"What it means to be a Jew lies at the very heart of Confessions of a Secular Jew, a memoir and an examination of the nature of Jewish identity in an increasingly secular world (and a debate about whether a secular Jewish culture really has a future in America); an account of the pain of a heritage lost, not only in the religious sense, but in the sense of the history, the culture, the humor - much of which defines Jewishness and some of which defines Yiddishkeit. But what is "Jewishness" anyway?

And what are the links that bind Karl Marx to Saul Bellow, or Spinoza to Philip Roth; The Pale to Brooklyn. These ideas - and many others - lie at the very heart of Confessions of a Secular Jew, and Eugene Goodheart's wrestling match with the questions of faith and cultural identity is sure to attract spectators - believers and doubters alike."--BOOK JACKET.