American Jewish Thought Since 1934
Writings on Identity, Engagement, and Belief
9781684580149
9781684580132
9781684580156
Distributed for Brandeis University Press
American Jewish Thought Since 1934
Writings on Identity, Engagement, and Belief
What is the role of Judaism and Jewish existence in America? And what role does America play in matters Jewish? This anthology considers these questions and offers a look at how the diverse body of Jewish thought developed within the historical and intellectual context of America.
In this volume, editors Michael Marmur and David Ellenson bring together the distinctive voices of those who have shaped the bold and shifting soundscape of American Jewish thought over the last few generations. The contributors tackle an array of topics including theological questions; loyalty and belonging; the significance of halakhic, spiritual, and ritual practice; secularization and its discontents; and the creative recasting of Jewish peoplehood. The editors are careful to point out how a plurality of approaches emerged in response to the fundamental ruptures and challenges of continuity posed by the Holocaust, the establishment of the state of Israel, and the civil rights movement in the twentieth century.
This volume also includes a wide swath of the most distinctive currents and movements over the last eighty years: post-Holocaust theology, secular forms of Jewish spirituality, ultra-orthodoxy, American neo-orthodoxy, neo-Hasidism, feminism and queer theory, diasporist critiques of Zionism, and Zionist militancy. This collection will serve as both a testament to the creativity of American Jewish thought so far, and as an inspiration for the new thinkers of its still unwritten future.
In this volume, editors Michael Marmur and David Ellenson bring together the distinctive voices of those who have shaped the bold and shifting soundscape of American Jewish thought over the last few generations. The contributors tackle an array of topics including theological questions; loyalty and belonging; the significance of halakhic, spiritual, and ritual practice; secularization and its discontents; and the creative recasting of Jewish peoplehood. The editors are careful to point out how a plurality of approaches emerged in response to the fundamental ruptures and challenges of continuity posed by the Holocaust, the establishment of the state of Israel, and the civil rights movement in the twentieth century.
This volume also includes a wide swath of the most distinctive currents and movements over the last eighty years: post-Holocaust theology, secular forms of Jewish spirituality, ultra-orthodoxy, American neo-orthodoxy, neo-Hasidism, feminism and queer theory, diasporist critiques of Zionism, and Zionist militancy. This collection will serve as both a testament to the creativity of American Jewish thought so far, and as an inspiration for the new thinkers of its still unwritten future.
