Encountering The Jewish Future

Author : Marc H. Ellis
Publisher : Fortress Press
ISBN 13 : 1451413424
Total Pages : 290 pages
Book Rating : 4.27/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Encountering the Jewish Future written by Marc H. Ellis and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 2011-07 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most vital questions about Judaism—present and future—are prefigured, says Marc Ellis in the work of Elie Wiesel, Martin Buber, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Hannah Arendt, and Emmanuel Levinas. Ellis encounters each thinker to contemplate biblical, theological, and philosophical insights so to foster Jewish empowerment and to ensure a Jewish future.

Author : Marc H. Ellis
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780800697938
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.36/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Encountering the Jewish Future written by Marc H. Ellis and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most vital questions about Judaismpresent and futureare prefigured, says Marc Ellis in the work of Elie Wiesel, Martin Buber, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Hannah Arendt, and Emmanuel Levinas. Ellis encounters each thinker to contemplate biblical, theological, and philosophical insights so to foster Jewish empowerment and to ensure a Jewish future.

Author : David A. Teutsch
Publisher : State University of New York Press
ISBN 13 : 1438421982
Total Pages : 299 pages
Book Rating : 4.88/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Imagining the Jewish Future written by David A. Teutsch and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During a time of rapid change in the American Jewish community, an outstanding group of Jewish scholars and professionals address the critical problems and future prospects of American Jewry. They discuss the sharp controversies over feminism and religious language, new data on the relationship between Israelis and American Jews, and the interaction between family and synagogue. The wide scope of topics provides an understanding of the dynamics shaping the lives of American Jews and their diverse views of the future.

Author : Calvin Goldscheider
Publisher : University of Washington Press
ISBN 13 : 0295801425
Total Pages : 169 pages
Book Rating : 4.21/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Studying the Jewish Future written by Calvin Goldscheider and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2011-10-01 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Studying the Jewish Future explores the power of Jewish culture and assesses the perceived threats to the coherence and size of Jewish communities in the United States, Europe, and Israel. In an unconventional and provocative argument, Calvin Goldscheider departs from the limiting vision of the demographic projections that have shaped predictions about the health and future of Jewish communities and asserts that "the quality of Jewish life has become the key to the future of Jewish communities." Through the lens of individual biographies, Goldscheider shows how context shapes Jewish senses of the future and how conceptions of the future are shaped and altered by life experiences. Goldscheider’s distinctive comparative approach includes a critical review of population issues, a consideration of biographies as a basis for understanding Jewish values, and an analysis of biblical texts for studying contemporary values. He combines demographic and sociological analyses in historical and comparative perspectives to dispel the notion that quantitative issues are at the heart of the challenge of Jewish continuity in the future. Numbers are clearly the building blocks of community. But the interpretations of these demographic issues are often confusing and biased by ideological preconceptions. As a basis for studying the core themes of the Jewish future, “hard facts” are less “hard” and less "factual" than interpreters have made them out to be. Population projections are limited by the vision of those who prepare them. Goldscheider concludes that the futures of Jewish communities--in America, Europe, and Israel--are much more secure than has been presented in most scholarly and popular publications, and discussions about the Jewish future should shift to other patterns of distinctiveness. This book will appeal to the general Jewish reader as well as to social scientists and modern Jewish historians. It is appropriate for Jewish studies courses, particularly, but not exclusively, those focusing on Jews in the United States, the American Jewish community, and modern Jewish society, and in courses on ethnicity, multiculturalism, cultural diversity, and ethnic relations.

Author : Ruth R. Wisse
Publisher : Schocken
ISBN 13 : 0307533131
Total Pages : 258 pages
Book Rating : 4.35/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Jews and Power written by Ruth R. Wisse and published by Schocken. This book was released on 2008-12-24 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Part of the Jewish Encounter series Taking in everything from the Kingdom of David to the Oslo Accords, Ruth Wisse offers a radical new way to think about the Jewish relationship to power. Traditional Jews believed that upholding the covenant with God constituted a treaty with the most powerful force in the universe; this later transformed itself into a belief that, unburdened by a military, Jews could pursue their religious mission on a purely moral plain. Wisse, an eminent professor of comparative literature at Harvard, demonstrates how Jewish political weakness both increased Jewish vulnerability to scapegoating and violence, and unwittingly goaded power-seeking nations to cast Jews as perpetual targets. Although she sees hope in the State of Israel, Wisse questions the way the strategies of the Diaspora continue to drive the Jewish state, echoing Abba Eban's observation that Israel was the only nation to win a war and then sue for peace. And then she draws a persuasive parallel to the United States today, as it struggles to figure out how a liberal democracy can face off against enemies who view Western morality as weakness. This deeply provocative book is sure to stir debate both inside and outside the Jewish world. Wisse's narrative offers a compelling argument that is rich with history and bristling with contemporary urgency.

