American Post-Judaism: Identity and Renewal in a Postethnic Society

Religion in North America

by Shaul Magid

How do American Jews identify as both Jewish and American? American Post-Judaism argues that Zionism and the Holocaust, two anchors of contemporary American Jewish identity, will no longer be centers of identity formation for future generations of American Jews. Shaul Magid articulates a new, post-ethnic American Jewishness. He discusses pragmatism and spirituality, monotheism and post-monotheism, Jesus, Jewish law, sainthood and self-realization, and the meaning of the Holocaust for those who have never known survivors. Magid presents Jewish Renewal as a movement that takes this radical cultural transition seriously in its strivings for a new era in Jewish thought and practice.

Genres: Judaism, Judaica, Jewish

388 pages, Hardcover

First published April 9, 2013

About the author

The Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein Chair in Jewish Studies
Professor of Jewish Studies and Religious Studies
Director of Graduate Studies, Robert A. and Sandra S. Borns Jewish Studies Program
My teaching focuses primarily on Kabbala, Hasidism, religious fundamentalism, Israel/Palestine, and modern and American Jewish thought and culture. Areas of interest and research include sixteenth century Kabbala, Hasidism, American Judaism, comparative religion, and contemporary conceptions of Jewish religiosity. I am the editor of God's Voice from the Void: Old and New Essays on Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav (SUNY Press, 2001), co-editor of Beginning Again: Toward a Hermeneutic of Jewish Texts (Seven Bridges Press, 2002) and author of Hasidism on the Margin: Reconciliation, Antinomianism, and Messianism in Izbica and Radzin Hasidism (University of Wisconsin Press, 2003). From Metaphysics to Midrash: Myth, History, and the Interpretation of Scripture in Lurianic Kabbala (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2008) which was awarded the 2008 American Academy of Religion Award for best book in religion in the textual studies category, American Post-Judaism: Identity and Renewal in a Postethnic Society (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2013) and Hasidism Incarnate: Hasidism, Christianity, and the Construction of Modern Judaism (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2014). I am the series editor for “Post-Rabbinic Judaisms” for Academic Studies Press. I am also a regular contributor to Tikkun Magazine, Zeek Magazine, Open Zion, and Religion Dispatches.

Reviews

[Eliezer Sneiderman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Migid writes a well researched an thought out book. His scholarship is impressive. The book is particularly useful when thinking about post ethnicity and its effects on Jewish Identity.

Secular Jews and for the most part Non Orthodox Jews have built institutional identities on a strong ethnicity which has all but disappeared. There are ethnicity education programs, like Birthright, that are trying to stem the tide, but, the battle is all but over.

Magid's arguments are less powerful when he speaks about Jewish renewal providing the solution for the future. While Jewish renewal is a very powerful force for those that are involved in it, a few congregations will not be able to be the tipping point, spiritually for the Jewish community.

Magid claims that the age of the Ba'al Teshuva is over. I would like to see figures to back up his case. Magid has moved on, that is true. But, personal anecdote should not supplant research. On a numbers basis the 4000 Chabad Shluchim seem to be a stronger force than the 3 or 4 renewal communities.

In any case, I highly recommend parts of this book, especially the beginning.

[Abby Stein · Rating 5 out of 5]

While this book is an academic work, and has to be read in depth. It one of the best books I have ever read about the state of contemporary Judaism, and the best philosophical dissection of Renewal Judaism.

[Elan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great set of questions, enjoyably thorough intellectual history/cultural theory combo, but not convinced his choice of chapter subjects are the right locus for renewal in practice (not really his goal here tbh). Could have used more exploration of gender, sexuality in the reproduction/ethnos context and also should have been incorporated into his version of pragmatism laid out here in a pretty esoteric application. Great shul reading for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, will be thinking about this for a long time

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some amazing ideas contained within this book. I go back to it, and try to better understand what Magid is unpacking and arguing for our generation of Judaism in America. His writing style fights against his message, though. It's a challenging book, not because of the ideas, but because of how Magid communicates them.