Download or read book Next Generation Judaism written by Rabbi Mike Uram and published by Turner Publishing Company. This book was released on 2016-09-27 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2016 National Jewish Book Award in the category of Education and Jewish Identity The Jewish world is changing before our eyes. The traditional notions of what it means to be a Jew, what Jewish organizations look like and what Jewish leadership means are no longer working, leaving many Jewish organizations in a struggle for survival. Many Jewish leaders are afraid that this will only get worse as the millennials—the “my way, right away, why pay” generation—begin to enter adulthood. But college campuses are incubators of new and vibrant expressions of Jewish life. With motivation and entrepreneurial spirit, and without the limitations of cynicism or institutional history, students are inventing and reinventing Jewish community, Jewish prayer, Jewish service and Jewish learning, and Hillel is right there with them. Each chapter of this book explores innovations developed on the University of Pennsylvania campus and shows how they can be applied to synagogues, Federations and JCCs to help them reinvent themselves so that they are better able to meet the changing needs of American Jews. This is an essential resource for lay leaders, rabbis, cantors and anyone who wants to build a brighter Jewish future for all Jews and the institutions that support them.

Download or read book Next Generation Judaism written by Mike Uram and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This essential resource identifies college campuses as incubators of new and vibrant expressions of Jewish life. It explores innovations developed on the University of Pennsylvania campus and shows how they can be applied to synagogues, Federations and JCCs to help them be better able to meet the changing needs of American Jews.

Download or read book Mitzvah Girls written by Ayala Fader and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2009-07-20 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mitzvah Girls is the first book about bringing up Hasidic Jewish girls in North America, providing an in-depth look into a closed community. Ayala Fader examines language, gender, and the body from infancy to adulthood, showing how Hasidic girls in Brooklyn become women responsible for rearing the next generation of nonliberal Jewish believers. To uncover how girls learn the practices of Hasidic Judaism, Fader looks beyond the synagogue to everyday talk in the context of homes, classrooms, and city streets. Hasidic women complicate stereotypes of nonliberal religious women by collapsing distinctions between the religious and the secular. In this innovative book, Fader demonstrates that contemporary Hasidic femininity requires women and girls to engage with the secular world around them, protecting Hasidic men and boys who study the Torah. Even as Hasidic religious observance has become more stringent, Hasidic girls have unexpectedly become more fluent in secular modernity. They are fluent Yiddish speakers but switch to English as they grow older; they are increasingly modest but also fashionable; they read fiction and play games like those of mainstream American children but theirs have Orthodox Jewish messages; and they attend private Hasidic schools that freely adapt from North American public and parochial models. Investigating how Hasidic women and girls conceptualize the religious, the secular, and the modern, Mitzvah Girls offers exciting new insights into cultural production and change in nonliberal religious communities.

Download or read book The Next Generation written by Ariela Keysar and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Next Generation offers valuable analyses of the critical issues concerning the entire United States Jewish community. Drawing on the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey (NJPS), the book questions the future of the Jewish community's next generation. Children are the key to the future and continuity of any social, religious or ethnic group. But researchers point to some disturbing trends. A recent study shows that in families with a Jewish and a non-Jewish parent, only 31 percent of children are raised Jewish; only 24 percent of children living in a single-parent household have received any Jewish education; and only about half of all Jewish children today live with two Jewish parents. The authors probe topics that have crucial policy implications for dealing with the new conditions of the American Jewish populace including the demographic and social characteristics of American Jewish children; the effect on children's socialization due to differences in parental religious background; the role of household composition and family structure on the way Jewish children are raised; the impact of children on the Jewishness of their families; and the demographic projects for the younger Jewish population.

Download or read book Passing on the Faith written by James L. Heft and published by Fordham Univ Press. This book was released on 2009-08-25 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the beginning, the Abrahamic faiths—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—have stressed the importance of transmitting religious identity from one generation to the next. Today, that sustaining mission has never been more challenged. Will young people have a faith to guide them? How can faith traditions anchor religious attachments in this secular, skeptical culture? The fruit of a historic gathering of scholars and religious leaders across three faiths and many disciplines, this important book reports on the religious lives of young people in today’s world. It’s also a unique inventory of creative and thoughtful responses from churches, synagogues, and mosques working to keep religion a significant force in those lives. The essays are grouped thematically. Opening the book, Melchor Sanchez de Toca and Nancy Ammerman explore fundamental issues that have an impact on religion—from the cultural effects of global consumerism and personal technology to pluralism and individualism. In Part Two, leading investigators present three leading studies of religiosity among young people and college students in the United States, illuminating the gap between personal values and organized religion—and the emergence of new, different forms of spirituality and faith. How religious institutions deal with these challenges forms the heart of the book—in portraits of “best practices” developed to revitalize traditional institutions, from a synagogue in New York City and a Muslim youth camp in California to the famed French Catholic community of the late Brother John of Taizé. Finally, Jack Miles and Diane Winston weave the findings into a broader perspective of the future of religious belief, practice, and feeling in a changing world. Filled with real-world wisdom, Passing the Faith will be an essential resource for anyone seeking to understand what religions must, and can, do to inspire a vigorous faith in the next generation.

