Contemporary American Judaism

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Contemporary American Judaism

Author : Dana Evan Kaplan
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 023113729X
Total Pages : 482 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (311 download)

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Book Synopsis Contemporary American Judaism by : Dana Evan Kaplan

Download or read book Contemporary American Judaism written by Dana Evan Kaplan and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No longer controlled by a handful of institutional leaders based in remote headquarters and rabbinical seminaries, American Judaism is being transformed by the spiritual decisions of tens of thousands of Jews living all over the United States. A pulpit rabbi and himself an American Jew, Dana Evan Kaplan follows this religious individualism from its postwar suburban roots to the hippie revolution of the 1960s and the multiple postmodern identities of today. From Hebrew tattooing to Jewish Buddhist meditation, Kaplan describes the remaking of historical tradition in ways that channel multiple ethnic and national identities. While pessimists worry about the vanishing American Jew, Kaplan focuses on creative responses to contemporary spiritual trends that have made a Jewish religious renaissance possible. He believes that the reorientation of American Judaism has been a "bottom up" process, resisted by elites who have reluctantly responded to the demands of the "spiritual marketplace." The American Jewish denominational structure is therefore weakening at the same time that religious experimentation is rising, leading to the innovative approaches supplanting existing institutions. The result is an exciting transformation of what it means to be a religious American Jew in the twenty-first century.

Judaism in America

Author : Marc Lee Raphael
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231512449
Total Pages : 265 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis Judaism in America by : Marc Lee Raphael

Download or read book Judaism in America written by Marc Lee Raphael and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2005-12-20 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jews have been a religious and cultural presence in America since the colonial era, and the community of Jews in the United States today—some six million people—continues to make a significant contribution to the American religious landscape. Emphasizing developments in American Judaism in the last quarter century among active participants in Jewish worship, this book provides both a look back into the 350-year history of Judaic life and a well-crafted portrait of a multifaceted tradition today. Combining extensive research into synagogue archival records and secondary sources as well as interviews and observations of worship services at more than a hundred Jewish congregations across the country, Raphael's study distinguishes itself as both a history of the Judaic tradition and a witness to the vitality and variety of contemporary American Judaic life. Beginning with a chapter on beliefs, festivals, and life-cycle events, both traditional and non-traditional, and an explanation of the enormous variation in practice, Raphael then explores Jewish history in America, from the arrival of the first Jews to the present, highlighting the emergence and development of the four branches: Orthodox, Conservative, Reconstructionist, and Reform. After documenting the considerable variety among the branches, the book addresses issues of some controversy, notably spirituality, conversion, homosexuality, Jewish education, synagogue architecture, and the relationship to Israel. Raphael turns next to a discussion of eight American Jews whose thoughts and/or activities made a huge impact on American Judaism. The final chapter focuses on the return to tradition in every branch of Judaism and examines prospects for the future.

American Post-Judaism

Author : Shaul Magid
Publisher : Indiana University Press
ISBN 13 : 0253008026
Total Pages : 407 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (53 download)

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Book Synopsis American Post-Judaism by : Shaul Magid

Download or read book American Post-Judaism written by Shaul Magid and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2013-04-09 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Articulates a new, post-ethnic American Jewishness

A People Divided

Author : Jack Wertheimer
Publisher : Brandeis American Jewish Histo
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 292 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (321 download)

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Book Synopsis A People Divided by : Jack Wertheimer

Download or read book A People Divided written by Jack Wertheimer and published by Brandeis American Jewish Histo. This book was released on 1997 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This indipensable road map to the volcanic landscape of contemporary American Judaism reveals the profound effects that changes in the wider society--everything from suburbanization to population growth to feminism--have had on Jewish religious and communal life.

Contemporary Debates in American Reform Judaism

Author : Dana Evan Kaplan
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1136055746
Total Pages : 276 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (36 download)

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Book Synopsis Contemporary Debates in American Reform Judaism by : Dana Evan Kaplan

Download or read book Contemporary Debates in American Reform Judaism written by Dana Evan Kaplan and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-01-11 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a ground breaking collection of essays that takes a hard look at the Reform Movement today. Opening essays look at the problem of building a religous community, the competition in the "spiritual marketplace," and why people join or do not join a Reform synagogue. Other contributors look at a host of controversial issues including Patrilineal Descent, Outreach, Intermarriage, gender issues, gay and lesbian participation, and others.

