Jewish Futures: Science Fiction from the World’s Oldest Diaspora by Michael A. Burstein (Editor)

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Introduction: Jack Dann

Jewish extraterrestrials?
Brisket-eating zombies?
Baby robot golems?

The first Jewish diaspora began nearly three thousand years ago. Those three millennia have informed a rich story-telling tradition that will only continue to expand in the coming centuries. This volume-the literary heir to the Wandering Stars anthologies of the 1970s and ’80s (and leading off with a very personal essay by Jack Dann, who edited those books)-extrapolates Jews and Judaism into a wide future. Sometimes moody, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, Publishers Weekly says these “16 appealing stories extrapolating Jewish themes into near- and far-future settings…. open diverse and challenging vistas for sci-fi fans-Jewish and gentile alike.”

Between these covers, you’ll find tales of the last Jew, Jewish space lasers, and the remarkable connection between brisket and zombies. You’ll experience the breath-taking experiences of climbing Mt. Everest while religious, and of competing in futuristic sporting combinations in the Olympics. You’ll explore the questions of just what will we do when the artificial intelligences controlling our homes become more religious than we? Or when aliens seek to convert to Judaism, and then try to return to an abandoned Jerusalem on a deserted Earth?

Featuring stories by: Esther Friesner, Harry Turtledove, Leah Cypess, Susan Shwartz, Valerie Estelle Frankel, Robert Greenberger, Randee Dawn, Barbara Krasnoff, Steven H Silver, S.I. Rosenbaum & Abraham Josephine Reisman, Shane Tourtellotte, SM Rosenberg, Riv Begun, E.M. Ben Shaul, Jordan King-Lacroix, and the debut story by New York City high school student Samantha Katz.

Year first published: 2023