Creating American Reform Judaism
Creating American Reform Judaism

Author: Sefton D. Temkin

Publisher:

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13:

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Sefton Temkin has provided us with a much-needed critical and balanced portrayal of Wise ...The best scholarly work on Wise to date. It presents an admiring yet critical picture of Wise's achievements and personality ...a welcome contribution to our understanding of the man and his times.' George L. Berlin, AJS Review 'Thorough and extremely competent ...Temkin contributes a great deal through his careful use of materials ...The book will be of interest to general readers ...who wish not only to understand Isaac Mayer Wise but, moreover, to comprehend the attitudes and events that led to the formation of a truly American form of Judaism.' A. J. Avery-Peck, Choice 'An important book which illumines a formative era of American Jewry and of the United States itself ...scholarly and readable.' William Frankel, Jewish Chronicle American Reform Judaism's major institutions-Hebrew Union College, the Central Conference of American Rabbis, and the Reform prayer book Minhag America-were all due to the singular efforts of Isaac Mayer Wise (1819-1900). Sefton Temkin's biography captures the vigour of Wise's personality and the politics and concerns of Jewish life and leadership in America at that time. It is a lively portrait of a rabbi who was a pivotal figure in the naturalization of Jews and Judaism in the New World.

Creating American Reform Judaism
Creating American Reform Judaism

Author: Sefton D. Temkin

Publisher: Liverpool University Press

Published: 1998-09-01

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13: 1909821810

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Isaac Mayer Wise (1819–1900), founder of the major institutions of Reform Judaism in America, was a man of his time—a pioneer in a pioneer’s world. When he came to America from his childhood Bohemia in 1846, he found fewer than 50,000 Jews and only two ordained rabbis. With his sense of mission and tireless energy, he set himself to tailoring the vehicle of Reform Judaism to meet the needs of the growing Jewish community. Wise strove for unity among American Jews, and for a college to train rabbis to serve them. The establishment of Hebrew Union College (1875) was the crowning achievement of his life. His quest for unity also led him to draw up an American Jewish prayer-book, Minhag America, to found the Central Conference of American Rabbis, and to edit two weeklies; their editorials, breathing fire and energy, were no less important in his quest for leadership. Here as elsewhere, it was his persistence that won him the war where his impetuosity lost him many battles. Professor Temkin’s writing captures the vigour of Wise’s personality and the politics and concerns of contemporary Jewish life and leadership in America. Based primarily on material in the American Jewish Archives of the Hebrew Union College, this biography is a lively portrait of a rabbi whose singular efforts in many fields made him a pivotal figure in the naturalization of the Jew and Judaism in the New World. The book was first published in hardback in 1992 under the title Isaac Mayer Wise: Shaping American Judaism.

A Life of Meaning
A Life of Meaning

Author: Rabbi Dana Evan Kaplan, PhD

Publisher: CCAR Press

Published: 2017-11-28

Total Pages: 502

ISBN-13: 0881233145

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Reform Judaism is constantly evolving as we continue to seek a faith that is in harmony with our beliefs and experiences. This volume offers readers a thought-provoking collection of essays by rabbis, cantors, and other scholars who differ, sometimes passionately, over religious practice, experience, and belief. Its goal is to situate Judaism in a contemporary context, and it is uniquely suited for community discussion as well as study groups.

The New Reform Judaism
The New Reform Judaism

Author: Dana Evan Kaplan

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 2020-04-01

Total Pages: 470

ISBN-13: 0827614314

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This is the book that American Jews and particularly American Reform Jews have been waiting for: a clear and informed call for further reform in the Reform movement. In light of profound demographic, social, and technological developments, it has become increasingly clear that the Reform movement will need to make major changes to meet the needs of a quickly evolving American Jewish population. Younger Americans in particular differ from previous generations in how they relate to organized religion, often preferring to network through virtual groups or gather in informal settings of their own choosing. Dana Evan Kaplan, an American Reform Jew and pulpit rabbi, argues that rather than focusing on the importance of loyalty to community, Reform Judaism must determine how to engage the individual in a search for existential meaning. It should move us toward a critical scholarly understanding of the Hebrew Bible, that we may emerge with the perspectives required by a postmodern world. Such a Reform Judaism can at once help us understand how the ancient world molded our most cherished religious traditions and guide us in addressing the increasingly complex social problems of our day.

