Judaism. "This is not just teaching
from a mountain top."
For the rabbi, who heads a Jewish
Renewal congregation in Boulder,
Colo., it's essential that writers of
memoirs combine storytelling with
teaching. `There should be guidance, a
piece of Torah to help people on their
own. That's what I've tried to do."
David Klinghoffer, a senior editor
at National Review, also has a mission
to teach. "I have an evangelist zeal to
explain Judaism to people and why I
think that Judaism is true," he says. In
The Lord Will Gather Me In (Free
Press; $24), the 33-year-old resident
of the Upper West Side of Manhattan
portrays with sensitivity the world of
seekers from different backgrounds
who choose to live their lives accord-
ing to Orthodoxy
"I felt the absence of Orthodoxy
from literate literature with some
pain. It's important that Orthodox
Jews begin to think about explaining
ourselves to the world.
He acknowledges that he's "not just
an evangelist. I also wanted to tell a
story." And he has a fascinating story
to tell. The author was adopted and
raised as a Reform Jew, later undergo-
ing two conversions, the second
according to Orthodoxy.
In the text, he wrestles with Jewish
philosophy and discusses the thinkers
who have had impact on him, and
notes that it's through connections with
several Christian women who take God
seriously that he comes to feel the lack
of a relationship with God in his life.
And falling in love and considering
marrying a non-Jew ultimately brings
him to Orthodoxy. His tale becomes
further textured when he seeks out his
birth mother, learns a family secret
and travels to her birthplace, Sweden.
Like the other spiritual memoirists,
Klinghoffer reveals extraordinarily per-
sonal details, like his experience of
attempting to circumcise himself in
the bathtub as a 12-year-old. "I feel
much more comfortable writing about,
these things than talking about them,
he explains.
But whereas the other writers
would agree that there are many paths
to God, many ways to be an authentic
Jew and find meaning, Klinghoffer
speaks about one truth.
"I don't expect anyone to become
religious by reading this book. I just
want to put an idea into people's
minds, an idea that gets lost, the idea
that there's a singular truth."
Lee Meyerhoff Hendler grounds

"

MEMOIRS

on page 89

'The Tear Mom
Got Religion'

I

t took Lee Meverhoff Hendler
40 years of Jewish living before
she started to understand what
being Jewish was all about.
The Baltimore mother and national
philanthropic leader's Jewish journey
led to the publication of her insightful
tome, The Year Mom Got Religion: One
Woman's Midlife Journey into Judaism
(Jewish Lights; $19.95).
"It was important to tell a story of a
midlife turning toward Judaism that was
not about teshuvah," she said in a recent
phone interview. "Not about a radical
transformation, [where you become] an
overnight member of the Orthodox
community -- [but a tale about] some-
body who was trying to integrate
[Judaism] into the life she was living. You
don't have to throw everything over in
order live an authentically Jewish life."
The book begins where Hendler's life
began, in a prominent Baltimore family;
Her father, Joseph Meyerhoff, helped
develop the U.S. Holocaust Memorial
Museum in Washington, D.C.
The current president of Chizuk
AinUll0 Congregation, Hendler writes
about the process of throwing out move-
ments and ending up Conservative.
"Reform Judaism ... seemed to reject
almost everything linked with tradition
ecause it was either inconvenient,
dogmatic or undermined the sanctity
of individual choice." On the other
hand, Orthodoxy required "unques-
tioning acceptance of their version of
tradition which violated my concept of
emotional and intellectual autonomy."
Hendler is known for the spellbind-
ing speeches she delivers to Federation
audiences nationwide. Yet, at these
addresses, which focus on how to
inspire younger generations to support
Jewish causes, audiences most want to
hear about her personal transformation.
"People were not interested in the
abstractions; they wanted to know, `So
how did you learn what you've learned?'
`Anybody undertaking serious learn-
ing as an adult finds the story [of] the
compulsion to learn, once you get
turned on to Jewish learning and the
intensity with which that fervor to learn
grips you," a compelling tale, she says.
Becoming more observant than your
upbringing is a national trend, she
says. Why? The homelessness of secu-
larity," Headier offered. "You cannot
create an enduring and meaningful
home in a purely secular world."

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Lynne Meredith Cohn

•ASIC

13/12
1999
Detroit Jewish News

87