Book review - "Orthodox by Design"
Aug. 16th, 2010 02:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhuI recently worked my way through "Orthodox by Design : Judaism, print politics, and the ArtScroll revolution" by Jeremy Stolow. And "worked my way through" is, alas, what it was.
Before I begin my review, though, let me sing the praises of Inter-Library Loan. This isn't the usual "log on to Minuteman and place a request for a book held by another library in the Minuteman system;" this is "send your local library an e-mail requesting a book that's not in the Minuteman system, and three days later you get an e-mail that they located a copy at XYZ College and it's already arrived at the local library for you to pick up."
The book is written by a sociologist for sociologists, and has more than its share of overly long sentences full of unnecessary jargon and enough disclaimers and subordinate clauses to render the sentence semantically void. It's not an easy read, which is a pity.
For those unfamiliar with the ArtScroll publishing house, they are a prolific source of Jewish books written and edited from a Haredi (far-right) perspective. They're best known for their siddur (prayer book), but they also have a complete set of bibles, Talmud, cooking, self-help, mysery/adventure, etc. books.
Stolow does a pretty good job of describing how ArtScroll is perceived by various segments of the Jewish community, and how their books have changed Jewish observance and attitude in the last 35 years. He deconstructs some of the mythos that ArtScroll has built about themselves as purveyors of an "unbroken chain of tradition", but he also analyzes the power that they have amassed and how they're using it.
That's really his thesis, with a double meaning in his title (which riffs on ArtScroll's cookbook series, "Kosher by Design"). Anyone who has encountered an ArtScroll book has been struck by their use of modern graphic design, which is one of their distinguishing features. But Stolow makes the case that they also have designs on how to leverage their influence to change the shape of Judaism, both Orthodox and not, by defining Orthodoxy exclusively as Haredi Orthodoxy.
I can't say the book taught me much, although it does provide a framework for thinking about issues that I was already pondering. I think it's probably of more value for sociologists as documentation of a process that's underway, rather than as an analysis (for sociologists or for Jews trying to navigate the ArtScrollization of our religious culture) of what it portends.
So it might be worth taking out of the library if you're in the ArtScroll target demographic and are willing to invest the time in slogging through it, but it's not going to light any fires under anyone and if you are already aware of the pro- and anti-ArtScroll arguments you could probably write much of the book yourself, although without the benefit of citations.
Before I begin my review, though, let me sing the praises of Inter-Library Loan. This isn't the usual "log on to Minuteman and place a request for a book held by another library in the Minuteman system;" this is "send your local library an e-mail requesting a book that's not in the Minuteman system, and three days later you get an e-mail that they located a copy at XYZ College and it's already arrived at the local library for you to pick up."
The book is written by a sociologist for sociologists, and has more than its share of overly long sentences full of unnecessary jargon and enough disclaimers and subordinate clauses to render the sentence semantically void. It's not an easy read, which is a pity.
For those unfamiliar with the ArtScroll publishing house, they are a prolific source of Jewish books written and edited from a Haredi (far-right) perspective. They're best known for their siddur (prayer book), but they also have a complete set of bibles, Talmud, cooking, self-help, mysery/adventure, etc. books.
Stolow does a pretty good job of describing how ArtScroll is perceived by various segments of the Jewish community, and how their books have changed Jewish observance and attitude in the last 35 years. He deconstructs some of the mythos that ArtScroll has built about themselves as purveyors of an "unbroken chain of tradition", but he also analyzes the power that they have amassed and how they're using it.
That's really his thesis, with a double meaning in his title (which riffs on ArtScroll's cookbook series, "Kosher by Design"). Anyone who has encountered an ArtScroll book has been struck by their use of modern graphic design, which is one of their distinguishing features. But Stolow makes the case that they also have designs on how to leverage their influence to change the shape of Judaism, both Orthodox and not, by defining Orthodoxy exclusively as Haredi Orthodoxy.
I can't say the book taught me much, although it does provide a framework for thinking about issues that I was already pondering. I think it's probably of more value for sociologists as documentation of a process that's underway, rather than as an analysis (for sociologists or for Jews trying to navigate the ArtScrollization of our religious culture) of what it portends.
So it might be worth taking out of the library if you're in the ArtScroll target demographic and are willing to invest the time in slogging through it, but it's not going to light any fires under anyone and if you are already aware of the pro- and anti-ArtScroll arguments you could probably write much of the book yourself, although without the benefit of citations.