352 pages | 6 x 9 | © 2020
Brandeis Library of Modern Jewish Thought
History: History of Ideas
Religion: Judaism
Reviews
Table of Contents
FOREWORD
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION
I. GOD
1. Mordecai M. Kaplan, The Future of the American Jew
2. Abraham Joshua Heschel, Man Is Not Alone
3. Hans Jonas, “The Concept of God After Auschwitz: A Jewish Voice”
4. Richard L. Rubenstein, After Auschwitz
5. Eliezer Berkovits, Faith After the Holocaust
6. Erich Fromm, You Shall Be As Gods
7. Marcia Falk, “Notes On Composing New Blessings: Toward a Feminist-Jewish Reconstruction of Prayer”
8. Edward L. Greenstein, “’To You Do I Call’: A Critique of Impersonal Prayer”
9. Sandra B. Lubarsky, “Reconstructing Divine Power”
10. Rebecca Alpert, “Location, Location, Location: Toward a Theology of Prepositions”
II. REVELATION AND COMMANDMENT
11. Marvin Fox, The Condition of Jewish Belief
12. Aharon Lichtenstein, The Condition of Jewish Belief
13. Will Herberg, Judaism and Modern Man
14. Jakob J. Petuchowski, “Revelation and the Modern Jew”
15. Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Halakhic Man
16. Benjamin H. Sommer, Revelation and Authority
17. Tamar Ross, Expanding the Palace of Torah
18. Eugene B. Borowitz, Renewing the Covenant
19. Susan Handelman, “ ‘Crossing and Recrossing the Void’ ”
20. David Novak, “Is the Covenant a Bilateral Relationship?”
21. Rachel Adler, Engendering Judaism
22. Mara H. Benjamin, The Obligated Self
III. SPIRITUALITY
23. Arnold Jacob Wolf, “Against Spirituality”
24. Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Halakhic Man
25. Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath
26. Arthur Green, Jewish Spirituality / Seek My Face, Speak My Name
27. Daniel C. Matt, God and the Big Bang
28. Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Paradigm Shift
29. Marcia Prager, The Path of Blessing
30. Nancy Flam, “Healing the Spirit”
31. Arthur Waskow, Down-to-Earth Judaism
32. Sheila Weinberg, “Images of God: Closeness and Power”
IV. HERMENEUTICS AND POLITICS
33. Michael Fishbane, Sacred Attunement
34. Steven Kepnes, The Future of Jewish Theology
35. Jose Faur, Golden Doves With Silver Dots
36. David Hartman, A Heart of Many Rooms
37. Leo Strauss, “Jerusalem and Athens”
38. Hannah Arendt, “The Jew as Pariah”
39. Michael Walzer, Exodus and Revolution
40. Mitchell Cohen, “In Defense of Shaatnez”
41. Jill Jacobs, There Shall Be No Needy
42. Meir Kahane, “Down With Chanukah!”
V. HOLOCAUST AND ISRAEL
43. Jacob Neusner, Stranger At Home
44. Joel Teitelbaum, Vayoel Moshe
45. Emil L. Fackenheim, The Jewish Return Into History and Other Writings
46. Eliezer Berkovits, Faith After the Holocaust
47. David R. Blumenthal, Facing the Abusing God
48. Irving Greenberg, “The Ethics of Jewish Power Today”
49. Marc H. Ellis, Toward a Jewish Theology of Liberation
50. Judith Butler, Parting Ways: Jewishness and the Critique of Zionism
51. Ruth R. Wisse, Jews and Power
52. Daniel Gordis, We Stand Divided
53. Daniel Boyarin & Jonathan Boyarin, “Diaspora”
54. Peter Beinart, The Crisis of Zionism
55. The Editors of Commentary, “The Existential Necessity of Zionism After Paris”
VI. FEMINISM, GENDER, AND SEXUALITY
56. Susannah Heschel, On Being a Jewish Feminist
57. Cynthia Ozick, “Notes Toward Finding the Right Question”
58. Judith Plaskow, “The Right Question is Theological”
59. Blu Greenberg, On Women and Judaism
60. Rachel Adler, “I’ve Had Nothing Yet So I Can’t Take More”
61. Julia Watts Belser, “Making Room for the Divine She”/ “Privilege and Disaster”
62. Steve Greenberg, Wrestling With God and Men
63. Jay Michaelson, "Toward a Queer Jewish Theology"
64. Benay Lappe, “The New Rabbis”
65. Jane Rachel Litman, “Born To Be Wild”
66. Joy Ladin, The Soul of the Stranger
VII. PEOPLEHOOD
67. Mordecai M. Kaplan, The Future of the American Jew
68. Simon Rawidowicz, “The Ever-Dying People”
69. George Steiner, “Our Homeland, The Text”
70. Arthur A. Cohen, "Why I Choose to Be a Jew"
71. Michael Wyschogrod, The Body of Faith
72. Judith Plaskow, Standing Again at Sinai
73. Shaul Magid, American Post-Judaism
74. Steven M. Cohen & Jack Wertheimer, “What Is So Great About Post-Ethnic Judaism” / “Whatever Happened to the Jewish People”
