American Jewish Thought Since 1934: Writings on Identity, Engagement, and Belief

The Brandeis Library of Modern Jewish Thought

by Michael Marmur (Editor), David Ellenson (Editor)

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.

Genres: Religion, Jewish

459 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 15, 2020

Reviews

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a fantastic aid for my class this semester in Jewish Thought and Theology. The editors certainly did a great job in providing adequate information on each section - giving the reader some context (which was super beneficial for a student like myself). They also did a fantastic job in providing short blurbs just before each individual author they brought into the fold. I love how they provided quick but supplemental works from each of the authors they selected. My only complaint is that sometimes it felt like the authors chosen either felt somewhat disconnected from the topic, or that the selection by those authors did not always feel the most adequate for stating the position trying to be presented. But, 9 times out of 10 they hit the nail on the head, as was with Mordecai Kaplan, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Peter Beinart, and many more.

[Mich · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 79 brief extracts from their writings from 1934 to the present, we have a kaleidoscope of American Jewish thought. Sections are broken up into God, Revelation and Commandment, Spirituality, Hermeneutics and Politics, The Holocaust and Israel, Feminism/Gender/Sexuality and Peoplehood. Authors included here range from Mordechai Kaplan, Heschel, Soloveitchik, Eugene Borowitz, Benjami Sommer, among many others. Especially prominent are the feminists including Rebecca Alpert, Tamar Ross, Ozick, Rachel Adler, Judith Plaskow, and Blu Greenberg. Views on these issues range all over the place. Each author is represented in no more than 2-3 pages and the editors do a great job in their introduction to each section. It is difficult to tell how much each author's views have held sway, but this is a valuable guide to influences in American Jewish thought. It is curious that non- American authors are excluded or at least have some commentary on how they have also influenced American Jewish thought.