Cahill Essay -- essays research papers

The Gifts of the Jews Catholic author thanks Jews for Western values Review by April Witt for Miami Herald Published: Tuesday, April 14, 1998, If not for the Jews, no one would know to love justice, yearn for freedom, struggle for faith in one God or hope for a tomorrow better than today. Jews helped invent Western culture and without Jewish ideas and values there would be no civil rights movement, democracy or even history. That's the central, sweeping premise of The Gifts of the Jews, the latest book by Roman Catholic scholar and best-selling author Thomas Cahill. ''The Jews gave us the Outside and the Inside -- our outlook and our inner life,'' writes Cahill, who will be at Temple Judea in Coral Gables tonight to talk about the book. ''We can hardly get up in the morning or cross the street without being Jewish. We dream Jewish dreams and hope Jewish hopes. Most of our best words, in fact -- new, adventure, surprise; unique, individual, person, vocation; time, history, future; freedom, program, spirit; faith, hope, just -- are the gifts of the Jews.'' Cahill, 58, has his own gift: making history accessible, even compelling to a mass culture largely ignorant of its patrimony. His last book, How the Irish Saved Civilization, was a New York Times bestseller for more than a year and a half. The Gifts of the Jews, the second in a planned series, climbs onto the list next week. ''I tell history as a story and people love stories,'' Cahill said in ...