The New American Judaism

Author : Jack Wertheimer
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691202516
Total Pages : 396 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (912 download)

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Book Synopsis The New American Judaism by : Jack Wertheimer

Download or read book The New American Judaism written by Jack Wertheimer and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-31 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the National Jewish Book Award in American Jewish Studies—an engaging firsthand portrait of American Judaism today American Judaism has been buffeted by massive social upheavals in recent decades. Like other religions in the United States, it has witnessed a decline in the number of participants over the past forty years, and many who remain active struggle to reconcile their hallowed traditions with new perspectives—from feminism and the LGBTQ movement to "do-it-yourself religion" and personally defined spirituality. Taking a fresh look at American Judaism today, Jack Wertheimer, a leading authority on the subject, sets out to discover how Jews of various orientations practice their religion in this radically altered landscape. Which observances still resonate, and which ones have been given new meaning? What options are available for seekers or those dissatisfied with conventional forms of Judaism? And how are synagogues responding? Offering new and often-surprising answers to these questions, Wertheimer reveals an American Jewish landscape that combines rash disruption and creative reinvention, religious illiteracy and dynamic experimentation.

Women Remaking American Judaism

Author : Riv-Ellen Prell
Publisher : Wayne State University Press
ISBN 13 : 0814335683
Total Pages : 344 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (143 download)

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Book Synopsis Women Remaking American Judaism by : Riv-Ellen Prell

Download or read book Women Remaking American Judaism written by Riv-Ellen Prell and published by Wayne State University Press. This book was released on 2007-08-20 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The rise of Jewish feminism, a branch of both second-wave feminism and the American counterculture, in the late 1960s had an extraordinary impact on the leadership, practice, and beliefs of American Jews. Women Remaking American Judaism is the first book to fully examine the changes in American Judaism as women fought to practice their religion fully and to ensure that its rituals, texts, and liturgies reflected their lives. In addition to identifying the changes that took place, this volume aims to understand the process of change in ritual, theology, and clergy across the denominations. The essays in Women Remaking American Judaism offer a paradoxical understanding of Jewish feminism as both radical, in the transformational sense, and accomodationist, in the sense that it was thoroughly compatible with liberal Judaism. Essays in the first section, Reenvisioning Judaism, investigate the feminist challenges to traditional understanding of Jewish law, texts, and theology. In Redefining Judaism, the second section, contributors recognize that the changes in American Judaism were ultimately put into place by each denomination, their law committees, seminaries, rabbinic courts, rabbis, and synagogues, and examine the distinct evolution of women’s issues in the Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist movements. Finally, in the third section, Re-Framing Judaism, essays address feminist innovations that, in some cases, took place outside of the synagogue. An introduction by Riv-Ellen Prell situates the essays in both American and modern Jewish history and offers an analysis of why Jewish feminism was revolutionary. Women Remaking American Judaism raises provocative questions about the changes to Judaism following the feminist movement, at every turn asking what change means in Judaism and other American religions and how the fight for equality between men and women parallels and differs from other changes in Judaism. Women Remaking American Judaism will be of interest to both scholars of Jewish history and women’s studies.

Jewish Life and American Culture

Author : Sylvia Barack Fishman
Publisher : State University of New York Press
ISBN 13 : 0791492745
Total Pages : 268 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (914 download)

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Book Synopsis Jewish Life and American Culture by : Sylvia Barack Fishman

Download or read book Jewish Life and American Culture written by Sylvia Barack Fishman and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Illustrates how some Jews have created a new, hybrid form of Judaism, merging American values and behaviors with those from historical Jewish traditions.

The New American Judaism

Author : Jack Wertheimer
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691181292
Total Pages : 396 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

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Book Synopsis The New American Judaism by : Jack Wertheimer

