Abstract
What Makes Me Angry is a collection of essays by rabbis from the Reform tradition of Judaism, and what raise rabbinic ire are a wide range of issues – ancient, modern, political and spiritual.
In the opening essay, Shulamit Ambalu addresses the controversial subject of antisemitism in the Labour Party, expressing anger that many British Jews – Labour Party members to their very bones, as she describes them – have been dispossessed of their political home by the self-indulgent and irresponsible hard left. The issue, however, she writes, backs her into a corner of silence, making it difficult for many Jews to criticize the politics of the Israeli government, as so often such criticism has become confused with antisemitism.
Charles Middleburgh says he is not just angry, but incandescent, when hearing of cruelty to animals. It is society’s treatment of the homeless that makes Michael Hilton angry, as well as some of the failings in healthcare. Pessimists and necrophiles are targeted by Colin Eimer, one of several writers to pick more than one target in a single essay.
Not unexpectedly, climate change is the subject of a chapter, as are online abuse and LGBT conversion therapy. Irit Shillor is angered by those who argue intolerantly and do not listen to other people’s views. In a chapter on righteous anger, Howard Cooper reflects on a question relevant to both groups: can we learn to ‘feel passionately, but act dispassionately’ (p. 25)? The challenge that remains after the anger is expressed is how to channel wrath into the hard, unglamorous work of fighting injustice and resisting the multiple ways in which human destructiveness is played out.
Some issues raised are specifically Jewish concerns. What makes Roderick Young’s ‘blood boil’ is when Jews of different traditions – Liberal, Reform, Orthodox, Masorti – refuse to engage with one another because they think their Jewish path is the only true one. Josh Levy, too, regrets the loss of dialogue within Judaism, something that a healthy community needs. Andrea Zanardo is disappointed by the failure of Jews by birth fully to welcome and integrate with converts.
Sarah Grabiner does not focus on what pains her, but asks a question instead: what makes God angry? The Bible talks of times when God’s wrath has been directed at individuals in what seems like a sudden and disproportionate way, despite his nature being described as ‘slow to anger’. God’s anger, as described in the sacred texts, Grabiner writes, ‘perhaps give us one way to express our own anger, or at least see it reflected through an ancient lens’ (p. 79).
The 21 essays here cover many styles. There is no discernible theme running through the book other than the fact that, as editor Jonathan Romain notes in his Introduction, ‘we have a lot of angry rabbis and cantors’. Despite this, the overall tone of the book is not one of splenetic righteous indignation, but of searching engagement with a world that consistently falls short of what it might potentially be.