Community of Faith

Overview

For the 125th anniversary of the United Synagogue, during his time as Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks wrote a new evaluation of the role of the synagogue in Jewish life today. In it he explores the choices faced by religious leadership in the modern world, and the ways in which the synagogue embodies a living community of faith.
His recent book Faith in the Future, described by The Times as ‘one of the most significant declarations made by a religious leader in this country for many years’, analysed the importance of community, morality and faith in the future of Western societies. Community of Faith applies these themes to the Jewish situation, and suggests ways in which the synagogue can be renewed as a centre of meaning and belonging.

This title is currently out of print.

Index

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A

• Abel  43
• Abraham
  • directs his children to keep the way of life of the Lord  92
  • and God  94
• Abrahams, Israel  19
• Adath Yisrael  61, 75, 102
• Adler, Dr Nathan Marcus (Chief Rabbi)  23, 25, 26, 81, 83–4, 86, 109
  • and community  110, 126
  • faced criticism from right and left  123
  • and Jews’ College  36
  • and kehillah  27–9
• Adler, Hermann  87
• agency  108
• Agudat Yisrael  58–9
• Ahad Ha’am  86
• Alderman, Geoffrey  38
• Alexandria Synagogue  19
• Alliance Israélite Universelle  58
• Altneushul  3–4
• am  50, 51, 60, 77, 87, 96, 120, 148
  • and bet knesset  122
  • definition  49
  • and Kaplan  75
  • and Knesset Yisrael  106
  • and secession  59
  • and the United Synagogue  110, 143
  • and Zionism  121
• America  63–77, 114
  • separation of church and state  88
  • synagogues  101–2
• American Jewry
  • and continuity  144
  • diffuse  63–4
  • and ethnicity  146
  • and intermarriage  114
  • lack of communal framework  81–2
• Amidah  95, 96
• angels  92
• Anglo-Jewry  24–39, 51, 124–5
  • and Adler  83
  • communal leadership  78–81
  • a community of faith  86, 122
  • failings  86
  • keeps faith alive in the community  99
  • and Montefiore  84–5
  • and the United Synagogue  130
  • Victorian era  9
• anti-Semitism  7–8, 88
• Asher, Dr Asher  27
• Ashkenazim  23
• Ashkenazi Synagogues, Laws and Regulations  28
• assimilation  76–7, 114–17
• Association of the American Hebrew Congregations  82
• Australia  34–5
• Austria  115
• Austrittsgemeinde  57
• avodah  20, 29, 127–8

B

• baalei teshuvah  147
• Babylon  15–16, 19
• Babylonian Talmud  103
• Balaam  14, 22
• Bamberger, Rabbi Selig Baer  56–7
• Baron, Salo  16
• Begin, Menachem  45
• belief, loss of  118–19
• belonging  95, 121, 125
  • and the United Synagogue  143–4
• Ben Gurion, David  45
• Ben Zoma, Simeon  135
• Berlin, Rabbi Naftali Zvi  137
• bet am  74, 102–3
• Beth Din  34, 138
• bet knesset  19, 74, 121–2, 124
• Bible  91
• bnei ha-ir  103
• Board of Deputies of British Jews  24, 37, 80
• Board of Guardians  28, 34
• Breuer, Isaac  58–9
• Breuer, Mordechai  60, 61, 85
• Britain
  • and Orthodoxy  62
  • and religious belief  118
• Brodie, Sir Israel  87
• Buber, Martin  93
• burden, of Judaism  116
• Burke, Edmund  68

