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Rethinking Synagogues: A New Vocabulary for Congregational Life
Contributor(s): Hoffman, Lawrence A. (Author)
ISBN: 1683362675     ISBN-13: 9781683362678
Publisher: Jewish Lights Publishing
OUR PRICE:   $26.99  
Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats
Published: June 2006
Qty:
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Religion | Judaism - General
- Religion | Leadership
Dewey: 296.650
Physical Information: 0.56" H x 6" W x 9" (1.07 lbs) 236 pages
Themes:
- Religious Orientation - Jewish
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:

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.


Contributor Bio(s): Hoffman, Lawrence A.: - 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).