Communities of Meaning: Conversations on Modern Jewish Life Inspired by Rabbi Larry Hoffman
Conversations on Modern Jewish Life Inspired by Rabbi Larry Hoffman
Joseph A Skloot editor Lisa J Grushcow editor
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Behrman House Inc.,U.S.
Published:2nd Jan '24
£17.99
Available to order, but very limited on stock - if we have issues obtaining a copy, we will let you know.
"Brisk yet meditative . . .Rabbis and others active in Jewish worship communities will be inspired." --Publishers Weekly
Few people have had a greater impact on modern Jewish worship and life than Rabbi Larry Hoffman.
"From Larry Hoffman, we learn how to pray with consequence." --Janet Walton, professor emerita of worship and the arts at Union Theological Seminary
In Communities of Meaning, thirty-four of today's community leaders and theologians engage Hoffman in dialogue about the big questions in American Jewish life, including:
- How, where, and why people pray.
- What Jewish life looks like today and what lies ahead.
- How Jews engage with people of other faiths,
- How faith can shape commitment and action.
This collection invites readers into the ageless conversation that is Judaism and challenges everyone to think creatively about the ideas and institutions that are shaping Jewish life in the twenty-first century.
Includes contributions from Jill Abramson, Tony Bayfield, Angela Buchdahl, Joshua Davidson, Arnold Eisen, David Ellenson, Daniel, Judson, Noa Kushner, Liz Lerman, Andrew Reyfeld, Jonathan Sarna, Gordon Tucker, Deborah Waxman, Danny Zemel, and many others.
“Hoffman is a rabbi of rabbis. And a liturgist of liturgists . . . [He] invited us to courageous reinterpretation and transformation of our liturgy.” –Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, Central synagogue, New York City
Full List of Contributors:
Cantor Jill Abramson is the director of the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music at HUC.
Rabbi Carole Balin is a writer and teacher, and chair of the board of the Jewish Women’s Archive and professor emerita of history at Hebrew Union College.
Rabbi Tony Bayfield was the head of Reform Judaism in Britain and is also Professor Emeritus of Jewish Theology and Thought at Leo Baeck College.
Rabbi Joshua I. Beraha is an associate rabbi at Temple Micah in Washington, D.C.
Rabbi Angela Warnick Buchdahl serves as the senior rabbi of Central Synagogue in New York City.
Rabbi Joshua M. Davidson is the senior rabbi of Congregation Emanu-El in New York City.
Rabbi Arnold Eisen is Chancellor Emeritus and Professor of Jewish Thought at the Jewish Theological Seminary.
Rabbi David H. Ellenson is Chancellor Emeritus of Hebrew Union College.
Rabbi Jodie M. Gordon is a rabbi at Hevreh of Southern Berkshire, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
Cantor Sarah Grabiner is the assistant director of the Year in...
Rabbis Grushcow (Writing the Wayward Wife) and Skloot (First Impressions) pay tribute to liturgist and rabbi Larry Hoffman with this gathering of brief and insightful pieces on the nuances of Jewish worship, belief, survival, and ritual practice.
In the standout “Memory, Vulnerability, and Return,” Rabbi Angela Buchdahl recalls how Hoffman, a professor emeritus of liturgy at Hebrew Union College whose work focuses on improving the prayer experiences of secular Jews, helped to reorder the Yom Kippur liturgy structure at the Central Synagogue in New York to better build up to the service’s spiritual apex. Underscoring Hoffman’s insight, Buchdahl writes that the power of prayer is “not only in the content, but in the ebb and flow, the quiets and the crescendos.” Elsewhere, Rabbi Gordon Tucker unpacks Hoffman’s theory that today’s “apparent absence of faith” stems from “an inadequacy of language” to capture key religious tenets. The essential words creation, revelation, and redemption, for example, “no longer carry the same meanings for today’s Jews,” according Tucker, who calls for “new stories of faith” that require “new expression.”
Brisk yet meditative, these essays avoid slipping into hagiography as they celebrate and expand upon Hoffman’s adaptive and community-centered approach to prayer. Rabbis and others active in Jewish worship communities will be inspired. (Jan.) --Publishers Weekly
“From Rabbi Larry Hoffman, we learn how to pray with consequence . . . Our conversations within ourselves, with others, and with God lead us to know how to live.” –Janet Walton, professor emerita of worship and the arts at Union Theological Seminary
“Hoffman is a rabbi of rabbis. And a liturgist of liturgists . . . [He] invited us to courageous reinterpretation and transformation of our liturgy.” –Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, Central synagogue, New York City
“Few thinkers possess greater ability than Rabbi Larry Hoffman to make surprising connections that bring new light to oft-trodden territory.” –Rabbi Arnold Eisen, chancellor emeritus of the Jewish Theological Seminary
"I have long been indebted to Rabbi Larry Hoffman not only for the unparalleled genius he has always displayed in bringing together and synthesizing Jewish texts in intellectually provocative and spiritually moving ways." --Rabbi David Ellenson, chancellor emeritus of Hebrew union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
ISBN: 9781681150963
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
256 pages