C

• Cain  43
• Catholics  118
• Centrist Orthodoxy  80
• chaplaincy for students  34, 138, 142
• The Character of the Jewish Community (Hirsch)  126
• charity  25
• Chelm  122
• Chief Rabbinate  24–5, 34, 37, 80–1, 86, 138, 142
  • vital force for restraint  82–3
• Christianity  52, 53, 118
• conversion to  115, 116
• Chronicles  105
• Chwolson, Daniel  116
• closed institutions  138
• Cohen, Arthur A.  68, 72
• Cohen, Lionel Louis  26–7
• Cohen, Sir Robert Waley  36, 38
• Commonwealth Jewry  10–11, 34–5, 37, 122, 144
• Communal Orthodoxy  59–60
• communal separatism  137
• community
  • built around synagogues  100
  • and faith  97
  • foundations of  126
  • and God  92
  • and hevrot  101–2
  • inclusive  110
  • and Jewish faith  89
  • and Maimonides  95
  • and the United Synagogue  98, 125–6, 130
• community/communal centres  19, 73–4, 75, 109
• community of faith  45, 46, 48–9, 59, 75, 98
• Anglo-Jewry  86–7, 122
  • and halakhah  133
  • and the United Synagogue  126, 131
• community of fate  45, 46, 48, 50, 59, 60
  • in Egypt  47
  • and the Holocaust and anti-Zionism  120
• community Orthodoxy  57, 59
• compassion  29
• congregational autonomy  82
• Conservative Judaism  66, 75
• continuity  114–15, 119–21, 144, 146–7
• conversion  52–3, 115, 116, 137
• conversos  134
• ‘Cousinhood’  27, 81, 85
• covenants
  • bind us to one another  128–9
  • Sinai  92, 94, 106–7
• creation  21, 90, 129
• Cromwell, Oliver  23
• Cuddihy, John Murray  7
• cultural pluralism  73
• custom  67

D

• Daniel, book of  16
• David, King  129
• decorous worship  84
• deism  132
• deputados  24
• derashah  18
• Deuteronomy
  • 14: 1  137
  • 33: 4  107
  • seven-yearly convocation to hear the Torah  18
• Dewey, John  116
• discontinuity, Jewish  114
• dissension  43–4
• division  43–5
• Drachman, Bernard  70
• Dreyfus trial  50
• dry bones, valley of  94
• dualism  95
• Durkheim, Émile  71

E

• East End Jewry  31–4, 85, 123
• Eastern Europe  113–14
• East European immigrants  31–2, 33–4, 39, 65–6, 101–2
• Ecclesiastes  91
• edah/edot  50, 51, 59, 60, 77, 87, 120, 148
  • Adath Yisrael  61, 102
  • and bet knesset  122
  • and continuity  121
  • definition  49
  • and Hirsch  75
  • and Knesset Yisrael  106
  • and Orthodoxy  79
  • and prayers  96
  • and the United Synagogue  110, 143
• education  32, 117, 127
  • and Adler  28–9
  • Jewish day schools  34, 36
• Egypt  46–7
• Einstein, Albert, on Judaism  148
• Elazar, Daniel  19
• Elijah  54
• emancipation  7, 50, 78, 81
  • German Jews had to fight for  88
  • and Hirsch  54
• emunah  6, 94–5, 121, 122, 129
  • definition  5
  • and humility  133
  • and loyalty  98
  • realised in life  129
• Endelman, Todd  115
• England, Victorian  8–9, 124
• Epictetus  90
• Esau  43
• Essenes  44
• Ethics of the Fathers (Shimon ha-Tzaddik)  126
• ethnic groups  73, 74
• ethnicity  73, 75, 76–7, 120, 121, 125, 146
• Exodus  43–4
  • 6: 7  60
  • 25: 8  4
• Ezekiel  15, 18, 94
• Ezra  18

F

• factionalism  44
• Federation of Synagogues  32, 85, 126, 141
• fellowships  101–2
• First Temple  14, 15, 17–18
• France  50
• Frankel, Zechariah  67–8
• fratricide  43
• Friedlander, David  52

G

• Gaon, Saadia  46
• Gaon, Vilna  46
• Gemeinde Orthodoxy  57, 80
• gemilut hasadim  20, 29, 128–9
• Genesis  43
• Germany  50, 52–3, 55–8, 59, 61, 62, 78–9
  • and emancipation  81
  • and Hirsch  137
  • immigrants in America  63
  • and intermarriage  115
  • religion closely related to the state  88
• Glazer, Nathan  97, 121
• God
  • and Abraham  94
  • belief in  118
  • communicates through words in the Torah  132
  • creating a space for  21–2, 129
  • lives in the human heart  4
  • in the midst of the community  92
  • in public places  91
• goi  46
• goi kadosh  48
• Goldberg, Philip  38
• golem  3
• Graetz, Heinrich  61
• Great Synagogue  25, 26, 80–1

