Rodger Kamenetz (born 1950) is an American poet and author best known for ''

The Jew in the Lotus ''The Jew in the Lotus'' is a 1994 book by Rodger Kamenetz about a historic dialogue between rabbis and the Dalai Lama, the first recorded major dialogue between experts in Judaism and Buddhism. The book was a popular success and became an intern ...

'' (1994), an account of the historic dialogue between

rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

s and the XIV

Dalai Lama Dalai Lama (, ; ) is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th and current Dal ...

. His poetry explores the Jewish experience and in recent years, dream consciousness. Since 2003 he's been instrumental in developing Natural Dreamwork, a practice that focuses on the sacred encounters in dreams.

Life and career

Kamenetz was born in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

and educated at

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

and

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consiste ...

. He lives in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

LSU where he was also an LSU Distinguished Professor and Erich and Lea Sternberg Honors Professor. He works privately with clients, using dreams in a process of spiritual direction. Kamenetz is married to Moira Crone, a novelist and short story writer. He is the father of Anya Kamenetz, also an author, and Kezia Kamenetz.

Poetry

At the age of 16, Kamenetz entered

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

, where he gave readings and published with poets

Alan Bernheimer Alan Bernheimer (born 1948 in New York City) is an American poet, often associated with the San Francisco Language poets. Biography He attended Horace Mann School, and graduated in 1970 from Yale College, where he became friends with poets Stev ...

and Kit Robinson (later associated with the

Language poets The Language poets (or ''L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E'' poets, after the magazine of that name) are an avant-garde group or tendency in United States poetry that emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The poets included: Bernadette Mayer, Leslie Scal ...

), and studied with

Ted Berrigan Ted Berrigan (November 15, 1934 – July 4, 1983) was an American poet. Early life Berrigan was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on November 15, 1934. After high school, he spent a year at Providence College before joining the U.S. Army. After t ...

. His first book, ''The Missing Jew'' (Dryad, 1979), was influenced by the

Objectivist poets The Objectivist poets were a loose-knit group of second-generation Modernists who emerged in the 1930s. They were mainly American and were influenced by, among others, Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams. The basic tenets of objectivist poeti ...

, especially

Charles Reznikoff Charles Reznikoff (August 31, 1894 – January 22, 1976) was an American poet best known for his long work, ''Testimony: The United States (1885–1915), Recitative'' (1934–1979). The term Objectivist was coined for him. The multi-volume ''Test ...

, whom he met at Stanford in 1973. Both poets relied on plain diction and paid attention to American Jewish identity and culture. Another enduring influence was

Robert Duncan (poet) Robert Edward Duncan (January 7, 1919 – February 3, 1988) was an American poet and a devotee of Hilda "H.D." Doolittle and the Western esoteric tradition who spent most of his career in and around San Francisco. Though associated with any ...

, whom Kamenetz also met at that time, and later interviewed extensively about Duncan's interest in the

Zohar The ''Zohar'' ( he, , ''Zōhar'', lit. "Splendor" or "Radiance") is a foundational work in the literature of Jewish mystical thought known as Kabbalah. It is a group of books including commentary on the mystical aspects of the Torah (the five ...

and Jewish mysticism. Kamenetz typed ''The Missing Jew'' on a single continuous scroll, and the poems developed as commentaries on previous poems, as in the Jewish literary tradition of

midrash ''Midrash'' (;"midrash"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. he, מִדְרָשׁ; ...

. Joel Lewis, writing in the Forward, said, "Mr. Kamenetz recovers Jewishness as a field for discourse, not sentimentalized imagery. In direct and imaginative address, he puts the question of Jewishness under discussion with large parts of honesty and humor." Kamenetz continued to add to the book, and a new edition, nearly double in size, appeared in 1991 as ''The Missing Jew: New and Selected Poems'' (Time Being, 1991). His poems were anthologized in ''Voices Within the Ark'' (Avon, 1979), ''Jewish American Poetry'' (Brandeis, 2000), ''Jewish in America'' (U. of Michigan Press), ''Bearing the Mystery'' (Eerdmans), ''Best Jewish Writing 2003'' (Jossey Bass), ''Blood to Remember: American Poets on the Holocaust'' (Time Being), ''Telling and Remembering: a Century of American Jewish Poetry'' (Beacon, 1997), and ''The Prairie Schooner Anthology of Contemporary Jewish American Writing'' (Nebraska, 1998). In ''The Lowercase Jew'' (Northwestern, 2003), Kamenetz adopted a form of verse essay to address issues of literary anti-Semitism. The title poem speaks to

T.S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biogr ...

