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This book argues that the way to ensure that American Jewish life flourishes is to create vibrant local communities and that the ability to thrive will be won or lost in the trenches of each locality. For every generalization about the Jews of America, one can say, "maybe, but it depends where." In the United States, Jewish life is up close and personal where local variations on national themes make a huge difference. The author presents case studies using in-depth analysis of data from nine Jewish community studies to illuminate eleven critical American Jewish policy issues. The analysis is used to formulate a range of policy options for different types of communities. This book is for anyone who cares about the future of American Jewry. It should be of particular interest to the lay leaders and professionals who play a role in Jewish nonprofits. It is also of great interest to researchers and students of Jewish studies and Jewish communal service.
This book argues that the way to ensure that American Jewish life flourishes is to create vibrant local communities and that the ability to thrive will be won or lost in the trenches of each locality. For every generalization about the Jews of America, one can say, “maybe, but it depends where.” In the United States, Jewish life is up close and personal where local variations on national themes make a huge difference. The author presents case studies using in-depth analysis of data from nine Jewish community studies to illuminate eleven critical American Jewish policy issues. The analysis is used to formulate a range of policy options for different types of communities. This book is for anyone who cares about the future of American Jewry. It should be of particular interest to the lay leaders and professionals who play a role in Jewish nonprofits. It is also of great interest to researchers and students of Jewish studies and Jewish communal service.
The inside story and practical lessons from one of the most exciting developments in contemporary Judaism. Part description and part prescription, Empowered Judaism is a manifesto for transforming the way Jews pray andmore broadlyfor building vibrant Jewish communities. [It] represents the latest chapter in [an] uplifting history of religious creativity. This is a book that every Jewish leader will want to read and every serious Jew will want to contemplate. from the Foreword by Prof. Jonathan D. Sarna Why have thousands of young Jews, otherwise unengaged with formal Jewish life, started more than sixty innovative prayer communities across the United States? What crucial insights can these grassroots communities provide for all of us? Rabbi Elie Kaunfer, one of the leaders of this revolutionary phenomenon, offers refreshingly new analyses of the age-old question of how to build strong Jewish community. He explores the independent minyan movement and the lessons it has to teach about prayer, community organizing and volunteer leadership, and its implications for contemporary struggles in American Judaism. Along with describing the growth of independent minyanim across the country, he examines: The roles of liturgy, space, music and youth in this new approach to prayer Lessons to be learned from the concept of immersive, intensive Jewish learning in an egalitarian context Jewish values in which we must invest to achieve a vibrant, robust American Jewish landscape for the twenty-first century
A lively collection of sixteen essays on the many ways American Jews have imagined and constructed communities
The author offers a penetrating analysis of the American Jewish community, challenging American synagogues to respond to a generation of seekers and the satisfy the spiritual hunger of the "New American Jew."
The first systematic assessment of present-day American Jewry, Sklare's book brings together the foremost Jewish scholars to examine such topics as Jewish demography, identity, religion and religious life, education, family, community structure, and in-tergroup relations. With candor and accuracy, each essay breaks new ground in the field of Jewish studies and makes an important contribution to American social science. Contents and Contributors: Calvin Goldscheider, "Demography of Jewish Americans"; Harold S. Him-melfarb, "Research on American Jewish Identity and Identification"; Charles S. Liebman, "The Religious Life of American Jewry"; David A. Resnick, "Toward an Agenda for Research in Jewish Education"; Sheila B. Kamerman, "Jews and Other People: An Agenda for Research on Families and Family Policies"; Chaim I. Wax-man, "The Family and the American Jewish Community on the Threshold of the 1980s"; Daniel J. Elazar, "The Jewish Community as a Polity"; Earl Raab, "Jews among Others"; Ira Sil-verman, "Research Needs of National Jewish Organizations"; Bruce A. Phillips, "Research Needs of Local Jewish Communities"; Marshall Sklare, "On the Preparation of a Sociology of American Jewry"; Drora Kass and Seymour Martin Lipset, "Jewish Immigration to the United States from 1967 to the Present."