Max Lilienthal
Max Lilienthal

Author: Bruce L. Ruben

Publisher: Wayne State University Press

Published: 2011-12-01

Total Pages: 334

ISBN-13: 0814336671

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Explores the life and thought of Rabbi Max Lilienthal, who created a new model for the American rabbinate. When Congregation Bene Israel hired him to come to Cincinnati in 1854, Rabbi Max Lilienthal (1814–82) seized the opportunity to work with his friend Isaac M. Wise. Together, Lilienthal and Wise forged the institutional foundations for the American Reform movement: the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and Hebrew Union College. In Max Lilienthal: The Making of the American Rabbinate, author Bruce L. Ruben investigates the central role Lilienthal played in creating new institutions and leadership models to bring his immigrant community into the mainstream of American society. Ruben’s biography shines a light on this prominent rabbi and educator who is treated by most American Jewish historians as, at best, Wise’s collaborator. Ruben examines Lilienthal’s early career, including how his fervent Haskalah ideology was shaped by tensions within early nineteenth-century German Jewish society and how he tried to implement that ideology in his attempt to modernize Russian Jewish education. After he immigrated to America to serve three traditional New York German synagogues, he clashed with lay leadership. Ruben examines this lay-clergy power struggle and how Lilienthal resolved it over his long career. Max Lilienthal: The Making of the American Rabbinate also details the rabbi’s many accomplishments, including his creation of a nationally recognized private Jewish school and the founding of the precursor to the Central Conference of American Rabbis. He also was the first rabbi to preach in a Christian church. Even more significantly, Ruben argues that Lilienthal created an unprecedented new American model for the rabbinate, in which the rabbi played a prominent role in civic life. More than a biography, this volume is a case study of the impact of American culture on Judaism and its leadership, as Ruben shows how Lilienthal embraced an increasingly radical Reform ideology influenced by a mixture of American and European ideas. Students of German Haskalah and historians of American Judaism and the Reform movement will appreciate this biography that fills an important gap in the history of American Jewry.

The Chosen Wars
The Chosen Wars

Author: Steven R. Weisman

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Published: 2019-08-20

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 1416573275

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“An important beginning to understanding the truth over myth about Judaism in American history” (New York Journal of Books), Steven R. Weisman tells the dramatic story of the personalities that fought each other and shaped this ancient religion in America in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The struggles that produced a redefinition of Judaism illuminate the larger American experience and the efforts by all Americans to reconcile their faith with modern demands. The narrative begins with the arrival of the first Jews in New Amsterdam and plays out over the nineteenth century as a massive immigration takes place at the dawn of the twentieth century. First there was the practical matter of earning a living. Many immigrants had to work on the Sabbath or traveled as peddlers to places where they could not keep kosher. Doctrine was put aside or adjusted. To take their places as equals, American Jews rejected their identity as a separate nation within America. Judaism became an American religion. These profound changes did not come without argument. Steven R. Weisman’s “lucid and entertaining” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) The Chosen Wars tells the stories of the colorful rabbis and activists—including Isaac Mayer Wise, Mordecai Noah, David Einhorn, Rebecca Gratz, and Isaac Lesser—who defined American Judaism and whose disputes divided it into the Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox branches that remain today. “Only rarely does an author succeed in writing a book that reframes how we perceive our own history. The Chosen Wars is...fascinating and provocative” (Jewish Journal).

Union Prayer-Book for Jewish Worship
Union Prayer-Book for Jewish Worship

Author: Central Conference of American Rabbis

Publisher: Franklin Classics Trade Press

Published: 2018-10-23

Total Pages: 82

ISBN-13: 9780344078477

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