Taking Hold of Torah: Jewish Commitment and Community in America

by Arnold M. Eisen

Jews, like other Americans, have both benefited and suffered from the fraying of traditional loyalties that has come to characterize modern American culture. In Taking Hold of Torah Arnold M. Eisen offers a personal plea for - and a vision of - the revitalizing of American Judaism through a renewed relationship to Jewish tradition and the strengthening of Jewish communities. Drawing from the author's own experience both as a scholar of modern Judaism and as a modern American Jew, each of the five chapters in the book examines a major issue or theme related to this vision of renewal - in terms of one of the five books of the Torah. This encouraging work is essential reading for anyone concerned with issues of Jewish faith and the future of Judaism in America.

208 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1997

Reviews

[Charles Cohen]

I read this for a project about community building because it was cited by Maurice Freedman in a book about Buber's "I and Thou". It's a fascinating time capsule of what was urgent and essential in Jewish community in the late 90s, and it was a fun exercise comparing and contrasting to 2026.