The year is 1992. A very respected Rabbi is found murdered in his synagogue located in a wealthy suburb on Long Island. Deborah Katzman is the first woman to become president of the synagogue. She is a child survivor of the Holocaust and a successful bankruptcy attorney. The synagogue's lay leaders had hoped that a woman with her background would be able to reduce the growing friction within their walls. The Rabbi had been growing more and more traditional at the same time as his congregants were becoming more liberal. Younger women were clamoring for equal participation in religious services; older congregants were opposed to the Rabbi's newly heightened religious practices. Emotions were exploding . . . but is all of this enough to cause someone to murder a man of God? The Temple leaders, each an interesting character in their own right, are trying to achieve some modicum of harmony within this once peaceful house of worship. The search for the killer is the plot that is carried forward until the murderer is uncovered in a surprise ending.

The year is 1992. A very respected Rabbi is found murdered in his synagogue located in a wealthy suburb on Long Island. Deborah Katzman is the first woman to become president of the synagogue. She is a child survivor of the Holocaust and a successful bankruptcy attorney. The synagogue’s lay leaders had hoped that a woman with her background would be able to reduce the growing friction within their walls. The Rabbi had been growing more and more traditional at the same time as his congregants were becoming more liberal. Younger women were clamoring for equal participation in religious services; older congregants were opposed to the Rabbi’s newly heightened religious practices. Emotions were exploding . . . but is all of this enough to cause someone to murder a man of God? The Temple leaders, each an interesting character in their own right, are trying to achieve some modicum of harmony within this once peaceful house of worship. The search for the killer is the plot that is carried forward until the murderer is uncovered in a surprise ending.

Two Jews, Three Opinions examines a unique educational movement that began in 1980 when eight school leaders met to create RAVSAK: the Jewish Community Day School Network, an association of schools distinguished by being inclusive of all Jews in their communities. This singularly-purposed segment of the Jewish educational mosaic has not been studied before. As American Jews struggle with changing demographics and identities, it is instructive to see how community day schools and their network anticipated and accommodated many of this century's most significant Jewish educational challenges. Two Jews, Three Opinions illuminates the community day school network's embrace of Klal Yisrael, the unity of the Jewish people. It describes what led to RAVSAK's success and then to its elimination as an entity, the exceptionality and importance of which was vastly undervalued and underserved by the American Jewish establishment. Arguing for the vital importance of pluralistic Jewish education in the twenty-first century, it issues a call to Jewish communal leaders to champion community day schools as guarantors of a knowledgeable and committed Jewish future.

Women have been rabbis for over forty years. No longer are women rabbis a unique phenomenon, rather they are part of the fabric of Jewish life. In this anthology, rabbis and scholars from across the Jewish world reflect back on the historic significance of women in the rabbinate and explore issues related to both the professional and personal lives of women rabbis. This collection examines the ways in which the reality of women in the rabbinate has impacted on all aspects of Jewish life, including congregational culture, liturgical development, life cycle ritual, the Jewish healing movement, spirituality, theology, and more. Published by CCAR Press, a division of the Central Conference of American Rabbis

Through words and more than 300 exquisite photographs, Synagogues Without Jews tells the engaging histories of over thirty Jewish communities across Europe that thrived before WWII. Beautiful full colour photographs and architectural drawings bring back the past splendor of these synagogues and once again we can see why they were the pride and joy of their congregations.

The Great Jewish Cities of Central and Eastern Europe: A Travel Guide and Resource Book to Prague, Warsaw, Cracow, and Budapest is the most comprehensive guidebook covering all aspects of Jewish history and contemporary life in Prague, Warsaw, Cracow, and Budapest. This remarkable book includes detailed histories of the Jews in these cities, walking tours of Jewish districts past and present, intensive descriptions of Jewish sites, fascinating accounts of local Jewish legend and lore, and practical information for Jewish travelers to the region.

Michael Weinstein gives readers a tour of 180 beautiful synagogues throughout the boroughs of New York City. This coffee-table book¿s 613 photos represent each of the mitzvot, or commandments, of Judaism in the Torah. Michael shares the dates that these stunning synagogues were founded as well as their names, including their English translations.

A major Conservative movement leader of our time, Elliot N. Dorff provides a personal, behind-the-scenes guide to the evolution of Conservative Jewish thought and practice over the last half century. His candid observations concerning the movement's ongoing tension between constancy and change shed light on the sometimes unified, sometimes diverse, and occasionally contentious reasoning behind the modern movement's most important laws, policies, and documents. Meanwhile, he has assembled, excerpted, and contextualized the most important historical and internal documents in modern Conservative movement history for the first time in one place, enabling readers to consider and compare them all in context. In "Part 1: God" Dorff explores various ways that Conservative Jews think about God and prayer. In "Part 2: Torah" he considers different approaches to Jewish study, law, and practice; changing women's roles; bioethical rulings on issues ranging from contraception to cloning; business ethics; ritual observances from online minyanim to sports on Shabbat; moral issues from capital punishment to protecting the poor; and nonmarital sex to same-sex marriage. In "Part 3: Israel" he examines Zionism, the People Israel, and rabbinic rulings in Israel.

Using the vision embedded in Israel's Declaration of Independence as a template, this anthology presents a unique and comprehensive dialogue between North American Jews and Israelis about the present and future of the State of Israel. With each essay published in both Hebrew and English, in one volume, Deepening the Dialogue is the first of its kind, outlining cultural barriers as well as the immediate need to come together in conversation around the vision of a democratic solution for our nation state.

The Routledge International Handbook of Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Descendants of Holocaust Survivors offers a comprehensive collection of cutting-edge studies from a wide range of fields dealing with new research about descendants of Holocaust survivors. Examining the aftermath of the Holocaust on the Second Generation and Third Generation, children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, it is the first volume to bring together research perspectives from history, psychology, sociology, communications, literature, film, theater, art, music, biology, and medicine. With contributions from international experts, key topics covered include survivor characteristics and experiences; the phenomenological experience of transmitted trauma legacies; the creation of Second Generation groups; the epigenetics of inherited trauma; the development of Second Generation writing; representation of Holocaust survivors in film; music and the transmission of memory; art, music, and the Holocaust; ancestral trauma and its effect on the ageing process of subsequent generations; 2G and 3G health issues and outcomes. Divided into two sections, the first deals with the humanities: history and testimony, literature, film and theater, art, and music. The second section, focusing on the social sciences and health-related sciences, contains chapters dealing with studies in the fields of psychology, sociology, anthropology, communication, gerontology, nursing, and medicine. This insightful handbook is a contemporary anthology for advanced students and scholars in the humanities, along with those in behavioral, social, and health-related sciences concerned with research about second- and third-generation Holocaust survivors.