Download or read book The New American Judaism written by Jack Wertheimer and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2018-08-28 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A leading expert provides an engaging firsthand portrait of American Judaism today American Judaism has been buffeted by massive social upheavals in recent decades. Like other religions in the United States, it has witnessed a decline in the number of participants over the past forty years, and many who remain active struggle to reconcile their hallowed traditions with new perspectives—from feminism and the LGBTQ movement to “do-it-yourself religion” and personally defined spirituality. Taking a fresh look at American Judaism today, Jack Wertheimer, a leading authority on the subject, sets out to discover how Jews of various orientations practice their religion in this radically altered landscape. Which observances still resonate, and which ones have been given new meaning? What options are available for seekers or those dissatisfied with conventional forms of Judaism? And how are synagogues responding? Wertheimer provides new and often-surprising answers to these questions by drawing on a wide range of sources, including survey data, visits to countless synagogues, and revealing interviews with more than two hundred rabbis and other informed observers. He finds that the majority of American Jews still identify with their faith but often practice it on their own terms. Meanwhile, gender barriers are loosening within religiously traditional communities, while some of the most progressive sectors are reappropriating long-discarded practices. Other recent developments include “start-ups” led by charismatic young rabbis, the explosive growth of Orthodox “outreach,” and unconventional worship experiences often geared toward millennials. Wertheimer captures the remarkable, if at times jarring, tableaux on display when American Jews practice their religion, while also revealing possibilities for significant renewal in American Judaism. What emerges is a quintessentially American story of rash disruption and creative reinvention, religious illiteracy and dynamic experimentation.

Cosmopolitans and Parochials

Author : Samuel C. Heilman
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 9780226324968
Total Pages : 264 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (249 download)

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Book Synopsis Cosmopolitans and Parochials by : Samuel C. Heilman

Download or read book Cosmopolitans and Parochials written by Samuel C. Heilman and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1989 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Far from simply vanishing in the face of modernity, Orthodox Jews in the United States today are surviving and flourishing. Samuel C. Heilman and Steven M. Cohen, both distinguished scholars of Jewish studies, have joined forces in this pathbreaking book to articulate this vibrancy and to characterize the many faces of Orthodox Jewry in contemporary America. Who are these Orthodox Jews? How have they survived, what do they believe and practice and how do they accommodate the tension between traditional Jewish and modern American values? Drawing on a survey of more than one thousand participants, the authors address these questions and many more. Heilman and Cohen reveal that American Jewish Orthodoxy is not a monolith by distinguishing its three broad varieties: the "traditionalists," the "centrists," and the "nominally" orthodox. To illuminate this full spectrum of orthodoxy the authors focus on the "centrists," taking us through the dimensions of their ritual observances, religious beliefs, community life, and their social, political, and sexual attitudes. Both parochial and cosmopolitan, orthodox and liberal, these Jews are characterized by their dualism, by their successful involvement in both the modern Western world and in traditional Jewish culture. In painting this provocative and fascinating portrait of what Jewish Orthodoxy has become in America today, Heilman and Cohen's study also sheds light on the larger picture of the persistence of religion in the modern world.

Studies in Contemporary Jewry

Author : Eli Lederhendler
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0195348966
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (953 download)

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Book Synopsis Studies in Contemporary Jewry by : Eli Lederhendler

Download or read book Studies in Contemporary Jewry written by Eli Lederhendler and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2001-12-20 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bringing together contributions from established scholars as well as promising younger academics, the seventeenth volume of this established series offers a broad-ranging view of why Judaism, a religion whose observance is more honored in the breach in most western Jewish communities, has garnered attention, authority, and controversy in the late twentieth century. The volume considers the ways in which theological writings, sweeping social change, individual or small-group needs, and intra-communal diversity have re-energized Judaism even amidst secular trends in America and Israel.

Meet the American Jew

Author : Belden Menkus
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 184 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (1 download)

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Book Synopsis Meet the American Jew by : Belden Menkus

Download or read book Meet the American Jew written by Belden Menkus and published by . This book was released on 1963 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An interpretation of contemporary American Judaism by eleven of its leaders.

The Vanishing American Jew

Author : Alan M. Dershowitz
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 0684848988
Total Pages : 420 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (848 download)

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Book Synopsis The Vanishing American Jew by : Alan M. Dershowitz

Download or read book The Vanishing American Jew written by Alan M. Dershowitz and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 1998-09-08 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the meaning of Jewishness in light of the increasing assimilation of America's Jews and suggests ways to preserve Jewish identity.

The Cambridge Companion to American Judaism

Author : Dana Evan Kaplan
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1139827006
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (398 download)

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Book Synopsis The Cambridge Companion to American Judaism by : Dana Evan Kaplan

Download or read book The Cambridge Companion to American Judaism written by Dana Evan Kaplan and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2005-08-08 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume provides readers with a comprehensive introduction to the most important and interesting historical and contemporary facets of Judaism in America. Written by twenty-four leading scholars from the fields of religious studies, American history and literature, philosophy, art history, sociology, and musicology, the book adopts an inclusive perspective on Jewish religious experience. Three initial chapters cover the development of Judaism in America from 1654, when Sephardic Jews first landed in New Amsterdam, until today. Subsequent chapters include cutting-edge scholarship and original ideas while remaining accessible at an introductory level. A secondary goal of this volume is to help its readers better understand the more abstract term of 'religion' in a Jewish context. The Cambridge Companion to American Judaism will be of interest not only to scholars but also to all readers interested in social and intellectual trends in the modern world.

