Beyond Biography
Beyond Biography considers how the life of Alan Lew may help us understand changes to postwar American Judaism – specifically, the Jewish Renewal Movement and a turn towards spiritual practice among many practitioners of the religion during the latter portions of the twentieth century. As such, it places Lew’s life in broader context and attempts to articulate one way that we might think about his life’s historical significance.
By far, this chapter is the most “historical” in that, it will make an argument about the significance of Alan Lew’s life and actions. Throughout it, keep in mind our discussion of the historian’s role arranging facts and telling stories, as well as what a Zen Rabbi who once lamented that history reduces people to argument might have to say about our conclusions.