Benji Steiner straddles the middle – neither observant nor secular, neither independent nor reliant upon his parents, neither closeted nor in a relationship with Mr. Right.
Then the shiftless twenty-something meets curmudgeonly and recently widowed octogenarian Rabbi Jacob Zuckerman. The rabbi encourages Benji to take a second look at Judaism, and an unsuspecting friendship takes root over snacks and Torah study.
Still, Benji holds back. “I didn’t tell him that his apple cake had gotten stale. I didn’t tell him that I was pretty sure I didn’t believe in God. And I certainly didn’t tell him that I had a date the next night – just days before Yom Kippur – with a tattooed skinhead named Frankie, a non-Jewish guy who was the half-naked model for my latest ad promoting Paradise, a venue where homosexuals gathered to drink excessively and pick one another up.”
When the rabbi learns that Benji is gay, their flourishing relationship comes to a halt. Author Wayne Hoffman sets the stage for the pair to realize they have much to learn from each other about tolerance, open-mindedness and interpreting the Torah.
Fiction
Sweet Like Sugar
By
– October 25, 2011
Jaclyn Trop is a Los Angeles-based freelance reporter.
Discussion Questions
Twitter Book Club
Read from the Twitter Book Club for .
a transcriptSweet Like SugarRead Wayne Hoffman’s Posts for the Visiting Scribe
A Funny Thing Happened — True Story!What’s in a Name?
A Gay Jewish Reading List
Are E‑Books Kosher?
Jewish literature inspires, enriches, and educates the community.
Help support the Jewish Book Council.