Download or read book Why Israel and its Future Matters written by John L. Rosove and published by Ben Yehuda Press. This book was released on 2023-11-04 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presented in the form of letters from a rabbi to his sons, Why Israel (and its Future) Matters argues that young Jews need Israel as a source of pride, connection, and Jewish renewal, and Israel needs them for the liberal values that they can bring to the Zionist enterprise. Exploring the roots and the occasionally antisemitic branches of the campaign against Israel, Rabbi Rosove demonstrates why it’s wrong to characterize Israel as an “oppressor state” and damn it with blanket condemnations. A 15-page appendix features a timeline/mini-history of Zionism and Israel from the 19th century through October 2023. “A must-read!” —Isaac Herzog, President of Israel “This thoughtful and passionate book reminds us that commitment to Israel and to social justice are essential components of a healthy Jewish identity.” —Yossi Klein Halevi, author, Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor “In its call for ‘aspirational Zionism,’ the book is honest and tough about Israel’s flaws, but optimistic about the country’s direction and filled with practical strategies for promoting change. This is a no-nonsense, straight-talking work, intellectually rigorous but deeply personal.” —Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie, President Emeritus, Union for Reform Judaism “A moving love letter to Israel from a rabbinic leader who refuses to give into despair, but instead recommits to building a democratic Israel that lives up to the vision of its founders.” —Rabbi Jill Jacobs, Executive Director, T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights “Rabbi Rosove grapples with modern Israel, Jewish identity, relations between Israelis and Diaspora Jews, and perhaps most significantly whether ‘you can maintain your ethical and moral values while at the same time being supporters of the Jewish state despite its flaws and imperfections.’ It is a book that many of us wish we had written for our own children.” —Daniel Kurtzer, Former U.S. Ambassador to Egypt (1997-2001) and to Israel (2001-2005)

Download or read book Jewish Megatrends written by Sid Schwarz and published by Jewish Lights Publishing. This book was released on 2013 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Visionary solutions for a community ripe for transformational change--from fourteen leading innovators of Jewish life. "Jewish Megatrends offers a vision for a community that can simultaneously strengthen the institutions that serve those who seek greater Jewish identification and attract younger Jews, many of whom are currently outside the orbit of Jewish communal life. Schwarz and his collaborators provide an exciting path, building on proven examples, that we ignore at our peril." --from the Foreword The American Jewish community is riddled with doubts about the viability of the institutions that well served the Jewish community of the twentieth century. Synagogues, Federations and Jewish membership organizations have yet to figure out how to meet the changing interests and needs of the next generation. In this challenging yet hopeful call for transformational change, visionary leader Rabbi Sidney Schwarz looks at the social norms that are shaping the habits and lifestyles of younger American Jews and why the next generation is so resistant to participate in the institutions of Jewish communal life as they currently exist. He sets out four guiding principles that can drive a renaissance in Jewish life and gives evidence of how, on the margins of the Jewish community, those principles are already generating enthusiasm and engagement from the very millennials that the organized Jewish community has yet to engage. Contributors--leading innovators from different sectors of the Jewish community--each use Rabbi Schwarz's framework as a springboard to set forth their particular vision for the future of their sector of Jewish life and beyond. CONTRIBUTORS: Elise Bernhardt - Rabbi Sharon Brous - Sandy Cardin - Dr. Barry Chazan - Dr. David Ellenson - Wayne Firestone - Rabbi Jill Jacobs - Anne Lanski - Rabbi Joy Levitt - Rabbi Asher Lopatin - Rabbi Or N. Rose - Nigel Savage - Barry Shrage - Dr. Jonathan Woocher

Download or read book Jewish Theology in Our Time written by David J. Wolpe and published by Jewish Lights Publishing. This book was released on 2012-12 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A powerful and challenging examination of what Jews believe today¿ by a new generation¿s dynamic and innovative thinkers. New in Paperback! At every critical juncture in Jewish history, Jews have understood a dynamic theology to be essential for a vital Jewish community. This important collection sets the next stage of Jewish theological thought, bringing together a cross section of interesting new voices from all movements in Judaism to inspire and stimulate discussion now and in the years to come. Provocative and wide-ranging, these invigorating and creative insights from a new generation¿s thought leaders provide a coherent and inspiring picture of Jewish belief in our time. The passionate voices of a new generation of Jewish thinkers continue the dialogue with God, examining the dynamics of what Jews can believe today. They explore: ¿ A dynamic God in process ¿ The canon of Jewish literature and its potential to be both contemporary and authentic to tradition ¿ Critical terms and categories for discussing Jewish theology ¿ The ongoing nature of the Jewish search for God ¿ Ruptures within the modern Jewish condition ¿ And much more

Download or read book Remix Judaism written by Roberta Rosenthal Kwall and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-02-14 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Relational Judaism written by Ron Wolfson and published by Jewish Lights Publishing. This book was released on 2013 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Noted educator and community revitalization pioneer Dr. Ron Wolfson presents practical strategies and case studies to guide Jewish leaders in turning institutions into engaging communities that connect members to Judaism in meaningful and lasting ways.

