Religious Differences Between Artichokes: Two Plays: Imagining Heschel and Spinoza's Solitude

Praise for Colin Greer: “Greer not only portrays the gaps in understanding that needed to be closed between Catholics and Jews, but also surmises on how there are limits for each of us in how far we can step outside of ourselves to make change.” ―Edward K. Kaplan, Kevy and Hortense Kaiserman Professor in the Humanities, Brandies University; author, Spiritual Radical: Abraham Joshua Heschel in America (Winner of the National Jewish Book Award) “Greer never doesn’t tell us which choice to make. Instead his meditation makes us face our own moral landscape with a bit more humility.” ―Ruth Messinger, President, American Jewish World Service (AJWS)Praise for “Imagining Heschel”: “Abraham Joshua Heschel was one of the greatest thinkers and teachers of Judaism in the past two thousand years, and this play, ‘Imagining Heschel,’ captures him at the very historic moment when he seeks to shake the Vatican out of its historic role as victimizer of the Jews.” ―Matthew Weiner, Associate Dean of Religious Life, Princeton University “Heschel, in the play, is a fascinating, complex, at times charming, and at other times a self-defeating, somewhat crabby personality who was an enormous force among those who were enormous forces. At many moments I found myself recalling how Kennedy seemed to blow the lid off of the Eisenhower stodginess and how Pope John seemed to do something similar to the Catholic Church.”―Rabbi Michael Lerner, Editor, Tikkun MagazinePraise for “Spinoza’s Solitude”: “‘Spinoza’s Solitude’ fascinates. In illuminating the inner life, communal ties, and human dimensions of this ‘dangerous’ thinker, Colin Greer’s absorbing play of persons and ideas instructs as it entertains. Spinoza’s shift from theology and exegesis to science and reason underpins Greer’s arresting interrogation of creative genius and its costs.” ―Ira Katznelson, Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History, Columbia University; President, Social Science Research Council