
edited five others, including, most recently, A Year at the 
Catholic Worker: A Spiritual Journey among the Poor and 
Revolutionary Forgiveness: Essays on Judaism, Christianity, and 
the Future of Religious Life.