Communities of Meaning: Conversations on Modern Jewish Life Inspired by Rabbi Larry Hoffman: Conversations on Modern Jewish Life Inspired by Rabbi Larry Hoffman [Hardcover] Skloot, Joseph A. and Grus

"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 Jewishworship 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, DeborahWaxman, 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 Israel programme at HUC Jerusalem.

Rabbi Hilly Haber is the director of social justice organizing and education at Central Synagogue in New York City.

Dr. Joel M. Hoffman is a teacher, translator, and author in New York.

Rabbi Delphine Horveilleur is France’s third female rabbi, and leads a progressive congregation in Paris

Rabbi Daniel A. Judson is the Dean of Hebrew College in Newton, MA.

Rabbi Elliot Kukla is an author, visual artist, and activist currently living in Oakland, California.

Rabbi Noa Rachael Kushner founded The Kitchen, a hands-on international resource that serves thousands of modern families in San Francisco and around the world.

Rabbi Emily Langowitz is the Jewish engagement manager at the URJ and lives in Phoenix.

Prof. Gordon W. Lathrop is the Schieren Professor of Liturgy Emeritus at the United Lutheran Seminary (USA) and a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Liz A. Lerman is a choreographer, writer, educator, and recipient of MacArthur “Genius Grant” and a Guggenheim Fellowship, and is currently a professor at Arizona State University.

Rabbi Dalia Marx is professor at HUC in Jerusalem and teaches in various academic institutions in Israel and Europe. She is the tenth generation of her family in Jerusalem.

Rabbi Daniel Medwin is the co-director of innovation and growth at URG 6 Points Sci-Tech Academy. He lives in Georgia.

Rabbi Shira I. Milgrom is the rabbi of Congregation Kol Ami in White Plains, New York.

Rabbi Sonja K. Pilz is the spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Shalom in Bozeman, Montana.

Prof. Andrew Rehfeld is the president of Hebrew Union College in New York.

Rabbi Daniel Reiser is the rabbi of Temple Beth Shalom in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.

Rabbi Nicole Kauffman Roberts is Senior Rabbi of North Shore Temple Emanuel in Sydney, Australia.

Prof. Jonathan D. Sarna teaches American Jewish History at Brandeis University and is also Chief Historian of the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History.

Yolanda Savage-Narva is the assistant vice president of Racial Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion for the URJ.

Rabbi Yael Splansky is the rabbi at Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto.

Rabbi Rachel Steiner is the senior rabbi at Barnert Temple in New Jersey.

Rabbi David E. Stern is Senior Rabbi of Temple Emanu-El, Dallas, Texas.

Rabbi Gordon Tucker is Vice Chancellor for Religious Life and Engagement at The Jewish Theological Seminary and a Senior Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America.

Dr. Richard S. Vosko is an award-winning liturgical design consultant for Christian and Jewish congregations throughout North America.

Professor Janet R. Walton is a musician, author, teacher, ritual leader, and professor emerita of worship and the arts at Union Theological Seminary in New York City.

Rabbi Deborah Waxman is president and CEO of Reconstructing Judaism.

Rabbi Margaret Moers Wenig teaches at HUC in New York City and is the first Jewish President of the Academy of Homiletics.

Rabbi Daniel Zemel is the senior rabbi at Temple Micah in Washington, D.C.

“Of course, Judaism unquestionably teaches that we cannotsurrender what Hoffman refers to as “the saving grace of hope.” Even events asmomentous as the Holocaust and the creation of the State of Israel are, asHoffman observes, little more than blips in time. Yet, to cite another statementthat Franz Rosenzweig once addressed to his mentor the philosopher HermannCohen, “Zeit ists—it is time,” our time and our century, and we cannot soeasily ignore the momentous events that have shaped it. And while I try to holdon to the hope that, as Martin Luther King Jr. said, "the arc of the moraluniverse is long, but it bends toward justice,” my own reading of this momentand the events of our day sadly cause me, more often than I care to admit,despair. I cannot assert with perfect faith a confidence that the “tiny bridge”of history Hoffman describes will lead to a future replete with “meaning.”There is too much evil and imperfection in the world.

I am not happy as I write these last words, and I thankHoffman for provoking me to think about the deepest sense of reality—faith—thatinforms the innermost recesses of my being. I have no doubt that I aspire to hisfaith. I also know that the state of cautious pessimism that characterizes myown fear that the arc of history will not necessarily bend toward justice or repairdoes not hinder my own efforts to make it otherwise. After all, even if goodnessas a motivating source has proved insufficient to ensure the future, humanbeings are not automatons. Human beings possess the ability to choose, and wecan elect not to act in ways that will bring catastrophe upon our nation, ourpeople, and our planet. It may well be that fear of the horror of what couldbe, not hope of what might be realized, will move humanity to act so that theevil that all to often dominates our world will yet be avoided. This hermeneuticof fear is surely not the last word about our faith. However, it may yet proveto be an appropriate first word out of which “the saving grace of hope” may beaffirmed.”   --Faith and Hope in Time of Challenge, Rabbi David Ellenson