Edgar M. Bronfman, formerly CEO of the Seagram Company Ltd, is a renowned philanthropist supporting a wide variety of Jewish causes. Bronfman also served as president of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) and as president of the World Jewish Restitution Or­ganization and, in 1998, succeeded in winning restitution for Holocaust victims whose assets had been held in Swiss banks. In 1999, Pres­ident Clinton awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States’ highest civilian honor.

Beth Zasloff has taught writing at New York University, Johns Hopkins University, and in New York City public schools. She has a BA in English from Yale University and an MA in fiction writing from Johns Hopkins University.

Please visit www.hopenotfear.com



HOPE, NOT FEAR
A Path to Jewish Renaissance
St. Martin’s Press, September 2008
Genre: Current Events & Politics
Agent: Dan Mandel

“Edgar M. Bronfman’s new, provocative volume is a Jewish leader’s personal quest for new answers to timeless questions; it will certainly challenge many readers concerned with Judaism’s future.”—Elie Wiesel

Bronfman, a philanthropist, former World Jewish Congress president and former Seagram CEO, bemoans the dry, joyless Judaism of his youth, which he in turn transmitted to his own children. The Holocaust and fear of anti-Semitism are no longer enough to drive Jewish identity and participation, he argues, along with writer Zasloff; only a more open, more celebratory and hopeful communal life will draw and retain young Jews. This community must be pluralistic, unreservedly welcoming intermarried Jews and their spouses, gay Jews and others outside the traditional Jewish mold. Hope, Not Fear is an impassioned plea to set aside the conviction that the world will always hate Jews, and instead delve into Jewish tradition to understand how to help fight hatred in the world.