Deceptive Images

Author : Charles S. Liebman
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 135152335X
Total Pages : 170 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (515 download)

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Book Synopsis Deceptive Images by : Charles S. Liebman

Download or read book Deceptive Images written by Charles S. Liebman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-02-06 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Deceptive Images is a profoundly thoughtful effort by a social scientist—who is a participant observer in American Jewish life—to come to terms with his concerns about how American Jews and Judaism have been studied, and his sensitivity to the policy implications of such studies. Liebman writes about what he cares deeply about; as a social scientist he is able to use concepts and theories in which he has been trained, although not without a sense of their limitations. In the passionately argued book that results, Liebman contends that those concerned with American Jews, both social scientists and communal leaders, have placed too much emphasis on what Jews do and too little emphasis on Judaism itself. Because they have depended too much on quantitative studies to help them understand contemporary American Jews, they have given too little encouragement to efforts to probe the meaning of Judaism in the lives of American Jews. This stimulating volume takes exception to the notion that American Jewish life is flourishing. It calls for reassessment both of the study of American Judaism and the priorities of American Jewish organizations.

Orthodox Jews in America

Author : Jeffrey S. Gurock
Publisher : Indiana University Press
ISBN 13 : 0253220602
Total Pages : 802 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (532 download)

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Book Synopsis Orthodox Jews in America by : Jeffrey S. Gurock

Download or read book Orthodox Jews in America written by Jeffrey S. Gurock and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2009-03-26 with total page 802 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although there are many good books on the history of Jews in America and a smaller subset that focuses on aspects of Orthodox Judaism in contemporary times, no one, until now, has written an overview of how Orthodoxy in America has evolved over the centuries from the first arrivals in the 17th century to the present. This broad overview by Gurock (Libby M. Klaperman Professor of Jewish History, Yeshiva Univ.; Judaism's Encounter with American Sports) is distinctive in examining how Orthodox Jews have coped with the personal, familial, and communal challenges of religious freedom, economic opportunity, and social integration, as well as uncovering historical reactionary tensions to alternative Jewish movements in multicultural and pluralistic America. Gurock raises penetrating questions about the compatibility of modern culture with pious practices and sensitively explores the relationship of feminism to traditional Orthodox Judaism. There are several excellent reference sources on Orthodox Jews in America, e.g., Rabbi Moshe D. Sherman's outstanding Orthodox Judaism in America: A Biographical Dictionary and Sourcebook, to which this is an accessible and illuminating companion; recommended not only for serious readers on the topic but for general readers as well.David B. Levy, Touro Coll. Women's Seminary Lib., Brooklyn, NY Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Jewish American Paradox

Author : Robert H. Mnookin
Publisher : Platform Books, LLC
ISBN 13 : 9781735996837
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (968 download)

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Book Synopsis The Jewish American Paradox by : Robert H. Mnookin

Download or read book The Jewish American Paradox written by Robert H. Mnookin and published by Platform Books, LLC. This book was released on 2023-03-22 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Who should count as Jewish in America? What should be the relationship of American Jews to Israel? Can the American Jewish community collectively sustain and pass on to the next generation a sufficient sense of Jewish identity? The situation of American Jews today is deeply paradoxical. Jews have achieved unprecedented integration, influence, and esteem in virtually every facet of American life. But this extraordinarily diverse community now also faces four critical and often divisive challenges: rampant intermarriage, weak religious observance, diminished cohesion in the face of waning anti-Semitism, and deeply conflicting views about Israel. Can the American Jewish community collectively sustain and pass on to the next generation a sufficient sense of Jewish identity in light of these challenges? Who should count as Jewish in America? What should be the relationship of American Jews to Israel? In this thoughtful and perceptive book, Robert H. Mnookin argues that the answers of the past no longer serve American Jews today. The book boldly promotes a radically inclusive American-Jewish community--one where being Jewish can depend on personal choice and public self-identification, not simply birth or formal religious conversion. Instead of preventing intermarriage or ostracizing those critical of Israel, he envisions a community that embraces diversity and debate, and in so doing, preserves and strengthens the Jewish identity into the next generation and beyond.