This excerpt from the Fons Vitae web site gives our sense of the book’s importance.

“This…is about the passion of a young American Jew to uncover the spiritual affinity of Sufism and Kabbalah, because he believes his work can advance the humanization of the Muslim-Jewish relationship.

That relationship has suffered a great deal from rampant, tragically flawed “scholarly” theories on innate racial inferiority/superiority, theories that accompanied the emergence of intense ethno-nationalism, especially in Central and Eastern Europe in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and the brutal resultant persecution of Jews in these regions. Add to that the toxic effect of the Israeli-Arab relationship today . . .

Tom writes for educated lay people who share his hunger for healing Jewish-Muslim relations and a strong interest in spirituality.  But his book might also spur some academic researchers to look more deeply into the subject.

Joseph Montville directs the Abrahamic Family Reunion project working closely with Israeli and American Jews, Muslims and Christians to recover the history of their creative coexistence from the Middle Ages to the mid-twentieth century.”

We publish this edition on Monday rather than the usual biweekly Wednesday because David Crumm suggests that the piece be used for discussion around the Passover table this Tuesday evening. We agree and  are very proud of Tom Block.

Tom Block: Untold story of Muslim and Jewish mystics