American Jewish Thought Since 1934

Writings on Identity, Engagement, and Belief

Edited by Michael Marmur and David Ellenson

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.

Paper: $26 | Cloth: $90 | E-book: $24.99
ISBN-13: 9781684580149
Pages: 352 | Size: 6 in. x 9 in.
Date Published: May 22, 2020
Screenshot-2023-10-11-at-16.51.58

Preeminent scholars Ellenson and Marmur have both defined and expanded the canon with diverse voices exploring the biggest ideas in American Jewish thought. An essential addition to every Jewish library.

Rabbi Angela W. Buchdahl

Central Synagogue

Reviews

  • An exciting kaleidoscopic book about the Jewish experience in America—beginning with the optimism, rationalism, and naturalism of Reconstructionism, and ending today with the conflicted debates about Israel, the Holocaust, gender, and the possibility of creating a vital American Jewish identity for tomorrow.

    Warren Zev Harvey
    The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
  • Marvelous for teaching, for learning. A wealth of modern Jewish thought to enrich the reader and evoke new reflections and directions.

    Rabbi David Wolpe
    Sinai Temple
  • Preeminent scholars Ellenson and Marmur have both defined and expanded the canon with diverse voices exploring the biggest ideas in American Jewish thought. An essential addition to every Jewish library.

    Rabbi Angela W. Buchdahl
    Central Synagogue
  • This display of erudition and all-round excellent portrayal of Jewish thought will provide much material for further examination and reflection for Jewish communities and by non-Jewish groups for a better understanding of American Judaism... Well recommended for a full appreciation of modern Jewish thought.

    Sanford R. Silverburg
    Catawba College
  • Many selections from the 1950s to the 1970s will bring back memories to readers whose educations were shaped through interactions with these works and authors. Such scholars will be pleased to offer this collection to younger readers as a useful introduction to gems from texts that "everyone should know"... This is a solid resource for today's readers.

    Choice
  • One of the great virtues of Ellenson and Marmur’s anthology is it ranges far beyond such canonical thinkers... Among the recent and less familiar thinkers are those who try to expand the range of voices in which the tradition speaks. Here one finds feminist and queer thinkers and, more generally, those who offer alternative metaphors for viewing God consonant with modernity’s expansive and increasingly nonhierarchical outlook... Marmur and Ellenson’s excellent volume does not provide definitive answers for 21st-century American Judaism, but here are some of the voices we need to help fill those silences, some of the fragments out of which a new Judaism may be built.

    Jewish Review of Books
  • Marmur and Ellenson see a canon of American Jewish thought as already too entrenched and, like the canon of European Jewish thought, magnifying the influence of a small number of people. The editors thus bring in more of the intellectual progeny of thinkers who continue to cast a long shadow (in particular Heschel, Kaplan, and Soloveitchik) and many others debating the existential
    questions of American Jewish existence. ...[they] contribute to the process of expanding the “open canon” to make room for texts more reflective of the diversity of contemporary Jewish experience.

    American Jewish History
  • 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.

    Jewish Institute of Religion
    Hebrew Union College
  • This book would serve as an outstanding read for adult education classes or as an introductory text to American Jewish thought.

    Jewish Herald-Voice
  • This display of erudition and all-round excellent portrayal of Jewish thought will provide much material for further examination and reflection for Jewish communities and by non-Jewish groups for a better understanding of American Judaism... Well recommended for a full appreciation of modern Jewish thought.

    American Jewish Library Newsletter

About the Author

Michael Marmur

Michael Marmur is Associate Professor of Jewish Theology at HUC-JIR/Jerusalem. Until July 2018 he served as the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Provost at HUC-JIR, having previously been Dean of the Jerusalem campus. After some 20 years in administrative capacities, he now concentrates his energies on teaching and writing.

Born and raised in England, Rabbi Marmur completed a B.A. Degree in Modern History at the University of Oxford before moving to Israel in 1984. While studying for an M.A. in Ancient Jewish History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he completed his studies in the Israel Rabbinic Program of HUC-JIR in Jerusalem, and was ordained in 1992. For six years following his ordination, he worked as rabbi and teacher at the Leo Baeck Education Center in Haifa. He has been an employee of HUC-JIR since 1997.

Michael Marmur served for three years as Chair of the Board of Rabbis for Human Rights, and is still a member of its Board. He has lectured and taught courses in several countries around the world.

David Ellenson

Rabbi David Ellenson, Ph.D., z’’l, Chancellor Emeritus of HUC-JIR, served distinguished terms both as President (2001-2013) and returning to guide the institution as Interim President (May 10, 2018 – March 31, 2019) following the tragic death of Rabbi Aaron Panken, Ph.D., z’’l.

