At Home in Exile: Why Diaspora Is Good for the Jews Hardcover - 2014

“For the last two thousand years, the Jewish people have lived almost entirely in the Diaspora. Zionism is about 130 years old, and the State of Israel just sixty-six, but between them they overwhelmingly dominate the modern Jewish agenda. In this wide-ranging and meticulously-researched book the author serves up a feisty defence of Diaspora living and its crucial importance for Jewish continuity.”
—Dr. David J. Goldberg OBE, Rabbi Emeritus, The Liberal Jewish Synagogue, London

“Alan Wolfe’s meditation on the Jews and their diaspora(s) is simultaneously erudite, thoughtful and frequently quite moving. One can disagree on occasion, but this is most often because of Wolfe’s generosity to his subjects and his willingness to assume the best about the motives of those with whom he disagrees. A minor flaw—if it can be called that—in a major work. The book earns my admiration as a scholar and my gratitude as a Jew.”
—Eric Alterman, columnist, The Nation, and author of Why We’re Liberals

“In this energetic examination of contemporary Jewish debates, the distinguished political thinker Alan Wolfe gives us a sharp and insightful analysis that is original, critical, and refreshingly straightforward.”
—Susannah Heschel, Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies, Dartmouth College

Alan Wolfe is professor of political science and director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College. The author and editor of more than twenty books, he is a frequent contributor to the New York Times, Harper's, and the Atlantic. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.