Description
Drawing on his efforts to make sense of his own conception and experience of Judaism, Eisen (religious studies, Stanford U.) asserts that American Jewish leaders should redesign the community so that it meets the actual needs of Jews (rather than the needs the rabbis or federations think they should have) and enables them to live rightly and well without abandoning their participation in American society. The leaders should also describe a Judaism that assists in the individual quest for wholeness and transcendence. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
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Jews, like other Americans, have both benefited and suffered from the fraying of traditional loyalties that has come to characterize modern American culture. In Taking Hold of Torah Arnold M. Eisen offers a personal plea for - and a vision of - the revitalizing of American Judaism through a renewed relationship to Jewish tradition and the strengthening of Jewish communities. Drawing from the author's own experience both as a scholar of modern Judaism and as a modern American Jew, each of the five chapters in the book examines a major issue or theme related to this vision of renewal - in terms of one of the five books of the Torah. This encouraging work is essential reading for anyone concerned with issues of Jewish faith and the future of Judaism in America.
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