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Shul with a Pool
David Kaufman
其他書名
The "synagogue-center" in American Jewish History
出版
University Press of New England
, 1999
主題
History / Jewish
Religion / Judaism / General
Religion / Judaism / Rituals & Practice
Religion / Judaism / History
Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural & Social
Social Science / Jewish Studies
ISBN
0874518768
9780874518764
URL
http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=I7TXAAAAMAAJ&hl=&source=gbs_api
註釋
Around the turn of the 20th century the idea of combining the Jewish house of worship with a center for community, educational, and social activities arose as a way of melding and meeting the needs of Jews in a changing social and religious environment. David Kaufman's fascinating examination shows how a quintessentially American institution -- the "synagogue-center" -- evolved into the primary locus of Jewish identification in this country. This study encompasses social, religious, architectural, and American Jewish history to clarify the synagogue-center's many roles: as service agency, communal gathering place, unifying symbol, and sectarian institution fostering Jewish culture and education. But Kaufman also shows that as a unique amalgam of the religious and the secular, these centers embody a basic duality of American Jewish identity, a fundamental tension between Jews who see themselves primarily as members of a religious faith, and those who define themselves in more sociopolitical terms, that is, as nationality, as ethnic group, as "a people." By presenting itself as an alternative to the traditional synagogue, the synagogue-center serves as an historic departure in the construction of Jewish community and remains one of the most significant innovations of American Judaism.