FEBRUARY 18 • 2021 | 39

ARTS&LIFE
BOOKS
S

ome years ago, at an age 
close to 90, Constance 
Harris felt bored. 
“What can I do with the rest 
of my life?” the Californian and 
former Michigander asked her 
son, Stephen. 
“Write another book,
” he 
suggested, and she did just that, 
dedicating it to him and his wife, 
Ruth. 
The Many Ways Jews Loved: A 
History from Printed Words and 
Images (McFarland) came out 
this year and follows her two 
other books also published by 
McFarland — The Way Jews 
Lived: Five Hundred Years of 
Printed Words and Images (2009) 
and Portraiture in Prints (1987).

The new book explores types 
of love with varying ethnic out-
looks — toward God, people, 
country, food, traditions, artistry 
and humor. 
“Because I had finished 
the book on how Jews lived 
throughout history, I was trying 
to take some other angle, and 
I thought about relationships,
” 
said Harris, 95, whose studies 
and research might touch upon 
her experiences as an English lit-
erature major at Hunter College 
in New York City. 
“There are so many versions 
of relationships, and there are 
so many versions of Jewish life. 
I tried to suggest interpretations 
of them.
”

In the process of develop-
ing her latest text, Harris went 
through the Bible and across 
centuries of writings to find 
diverse examples described by 
Jewish authors addressing loving 
relationships, from love associ-
ated with fun to love associated 
with tragedy.
“I was always interested in the 
collective identity of Jews,
” said 
Harris, who practices Orthodoxy 
but also has had membership 
in a Conservative synagogue, 
Congregation Shaarey Zedek 
in Southfield, and a Reform 
congregation, Temple Isaiah in 
Lafayette, Calif. 
“I’ve tried to look at the histo-
ry of Jews with slightly different 
interpretations and create cultur-
al understandings.
”
When she finished the man-
uscript and before submitting 
it for publication, Harris asked 
for the impressions of Howard 
Lupovitch, associate profes-
sor of history at Wayne State 
University and director of the 
Cohn-Haddow Center for Judaic 
Studies.
“There’s a real 
scholar at work in 
this book, but her 
writing is very acces-
sible,
” Lupovitch 
said. “She’s writing 
for a lay audience, 
and there’s a trans-
parency to the way 
she writes. Her anal-
ysis is sophisticated, but it’s not 
done in a way that’s opaque. 
“She’s using familiar characters 
and familiar themes, and she 
does a good job of connecting 
older sources and how they 
made their way into more recent 
literature. For example, she [calls 
attention to] Portnoy’s Complaint, 
a book many people have read. 
“She’s not confining herself to 
a narrow definition of romantic 
love or love of God. It’s a feeling 
and a state of mind that she 
understands as broadly as pos-
sible.
”
Love for Judaism has been 

shown by the author in ways 
beyond writing. She has held 
memberships in traditional orga-
nizations that include Hadassah 
and the Jewish Federation of Los 
Angeles, and she started a group 
in California to introduce mem-
bers of different faiths to each 
other. Launched in 1970, the 
Women’s Interfaith Committee 
continues.

JEWISH ARTIFACTS
Throughout her life, Harris has 
had a love for Jewish artifacts, 
amassing a large collection with 
her late husband, Theodore. 
It was given to the Special 
Collections Library at the 
University of Michigan, and that 
artistic interest made its way 
across the pages of her book, 
which contains many noted 
images, such as an 1860 engrav-
ing of a Jewish family shown in 
the Illustrated News of the World.
Arranged as The Jewish 
Heritage Collection at the 
library, the collection holds some 
3,000 items — ritual objects, art-
works and books. Sections of the 
collection have been borrowed 
by other universities for tempo-
rary displays, and she recently 
found and added a rare Ladino 
Haggadah.
As Harris worked on her third 
book, she seems to have adhered 
to the advice of the late Jewish 
comedian Milton Berle, who 
starred in the stage production 
Always Leave Them Laughing. The 
book, which includes favorite tra-
ditional recipes, from kreplach to 
rugelach, ends with Jewish jokes.
“I’m grateful for good health, 
friends and family that includes 
two adult grandsons living in the 
East and calling their grandma 
regularly,
” Harris said. 
As author, Harris could add 
gratitude for many good reviews, 
such as the one by Deborah 
Lipstadt, renowned history 
professor at Emory University 
in Atlanta. Lipstadt defined the 
book as “interesting, illuminat-
ing and engaging.
” 

History buff, 95, writes a 200-page 
“love letter” to the Jewish people. 

Her Lifelong 
Love Affair 
with Judaism

Howard 
Lupovitch

SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

DETAILS
The Many Ways 
Jews Have Loved 
is available on Amazon.

Constance Harris