H

• Habakkuk  129
• hadarim  32
• Hafetz Hayyim  137
• Haganah  45
• Haggadah  46, 47
• halakhah  67, 129, 133
• Halevi, Judah  128
• Hambro Synagogue  26
• Hampstead Synagogue  123
• haredim  146
• Hart, Rabbi Aaron  25
• hasidah  138
• Hasidic groups  114, 147
• haverim  107
• Hebrew Bible  91
• Hebrew classes  32
• Heine, Heinrich  14
• Herberg, Will  75–6, 118
• heresy  96
• Hertford, Robert Trevors  6
• Hertz, Rabbi Joseph H.  35, 37, 70, 86, 87, 131–2
• Hertzberg, Arthur  64, 83, 120
• Herz, Solomon  32
• Herzl, Theodor  113
• Herzog, President Chaim  144
• hesed  128
• hevrot  101–2
• Hildesheimer, Rabbi Esriel  58, 79
• Hillel  134, 135
• hilonim  146
• Himmelfarb, Milton  97
• Hirsch, Samson Raphael  52, 53–5, 56–8, 79, 85, 87
  • chose edah  75, 102
  • and community  126
  • on Reform Judaism  137
  • on the Torah  127
• Hirschell, Chief Rabbi Solomon  80–1
• history, as evolution  132
• History of the Jews (Johnson)  118–19
• Horovitz, Rabbi Marcus  57
• Hosea  94
• hospitality  93
• hospital visits  138
• humility  133
• Hungary  57
• Hutner, Rabbi Isaac  79
• Huxley, Aldous  90

I

• identity  46, 48–9, 51, 59, 148
• immigration, Jewish  31–2, 33–4, 39, 63, 115
• inclusive community  134, 143
• inclusive Orthodoxy  109–10, 144
• inclusivism  134–5
• Independent Orthodoxy  61
• Inge, Dean  90
• institutions, and Judaism  5–6
• intermarriage  52–3, 76, 114, 115, 117
• Irgun  45
• Isaac  43
• Isaiah  21, 128, 129
• Ismael  43
• Israel  114, 145–6
  • origins of the people of  46–8
  • and the United Synagogue  135–6
  • War of Independence  45
• Israelites  43, 44
• Israelitische Religionsgesellschaft  55, 61

J

• Jacob  43
• Jeremiah  104–5, 136
• Jerusalem  3, 16, 17
• Jewish belief, loss of  118–19
• Jewish Board of Guardians  26, 34
• Jewish Care  26
• Jewish Center, Manhattan  74
• Jewish Chronicle  27, 32, 54, 83
• Jewish community centres  19, 73–4, 75, 109
• Jewish continuity  114–15, 119–21, 144, 146–7
• Jewish day schools  34, 35, 36, 115
• Jewish discontinuity  114
• Jewish education  117
  • see also Jewish day schools
• Jewish identity  46, 48–9, 51, 59, 148
• Jewish law  129
• Jewish Theological Seminary of America  65, 76
• Jewish Working Men’s Club  33
• Jewish worship  20, 29, 84, 127–8, 129
• Jews’ College  28, 36
• Johnson, Paul  118–19
• Joseph  43
• Joseph, Rabbi Jacob  82
• Josephus  44
• Judaism
  • a collective endeavour  93
  • declines the solitary  91–2
  • religion of life  129–30
• Judaism as a Civilization (Kaplan)  116
• Judges, book of  44

K

• Kallen, Horace  73
• Kaplan, Mordecai  69–70, 71–5, 76, 102, 116
  • and ethnicity  121
• kashrut  82
• kavanah  127
• kedushah  93
• kehillah  5, 6, 28, 29, 30, 102
  • American Jewry failed to lay the foundations of  63, 82
  • and United Synagogue  34, 138
• Kehillah Kedoshah Knesset Yisrael  103
• kiddush Hashem  136
• kindness, and redemption  129
• Knesset Yisrael  12, 61, 106, 107, 108, 122
  • and the United Synagogue  10, 13, 39, 103–4, 109, 110, 123–4, 130, 144
• Kohelet  91
• Kohut, Alexander  65
• Kook, Rabbi Abraham  134, 137
• Kosmin, Professor Barry  120–1
• Kotler, Rabbi Aaron  79
• Kugel, James  21

