Kategoria BISAC: Religion >> Judaism - Reform

Mordecai M. Kaplan, founder of the Jewish Reconstructionist movement, is the only rabbi to have been excommunicated by the Orthodox rabbinical establishment in America. Kaplan was indeed a radical, rejecting such fundamental Jewish beliefs as the concept of the chosen people and a supernatural God. Although he valued the Jewish community and was a committed Zionist, his primary concern was the spiritual fulfillment of the individual. Drawing on Kaplan's 27-volume diary, Mel Scult describes the development of Kaplan's radical theology in dialogue with the thinkers and writers who mattered...

Many scholars of the modern Jewish identity focus on the ways in which the past two centuries have resulted in the loss of Jewishness: through "assimilation," intermarriage, conversion to other faiths, genocide (in the Holocaust), and decline in religious observance. In this work, author Frederick S. Roden presents a decidedly different perspective: that the changes in Judaism throughout the 19th and 20th centuries resulted in a malleable, welcoming, and expanded Jewish identity one that has benefited from intermarriage and converts to Judaism.

The book examines key issues in...

This fiftieth anniversary edition of W. Gunther Plaut s classic volume on the beginnings of the Jewish Reform Movement is updated with a new introduction by Howard A. Berman. The Rise of Reform Judaism covers the first one hundred years of the movement, from the time of the eighteenth-century Jewish Enlightenment leader Moses Mendelssohn to the conclusion of the Augsburg synod in 1871.

In these pages the founders who established liberal Judaism speak for themselves through their journals and pamphlets, books and sermons, petitions and resolutions, and public arguments and...

This fiftieth anniversary edition of W. Gunther Plaut s classic second volume on the history of the Jewish Reform Movement is a sourcebook of the original writings that shaped the second century of organized liberal Judaism. The Growth of Reform Judaism features a new introduction, a new epilogue, and important additional primary sources documenting the profound changes of the last fifty years.

Although the emphasis in this volume is chiefly on the American scene, where the movement had its most notable advances, selections of representative liberal Jewish thought in Europe...

An anthology of essays written by a wide cross-section of rabbis, Lights in the Forest presents a range of Jewish responses to both theological and philosophical questions pertaining to God, humanity, and the Jewish people. Thoughtful and engaging, these responses are meant to strengthen the reader's sense of Jewish identity through expanding his or her knowledge and understanding of Jewish life, practice, and tradition.

Perfect for self-study, group study, adult learning, and conversion, the collection strives to encourage further study and ongoing...

Presented in the form of letters from a rabbi to his sons, Why Judaism Matters is common sense guidance and a road map for a new generation of young men and women who find Jewish orthodoxy, tradition, issues, and beliefs impenetrable in 21st Century society. By intimately illustrating how the tenets of Judaism still apply in our modern world, Rabbi John Rosove gives heartfelt direction to the sons and daughters of reform Jews everywhere.