Who Rules the Synagogue?

Religious Authority and the Formation of American Judaism

Zev Eleff

Offers a fresh view of American Jewish history with the aid of never before researched sources
Comprehensively reviews periodical material from this period

Who Rules the Synagogue?

Religious Authority and the Formation of American Judaism

Zev Eleff

Description

Finalist for the American Jewish Studies cateogry of the 2016 National Jewish Book Awards

Early in the 1800s, American Jews consciously excluded rabbinic forces from playing a role in their community's development. By the final decades of the century, ordained rabbis were in full control of America's leading synagogues and large sectors of American Jewish life. How did this shift occur?

Who Rules the Synagogue? explores how American Jewry in the nineteenth century was transformed from a lay dominated community to one whose leading religious authorities were rabbis. Zev Eleff traces the history of this revolution, culminating in the Pittsburgh rabbinical conference of 1885 and the commotion caused by it. Previous scholarship has chartered the religious history of American Judaism during this era, but Eleff reinterprets this history through the lens of religious authority. In so doing, he offers a fresh view of the story of American Judaism with the aid of never-before-mined sources and a comprehensive review of periodicals and newspapers.

Eleff weaves together the significant episodes and debates that shaped American Judaism during this formative period, and places this story into the larger context of American religious history and modern Jewish history.

Who Rules the Synagogue?

Religious Authority and the Formation of American Judaism

Zev Eleff

Acknowledgments
Introduction

Part 1: The Laity (1816-1845)
Chapter 1. "A Great Aversion to Priestly Domination"

Part 2: Intruders (1845-1860)
Chapter 2. Clericalism
Chapter 3. Textualism

Part 3: Interlude (1860-1869)
Chapter 4. Changing Currents

Part 4: The Rabbinate (1870-1885)
Chapter 5. Clericalism
Chapter 6. Textualism

Conclusion
Notes
Bibliographic Essay
Bibliography
Index

Who Rules the Synagogue?

Religious Authority and the Formation of American Judaism

Zev Eleff

Author Information

Zev Eleff is Chief Academic Officer of Hebrew Theological College in Skokie, IL. He earned his PhD in the field of American Jewish history at Brandeis University. Eleff is the author or editor of six books and more than thirty scholarly articles, and his most recent publication is Modern Orthodox Judaism: A Documentary History.

Who Rules the Synagogue?

Religious Authority and the Formation of American Judaism

Zev Eleff

Reviews and Awards

Finalist for the American Jewish Studies cateogry of the 2016 National Jewish Book Awards

Meticulously researched... Who Rules the Synagogue? contributes much toward understanding how religious authority has been constructed and negotiated over the span of American religious history." --Journal of Religion

"Eleff s scholarly and concise history of the struggle for power within American synagogues during the nineteenth century is a major contribution, and it is destined to take its place alongside Davis s The Emergence of Conservative Judaism: The Historical School in Nineteenth-Century America (1963); Jick s The Americanization of the Synagogue, 1820 1870 (1976); and Sarna's American Judaism: A History (2004) in the historiography of nineteenth-century American Judaism."--Religious Studies Review

"This well-documented, well-reasoned, eminently readable account of transatlantic throughways for this dramatic transformation of Jewish religious life yields helpful context for understanding the contemporary state of American Judaism Recommended."--CHOICE

"This well-researched monograph is a fascinating and enlightening read...An absorbing read...For those with an interest in American Jewish history, Who Rules the Synagogue?: Religious Authority and the Formation of American Judaism should be part of their required reading list."--The Times of Israel