Existence is a sacred task for the Jew, not a provisional state, but a framework to be filled, a challenge that we must respond to with all our knowledge. "What is your Judaism if it is neither a religion nor a traditional community?" This question from his fellow writer Amoz Oz marks the foundation of an inquiry in essays where György Konrád explores all facets of Judaism: the roots of Jewish identity, familial memory repositories, the significance of community as a life strategy, the place of absolute crime in Auschwitz, a world people within nation-states, as well as the characteristic virtues and flaws of Judaism. It would not be a Konrád book without the simultaneously melancholic yet calmly hopeful perspective on the cycle of reflections.