Awards

• Commended for National Jewish Book Award (Jewish Identity) 2006

Overview

"A critical and challenging look at reinventing the synagogue, as the centerpiece of a refashioned Jewish community. ""America is undergoing a spiritual revolution: only the fourth religious awakening in its history. I plead, therefore, for an equally spiritual synagogue, knowing that any North American Jewish community that hopes to be around in a hundred years must have religion at its center, with the synagogue, the religious institution that best fits North American culture, at its very core."" —from Chapter 1 Synagogues are under attack, and for good reasons. But they remain the religious backbone of Jewish continuity, especially in America, the sole Western industrial or post-industrial nation where religion and spirituality continue to grow in importance. To fulfill their mandate for the American future, synagogues need to replace old and tired conversation with a new way of talking about their goals, their challenges and their vision for the future. In this provocative clarion call for synagogue transformation, Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman summarizes a decade of research with Synagogue 2/3000—a pioneering experiment that reconceptualized synagogue life—providing fresh ways for synagogues to think as they undertake the exciting task of global change."

Full Product Details

9781580232487

Table of Contents

Reviews

No one involved in synagogue life should miss the privilege of using these new, creative and imaginative tools to re-create their synagogue as a sacred community, and a place that is welcoming, accepting and alive with excitement. Jewish Media Review A must read for lay leaders, professionals, congregants anyone truly interested in doing synagogue in a new way. Synthesizes powerful ideas from sociology, economics, history, physics and other disciplines gives us a distinctively Jewish take on synagogue life. If you want to change the conversation about synagogue transformation and have something radically meaningful to say, this is the book for you. Lee M. Hendler, author, The Year Mom Got Religion: One Woman's Mid-Life Journey into Judaism; past president, Chizuk Amuno Congregation, Baltimore Challenges lay leaders as well as Jewish professionals.... Provides a creative and fresh approach to 'doing synagogue .... A wonderful resource. Shofar An important study.... A powerful and persuasive case for rethinking synagogues as sacred communities, above all else. Prof. Jack Wertheimer, provost, The Jewish Theological Seminary of America Daring.... A passionate call to reawaken core beliefs ... and reexamine the meaning of living and passing on the Jewish faith. Midwest Book Review Challenges many of our assumptions about synagogue and Jewish communal life, and offers a new lens through which we can examine those changes that may be necessary . When the glorious history of American synagogues in the twenty-first century is written, there is no doubt that Hoffman will be acknowledged as one of the primary architects of its transformation, revitalization and health. Rabbi Daniel Freelander, vice president, Union for Reform Judaism The first book to address the practical issues of transformation for contemporary American synagogues. A must read not just for synagogues but for all congregations . Uniquely balances the academic with the practical. Those looking for how do I do it best practices will find plenty of nuts and bolts here. Rabbi Aaron Spiegel, Indianapolis Center for Congregations, Inc.

Author Information

Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, PhD, has served for more than three decades as professor of liturgy at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. He is a world-renowned liturgist and holder of the Stephen and Barbara Friedman Chair in Liturgy, Worship and Ritual. His work combines research in Jewish ritual, worship and spirituality with a passion for the spiritual renewal of contemporary Judaism. His many books, written and edited, include seven volumes in the Prayers of Awe series: Who by Fire, Who by Water—Un'taneh Tokef; All These Vows—Kol Nidre; We Have Sinned: Sin and Confession in Judaism—Ashamnu and Al Chet; May God Remember: Memory and Memorializing in Judaism—Yizkor; All the World: Universalism, Particularism and the High Holy Days; Naming God: Avinu Malkeinu—Our Father, Our King; and Encountering God: El Rachum V'chanun—God Merciful and Gracious. Hoffman also edited the ten-volume series My People’s Prayer Book: Traditional Prayers, Modern Commentaries, winner of the National Jewish Book Award; and coedited My People’s Passover Haggadah: Traditional Texts, Modern Commentaries, a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award (all Jewish Lights). Rabbi Hoffman cofounded and developed Synagogue 2/3000, a transdenominational project to envision and implement the ideal synagogue of the spirit for the twenty-first century. In that capacity, he wrote Rethinking Synagogues: A New Vocabulary for Congregational Life (Jewish Lights).

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