Soccer Dad

Next year in jerusalem

In 1981 a reviewer of a collection of the late Ellen Willis's essays wrote:

By far the richest entry in this collection is ''Next Year in Jerusalem,'' a long autobiographical essay on the temptations of religion, inspired in her by a younger brother's conversion to Orthodox Judaism. The mirror-image of the traditional representations of a believer's struggle with doubt, it is a pitiless self-examination of a modern doubter's struggle with faith. What could be a more poignant admission of the spiritual situation of the modern intellectual than the confession ''I don't think the universe is absurd'' that she made to a friend.

When I was in NCSY, NCSY reprinted the essay and distributed it. No Ellen Willis didn't adopt an Orthodox lifestyle, she couldn't quite make the adjustments necessary to change her lifestyle. Still teh essay was quite inspiring.

I don't know how long it has been up, but now Next Year in Jerusalem has been republished at the Aish Hatorah website - Part I and Part II.

The reviewer from the New York Times seemingly was impressed by the same thing that impressed Ellen Willis's brother, Rabbi Chaim Willis. He wrote in a short preface:

In fact, my sister, who passed away from cancer five months ago at 64, didn't go further into Judaism, although her article gave many logical reasons to continue. It was her ability to reflect so honestly the struggle between a desire for the truth and a fear of change that made her article such a powerful influence on others, many of whom came to different conclusions than she did.