In Pursuit of Godliness and a Living Judaism: The Life and Thought of Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis
“This is a loving, sophisticated, illuminating, outstanding depiction of a brilliant intellectual/spiritual/moral leader who deserves just such a treatment. This book will serve as testimony and inspiration for the new generation… a tour de force articulation of a truly great life.” – Rabbi Irving (Yitz) Greenberg
A comprehensive biography about the life and work of Rabbi Harold Shulweis who was essential in the renewal of Jewish life in post-war America.
Harold Schulweis was a dominant figure in the renewal of Jewish life in the post-war generation of American Jewry. Widely regarded as the most successful and influential pulpit rabbi of his generation, he shaped an extraordinary career as pulpit rabbi, theologian, public intellectual, and communal leader. His innovations in synagogue practice reshaped congregations across the continent introducing synagogue-based havurot, “para-rabbinics” and para-professional counseling programs, outreach to alienated Jews and “unchurched” Christians, opening the traditional synagogue to gay and lesbian Jews and their families, and welcoming families of children with special needs. With Leonard Fein, Schulweis founded Mazon, the Jewish communal response to hunger. He launched The Foundation for the Righteous – recognizing Christians who rescued Jews during the Holocaust – an effort chronicled on the CBS news program “60 Minutes.” In the closing years of his career, he initiated the Jewish World Watch – a communal response to the incidence of genocide worldwide.
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Book details
- Author
- Edward M. Feinstein
- Imprint
- Jewish Lights, an imprint of Turner Publishing Company
- Published
- Pages
- 288
- Formats
- Paperback, Hardcover
- Subjects
- Biography & Autobiography › Jewish
Biography & Autobiography › Religious
Religion › Judaism - Topics
- Jewish biography · American Judaism · pulpit rabbi · Jewish renewal · postwar America · religious leadership · Jewish thought
- ISBN-13
- 9781684424344 (Paperback)9781684424351 (Hardcover)
About the author
EDWARD M. FEINSTEIN is senior rabbi of Valley Beth Shalom in Encino, California, and the author of Tough Questions Jews Ask: A Young Adult’s Guide to Building a Jewish Life, Capturing the Moon, and the edited volume Jews and Judaism in the 21st Century: Human Responsibilities, the Presence of God, and the Future of the Covenant.
Feinstein teaches at the Ziegler Rabbinical School of American Jewish University and the Wexner Heritage Program. He contributed to May God Remember: Memory and Memorializing in Judaism—Yizkor, Who by Fire, Who by Water—Un'taneh Tokef, and We Have Sinned: Sin and Confession in Judaism—Ashamnu and Al Chet.
Edward lives in Encino, California.