Remix Judaism

Remix Judaism PDF Author: Roberta Rosenthal Kwall
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538163659
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 274

Get Book Here

Book Description
One of the most talked about books in the Jewish community when it originally appeared, Remix Judaism: Preserving Tradition in a Diverse World offers an eloquent and thoughtful new vision for all Jews seeking a sense of belonging in a changing world, regardless of their current level of observance. Roberta Kwall sets out a process of selection, rejection, and modification of rituals that allow for a focus on Jewish tradition rather than on the technicalities of Jewish law. Her goal is not to sell her own religious practices to readers but, rather, to encourage them to find their own personal meaning in Judaism outside the dictates of Commandment, by broadening their understanding of how law, culture, and tradition fit together. She inspires readers to be intentional and mindful about the space they allocate for these elements in defining their individual Jewish journeys and identities. The paperback edition includes a new preface addressing recently released findings, including the Pew Report on the American Jewish Community, exploring the challenges of practicing Judaism today.

Remix Judaism

Remix Judaism PDF Author: Roberta Rosenthal Kwall
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538163659
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 274

Get Book Here

Book Description
One of the most talked about books in the Jewish community when it originally appeared, Remix Judaism: Preserving Tradition in a Diverse World offers an eloquent and thoughtful new vision for all Jews seeking a sense of belonging in a changing world, regardless of their current level of observance. Roberta Kwall sets out a process of selection, rejection, and modification of rituals that allow for a focus on Jewish tradition rather than on the technicalities of Jewish law. Her goal is not to sell her own religious practices to readers but, rather, to encourage them to find their own personal meaning in Judaism outside the dictates of Commandment, by broadening their understanding of how law, culture, and tradition fit together. She inspires readers to be intentional and mindful about the space they allocate for these elements in defining their individual Jewish journeys and identities. The paperback edition includes a new preface addressing recently released findings, including the Pew Report on the American Jewish Community, exploring the challenges of practicing Judaism today.

Remix Judaism

Remix Judaism PDF Author: Roberta Rosenthal Kwall
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538129566
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 268

Get Book Here

Book Description
Remix Judaism: Preserving Tradition in a Diverse World offers an eloquent and thoughtful new vision for all Jews seeking a sense of belonging in a changing world, regardless of their current level of observance. Kwall sets out a process of selection, rejection, and modification of rituals that allow for a focus on Jewish tradition rather than on the technicalities of Jewish law. Her goal is not to sell her own religious practices to readers but, rather, to encourage them to find their own personal meaning in Judaism outside the dictates of Commandment by broadening their understanding of how law, culture and tradition fit together. In Remix Judaism, Kwall inspires her audience to be intentional and mindful about the space they allocate for these elements in defining their individual Jewish journeys and identities.

The Myth of the Cultural Jew

The Myth of the Cultural Jew PDF Author: Roberta Rosenthal Kwall
Publisher:
ISBN: 0195373707
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 336

Get Book Here

Book Description
A myth exists that Jews can embrace the cultural components of Judaism without appreciating the legal aspects of the Jewish tradition. This myth suggests that law and culture are independent of one another. In reality, however, much of Jewish culture has a basis in Jewish law. Similarly, Jewish law produces Jewish culture. Roberta Rosenthal Kwall develops and applies a cultural analysis paradigm to the Jewish tradition that departs from the understanding of Jewish law solely as the embodiment of Divine command.

The New American Judaism

The New American Judaism PDF Author: Jack Wertheimer
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691202516
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 396

Get Book Here

Book Description
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.

Gender and Religious Leadership

Gender and Religious Leadership PDF Author: Hartmut Bomhoff
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1793601585
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 347

Get Book Here

Book Description
This volume analyzes historical and recent developments in female religious leadership and the larger issues shaping the scholarly debate at the intersection of gender and religious studies. Jewish activism and scholarship have been crucial in linking theology and gender issues since the early twentieth century. Academic and vocational leadership and training have had significant, concrete impact on religious communal practices and formation across the US and Europe. At the same time, these models provide important avenues of constructive dialogue and comparative ecumenical and interfaith enterprises. This volume investigates those possibilities towards constructive, activist, holistic female ministerial leadership for religious faith communities.

Living Torah

Living Torah PDF Author: Gil Graff
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538194309
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 163

Get Book Here

Book Description
Today there are more than seven million Jews in the United States. As with Americans of all ethnicities and religious persuasions, Jews can identify with and embrace their heritage in any number of ways. Alternatively, they can choose to distance themselves from anything distinctively Jewish. For millennia, the Torah – literally, instruction – the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, has been a centerpiece of Jewish study, thought, and action. Throughout the years, the Torah has been interpreted and applied to life in varying times and places. It has long been customary for Jews to read chapters of the Torah each week as part of an annual cycle of study and synagogue ritual. In the third decade of the twenty-first century, there are Jews who question or doubt the continuing relevance of Jewish texts to their lives. Yet, the search for meaning is enduring, and most American Jews are interested in engaging with a heritage in which they take pride. It is, primarily, for such readers that this book is designed. At the same time, there are people who are not Jewish for whom a book unpacking a Jewish understanding of the Torah might be of interest. The aim of this work is to share ideas, themes, values, and practices that are all part of the living Torah, with full awareness that personal meaning is, by definition, unique to each individual. “Living Torah” describes both Torah as a vibrant text and those who lead Torah-informed lives. “Torah-informed” by no means implies uniformity of life-style. There are a number of books that explore the meaning that Judaism can hold for contemporary Jews and others interested in the wisdom expressed in its classical texts. While these books draw upon classical sources and offer interesting perspectives, none undertakes to systematically introduce the reader to the richness of the Torah text. The uniqueness of this very accessible volume is that it identifies a central theme in each of the five books of the Torah, and, following exploration of the substance of each book, looks at implications of the book’s key theme for the lives of contemporary readers The book is comprised of ten chapters, organized as follows: a chapter synopsizing a book of the Torah and identifying its central theme, followed by a chapter applying that theme to the lived experience of Jews in the twenty-first century. The themes explored are: (a) the Jews’ relationship to the land of Israel; (b) purpose in history; (c) the pursuit of holiness; (d) living in community; (e) Jewish learning.