75. Arthur Hertzberg, from Rebuilding Jewish Peoplehood
76. Paula Hyman, from Rebuilding Jewish Peoplehood
77. Dianne Cohler-Esses, “A Common Language Between East and West”
78. Lewis Gordon, In Every Tongue
79. Noam Pianko, Jewish Peoplehood: An American Innovation
FURTHER READING
INDEX
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION
I. GOD
1. Mordecai M. Kaplan, The Future of the American Jew
2. Abraham Joshua Heschel, Man Is Not Alone
3. Hans Jonas, “The Concept of God After Auschwitz: A Jewish Voice”
4. Richard L. Rubenstein, After Auschwitz
5. Eliezer Berkovits, Faith After the Holocaust
6. Erich Fromm, You Shall Be As Gods
7. Marcia Falk, “Notes On Composing New Blessings: Toward a Feminist-Jewish Reconstruction of Prayer”
8. Edward L. Greenstein, “’To You Do I Call’: A Critique of Impersonal Prayer”
9. Sandra B. Lubarsky, “Reconstructing Divine Power”
10. Rebecca Alpert, “Location, Location, Location: Toward a Theology of Prepositions”
II. REVELATION AND COMMANDMENT
11. Marvin Fox, The Condition of Jewish Belief
12. Aharon Lichtenstein, The Condition of Jewish Belief
13. Will Herberg, Judaism and Modern Man
14. Jakob J. Petuchowski, “Revelation and the Modern Jew”
15. Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Halakhic Man
16. Benjamin H. Sommer, Revelation and Authority
17. Tamar Ross, Expanding the Palace of Torah
18. Eugene B. Borowitz, Renewing the Covenant
19. Susan Handelman, “ ‘Crossing and Recrossing the Void’ ”
20. David Novak, “Is the Covenant a Bilateral Relationship?”
21. Rachel Adler, Engendering Judaism
22. Mara H. Benjamin, The Obligated Self
III. SPIRITUALITY
23. Arnold Jacob Wolf, “Against Spirituality”
24. Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Halakhic Man
25. Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath
26. Arthur Green, Jewish Spirituality / Seek My Face, Speak My Name
27. Daniel C. Matt, God and the Big Bang
28. Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Paradigm Shift
29. Marcia Prager, The Path of Blessing
30. Nancy Flam, “Healing the Spirit”
31. Arthur Waskow, Down-to-Earth Judaism
32. Sheila Weinberg, “Images of God: Closeness and Power”
IV. HERMENEUTICS AND POLITICS
33. Michael Fishbane, Sacred Attunement
34. Steven Kepnes, The Future of Jewish Theology
35. Jose Faur, Golden Doves With Silver Dots
36. David Hartman, A Heart of Many Rooms
37. Leo Strauss, “Jerusalem and Athens”
38. Hannah Arendt, “The Jew as Pariah”
39. Michael Walzer, Exodus and Revolution
40. Mitchell Cohen, “In Defense of Shaatnez”
41. Jill Jacobs, There Shall Be No Needy
42. Meir Kahane, “Down With Chanukah!”
V. HOLOCAUST AND ISRAEL
43. Jacob Neusner, Stranger At Home
44. Joel Teitelbaum, Vayoel Moshe
45. Emil L. Fackenheim, The Jewish Return Into History and Other Writings
46. Eliezer Berkovits, Faith After the Holocaust
47. David R. Blumenthal, Facing the Abusing God
48. Irving Greenberg, “The Ethics of Jewish Power Today”
49. Marc H. Ellis, Toward a Jewish Theology of Liberation
50. Judith Butler, Parting Ways: Jewishness and the Critique of Zionism
51. Ruth R. Wisse, Jews and Power
52. Daniel Gordis, We Stand Divided
53. Daniel Boyarin & Jonathan Boyarin, “Diaspora”
54. Peter Beinart, The Crisis of Zionism
55. The Editors of Commentary, “The Existential Necessity of Zionism After Paris”
VI. FEMINISM, GENDER, AND SEXUALITY
56. Susannah Heschel, On Being a Jewish Feminist
57. Cynthia Ozick, “Notes Toward Finding the Right Question”
58. Judith Plaskow, “The Right Question is Theological”
59. Blu Greenberg, On Women and Judaism
60. Rachel Adler, “I’ve Had Nothing Yet So I Can’t Take More”
61. Julia Watts Belser, “Making Room for the Divine She”/ “Privilege and Disaster”
62. Steve Greenberg, Wrestling With God and Men
63. Jay Michaelson, "Toward a Queer Jewish Theology"
64. Benay Lappe, “The New Rabbis”
65. Jane Rachel Litman, “Born To Be Wild”
66. Joy Ladin, The Soul of the Stranger
VII. PEOPLEHOOD
67. Mordecai M. Kaplan, The Future of the American Jew
68. Simon Rawidowicz, “The Ever-Dying People”
69. George Steiner, “Our Homeland, The Text”
70. Arthur A. Cohen, "Why I Choose to Be a Jew"
71. Michael Wyschogrod, The Body of Faith
72. Judith Plaskow, Standing Again at Sinai
73. Shaul Magid, American Post-Judaism
74. Steven M. Cohen & Jack Wertheimer, “What Is So Great About Post-Ethnic Judaism” / “Whatever Happened to the Jewish People”
75. Arthur Hertzberg, from Rebuilding Jewish Peoplehood
76. Paula Hyman, from Rebuilding Jewish Peoplehood
77. Dianne Cohler-Esses, “A Common Language Between East and West”
78. Lewis Gordon, In Every Tongue
79. Noam Pianko, Jewish Peoplehood: An American Innovation
FURTHER READING
INDEX