Alternatives to assimilation : the response of Reform Judaism to American culture, 1840-1930
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Alternatives to assimilation : the response of Reform Judaism to American culture, 1840-1930
（The Brandeis series in American Jewish history, culture, and life）
Published for Brandeis University Press by University Press of New England, c1994
- : [pbk.]
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [247]-263) and index
Description and Table of Contents
- Volume
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ISBN 9780874516944
Description
Explores the influence of American culture and history on the development of Reform Jewish institutions. Brandeis Series in American Jewish History, Culture, and Life.
- Volume
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: [pbk.] ISBN 9780874517262
Description
Historians have long debated whether the mid-nineteenth century American synagogue was transplanted from Central Europe or represented an indigenous phenomenon. Alternatives to Assimilation examines the Reform movement in American Judaism from 1840 to 1930 in an attempt to settle this issue. Alan Silverstein describes the emergence of organizational innovations such as youth groups, sisterhoods, brotherhoods, a professionalized rabbinate, a rabbinical college, and a national congregational body as evidence of Jews responding uniquely to American culture, in a fashion parallel to innovations in American Protestant churches. Silverstein places the developments he traces within the context of American religious and cultural history. He notes the shifting roles of American women, children, and ethnic groups as well as America's changing receptivity to trans-Atlantic cultural influences. He also utilizes census records, as well as congregational and national archives, in synthesizing a view of the Reform movement from its local temples and nationwide organizations. By offering a viable response to American culture's rampant secularization and to its pressure on Jews to relinquish their distinctive traditions and commitments, the Reform movement also inspired emerging Conservative and Orthodox Jewish movements to offer their own constituents tangible institutional alternatives to assimilation.
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