's use of a lower case spelling of "jew" in his poetry; another retells an incident in which "Allen Ginsberg Forgives Ezra Pound on Behalf of the Jews." Kamenetz's sixth book of poetry,
To Die Next To You
(Six Gallery Press, 2013) derives primarily from his experience with dreamwork. His next book of poetry,
Yonder
(Lavender Ink, 2019) "brims with respect for the prose poetry genre, with homages to forebears from Baudelaire to Max Jacob, Russel Edson to Kafka.
Dream Logic
(PURH, 2020) continues his sequence of prose poems devoted to dream consciousness. Kamenet's latest book of poetry The Missing Jew:Poems 1976-2022 marks the harvesting of 46 years of work with an additional 30 years of poems since the previous edition.

Autobiography

After the death of his mother in 1980, Kamenetz turned from poetry to the autobiographical essay in ''Terra Infirma'' (University of Arkansas, 1985) and reprinted by Schocken Books in 1999. The book is structured as the interpretation of a single dream of his late mother, which Kamenetz modeled on

Michel Butor Michel Butor (; 14 September 1926 – 24 August 2016) was a French poet, novelist, teacher, essayist, art critic and translator. Life and work Michel Marie François Butor was born in Mons-en-Barœul, a suburb of Lille, the third of seven childre ...

's ''Histoire extraordinaire: essai sur un rêve de Baudelaire'' (1961).

Judeo-Buddhist dialogue

In October 1990, Kamenetz was invited to observe an historic dialogue between rabbis and the XIV Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India. The

had asked the Jewish delegates to share with him "the secret of Jewish spiritual survival in exile." His account of this exchange, ''

'' (1994), was a popular success and became an international best-seller. Writing in the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

Verlyn Klinkenborg Verlyn Klinkenborg (born 1952 in Meeker, Colorado) is an American non-fiction author, academic, and former newspaper editor, known for his writings on rural America. Early life and education Klinkenborg was born in Meeker, Colorado and rais ...

cited its broader relevance as a book "about the survival of esoteric traditions in a world bent on destroying them." The book was primarily potent in capturing an ongoing engagement in the US between Jews, often highly secularized, and Buddhist teachings. Kamenetz popularized the term JUBU or Jewish Buddhist, interviewing poet

Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Genera ...

vipassana ''Samatha'' ( Pāli; sa, शमथ ''śamatha''; ), "calm," "serenity," "tranquillity of awareness," and ''vipassanā'' ( Pāli; Sanskrit ''vipaśyanā''), literally "special, super (''vi-''), seeing (''-passanā'')", are two qualities of t ...

teacher Joseph Goldstein,

Ram Dass Ram Dass (born Richard Alpert; April 6, 1931 – December 22, 2019), also known as Baba Ram Dass, was an American spiritual teacher, guru of modern yoga, psychologist, and author. His best-selling 1971 book '' Be Here Now'', which has been d ...

and other American Jews involved with bringing Eastern traditions to the West. The book also made prominent a Jewish mystical response to Eastern spirituality in the

Jewish renewal Jewish Renewal () is a recent movement in Judaism which endeavors to reinvigorate modern Judaism with Kabbalistic, Hasidic, and musical practices. Specifically, it seeks to reintroduce the "ancient Judaic traditions of mysticism and meditation, ...

movement, led by Rabbi

Zalman Schachter-Shalomi Meshullam Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (28 August 1924 – 3 July 2014), commonly called "Reb Zalman" (full Hebrew name: ), was one of the founders of the Jewish Renewal movement and an innovator in ecumenical dialogue. Early life Born Meshullam Za ...

, and

Jewish meditation Jewish meditation includes practices of settling the mind, introspection, visualization, emotional insight, contemplation of divine names, or concentration on philosophical, ethical or mystical ideas. Meditation may accompany unstructured, person ...

as taught by Rabbi Jonathan Omer-Man. ''The Jew in the Lotus'' inspired a PBS documentary of the same name produced and directed by Laurel Chiten, released theatrically in New York, Los Angeles and Boston, and subsequently on Independent Lens on September 1, 1999. Kamenetz followed ''The Jew in the Lotus'' with ''Stalking Elijah: Adventures with Today's Jewish Mystical Masters'' (Harper, 1997), which received the

National Jewish Book Award The Jewish Book Council (Hebrew: ), founded in 1944, is an organization encouraging and contributing to Jewish literature.Zalman Schachter-Shalomi Meshullam Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (28 August 1924 – 3 July 2014), commonly called "Reb Zalman" (full Hebrew name: ), was one of the founders of the Jewish Renewal movement and an innovator in ecumenical dialogue. Early life Born Meshullam Za ...

, Jonathan Omer-Man,

Arthur Green Arthur Green ( he, אברהם יצחק גרין, born March 21, 1941) is an American scholar of Jewish mysticism and Neo-Hasidic theologian. He was a founding dean of the non-denominational rabbinical program at Hebrew College in Boston, where he ...

and

Shefa Gold Shefa Gold (born 1954 or 1955) is an American rabbi, scholar, and director of C-DEEP, The Center for Devotional, Energy and Ecstatic Practice in Jemez Springs, New Mexico. Gold is a teacher of chant, Jewish mysticism, Jewish prayer and spiritual ...

