And the ban played on

It's not surprising that some Orthodox Jews want to ban books. Every group has criteria of inclusion and exclusion; there are even some books which could put you outside the pale of Conservative or Reform Judaism by reading them (or believing in their contents). This is not just a matter of the lax left versus the stringent right; it also has to do with differing philosophies and criteria of acceptability.

The interesting thing about a given ban is whether the group, by and large, agrees with it. If a ban is controversial, the book touches on a fissure within the community. In short, the ban says more about the banner than the banned.