Visionary solutions for a community ripe for transformational change--from fourteen leading innovators of Jewish life. "Jewish Megatrends offers a vision for a community that can simultaneously strengthen the institutions that serve those who seek greater Jewish identification and attract younger Jews, many of whom are currently outside the orbit of Jewish communal life. Schwarz and his collaborators provide an exciting path, building on proven examples, that we ignore at our peril." --from the Foreword The American Jewish community is riddled with doubts about the viability of the institutions that well served the Jewish community of the twentieth century. Synagogues, Federations and Jewish membership organizations have yet to figure out how to meet the changing interests and needs of the next generation. In this challenging yet hopeful call for transformational change, visionary leader Rabbi Sidney Schwarz looks at the social norms that are shaping the habits and lifestyles of younger American Jews and why the next generation is so resistant to participate in the institutions of Jewish communal life as they currently exist. He sets out four guiding principles that can drive a renaissance in Jewish life and gives evidence of how, on the margins of the Jewish community, those principles are already generating enthusiasm and engagement from the very millennials that the organized Jewish community has yet to engage. Contributors--leading innovators from different sectors of the Jewish community--each use Rabbi Schwarz's framework as a springboard to set forth their particular vision for the future of their sector of Jewish life and beyond. CONTRIBUTORS: Elise Bernhardt - Rabbi Sharon Brous - Sandy Cardin - Dr. Barry Chazan - Dr. David Ellenson - Wayne Firestone - Rabbi Jill Jacobs - Anne Lanski - Rabbi Joy Levitt - Rabbi Asher Lopatin - Rabbi Or N. Rose - Nigel Savage - Barry Shrage - Dr. Jonathan Woocher
This comprehensive look at the Jewish American community at the turn of the 21st century explores the many issues emerican Jews and their organizations are confronting, and shows how the Jewish community responds so as to remain a distinct entity while also becoming a part of the larger American culture. The contributors investigate the complex issues facing the American Jewish community in 12 areas that are at the heart of the Jewish communal enterprise. This work will be of interest to students and scholars of Jewish studies and interfaith studies, to professionals in social work and social services, and to anyone interested in American communal dynamics.
The inside story and practical lessons from one of the most exciting developments in contemporary Judaism. ''Part description and part prescription, Empowered Judaism is a manifesto for transforming the way Jews pray and - more broadly - for building vibrant Jewish communities.... [It] represents the latest chapter in [an] uplifting history of religious creativity. This is a book that every Jewish leader will want to read and every serious Jew will want to contemplate.'' - from the Foreword by Prof. Jonathan D. Sarna Why have thousands of young Jews, otherwise unengaged with formal Jewish life, started more than sixty innovative prayer communities across the United States? What crucial insights can these grassroots communities provide for all of us? Rabbi Elie Kaunfer, one of the leaders of this revolutionary phenomenon, offers refreshingly new analyses of the age - old question of how to build strong Jewish community. He explores the independent minyan movement and the lessons it has to teach about prayer, community organizing and volunteer leadership, and its implications for contemporary struggles in American Judaism. Along with describing the growth of independent minyanim across the country, he examines: The roles of liturgy, space, music and youth in this new approach to prayer Lessons to be learned from the concept of immersive, intensive Jewish learning in an egalitarian context Jewish values in which we must invest to achieve a vibrant, robust American Jewish landscape for the twenty - first century
Popular Washington, D.C. rabbi and psychotherapist Arthur Blecher believes that the American Jewish community is actually flourishing amidst fears of dying out. He shows us that intermarriage strengthens Judaism--a concept that many Jews continue to debate. In straightforward and engaging chapters, he provides a progressive and positive outline of how this religion has changed over the years, and why American Jewish culture must be embraced and discussed in depth in Jewish families. This is a fascinating exploration of the ways in which social and psychological forces created a new and quite different form of Judaism in America more than one hundred years ago.