Judaism Online: Confronting Spirituality on the Internet »

Written over the Internet, this book is a discussion between Susan M. Zakar, a woman who journeyed from Christianity to Judaism, and Dovid Kaufmann, her Internet mentor.

Publishers Weekly

In 1996, Zakar, a web designer, posted a message to a Usenet group called soc.culture.jewish. Kaufman, who had been a participant in the discussion group since 1993, read her message, which asked about what it meant to be an observant Jew, and he responded with what he calls "a homework assignment." Over the next two years, Kaufman played spiritual mentor to Zakar's spiritual seeker as they corresponded via e-mail and through the online discussion group. This book is simply a record of their online conversations about the nature and practice of Judaism. Zakar, raised in a fundamentalist Christian home, very early began questioning the narrow lessons about Jesus and religion her church was teaching her. She found herself, even as early as high school, attracted to Judaism and what she saw as Jews' deep faith and loving obedience to the Torah and the mitzvos (commandments). As Zakar and Kaufman engage in their ongoing conversation, Kaufman unfolds for Zakar the teachings, rituals and observances of Judaism. In one brief note, for instance, Kaufman tells her that "the Torah is God's wisdom, and mitzvos are the garments of the soul; thus, our Godly soul expresses itself through Torah and mitzvos." As a result of this two-year conversation online, Zakar converted to Judaism. While their book demonstrates the opportunities for dialogue on religion created by the Internet, their prose is wooden and self-conscious, and the book reads more like a stilted dialogue between two actors rather than an open, freewheeling conversation about Jewish spirituality. (May)