Introduction to American Judaism

Introduction to American Judaism PDF Author: Jacob Neusner
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1592447597
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
The character of any religion as it is lived and practiced can be quite different from the prescriptions and ideals of its traditions and rituals. This bifurcation can be found also in the tension between the ideas people hold and the things they do. Jacob Neusner explains in the preface: The issue I address in these pages for a broad audience of people who care about religion in general, not Judaism in particular, is an urgent one: explaining what we see, not only what we read. So I decided to focus the book more sharply on what strikes me as Judaism's most suggestive trait - the fairly broadly diffused knowledge of what matters and what doesn't. Students, general readers, members of the clergy, and teachers will find here a lucid and compelling account of the actual life of Jewish people - in the synagogue, at home, in ritual - and of commonly held attitudes toward Holocaust and redemption, the Sabbath and festivals, study of the Torah, the State of Israel, and more.

Introduction to American Judaism

Introduction to American Judaism PDF Author: Jacob Neusner
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1725211203
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 192

Get Book

Book Description
The character of any religion as it is lived and practiced can be quite different from the prescriptions and ideals of its traditions and rituals. This bifurcation can be found also in the tension between the ideas people hold and the things they do. Jacob Neusner explains in the preface: The issue I address in these pages for a broad audience of people who care about religion in general, not Judaism in particular, is an urgent one: explaining what we see, not only what we read. So I decided to focus the book more sharply on what strikes me as Judaism's most suggestive trait - the fairly broadly diffused knowledge of what matters and what doesn't. Students, general readers, members of the clergy, and teachers will find here a lucid and compelling account of the actual life of Jewish people - in the synagogue, at home, in ritual - and of commonly held attitudes toward Holocaust and redemption, the Sabbath and festivals, study of the Torah, the State of Israel, and more.

Introduction to American Judaism

Introduction to American Judaism PDF Author: Jacob Neusner
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1592447597
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 192

Get Book

Book Description
The character of any religion as it is lived and practiced can be quite different from the prescriptions and ideals of its traditions and rituals. This bifurcation can be found also in the tension between the ideas people hold and the things they do. Jacob Neusner explains in the preface: The issue I address in these pages for a broad audience of people who care about religion in general, not Judaism in particular, is an urgent one: explaining what we see, not only what we read. So I decided to focus the book more sharply on what strikes me as Judaism's most suggestive trait - the fairly broadly diffused knowledge of what matters and what doesn't. Students, general readers, members of the clergy, and teachers will find here a lucid and compelling account of the actual life of Jewish people - in the synagogue, at home, in ritual - and of commonly held attitudes toward Holocaust and redemption, the Sabbath and festivals, study of the Torah, the State of Israel, and more.

American Judaism

American Judaism PDF Author: Nathan Glazer
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226298434
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 245

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Book Description
First published in 1957, Nathan Glazer's classic, historical study of Judaism in America has been described by the New York Times Book Review as "a remarkable story . . . told briefly and clearly by an objective historical mind, yet with a fine combination of sociological insight and religious sensitivity." Glazer's new introduction describes the drift away from the popular equation of American Judaism with liberalism during the last two decades and considers the threat of divisiveness within American Judaism. Glazer also discusses tensions between American Judaism and Israel as a result of a revivified Orthodoxy and the disillusionment with liberalism. "American Judaism has been arguably the best known and most used introduction to the study of the Jewish religion in the United States. . . . It is an inordinately clear-sighted work that can be read with much profit to this day."—American Jewish History (1987)

American Jewish History

American Jewish History PDF Author: Gary Phillip Zola
Publisher: Brandeis University Press
ISBN: 1611685109
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 475

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Book Description
Presenting the American Jewish historical experience from its communal beginnings to the present through documents, photographs, and other illustrations, many of which have never before been published, this entirely new collection of source materials complements existing textbooks on American Jewish history with an organization and pedagogy that reflect the latest historiographical trends and the most creative teaching approaches. Ten chapters, organized chronologically, include source materials that highlight the major thematic questions of each era and tell many stories about what it was like to immigrate and acculturate to American life, practice different forms of Judaism, engage with the larger political, economic, and social cultures that surrounded American Jews, and offer assistance to Jews in need around the world. At the beginning of each chapter, the editors provide a brief historical overview highlighting some of the most important developments in both American and American Jewish history during that particular era. Source materials in the collection are preceded by short headnotes that orient readers to the documentsÕ historical context and significance.