Author : Sid Schwarz
Publisher : Jewish Lights Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1580236677
Total Pages : 64 pages
Book Rating : 4.76/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Jewish Megatrends written by Sid Schwarz and published by Jewish Lights Publishing. This book was released on 2013 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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

Author : Bernard Susser
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0198029349
Total Pages : 219 pages
Book Rating : 4.42/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Choosing Survival written by Bernard Susser and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1999-06-24 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout history, the persecutions of the Jewish people have been central to their identity and to the cohesion of their religion and cultural heritage. But now, with the success of the Jewish State of Israel and the prosperity of Jews in the United States, the collective sufferings that have forged the Jewish identity are disappearing. The compelling question Bernard Susser and Charles Liebman ask in Choosing Survival is: Will this success paradoxically prove fatal to Judaism? Susser and Liebman paint a disturbing portrait of the decline of Judaism in both Israel and the United States and the various--and mainly ineffective--efforts to reverse that decline. In Israel, as Jews are increasingly drawn to cosmopolitan Western culture, Jewishness is in danger of being reduced merely to communal folkways, while political tensions between religious and secular Jews threaten to pull the state apart. In the U.S., assimilation and secularization is even harder to resist. Efforts to strengthen Jewish identity by claiming the U.S. is still anti-Semitic and by pointing to the Holocaust and the threats to Israel's survival have not worked. The authors do, however, see a hopeful sign in Jewish Orthodoxy which, while not a viable solution to the problem, is successfully passing on its tenets and practices and attracting many non-Orthodox Jews. They identify several aspects of Orthodoxy that can be emulated by all Jews and hold the best hope for Jewish survival--its reverence for study, its ability to set and maintain boundaries, and its deep belief in community. For anyone concerned about the fate of Judaism and what it means to be Jewish, Choosing Survival is an impassioned, troubling, and essential book.

Author : Rabbi Sidney Schwarz, PhD
Publisher : Turner Publishing Company
ISBN 13 : 1580237207
Total Pages : 291 pages
Book Rating : 4.08/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Jewish Megatrends written by Rabbi Sidney Schwarz, PhD and published by Turner Publishing Company. This book was released on 2013-01-15 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Author : Michael Brown
Publisher : Walnut Creek, Calif. : AltaMira Press
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 280 pages
Book Rating : 4.91/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Creating the Jewish Future written by Michael Brown and published by Walnut Creek, Calif. : AltaMira Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since World War II, Jews have experienced unprecedented acceptance and assimilation. But now as outside threats diminish, newer, more complex issues arise. Michael Brown and Bernard Lightman gathered writers from Canada and the United States, Israel and Europe to consider directions for the Jewish community to take into the twenty-first century. Writers from a variety of disciplines within and without the academy discuss faith, Israel, Diaspora culture, education, gender roles and demography, always keeping theory and practice, the past and the present in careful balance. Helpful section introductions make this an excellent introductory text, but its timeliness and depth make it unavoidable reading for anyone involved in creating the Jewish future.

Author : Emma O'Donnell
Publisher : Liturgical Press
ISBN 13 : 0814663427
Total Pages : 186 pages
Book Rating : 4.24/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Remembering the Future written by Emma O'Donnell and published by Liturgical Press. This book was released on 2015-12-07 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Common to both Judaism and Christianity is a heightened engagement with time within liturgical practice, in which collective religious memory and anticipation come together to create a unique sense of time. Exploring the nebulous realms of religious experience and the sense of time, Remembering the Future charts the ways that the experience of time is shaped by the traditions of Judaism and Christianity and experienced within their ritual practices. Through comparative explorations of traditional Jewish and Christian understandings of time, contemporary oral testimonies, and discussions of the work of select twentieth-century Jewish and Christian thinkers, this book maps the temporal landscapes of the religious imagination. Maintaining that the sense of time is integral to Jewish and Christian religious experience, Remembering the Future makes a notable contribution to interreligious studies and liturgical studies. It sheds light on essential aspects of religious experience and finds that the intimacy of the experience of time grants it the capacity to communicate across religious boundaries, subtly transgressing obstacles to interreligious understanding.