JEWS & BLACKS: A Dialogue on Race,...

JEWS & BLACKS: A Dialogue on Race, Religion and Culture in America by Michael Lerner & Cornel West (Plume/Penguin: $12.95; 295 pp.). Lerner, the founder of Tikkun, and West, the author of “Race Matters,” offer an extended dialogue on racial and religious issues. Both men espouse liberal, activist philosophies and believe their respective ethnic groups need to work together to solve America’s socioeconomic problems. At times, the reader grows impatient with both of them: Lerner for his self-congratulatory references to his own work, West for dodging Lerner’s requests to condemn Louis Farrakhan. Ideally, this book should inspire people of different backgrounds to reaffirmation of an increasingly frayed social contract.