
Finalist for the American Jewish Studies cateogry of the 2016 National Jewish Book AwardsEarly in the 1800s, American Jews consciously excluded rabbinic forces from playing a role in their community's development. By the final decades of the century, ordained rabbis were in full control of America's leading synagogues and large sectors of American Jewish life. How did this shift occur? Who Rules the Synagogue? explores how American Jewry in the nineteenth century was transformed from a lay dominated community to one whose leading religious authorities were rabbis. Zev Eleff traces the history of this revolution, culminating in the Pittsburgh rabbinical conference of 1885 and the commotion caused by it. Previous scholarship has chartered the religious history of American Judaism during this era, but Eleff reinterprets this history through the lens of religious authority. In so doing, he offers a fresh view of the story of American Judaism with the aid of never-before-mined sources and a comprehensive review of periodicals and newspapers.Eleff weaves together the significant episodes and debates that shaped American Judaism during this formative period, and places this story into the larger context of American religious history and modern Jewish history.
This work investigates the historical transition of American Judaism from a lay-led community in the early 19th century to a rabbinically-centered structure by the end of the century. Zev Eleff, a scholar of American Jewish history, utilizes archival research and period-specific periodicals to analyze the power dynamics within early American synagogues. He argues that this shift in authority was not inevitable but the result of specific debates and institutional changes that redefined the role of the rabbi in the American context.
What You Will Find
Scope Limits
Experts recognize this work as a significant contribution to the study of American Jewish institutional history, noting its use of previously unexamined primary sources. Readers frequently highlight the clarity of the author's argument regarding the professionalization of the rabbinate.
Page Count:
344
Publication Date:
2016-01-01
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0190624671
ISBN-13:
9780190624675
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