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The Birth of Conservative Judaism: Solomon Schechter´s Disciples and the Creation of an American Religious Movement
Michael Cohen
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Description for The Birth of Conservative Judaism: Solomon Schechter´s Disciples and the Creation of an American Religious Movement
Hardback. Num Pages: 232 pages, 10 illus. BIC Classification: 1KBB; 3JJC; HRJ. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational. Dimension: 237 x 164 x 19. Weight in Grams: 438.
Solomon Schechter (1847-1915), the charismatic leader of New York's Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), came to America in 1902 intent on revitalizing traditional Judaism. While he advocated a return to traditional practices, Schechter articulated no clear position on divisive issues, instead preferring to focus on similarities that could unite American Jewry under a broad message. Michael R. Cohen demonstrates how Schechter, unable to implement his vision on his own, turned to his disciples, rabbinical students and alumni of JTS, to shape his movement. By midcentury, Conservative Judaism had become the largest American Jewish grouping in the United States, guided by Schechter's disciples and their continuing efforts to embrace diversity while eschewing divisive debates. Yet Conservative Judaism's fluid boundaries also proved problematic for the movement, frustrating many rabbis who wanted a single platform to define their beliefs. Cohen demonstrates how a legacy of tension between diversity and boundaries now lies at the heart of Conservative Judaism's modern struggle for relevance. His analysis explicates four key claims: that Conservative Judaism's clergy, not its laity or Seminary, created and shaped the movement; that diversity was-and still is-a crucial component of the success and failure of new American religions; that the Conservative movement's contemporary struggle for self-definition is tied to its origins; and that the porous boundaries between Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Judaism reflect the complexity of the American Jewish landscape-a fact that Schechter and his disciples keenly understood. Rectifying misconceptions in previous accounts of Conservative Judaism's emergence, Cohen's study enables a fresh encounter with a unique religious phenomenon.
Product Details
Format
Hardback
Publication date
2012
Publisher
Columbia University Press United States
Number of pages
232
Condition
New
Number of Pages
232
Place of Publication
New York, United States
ISBN
9780231156356
SKU
V9780231156356
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 15 to 20 working days
Ref
99-15
About Michael Cohen
Michael R. Cohen is director of Jewish Studies at Tulane University in New Orleans. He received his Ph.D. in Near Eastern and Judaic studies from Brandeis University and his A.B. with honors from Brown University. A recipient of the American Jewish Historical Society's Ruth B. Fein Prize and a Bernard and Audre Rapoport Fellowship at the American Jewish Archives, he is also a Monroe Fellow at the New Orleans Gulf South Center at Tulane University.
Reviews for The Birth of Conservative Judaism: Solomon Schechter´s Disciples and the Creation of an American Religious Movement
This path-breaking and provocative volume challenges Conservative Judaism's founding myth and rewrites its subsequent history. The most important study of early Conservative Judaism in more than half-a-century, it should be required reading for all students of American Judaism and for anyone who cares about the Conservative movement's past, present, and future.
Jonathan D. Sarna, Brandeis University, author of American Judaism: A History An insightful work of social history grounded in diligent archival research. Michael R. Cohen explores the mission, trials, achievements, and frustrations of the rabbis who gave birth to the Conservative Movement in American Judaism. He exposes the challenges a Jewish religious group faced in molding a faith community, respectful of tradition yet attuned to the demands of modern society.
Jeffrey S. Gurock, Yeshiva University Conservative Judaism has found its historian for the twenty-first century. In The Birth of Conservative Judaism, Michael R. Cohen has written a boldly argued, lucid history of the origins of what he rightly calls a new American religious movement. Repudiating earlier historians who retrojected Conservatism's origins to nineteenth-century Europe or to acculturating immigrants, Cohen turns our gaze to where it should have been all along-to the charismatic teacher Solomon Schechter and the generation of rabbis he trained to perpetuate his vision and forge a new path into the future of American Judaism.
Pamela S. Nadell, American University A fascinating new history
Lawrence Grossman Jewish Ideas Daily ...should quickly become the standard work on the emergence of the movement.
Matthew Lagrone H-Judaic In this first book, Cohen distinguishes himself as an innovative and significant young scholar of American Judaism.
Jonathan B. Krasner American Historical Review Cohen's arguments are complex, subtle, and based on a careful reading of the sources. Religious Studies Review
Jonathan D. Sarna, Brandeis University, author of American Judaism: A History An insightful work of social history grounded in diligent archival research. Michael R. Cohen explores the mission, trials, achievements, and frustrations of the rabbis who gave birth to the Conservative Movement in American Judaism. He exposes the challenges a Jewish religious group faced in molding a faith community, respectful of tradition yet attuned to the demands of modern society.
Jeffrey S. Gurock, Yeshiva University Conservative Judaism has found its historian for the twenty-first century. In The Birth of Conservative Judaism, Michael R. Cohen has written a boldly argued, lucid history of the origins of what he rightly calls a new American religious movement. Repudiating earlier historians who retrojected Conservatism's origins to nineteenth-century Europe or to acculturating immigrants, Cohen turns our gaze to where it should have been all along-to the charismatic teacher Solomon Schechter and the generation of rabbis he trained to perpetuate his vision and forge a new path into the future of American Judaism.
Pamela S. Nadell, American University A fascinating new history
Lawrence Grossman Jewish Ideas Daily ...should quickly become the standard work on the emergence of the movement.
Matthew Lagrone H-Judaic In this first book, Cohen distinguishes himself as an innovative and significant young scholar of American Judaism.
Jonathan B. Krasner American Historical Review Cohen's arguments are complex, subtle, and based on a careful reading of the sources. Religious Studies Review