Internationally recognized for his publications and research in the areas of Jewish religious thought, ethics, and modern Jewish history, Rabbi Ellenson’s twelve years as President of the seminary of the Reform Movement (2001-2013) were distinguished by his devotion to sustaining HUC-JIR’s academic excellence.

Rabbi Ellenson stated, “Throughout our people’s history, no Jewish community has survived without a strong institution of higher Jewish learning at its core. It has been my privilege to help ensure the vitality of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion by sustaining our campuses, nurturing our world-class faculty, supporting our students, preserving the treasures of our libraries and American Jewish Archives, strengthening our role in Israel, and preparing the leadership for a contemporary Judaism that balances tradition with the demands of a changing world.”

“Rabbi David Ellenson has brought a rare combination of intelligence, inspirational leadership, and humility to his presidency of HUC-JIR,” stated Irwin Engelman, Chairman of HUC-JIR’s Board of Governors. “He has led the College-Institute with devotion, distinction, and achievement, and has advanced HUC-JIR to a position of financial stability while implementing a broad range of new initiatives and academic programs. Recognized as a giant in the Jewish world, he has strengthened the faculty, modeled exemplary leadership for our students, and expanded the image of the College-Institute. It has been a privilege to be his partner in securing HUC-JIR’s future as the preeminent institution of higher Jewish learning in North America.”

Rabbi Ellenson steered HUC-JIR through the challenges of the 2008 national economic collapse and implemented strategic planning initiatives to secure HUC-JIR’s four campuses in Cincinnati, Jerusalem, Los Angeles, and New York as viable and essential venues for recruitment, service to the Reform Movement’s congregations, and educational and cultural outreach to communities throughout these regions.

Rabbi Ellenson raised over $250 million and quadrupled HUC-JIR’s endowment to approximately $200 million. From a budget deficit of $10 million only five years previously, HUC-JIR’s budget was balanced since FY 2012 through a reduction of expenses and increases in revenue. At the same time, he effected greater integration among the campuses through the introduction of electronic classrooms, cross-campus courses, and accreditation of the three stateside campuses under one accrediting agency, Middle States.

He nurtured a new generation of deans and directors of academic programs to help implement his vision. He strengthened the faculty with the addition of leading emerging scholars, equalizing the number of men and women on the faculty, and supporting faculty research and publication, resulting in scores of new books and scholarly articles each year. New chairs were established, including the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Provost Chair; Barbara and Stephen Friedman Chair in Liturgy, Worship and Spirituality; Rabbi Michael Matuson Chair for an Emerging Scholar; Dr. Norman J. Cohen Chair; Rabbi David Ellenson Chair in Jewish Religious Thought; Sara S. Lee Chair; Rabbi Jerome K. Davidson Chair in Social Responsibility; Dr. Alfred Gottschalk – John and Marianne Slade Chair for an Emerging Scholar in Jewish Intellectual History; Dr. Paul M. and Trudy Steinberg Chair; and Emily and Rabbi Bernard H. Mehlman Chair in Rabbinics. Embracing innovation and change, he brought Debbie Friedman, z’’l, onto the cantorial faculty, and engaged faculty in the new eLearning Faculty Fellowship with Yeshiva University, the Jewish Theological Seminary, and Columbia University. He championed HUC-JIR’s scholarly publishing arms, supporting the HUC Annual, HUC Press, and publications by the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology.

Rabbi Ellenson invigorated HUC-JIR’s stateside programs through a myriad of initiatives. He transformed the professional leadership development of HUC-JIR’s students through the creation of the Tisch Fellows, Schusterman Fellows, Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music Fellows, Mandel Fellows, Jim Joseph Fellows, and Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati Serving Learning Fellows programs. He instituted social responsibility and community service to the Jewish and larger world as a core pillar of HUC-JIR students’ professional development through programs with the American Jewish World Service and other organizations. The spiritual development of HUC-JIR’s students was nurtured through the support of the Joyce and Irving Goldman Foundation and through new partnerships with the Institute for Jewish Spirituality and the Society for Classical Reform Judaism. Pastoral care studies were enhanced through the Blaustein Center for Pastoral Counseling in New York, Kalsman Institute on Judaism and Health in Los Angeles, and the nation’s first Jewish seminary to offer Clinical Pastoral Education in Cincinnati.

He introduced new distance learning degree and certificate programs, with the support of the Jim Joseph Foundation, to reach learners throughout North America, including the Executive M.A. in Jewish Education, the Certificate in Jewish Education for Adolescents and Emerging Adults, and the Jewish Early Childhood Education Leadership Institute (with JTS); and worked with the American Conference of Cantors to inaugurate the Cantorial Certification Program. He initiated the Leadership Institute for Congregational School Educators with UJA-Federation of NY and JTS.

