Jerusalem Calling: A Homeless Conscience In A Post-Everything World

Book Summary

American by birth, Israeli by association, and homeless by conscience, Joel Schalit is uniquely qualified to blast all stereotypes of Jewish identity. Moving effortlessly from philosophical complexity to outrageous humor, Schalit's writing, and his ability to critically interrogate everything from the religious right to punk rock to Middle Eastern politics provides a singular perspective on life in a post-everything age. This book signals the emergence of a new breed of public intellectual. Joel Schalit is a political scientist living in San Francisco, where he works as an editor of Chicago's "Punk Planet" magazine and UC Berkeley's online politics and culture journal, "Bad Subjects," He is a regular contributor to the "San Francisco Bay Guardian," Schalit co-edited and contributed to "Bad Subjects: Political Education for Everyday Life" (NYU Press, 1998). Essays. Politics. Jewish Studies. American by birth (currently residing in Berkeley), Israeli by association, and homeless by conscience, thirty-four-year-old Punk Planet and Bad Subjects editor Joel Schalit is uniquely qualified to dissect the New World Order and the rise of religious fundamentalism across the globe."This remarkable collection of essays by an astute young writer covers a wide range of topics--the political ethic of punk, the nature of secular Jewish identity, the dangerous place, according to Schalit, that politicized Christianity plays in the U.S., and the legacy of the Cold War in the ability to imagine freedom. Schalit almost always hits his mark . . . He] provides an overview of contemporary critical, radical thinking . . . This is the debut of a new and original thinker"--PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (starred review).

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