Strictly Kosher Reading: Popular Literature and the Condition of Contemporary Orthodoxy - Jewish Identities in Post-Modern Society

In recent decades, the literature of America's Haredi community has taken on brand-new forms: self-help books, cookbooks, parenting guides, picture books, adventure stories and spy novels. This points to a central paradox in contemporary Haredi life. Haredi Jewry sets itself apart, claiming to reject modern secular culture as threatening to everything Torah stands for. But in practice, Haredi popular literature reveals a community embedded in contemporary values.