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Article: At 76, Cynthia Ozick returns to a terrain she has made her own.
- Article from:
- The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, PA)
- Article date:
- October 6, 2004
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 The Philadelphia Inquirer. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Carlin Romano
``Heir to the Glimmering World'' by Cynthia Ozick; Houghton Mifflin ($24)
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In her 20s, Cynthia Ozick read an essay by the courageous German rabbi Leo Baeck, leader of the National Agency of Jews in Germany from 1933 to 1942.
In "Romantic Religion," Rabbi Baeck criticized religion that "seeks its goals in the now mythical, now mystical visions of the imagination." He argued instead for Judaism fueled by the here and now, by the "will to conquer life ethically."
Baeck lived those words as well. Having ignored many chances to flee Germany as he sought to save his fellow Jews, he ended up in Terezin ...