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Title: The New Rabbi by STEPHEN FRIED ISBN: 0-553-38075-3 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 26 August, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (18 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Accurate documentary of the rabbi search process.
Comment: I became interested in reading Steven Fried's book after I heard him interviewed on National Public Radio. Having just participated in the "new rabbi search" at my own synagogue in the Western suburbs of Chicago, I was curious to see if the experiences documented by Mr. Fried mirrored my own experience.
Although Har Zion, the synagogue followed in Mr. Fried's book is much larger and more influential than my own, I have to report that the rabbi search process seems to have some universal themes common to the process. We too "fell in love" with a candidate who ultimately "rejected" us...leaving the committee feeling like a jilted suitor at the altar. Our committee also harbored deep suspicions that the Rabbinic Movement was somehow keeping all the really qualified candidates from applying for our opening. And, of course, there was the usual political manipulating and jockeying for position to be appointed to the search committee and to be on the inside track for information on the candidates. Mr. Fried documents this process with sensitivity and wit.
I also identified with Mr. Fried's search for new meaning and connection with Judaism after the death of his father. His discussion of his emotional and intellectual growth made a perfect counterpoint to the new rabbi saga, never overwhelming the main story line.
Although I knew the outcome of the Har Zion search process from Mr. Fried's NPR interview, knowing the ultimate outcome of the search was not an impediment to enjoying the book. Mr. Fried's writing style never bogged down in tedious detail and the delineated the major players in the story while avoiding confusing the reader. While the book documents an actual rabbi search, Mr. Fried's pacing keeps the story moving like a novel. I found myself rooting for Har Zion and am curious to know if their new rabbi has lived up to expectations.
I've been recommending this book to everyone who participated in my synagogue's rabbi search. It's good to know that it wasn't just us.
Rating: 4
Summary: Heartwarming and Horrifying
Comment: THE NEW RABBI gives us an inside look at the rabbinical search process at a notable North American shul. Though the congregation in question is Conservative, the search process described closely parallels the process of my own Reform movement. The emotions, personalities and politics described certainly reflect universal aspects of synagogue life.
The book is also in part a meditation on being a rabbi in the North Ameican milieu. His examination of the career of the out-going rabbi, Gerald Wolpe, is both frank and compelling. But while the author spends a great deal of time reflecting on the life of R. Wolpe and on his assistant and potential in-house successor, Jacob Harber, he really concentrates on the congregation's perspective in the search. As a result, we do not get a real sense of what the search process feels like to the applicant rabbis. Harber is, in a sense, drafted by the congregation, so his experience is less than paradigmatic. Perhaps, as a rabbi, I over-identify with that aspect. Still, I wish he had spent some time interviewing the rabbinical candidates for Har Zion to include their POV.
Even so, this is a first-rate bit of investigative journalism on a little-know and sensitive aspect of Jewish communal life. While the author writes sympathetically about everyone involves, this work is revealing enough to make me wonder whether he will be welcome back at Har Zion any time soon.
The issues that come up in THE NEW RABBI will, at times, seem arcane to someone totally unfamiliar with synaogues. Nevertheless it is well-done and most readable. Most people involved in organized religion of any sort will get something out of it, and it certainly it should be required reading for rabbis and search committees in shuls everywhere.
Rating: 1
Summary: Well-written, but violates candidates' privacy and dignity
Comment: I agree with all the other readers who have posted comments here that the book is well-written and very engrossing.
But no one else seems to be bothered by the fact that Mr. Fried commits the unconscionable and inexcusable sin of using the real names of the unsuccessful rabbinic candidates. They had every reason to expect that their interviews would be confidential. The Acknowledgments section makes it clear that not all the candidates gave permission for their names to used, or that Mr. Fried even thought it necessary to ask them.
A footnote tells us that the name of a millionaire trouble-maker has been changed. But what does it tell us about the author that he felt no such need to conceal the names of rabbis who have now been embarrassed in print and in public?
The book would have lost none of its force if those names had been changed. Shame on the author!
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Title: Three Daughters by Letty Cottin Pogrebin ISBN: 0142003484 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 30 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Rebbe's Army : Inside the World of Chabad-Lubavitch by Sue Fishkoff ISBN: 0805241892 Publisher: Schocken Books Pub. Date: 15 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: The Case for Israel by Alan Dershowitz ISBN: 047146502X Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 01 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Jane Austen in Boca: A Novel by Paula Marantz Cohen ISBN: 0312319754 Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin Pub. Date: 01 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Revenge: A Story of Hope by Laura Blumenfeld ISBN: 0743463390 Publisher: Washington Square Press Pub. Date: 02 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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