Under his leadership, the campuses and their research resources and facilities were greatly strengthened. In Cincinnati, he spearheaded the renovation of the renowned Klau Library and dedication of its Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati Pavilion; the construction of the Malloy Education Building and its Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati Electronic Classroom at the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives; and creation of the Pines Faculty Center and Teller Lounge. The Los Angeles campus was renamed in memory of Jack H. Skirball, z’’l. The Jerusalem campus was comprehensively renovated, and the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music was dedicated in New York.

As a staunch advocate of Israel engagement for HUC-JIR’s students in shaping their future roles as leaders of the North American Jewish community, Rabbi Ellenson strengthened the Jerusalem campus’s programs and outreach to the larger Israeli community. His tenure saw the exponential growth of the Israel Rabbinical Program, which prepares leaders for Israel’s Progressive Movement’s synagogues and communities. Furthermore, he initiated the development of a new M.A. Program in Pluralistic Jewish Education (with the Hebrew University’s Melton Centre), and the creation of the Blaustein Center for Pastoral Counseling and its pioneering programs introducing chaplaincy and bibliotherapy to Israeli society. He expanded the Year-In-Israel program for HUC-JIR’s rabbinical, cantorial, and education students with the creation of the Richard J. Scheuer Seminar and Mandel Initiative for Visionary Leadership, and implemented Israel Seminars for HUC-JIR’s graduate students and Executive M.A. in Jewish Education students, alongside the successful Israel Seminar for students in the School of Jewish Nonprofit Management.

Rabbi Ellenson transformed the governance of HUC-JIR, with the election of Barbara Friedman as the first woman Chair in the history of the institution, and the induction of a large number of distinguished women communal and civic leaders as members of the Board of Governors and regional Boards of Advisors.

Widely respected for his scholarship, integrity, and menschlichkeit, Rabbi Ellenson’s collaborative leadership has reflected his commitment to advancing Jewish unity. He has forged closer ties between HUC-JIR and the Union for Reform Judaism, the Central Conference, and the other arms of the Reform Movement. At the same time, he has fostered interdenominational and interfaith relations, strengthening relationships among the Jewish seminaries, secular universities, and institutions of other faiths through academic and programmatic partnerships and collegiality, including the University of Southern California (USC) and Xavier University.

He has written prolifically about emerging trends in American Jewish life, advocated for Jewish day schools, and spoken out on controversies in North American society, including LGBTQIA+ rights, marriage equality, stem cell research, and abortion ban laws. Furthermore, he has been a champion of the State of Israel’s right to security and peace in the face of Iran’s threats and the challenges of the Israel-Palestinian peace process. He has been an outspoken advocate for religious tolerance and pluralism in the Jewish State, on issues relating to who is a Jew, conversion laws, rabbinical bans on renting to Arabs, women’s rights, and annulment of conversions. Through all of these efforts, he has demonstrated a passionate commitment to the people and State of Israel and the central role that Israel plays in the Reform Movement.

Rabbi Ellenson received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1981 and was ordained by HUC-JIR in 1977. He also holds an M.Phil. degree from Columbia University as well as an M.A. degree from HUC-JIR and the University of Virginia. He received his B.A. degree from the College of William and Mary in Virginia in 1969. A member of HUC-JIR’s faculty since 1979, he also held the post of Director of the Jerome H. Louchheim School of Judaic Studies at HUC-JIR’s Jack H. Skirball Campus in Los Angeles, which provides the undergraduate Judaic Studies program for USC.

Rabbi Ellenson’s extensive publications include Tradition in Transition: Orthodoxy, Halakhah and the Boundaries of Modern Jewish History (1989), Rabbi Esriel Hildesheimer and the Creation of a Modern Jewish Orthodoxy (1990) (nominated for the National Jewish Book Council’s award for outstanding book in Jewish History, 1990), Between Tradition and Culture: The Dialectics of Jewish Religion and Identity in the Modern World (1994), and After Emancipation: Jewish Religious Responses to Modernity, which won the National Jewish Book Council’s Award as the outstanding book in Jewish Thought in 2005. Pledges of Jewish Allegiance: Conversion, Law, and Policymaking in 19th- and 20th-Century Orthodox Responsa, co-authored with Daniel Gordis (2012), was named a Finalist for the National Jewish Book Council’s Award in Scholarship in 2012. Jewish Meaning in a World of Choice was published in the Jewish Publication Society-University of Nebraska Scholar of Distinction Series in 2014.

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