American Jewish Orthodoxy in Historical Perspective

American Jewish Orthodoxy in Historical Perspective PDF Author: Jeffrey S. Gurock
Publisher: KTAV Publishing House, Inc.
ISBN: 9780881255676
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 492

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Book Description
American freedom, opportunity and voluntarism has created challenges to the traditional faith and practice of all religious denominations. Jeffrey S. Gurock's pathbreaking work on the history of Jewish Orthodoxy in America has identified and explored the many ways that one religious group responded to those challenges. His model and influential studies of the American Orthodox rabbinate and synagogue have shown that attitudes favoring religious reconciliation and accommodation to the American environment were not less important than Orthodoxy's staunch resistance to that same environment. His seminal work has challenged scholars to understand that Orthodoxy is composed of a spectrum of approaches and has demonstrated that merely labelling a person or institution as "Orthodox" is only the first step towards understanding a particular stance on the most contentious of issues. American Jewish Orthodoxy in Historical Perspective brings together fifteen of Professor Gurock's most important essays with a new introduction that places his work in historiographical perspective. Beginning with his now-classic "Resisters and Accommodators" and "The Orthodox Synagogue", which provide the general viewpoint for what follows, this collection proceeds to individual case studies that examine the ways in which Orthodox Jews understood Christian religious threats, the challenges of modern Zionist ideologies, the varieties of Orthodox lay behavior, profiles of influential Orthodox rabbis, the styles of American Orthodox synagogues, and a description of one type of Orthodox day-school education.

American Reform Judaism

American Reform Judaism PDF Author: Dana Evan Kaplan
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 0813542480
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
The only comprehensive and up-to-date look at Reform Judaism, this book analyzes the forces currently challenging the Reform movement, now the largest Jewish denomination in the United States. To distinguish itself from Orthodox and Conservative Judaism, the Reform movement tries to be an egalitarian, open, and innovative version of the faith true to the spirit of the tradition but nonetheless fully compatible with modern secular life. Promoting itself in this way, Reform Judaism has been tremendously successful in recruiting a variety of people—intermarried families, feminists, gays and lesbians, and interracial families among others—who resist more traditional forms of worship. As an unintended result of this success, the movement now struggles with an identity crisis brought on by its liberal theology, which teaches that each Jew is free to practice Judaism more or less as he or she pleases. In the absence of the authority that comes from a theology based on a commanding, all-powerful God, can Reform Judaism continue to thrive? Can it be broadly inclusive and still be uniquely and authentically Jewish? Taking this question as his point of departure, Dana Evan Kaplan provides a broad overview of the American Reform movement and its history, theology, and politics. He then takes a hard look at the challenges the movement faces as it attempts to reinvent itself in the new millennium. In so doing, Kaplan gives the reader a sense of where Reform Judaism has come from, where it stands on the major issues, and where it may be going. Addressing the issues that have confronted the movement—including the ordination of women, acceptance of homosexuality, the problem of assimilation, the question of rabbinic officiation at intermarriages, the struggle for acceptance in Israel, and Jewish education and others—Kaplan sheds light on the connection between Reform ideology and cultural realities. He unflinchingly, yet optimistically, assesses the movement’s future and cautions that stormy weather may be ahead.

American Jewry and the Civil War

American Jewry and the Civil War PDF Author: Bertram Wallace Korn
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 420

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Book Description
Long considered a noteworthy title on the Jewish role in early American history this book focuses on the Jewish community as a whole during the tumultuous years of the war, and on its effort to raise the concept of human rights and equality above restrictions based on race or religion.

Settings of Silver

Settings of Silver PDF Author: Stephen M. Wylen
Publisher: Paulist Press
ISBN: 1616434988
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 562

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Book Description
Provides a comprehensive and easy to understand overview of Judaism as the belief system and way of life of the Jewish people.

Jewish American Poetry

Jewish American Poetry PDF Author: Jonathan N. Barron
Publisher: UPNE
ISBN: 9781584650430
Category : American poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 364

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Book Description
A rich and provocative overview of Jewish American poetry.

Foreign Entanglements: Transnational American Jewish Studies

Foreign Entanglements: Transnational American Jewish Studies PDF Author: Hasia Diner
Publisher: Universitätsverlag Potsdam
ISBN: 3869565209
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description
The field of American Jewish studies has recently trained its focus on the transnational dimensions of its subject, reflecting in more sustained ways than before about the theories and methods of this approach. Yet, much of the insight to be gained from seeing American Jewry as constitutively entangled in many ways with other Jewries has not yet been realized. Transnational American Jewish studies are still in their infancy. This issue of PaRDeS presents current research on the multiple entanglements of American with Central European, especially German-speaking Jewries in the 19th and 20th centuries. The articles reflect the wide range of topics that can benefit from a transnational understanding of the American Jewish experience as shaped by its foreign entanglements.