L

• Landor, Walter Savage  90
• Landsmannschaften principles  19, 101
• law, and Judaism  93–4, 129–30
• Law of Secession (Germany)  56
• Laws and Regulations for Ashkenazi Synagogues  28
• Leeser, Rabbi Isaac  82
• Levites  18
• Leviticus 22: 32  107
• Liberal Synagogue  32
• Liberles, Robert  62
• Liebman, Charles  75, 76–7
• life, choosing  129–30
• Loewe, Rabbi Judah  3
• London Committee of Deputies of British Jews  24
  • see also Board of Deputies of British Jews
• loyalty  98–9
• Luther, Martin  119
• Lyon, Rabbi Hart  36

M

• Machzikei Hadath  32, 86, 102, 123, 137
• Maharal  3
• Maimonides, Moses  48, 57–8, 128
  • on community  95
  • on conversion  134, 136–7
  • on truth  135
• Mainz, Rabbi Moses  56
• Margolis, Rabbi Moses  70
• Marr, Wilhelm  7
• marranos  23, 63, 101, 134
• Mendelsohn, Moses  53
• Mendes, H. Pereira  65
• Micah  129
• minhag  67
• Minhag America  83
• minyan  108
• mishkan  20
• Mizrachi  59
• Modern Orthodoxy  80, 109, 110
• Montagu, Samuel  34
• Montefiore, Sir Moses  8–9, 25, 84–5
• Morais, Rabbi Sabato  65
• Moses  129, 139
  • and the angels  92
  • and choosing life  129
• mourning  93

N

• Naomi  49
• Nasser, Gamal Abdul  141
• nation  46–8
• National Jewish Population Survey, 1990  114
• nation state  7
• nature  132
• Nehemiah  18
• neighbourliness  73
• Netinah le-Ger (Adler)  28
• Newman, Aubrey  34
• The New Paths  87
• New Synagogue  26
• ‘New Treaty’  26
• New York Jewry  34
• Nietzsche, Friedrich  119
• The Nineteen Letters (Hirsch)  54, 85

O

• O’Brian, Conor Cruise  141
• Odessa  113
• One People? (Sacks)  134, 144
• open institutions  138–9
• Orthodox Jews, and continuity  146–7
• Orthodoxy  11–12, 50, 56–7, 59–61, 78–9, 147
  • American  70, 82
  • British  62
  • and Hirsch  54
  • inclusive  109–10, 144
  • minority in Germany and America  88
• outreach  147

P

• parnassim  83
• the particular  17
• Passover  46
• peoplehood  80, 87, 110
  • see also am
• perushim  107
• Pharisees  44, 109
• Philo  18
• Pinhas  54
• ‘Pittsburgh Platform‘ 65
• Plato  129
• Plotinus  90
• pogroms  8, 50, 113
• Popper, Sir Karl  67
• Porush, Dr Israel  35
• The Poverty of Historicism (Popper)  67
• Prague  3–4
• prayers  17–18, 95–6, 127–8
• prison visits  138
• prophets  146
• Protestant-Catholic-Jew (Herberg)  75–6
• Protestants  118

R

• race  8
• Radical Assimilation in English Jewish History (Endelman)  115
• Rashi  43, 48, 137
• Reconstructionalism  74, 75
• redemption  129
• Reform Judaism  50, 57–8, 78, 84
  • in America  65, 88, 101
  • in Germany  53, 55–6, 88, 137
• Regulations, 1847  83
• Reines, Rabbi Isaac  59
• religion, and the state  88
• religious returnees  147
• Renan, Ernest  16
• revelation  129, 132
• role-models  85
• Roth, Cecil  32, 84
• Rothschild, Baron (Lord) Nathaniel  8–9, 34
• Russia  8, 50, 115
• Ruth  49

