The chosen people in America : a study in Jewish religious ideology
What does it mean to be a Jew in America? What opportunities and what threats does the great melting pot represent for a group that has traditionally defined itself as 'a people that must dwell alone'? Although for centuries the notion of 'The Chosen People' sustained Jewish identity, America, by offering Jewish immigrants an unprecedented degree of participation in the larger society, threatened to erode their Jewish identity and sense of separateness. Arnold M. Eisen charts the attempts of American Jewish thinkers to adapt the notion of chosenness to an American context. Through an examination of sermons, essays, debates, prayer-book revisions, and theological literature, Eisen traces the ways in which American rabbis and theologians--Reconstructionist, Conservative, and Orthodox thinkers--effected a compromise between exclusivity and participation that allowed Jews to adapt to American life while simultaneously enhancing Jewish tradition and identity
History
1 online resource (x, 237 p.).
9780253114129, 9780585102658, 0253114128, 0585102651
648612938
Print version:
Cover
THE CHOSEN PEOPLE IN AMERICA
Title
Copyright
Dedication
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
PART ONE: Introduction
I.A Part and Apart
PART TWO: The ""Second Generation"" (1930-1955)
II. ""Nation, People, Religion-What Are We?
III. Reform Judaism and the ""Mission unto the Nations
IV. Mordecai Kaplan and the New Jewish ""Vocation
V. Conservatism, Orthodoxy, and the Affirmation of Election
PART THREE: The ""Third Generation"" (1955-1980)
VI. Ambassadors at Home
VII. Children of the Halfway Covenant
PART FOUR: Conclusion VIII. The Lessons of Chosenness in America
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Includes index
Electronic reproduction, [Place of publication not identified], HathiTrust Digital Library, 2010
In English