I love summer. I love the pace, the longer days, and the feeling that time stretches just a little further than usual. The dry heat doesn’t bother me—I’m a California native who spent a year living in Israel, so this is my natural habitat. And despite the mosquitoes, I love being outside in the evenings, hearing the birds settle down as the neighborhood grows quiet. Most of all, I love that summer seems to create extra time for reading—or at least puts me in a rhythm where I make more of it. I am almost always reading both fiction and non-fiction, and this week I devoured Sarah Hurwitz’s remarkable book As a Jew: Reclaiming Our Story from Those Who Blame, Shame, and Try to Erase Us.
It may not sound like a typical summer read, but I found it unexpectedly comforting. Hurwitz writes with honesty, wisdom, and much-needed self-compassion about being Jewish in a world that often misunderstands or distorts Jewish identity and history. Drawing on both scholarship and current events, she helps explain why so many Jews have felt unsettled since October 7. What I appreciated most was not simply that I agreed with her analysis, but that she gave language to feelings many of us have struggled to articulate. Those of us fortunate enough to come of age during an unusually secure chapter of Jewish American life have found ourselves confronting realities we, perhaps naively, never anticipated.
Some of the most difficult chapters trace the long history of antisemitism across centuries. At times, they were painful and even grueling to read. Yet I found myself equally struck by another truth: despite every attempt to marginalize, expel, convert, or destroy us, the Jewish people are still here. Reading that history was a sobering reminder of how much our ancestors endured but also an extraordinary reflection on Jewish continuity. Jewish resilience has never depended on denying hardship. It comes from knowing who we are, telling our story truthfully, and remaining connected to the traditions that have sustained our people across generations.
If you’re looking for a meaningful summer read, I highly recommend As a Jew. And if you haven’t yet encountered her earlier book, Here All Along, it is equally worth your time. Reading both left me reflecting on how much our rituals, our faith, and the rhythms of the Jewish calendar continue to hold us together, even in difficult moments. Wishing you opportunities this summer to slow down, reflect, read something meaningful, and enjoy these long days.
Shavua tov and chodesh tov—to a good week and month ahead.
– Cantor Emma Lutz