. The book ends with the account of a seder held in Dharamsala India, which included as guests the Tibetan teacher Geshe Sonam Rinchen. During that same visit, Kamenetz met with the

, which inspired him to work with the Interfaith Action Network of the International Campaign to free the young Panchen Lama

Gedhun Choekyi Nyima Gedhun Choekyi Nyima (born 25 April 1989) is the Dalai Lama appointed 11th Panchen Lama belonging to the Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism. The Central Government of China rejected such appointment. The 14th Dalai Lama recognized and announce ...

from Chinese government detainment. The world's youngest prisoner of conscience, the Panchen Lama's eighth birthday fell during the first week of Passover. Struck by this coincidence, Kamenetz created a nationwide campaign of

Passover Seder The Passover Seder (; he, סדר פסח , 'Passover order/arrangement'; yi, סדר ) is a ritual feast at the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover. It is conducted throughout the world on the eve of the 15th day of Nisan in the Hebre ...

s for Tibet, uniting the Jewish memory of slavery and oppression in Egypt long ago with the lack of religious freedom in today's Tibet under Chinese rule. A special seder was held in Washington D.C. on April 24, 1997 and attended by the Dalai Lama, as well as by numerous U.S. dignitaries and celebrities, including Supreme Court Justice

Stephen Breyer Stephen Gerald Breyer ( ; born August 15, 1938) is a retired American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1994 until his retirement in 2022. He was nominated by President Bill Clinton, and re ...

and

Adam Yauch Adam Nathaniel Yauch ( ; August 5, 1964 – May 4, 2012), better known under the stage name MCA, was an American rapper, bass player, filmmaker and a founding member of the hip hop group Beastie Boys. Besides his musical work, he also directed ...

of the Beastie Boys. The seder, as well as Kamenetz's visit with the Dalai Lama in 1997 was featured in the 1999 documentary, ''The Jew in the Lotus'' and is recounted in ''Stalking Elijah'' Schocken/Nextbook Press published ''Burnt Books'' in 2010 in its Jewish Encounters series. It is a dual biography of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav and

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It ty ...

that finds surprising commonalities in their writings and engages kabbalah as a form of modern literature.

Natural dreamwork

In fall 2007, Harper One published ''The History of Last Night's Dream'' which examines the spiritual possibilities of dreaming from Genesis to now. Oprah Winfrey interviewed the author about the book in a two-part XM radio broadcast in her ''Soul Series'' in August 2008. The material is now available as a podcast. Since that time Kamenetz has been instrumental in shaping and articulating Natural Dreamwork a phenomenological approach focused on strong feelings held by the images in dreams.

References

Bibliography

* ''The Missing Jew'' (Dryad Press/Tropos Press, 1979) poetry. * ''Nympholepsy'' (Dryad Press, 1985) poetry. * ''Terra Infirma'' (U. of Arkansas Press, 1985) non-fiction. *
The Missing Jew: New and Selected Poems
' (Time Being Books, 1992) poetry. *
The Jew in the Lotus
' (Harper San Francisco, 1994) non-fiction. *
Stuck: Poems Midlife
' (Time Being Books, 1997) poetry *
Stalking Elijah
' (Harper San Francisco, 1997) non-fiction. *
Terra Infirma: a memoir of my mother's life in mine
' (Shocken, 1999) non-fiction, reprint. *
The Lowercase Jew
' (Northwestern, 2003) poetry. *
The Jew in the Lotus (PLUS) With an afterword by the author.
(HarperOne, 2007) non-fiction. *
The History of Last Night's Dream
' (HarperOne, 2007) non-fiction. *
Burnt Books: Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav and Franz Kafka
' (Schocken/Nextbook, 2010) non-fiction.
To Die Next To You
(Six Gallery Press, 2013) poetry
Yonder
(Lavender Ink, 2019) poetry
Dream Logic
(PURH, 2020) poetry
The Missing Jew: 1976-2022
(Ben Yehuda Press, 2022 ) poetry.

External links

Personal Website

Natural Dreamwork website

The Jew in the Lotus movie

OPRAH WINFREY VIDEO INTERVIEW Image Journal Artist of the MonthBurnt Books Nextbook websiteNatural Dreamwork: Shift Network InterviewYONDER on WWNOAuthor page at Lavender Ink. OprahSuperSoulEpisode129
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kamenetz, Rodger American religious writers American male poets Jewish American writers Jewish poets Louisiana State University faculty Johns Hopkins University alumni Stanford University alumni Yale University alumni Writers from Baltimore Writers from New Orleans 1950 births Living people American male non-fiction writers 21st-century American Jews