S

• sacrifice  17–18
• Sadducees  44, 95, 109
• sanctuary, portable place of worship  20, 21
• Sartre, Jean-Paul  116
• Schechter, Solomon  36, 66–7, 68, 74
• Schiff, Rabbi David Tevele  25
• schismatics  96
• Schneersohn, Rabbi Menachem Mendel  79
• schools  34, 35, 36, 115
• secession  57, 58, 137
• secessionist Orthodoxy  57, 59
• Second Temple  14–15, 105, 108–9
• sectarian religious organisations  60–1
• secularisation, in Israel  145
• secularism  132
• secular Judaism  120, 133
• seder  46, 49
• Sefardim  23, 63
• Segal, Rabbi Joshua  82
• Shearith Israel  101
• shechitah  85–6
• Shekhinah  4
• shelihut  108
• sheva berakhot  93
• Shimon bar Yohai, Rabbi  104–5
• Shimon ha-Tzaddik  126
• Shir Hamaalot  135
• shteibel  142
• siddur  95
• Sinai, Mount  92, 94, 106–7
• Six Day War  142
• social welfare  20
  • see also welfare
• Society for the Advancement of Judaism  74
• solitude  90, 91
• Solomon  21
• Soloveitchik, Rabbi Joseph  20, 79, 108, 134
• Spanish and Portuguese congregation  24, 25
• Spanish expulsion, 1492  23
• state, and religion  88
• Steffens, Lincoln  70–1
• Stern, Professor M.  16
• stigma, and Jewishness  116
• stork  138
• strangers  128
• structural assimilation  76–7
• study  18, 20, 126–7, 129
• Sukkot  107
• synagogues  6–7, 15–16, 101, 107–8
  • belonging becomes believing  121
  • as communal centres  19
  • and community groups  125–6
  • co-operation between  25–6
  • Divine presence in  100
  • home of emunah  129
  • and Jerusalem in exile  17
  • pray towards Jerusalem  16
  • and welfare  128–9
  • see also United Synagogue

T

• takkanot hakehal  67
• Talmud
  • and bet am  74
  • and commands to Israel  129
• Targum Onkelos  28
• tefillah  128
• tefillin  105
• Temples  14–15, 17–18, 105, 108–9
• The Times  85
• tinok shenishba  58
• Titus  21
• Tocqueville, Alexis de  6
• tolerance  135
• Torah  14, 20, 29, 77
  • central place in synagogue service  126–7
  • code of great ideals  6
  • and creation  90
  • and derashah  18–19
  • and God  132–3
  • on Israelites becoming a nation  46–8
  • and study  129
• Torah im derekh eretz  61
• Torah min hashamayim  87, 131
• Toynbee, Arnold J.  119
• tradition  37, 68, 69
• transformationalism  76
• truth  129, 135
• tsibbur  103

U

• United States  63–77, 115
  • and Orthodoxy  79
  • and religious belief  118
• United Synagogue  22, 29–30, 122, 125, 131–9, 140–1, 149
  • and am and edah  110
  • cares about the total community  142–3
  • and community of faith  126
  • established 14 July 1870  23, 27
  • and halakhah  133–4
  • and kehillah  34, 138
  • Kehillah Kedoshah Knesset Yisrael  103
  • and Knesset Yisrael  10, 13, 39, 109, 123–4, 144
  • not all members orthodox  97–9
  • and openness  139
  • power to inspire  130
  • and Shir Hamaalot  135
• United Synagogue of America  66
• the universal  17
• university chaplaincy  34, 138, 142

V

• Victorian Anglo-Jewry  8–9, 33, 84, 124
• Vidrowitz, Rabbi Hayim  82

W

• War of Independence  45
• Warsaw ghetto uprising  44–5
• weddings  93
• Weizmann, Chaim  86
• welfare  20, 25, 26, 29, 35, 128–9
  • Board of Guardians  28, 34
• West End Jewish community  31, 32
• Western Wall  3
• West London Synagogue  25, 84
• Williams, Bill  83
• Will We Have Jewish Grandchildren? (Sacks)  115
• Wise, Isaac Mayer  82–3, 101
• worship  20, 29, 84, 127–8, 129

Y

• yeshivah  114, 115, 147
• Young Israel  70

Z

• Zangwill, Israel  36–7
• Zechariah  149
• Zinkin, Yaakov  32
• Zionism  50, 58–9, 114, 121