Just Jewish

Just Jewish PDF Author: Horwitz Rabbi Dan
Publisher: Ben Yehuda Press
ISBN: 1963475011
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 136

Get Book Here

Book Description
For a religion that is hyper-focused on transmitting the Jewish tradition "from generation to generation," "l'dor v'dor" — the notion that Millennials just aren't interested in carrying on Jewish practices or embracing the Jewish commitments of those who came before them poses quite a challenge, both on interpersonal and organizational sustainability levels. As a result, it seems much of the Jewish organizational world is concerned with how to engage Millennials in their offerings. But, if the data collected from reliable sources such as The Pew Research Center are any indication, there is much more work to do. Just Jewish: How to Engage Millenials and Build a Vibrant Jewish Future shares proven techniques and models ready to be adopted by the Jewish world's myriad organizations, touching on everything from branding, to fundraising, to programmatic approaches, to relationship development, and more, extrapolating lessons from The Well so they can be applied to the Jewish community writ large. As more seasoned generations start to take steps back from Jewish communal leadership, the time to meaningfully engage Millennials to ensure future leadership pipelines (both professional and volunteer) and Jewish vibrancy is now, and this book exists to help make it happen! “Terrific and inspiring! I highly recommend you make this important book a must-read together with your professional and lay leadership team.” —Dr. Ron Wolfson, Fingerhut Professor of Education, Author, Relational Judaism “A must-read for Jewish professionals and for anyone who cares about the future of the American Jewish community.” —Sarah Hurwitz, Author, Here All Along “A worthy addition to the new Jewish bookshelf that is catalyzing new thinking and practices for the Jewish future we’re just beginning to build.” —Rabbi Rick Jacobs, President, Union for Reform Judaism

The Case for Jewish Peoplehood

The Case for Jewish Peoplehood PDF Author: Erica Brown
Publisher: Jewish Lights Publishing
ISBN: 1580234011
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 226

Get Book Here

Book Description
This clarion call to the Jewish community explores the purpose, possibilities, and limitations of peoplehood as a unifying concept of community for a people struggling profoundly with Jewish identity. It defines what peoplehood is--and is not--and explores both collective and personal Jewish identity and the natue of identity construction.

Klezmer America

Klezmer America PDF Author: Jonathan Freedman
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 023114279X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 403

Get Book Here

Book Description
Klezmer is a continually evolving musical tradition that grows out of Eastern European Jewish culture, and its changes reflect Jews' interaction with other groups as well as their shifting relations to their own history. But what happens when, in the klezmer spirit, the performances that go into the making of Jewishness come into contact with those that build different forms of cultural identity? Jonathan Freedman argues that terms central to the Jewish experience in America, notions like "the immigrant," the "ethnic," and even the "model minority," have worked and continue to intertwine the Jewish-American with the experiences, histories, and imaginative productions of Latinos, Asians, African Americans, and gays and lesbians, among others. He traces these relationships in a number of arenas: the crossover between jazz and klezmer and its consequences in Philip Roth's The Human Stain; the relationship between Jewishness and queer identity in Tony Kushner's Angels in America; fictions concerning crypto-Jews in Cuba and the Mexican-American borderland; the connection between Jews and Christian apocalyptic narratives; stories of "new immigrants" by Bharathi Mukherjee, Gish Jen, Lan Samantha Chang, and Gary Shteyngart; and the revisionary relation of these authors to the classic Jewish American immigrant narratives of Henry Roth, Bernard Malamud, and Saul Bellow. By interrogating the fraught and multidimensional uses of Jews, Judaism, and Jewishness, Freedman deepens our understanding of ethnoracial complexities.

#UsToo

#UsToo PDF Author: Keren R. McGinity
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000918092
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 124

Get Book Here

Book Description
#UsToo: How Jewish, Muslim, and Christian Women Changed Our Communities examines the relationship between sexual harassment, gender, and multiple religions, highlighting the voices of women of different faiths who found their voices and used them for the betterment of their communities. Through personal interviews and other research, this book explores the actions of American Jewish, Muslim, and Christian women who broke the silence about sexual misconduct and abuse of power by male co-religionists. Using a three-dimensional, ethnoreligious approach that examines gender, ethnicity, and religion, it addresses the relationship between religion and women’s experiences and examines both historical contexts and present-day experiences of sexual misconduct within faith communities. This book will be of key interest to students within Gender Studies, History, Religion, and Sociology, clergy and lay religious leaders, and human rights advocates.