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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 296.092
EAN num: 9781580231350
ISBN number: 1580231357
Label: Jewish Lights Publishing
Manufacturer: Jewish Lights Publishing
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 288
Printing Date: 2002-09
Publishing house: Jewish Lights Publishing
Sale Popularity Level: 1014793
Studio: Jewish Lights Publishing
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Product Description:
After growing up as a fully assimilated Jew, Paul Cowan embarked in his mid-thirties upon a journey to discover and appreciate his true identity and heritage. This 'orphan in history' relates his search for these roots, detailing the path he took from his Park Avenue home to nineteenth-century Lithuania to a contemporary Israeli kibbutz, leading to remarkable personal discoveries that will move everyone who has yearned to know more about their past.
An Orphan in History is a classically beautiful, inspiring story of how one man evolved from describing himself as 'an American Jew' to 'an American and a Jew.'
This story will inspire you to journey in search of your true self.
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Rated by buyers -
I read this book many years ago, and still remember it. Cowan was raised a secular Jew, in a wealthy family, in one of the richest suburbs of Chicago. His parents did raise him to be proud of his culture, and to remember the tragedy of the Holocaust.
After he attends elite schools (one Episcopalian), and moves to Manhattan as a journalist, he becomes interested in Judaism, especially its spiritual aspects. He studies it; attends synagogues; and becomes very open to it in every way. He eventually takes up its ancient rituals, such as putting on tfillin (phylacteries) and praying.
His wife, a non-Jew, observes him carefully, and also becomes extremely involved in Judaism, eventually converting.
He also interviews others about Judaism. One interview which is particularly compelling is of a Jew who had attended the elite Episcopalian school with the author, where all students had to pray (Christian) prayers every morning in the chapel. He revealed to Cowan that he had been raised as a Jew, and even had had a Bar-Mitzva. He became very upset every day in that chapel, being forced to say
non-Jewish prayers, but could reveal his feelings (and his background) to no one.
This book is one of the best-written describing a person's tremendous attraction and exploration of Judaism. It is not easy writing about one's spiritual experience, but Cowan does a tremendous job.
I feel sad that more people have not read this book. Also tragic is that the author died (from leukemia) in his forties, so that his work is not well-known. However, his wife, Rachel Cowan, has continued her own exploration of Jewish spiritually, eventually becoming a Rabbi. She carries on the essence of this book.
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