Source: "Writing about Jews," in Commentary, Vol. 36, No. 6, December, 1963, pp. 446-52.

In the following essay, Roth defends his portrayals of Jewish Americans in his short fiction, specifically in "Epstein" and "Defender of the Faith," arguing that he writes about individual values and vices rather than those of the larger community.

Ever since some of my first stories were published in 1959 in a volume called Goodbye, Columbus, my work has been attacked from certain pulpits and in certain periodicals as dangerous, dishonest, and irresponsible. I have read editorials and articles in Jewish community newspapers condemning these stories for ignoring the accomplishments of Jewish life, or, as Rabbi Emanuel Rackman recently told a convention of the Rabbinical Council of America, for creating a "distorted image of the basic values of Orthodox Judaism," and even, he went on, for denying the non-Jewish world the opportunity of appreciating "the overwhelming contributions which...