What Jewish Denominations Mean to Me
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Denominations
- Essays
Denominations
Zev Eleff: Is This the End of American Judaism?
In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we begin our Denominations series by talking to Zev Eleff—historian, author, and the president of Gratz College—about the development of the denominations of Judaism we have in America today.
podcast
Zev Eleff: Is This the End of American Judaism?
In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we begin our Denominations series by talking to Zev Eleff—historian, author,…
podcast
Ammiel Hirsch: ‘What Did We Do Wrong?’ Peoplehood and the Reform Movement
In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, senior rabbi of Stephen Wise…
podcast
Marc B. Shapiro: Where Does Orthodox Judaism Come From?
In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to author and historian Dr. Marc B. Shapiro about the…
podcast
Adam and Mia Raskin: Can Families Live with Denominational Differences?
In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Rabbi Adam J. Raskin—a Conservative rabbi in Maryland—and…
podcast
Ammiel Hirsch: How To Understand Reform Judaism’s Anti-Zionist Crisis
In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we follow up with Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch to break down the…
podcast
Pawel Maciejko: Sabbateanism and the Roots of Secular Judaism
In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to historian and professor Pawel Maciejko about the false…
book
Jew vs. Jew
Jew vs. Jew is a deeply researched testimony to the ways broad issues pull apart Jewish communities. From a zoning debate in Cleveland to a liturgy war in Los Angeles, Freedman’s Jew vs. Jew is a masterclass in seeing the forest in the trees. Freedman’s insight is honest, judicial, and perhaps even loving. His fidelity is to the ideas that drive change, the values that are revealed by debate, and the community made up of it all. How do the macro debates of American Judaism manifest on a micro level – in shuls, communities, and homes? Read Jew vs. Jew to find out.
book
Jewish Continuity in America
How does a Jewish community in a free, open, pluralistic society create a mode of communal group survival that is not just continuing, but beneficial to the individual and broader society? This is the question that drives Karp’s book. Jewish Continuity in America focuses on the three major nodes of American Jewish life: The shul, the rabbinate, and pluralism. Karp considers the ways that America’s Jewish community have worked apart and together, in ways that we often underappreciate.
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The New American Judaism
American Judaism has gone through a significant amount of change over the last century. Although the fundamental faith has remained the same, the way Jews have related to and engaged with this faith has a distinct flavor today, which Jack Wertheimer set out to explore. Wertheimer goes to the front lines of religious observance to find the heart of the contemporary experience of American Judaism, finding in it a story of experimentation, learning, and significant renewing possibility. To more fully understand the story of Judaism in America, you may want to read this work alongside Michael R. Cohen’s The Birth of Conservative Judaism: Solomon Schechter’s Disciples and the Creation of an American Religious Movement, and Sefton D. Temkin’s Creating American Reform Judaism: The Life and Times of Isaac Mayer Wise. These works flesh out the histories of Conservative and Reform Judaism in America, without…