Jew(ish): A primer, A memoir, A manual, A plea

Matt Greene explores what it means to be Jew(ish) in 2020 through a collection of essays that blend memoir, reflection, and inquiry. Caught between tradition and modernity, and between his own Jewish upbringing and raising a son with a non-Jewish mother, Greene examines questions of identity, religion, and family. He reconsiders his own childhood experiences—the sense of not belonging, dietary restrictions, and holidays that felt burdensome. Greene acknowledges the diversity within Jewish identity and practice: there are many ways to be Jewish, and for every two Jews there are three opinions. He questions whether those who don't follow strict observance, who avoid group affiliation, who observe without belief, or who don't observe at all are somehow less Jewish. Through essays that are irreverent, insightful, urgent, and iconoclastic, Greene considers what constitutes the modern Jewish experience and what it means to claim any identity in a world preoccupied with self and otherness.