Finding a Spiritual Home: How a New Generation of Jews Can Transform the American Synagogue - Hardcover

Schwarz, Sidney

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0787951749 ISBN 13: 9780787951740

Publisher: Jossey Bass, 2000

Synopsis

In this illuminating look at Judaism′s future, Rabbi Sidney Schwarz offers a penetrating analysis of the American Jewish community, challenging American synagogues to respond to a generation of seekers and satisfy the spiritual hunger of the "new American Jew." This groundbreaking book not only reveals the possibilities of this new, vital spiritual culture, but also offers strategies for transforming any congregation into a place that the Jews of today can truly call home.

About this title

Review:

Finding A Spiritual Home, by Sidney Schwarz, promises to explain "how a new generation of Jews can transform the American synagogue". The book delivers on this promise by describing the lives of four thriving synagogues whose theological orientations range from Reform to Orthodox. Undoubtedly, Finding a Spiritual Home addresses some burning questions about the future of American Judaism: fully 35 per cent of ethnic Jews, Schwarz says, no longer identify themselves with Judaism. Schwarz begins with a historical overview of synagogue life in America, then describes the spiritual needs that various generations of American Jews presently experience, and finally offers a prescription for regeneration of synagogue life. Throughout the book, Schwarz's arguments expertly interweave narratives of individual and communal religious life, taken from the four synagogues in whose innovations Schwarz discerns hope for American Judaism. These religious communities have attracted large numbers of worshippers with programs that seem both radical and commonsensical: "establishing public service opportunities such as a Jewish version of Habitat for Humanity", for instance, or encouraging congregants to write their own prayer books. Schwarz carefully describes the impact of such innovations on synagogue members, citing interviews with worshippers whose enthusiasm jumps off the page: "The Judaism I live is about choosing life", one says. His book will likely inspire more American Jews to make that same choice. --Michael Joseph Gross

Review:

"An extraordinary book. A clarion call for spiritual leadership in a post–ethnic age." (Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, Hebrew Union College, New York; co–founder, Synagogue 2000: Institute for the Synagogue of the Twenty–First Century)

"Schwarz, an outstanding community builder and creative figure in American Jewry, has written a thoughtful, insightful treatment of the synagogue, its limits and its real potential to sustain a new generation of Jews. If you care about the future of Jewry, you want to read this book." (Rabbi Irving Greenberg, president, Jewish Life Network; author, The Jewish Way)

"With stories both of individuals and synagogues, Sidney Schwarz shows that old religious structures can indeed become alive with new spiritual meaning, sensitive to generational change. His is an encouraging, beautifully–written account of congregations in positive transition–at once inspiring and instructive." (Wade Clark Roof, author, A Generation of Seekers: The Spiritual Journeys of the Baby Boom Generation and Spiritual Marketplace)

"Finding a Spiritual Home is one of the most thoughtful and provocative books I have ever encountered. This is the right book at the right time." (Jonathan Woocher, executive vice president, Jewish Education Service of North America; author, Sacred Survival: The Civil Religion of American Jews)

". . . A must–read. Schwarz′s account of several new–paradigm synagogues working on the cutting edge of Jewish spirituality is richly detailed and the personal stories of seekers and their paths into Judaism are compelling." (Ron Wolfson, University of Judaism; co–founder, Synagogue 2000: Institute for the Synagogue of the Twenty–First Century)

About this edition

• Publisher: Jossey Bass
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0787951749
• ISBN 13: 9780787951740
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 336