Download or read book Judaism Straight Up written by Moshe Koppel and published by Maggid. This book was released on 2020-11-18 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Finding a Spiritual Home written by Rabbi Sidney Schwarz, PhD and published by Turner Publishing Company. This book was released on 2012-07-12 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Jewish community has lost some of the most sensitive spiritual souls of this generation. They are Jews who were looking for God and found spiritual homes outside of Judaism. Their journeys traversed the Jewish community, but nothing there beckoned them. The creation of synagogue-communities in which the voices of seekers can be heard and their questions can be asked will challenge many loyalist Jews. It will upset and enrage them. But it would also enrich them. —from Chapter 18 In this fresh look at the spiritual possibilities of American Jewish life, Rabbi Sidney Schwarz presents the framework for a new synagogue model—the synagogue community—and its promise to transform our understanding of the synagogue and its potential for modern Judaism. Schwarz profiles four innovative synagogues—one from each of the major movements of Judaism—that have had extraordinary success with their approach to congregational life and presents practical ways to replicate their success. Includes a discussion guide for study groups and book clubs as well as a new afterword by the author describing developments in synagogue change projects since the book was first published.

Download or read book New Jewish Feminism written by Rabbi Elyse Goldstein and published by Turner Publishing Company. This book was released on 2012-06-28 with total page 514 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jewish Feminism: What Have We Accomplished? What Is Still to Be Done? “When you are in the middle of the revolution you can’t really plan the next steps ahead. But now we can. The book is intended to open up a dialogue between the early Jewish feminist pioneers and the young women shaping Judaism today.... Read it, use it, debate it, ponder it.” —from the Introduction This empowering anthology looks at the growth and accomplishments of Jewish feminism and what that means for Jewish women today and tomorrow. It features the voices of women from every area of Jewish life—the Reform, Reconstructionist, Conservative, Orthodox and Jewish Renewal movements; rabbis, congregational leaders, artists, writers, community service professionals, academics, and chaplains, from the United States, Canada, and Israel—addressing the important issues that concern Jewish women: Women and Theology Women, Ritual and Torah Women and the Synagogue Women in Israel Gender, Sexuality and Age Women and the Denominations Leadership and Social Justice

Download or read book Finding a Spiritual Home written by Sid Schwarz and published by Jewish Lights Publishing. This book was released on 2003 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Like countless others of their generation, many contemporary American Jews have abandoned the religion of their birth to search for a spiritual home in other traditions.

Download or read book Jewish Megatrends written by Rabbi Sidney Schwarz, PhD and published by Turner Publishing Company. This book was released on 2013-01-15 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Visionary solutions for a community ripe for transformational change—from fourteen leading innovators of Jewish life. "Jewish Megatrends offers a vision for a community that can simultaneously strengthen the institutions that serve those who seek greater Jewish identification and attract younger Jews, many of whom are currently outside the orbit of Jewish communal life. Schwarz and his collaborators provide an exciting path, building on proven examples, that we ignore at our peril." —from the Foreword The American Jewish community is riddled with doubts about the viability of the institutions that well served the Jewish community of the twentieth century. Synagogues, Federations and Jewish membership organizations have yet to figure out how to meet the changing interests and needs of the next generation. In this challenging yet hopeful call for transformational change, visionary leader Rabbi Sidney Schwarz looks at the social norms that are shaping the habits and lifestyles of younger American Jews and why the next generation is so resistant to participate in the institutions of Jewish communal life as they currently exist. He sets out four guiding principles that can drive a renaissance in Jewish life and gives evidence of how, on the margins of the Jewish community, those principles are already generating enthusiasm and engagement from the very millennials that the organized Jewish community has yet to engage. Contributors—leading innovators from different sectors of the Jewish community—each use Rabbi Schwarz's framework as a springboard to set forth their particular vision for the future of their sector of Jewish life and beyond.

Download or read book Everything Is God written by Jay Michaelson and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2009-10-13 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This exploration of the radical, yet ancient, idea that everything and everyone is God will transform how you understand your life and the nature of religion itself. While God is conventionally viewed as an entity separate from us, there are some Jews—Kabbalists, Hasidim, and their modern-day heirs—who assert that God is not separate from us at all. In this nondual view, everyone and everything manifests God. For centuries a closely guarded secret of Kabbalah, nondual Judaism is a radical reorientation of religious life that is increasingly influencing mainstream Judaism today. Writer and scholar Jay Michaelson presents a wide-ranging and compelling explanation of nondual Judaism: what it is, its traditional and contemporary sources, its historical roots and philosophical significance, how it compares to nondual Buddhism and Hinduism, and how it is lived in practice. He explains what this mystical nondual view means in our daily ego-centered lives, for our communities, and for the future of Judaism.

Download or read book Just Jewish written by Horwitz Rabbi Dan and published by Ben Yehuda Press. This book was released on 2023-11-10 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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