A critical and challenging look at reinventing the synagogue, as the
centerpiece of a refashioned Jewish community.
"America is undergoing a spiritual revolution: only the fourth religious
awakening in its history. I plead, therefore, for an equally spiritual
synagogue, knowing that any North American Jewish community that hopes
to be around in a hundred years must have religion at its center, with
the synagogue, the religious institution that best fits North American
culture, at its very core."
--from Chapter 1
Synagogues are under attack, and for good reasons. But they remain the
religious backbone of Jewish continuity, especially in America, the sole
Western industrial or post-industrial nation where religion and
spirituality continue to grow in importance. To fulfill their mandate
for the American future, synagogues need to replace old and tired
conversation with a new way of talking about their goals, their
challenges and their vision for the future.
In this provocative clarion call for synagogue transformation, Rabbi
Lawrence A. Hoffman summarizes a decade of research with Synagogue
2/3000--a pioneering experiment that reconceptualized synagogue
life--providing fresh ways for synagogues to think as they undertake the
exciting task of global change.
