The Jew in the Lotus

2021-02-14T09:39:36Z

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{{Infobox book
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| name = The Jew in the Lotus
| image = The Jew in the Lotus.jpg| image_size =
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| caption = First edition
| author = [[Rodger Kamenetz]]
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| published = 1994 (Harper)
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| isbn = 9780061367397
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'''''The Jew in the Lotus''''' is a 1994 book by [[Rodger Kamenetz]] about a historic dialogue between [[rabbi]]s and the [[Dalai Lama]], the first recorded major dialogue between experts in [[Judaism]] and [[Buddhism]].<ref name=book>{{cite book|last1=Kamenetz|first1=Rodger|title=The Jew in the lotus : a poet's rediscovery of Jewish identity in Buddhist India|date=1995|publisher=HarperSanFrancisco|location=[San Francisco, Calif.]|isbn=978-0060645748|edition=1st HarperCollins paperback.|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/jewinlotus00rodg}}</ref> The book was a popular success and became an international best-seller. Writing in the [[New York Times]], [[Verlyn Klinkenborg]] cited its broader relevance as a book "about the survival of esoteric traditions in a world bent on destroying them." <ref>{{cite news|last=Klinkenborg|first=Verlyn|title=Going to See the Lama|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/24/books/going-to-see-the-lama.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date=July 24, 1994}}</ref> The book was primarily potent in capturing an ongoing engagement in the US between Jews, often highly secularized, and Buddhist teachings. Kamenetz popularized the term [[Jewish Buddhist|JUBU]] or [[Jewish Buddhist]], interviewing poet [[Allen Ginsberg]], [[vipassana]] teacher [[Joseph Goldstein (writer)|Joseph Goldstein]], [[Ram Dass]] and other American Jews involved with bringing Eastern traditions to the West. The book also made prominent a Jewish mystical response to Eastern spirituality in the [[Jewish renewal]] movement, led by Rabbi [[Zalman Schachter-Shalomi]], and [[Jewish meditation]] as taught by Rabbi [[Jonathan Omer-Man]]. The title is a pun on the Vajrayana mantra ''[[Om mani padme hum]]'' which is frequently interpreted as "hail to the jewel in the lotus".

First published in 1994 by Harper San Francisco, it is now on its 37th reprint. In fall of 2007 the paperback was reissued with an afterword that updated readers on Jewish-Buddhist dialogues.
'''The Jew in the Lotus''' inspired a PBS documentary of the same name produced and directed by Laurel Chiten, released theatrically in New York, Los Angeles and Boston, and subsequently on Independent Lens on September 1, 1999.<ref>{{cite web|last=ITVS|title=The Jew in the Lotus|url=http://www.itvs.org/films/jew-in-the-lotus}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Jews and Judaism}}
{{Buddhism topics}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jew in the Lotus}}
[[Category:Books about Judaism]]
[[Category:1994 non-fiction books]]
[[Category:Buddhism and Judaism]]
[[Category:Buddhists of Jewish descent| ]]
[[Category:Jewish Renewal]]
[[Category:Harper San Francisco books]]

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The Jew in the Lotus