FEATURED JOBS
Comments (0)Any book that begins with the line, “I was looking at Internet porn when the rabbi opened by door,” it’s safe to say, will hold my attention from cover to cover, and Wayne Hoffman’s “Sweet Like Sugar” definitely delivers on its opening promise. Easily a one-weekend read, the book tackles issues of homosexuality, particularly in relationship with the Orthodox community, without the weightiness and density such a survey might imply.
Instead, we follow Benji Steiner in his quest to find love, and a meaningful connection to Judaism, everywhere, from Washington, D.C. gay bars to an elderly Orthodox rabbi’s musty living room. Rabbi Jacob Zuckerman, a man in failing health but of die-hard faith, teaches Benji about a bashert, the person you are fated to meet. The theme of the bashert is woven throughout the narrative, in often surprising ways.
Not unsurprisingly, the friendship between Benji and the rabbi is not always easy, nor are either of their individual personal lives. Still, each man, at a very different stage in life, is able to come to a stronger, although different, appreciation of his own Jewish faith. Along the way, we meet other characters who each identify with their own Jewishness in varying ways, speaking to the wide spectrum of what it means to be authentically Jewish today.
In all, the book is a thoroughly satisfying read for both Jews and non-Jews, regardless of sexual orientation. Though the story might be specific, it speaks to anyone who has ever searched for love, faith or friendship, or who has ever felt challenged or alienated by any one of those — in a word, everyone.