The Choosing: A Rabbi’s Journey from
Silent Nights to High Holy Days
by Andrea Myers
Rutgers Univ. Press. 208 pages, $19.95
BORN IN QUEENS and raised on Long Island, Andrea Myers loved to ask questions as a child. No answer was ever thorough enough, and certain things were never discussed among family members. Controversy was forbidden, which ruled out topics of religion and sexuality. Religion, however, had been a kind of “family issue”: Myers’ mother was a Sicilian Catholic who had been “insulted” by the Church so Andrea and her siblings were raised in their father’s Lutheran faith.
The Myers clan was a unique and boisterous bunch. The devout grandmother lived upstairs and fiercely loved her Andrea, whose mother steadfastly stuck up for her children under any and all circumstances. Myers’ father had a dubious flair for fashion and was unabashed about appearing in public in his flashy, unconventional outfits.
