Single Jewish Male Seeking Soul Mate

By Letty Cottin Pogrebin

Feminist icon Letty Cottin Pogrebin's second novel is the story of Zach Levy, the left-leaning son of Holocaust survivors who promises his mother on her deathbed that he will marry within the tribe and raise Jewish children. When he falls for Cleo Scott, an African American activist grappling with her own inherited trauma, he must reconcile his old vow to the family he loves with the present reality of the woman who may be his soul mate. A New York love story complicated by the legacies and modern tensions of Jewish American and African American history, Single Jewish Male Seeking Soul Mate explores what happens when the heart runs counter to politics, history, and the compelling weight of tradition.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Feminist Press at CUNY
• Release date: May 18, 2015
• ISBN: 9781558618930

Reviews for Single Jewish Male Seeking Soul Mate

[froxgirl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is an engrossing novel about a son of Holocaust survivors who feels bound to honor his mother's demand that he singlehandedly keep the religion alive by marrying a Jewish woman. When young Zach Levy discovers an old photo album in his childhood Bronx apartment, showing his mother with a baby boy in Poland, he demands answers from his father, being unable to extract much of anything from his mother, who herself cannot recover from losing her first son to give any affection to her second. Zach becomes an ACLU attorney , marries, and has a daughter, but when his wife abruptly leaves him for an Australian woman, taking their daughter, he is devastated but still resolved to fill his mother’s dying request by remarrying and having more children. Zach meets and falls in love with Cleo Scott, a Black radio talk show host who is perfect for him, except for the fact that she is a minister's daughter. This doesn’t present a problem since neither seem inclined to formalize the relationship, until Cleo becomes pregnant and will not have an abortion, convert, nor agree to raise a Jewish child with him. At her refusal, Zach breaks off their relationship (leaving the reader to scream "YOU IDIOT") and hard-heartedly makes Cleo sign a legal agreement that leaves him responsible only for some financial support for their child. Still feeling the need to propagate, he dates a Jewish performance artist who intrigues him until their differences become overwhelming. Three years later, all the while still yearning for Cleo, she calls him with a surprise proposition. The ending is satisfying without being all rainbows and bar mitzvahs.