BooksRock.com - Kids Books At Amazing Low Prices!

The inside story and practical lessons from one of the most exciting developments in contemporary Judaism.

"Part description and part prescription, Empowered Judaism is a manifesto for transforming the way Jews pray and--more broadly--for building vibrant Jewish communities.... It] represents the latest chapter in an] uplifting history of religious creativity. This is a book that every Jewish leader will want to read and every serious Jew will want to contemplate."
--from the Foreword by Prof. Jonathan D. Sarna

Why have thousands of young Jews, otherwise unengaged with formal Jewish life, started more than sixty innovative prayer communities across the United States? What crucial insights can these grassroots communities provide for all of us?

Rabbi Elie Kaunfer, one of the leaders of this revolutionary phenomenon, offers refreshingly new analyses of the age-old question of how to build strong Jewish community. He explores the independent minyan movement and the lessons it has to teach about prayer, community organizing and volunteer leadership and its implications for contemporary struggles in American Judaism.

Along with describing the growth of independent minyanim across the country, he examines:

• The roles of liturgy, space, music and youth in this new approach to prayer
• Lessons to be learned from the concept of immersive, intensive Jewish learning in an egalitarian context
• Jewish values in which we must invest to achieve a vibrant, robust American Jewish landscape for the twenty-first century

Rabbi Elie Kaunfer, named one of the top fifty Jewish leaders by The Forward, and one of Newsweek's top fifty rabbis, is cofounder and executive director of Mechon Hadar (www.mechonhadar.org), an institute that empowers Jews to build vibrant Jewish communities. Mechon Hadar has launched the first full-time egalitarian yeshiva program in North America, Yeshivat Hadar (www.yeshivathadar.org), where Rabbi Kaunfer teaches Talmud. A Dorot Fellow and Wexner Graduate Fellow, Rabbi Kaunfer cofounded Kehilat Hadar (www.kehilathadar.org), an independent minyan in Manhattan committed to spirited traditional prayer, study and social action. He was selected as an inaugural Avi Chai Fellow, known as "The Jewish Genius Award."

Prof. Jonathan D. Sarna is the Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University and director of its Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program. He is author of American Judaism: A History, winner of the National Jewish Book Award, among other books.