The Home We Build Together: Recreating Society by Jonathan Sacks
£10.99
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The Persistence of Faith: Religion, Morality and Society in a Secular Age (the Reith Lectures) (Continuum Compact) by Jonathan Sacks
£8.39
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The Politics of Hope by Jonathan Sacks
£6.99
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The United Synagogue of Great Britain is an Orthodox institution, but the majority of its members are not religiously observant. Elsewhere, these Jews would probably affiliate with a Reform or Conservative synagogue. Sacks argues that it is not apathy or a particular form of English hypocrisy that sees the United Synagogue tolerating members who flout its rules and practices, but rather a philosophy that values communal unity above individual practice:
The United Synagogue was not the projection of a particular school of thought. Instead, it drew its inspiration from all aspects of Jewish tradition. It was neither forced by Jewish dissent, nor prompted by inclination, to create an ideology. It stood quite simply for Judaism and Jews, wherever possible without qualifying adjectives.German Jews saw themselves, looking forward, as a group united by religious observance alone. American Jews, looking backwards regarded themselves as bound by a shared ethnicity and history. Sacks argues that the great achievement of the United Synagogue is that, by juggling both definitions of Jewish identity it has managed to keep most Jews within its fold.
Whether or not you agree with his argument, Sacks is a learned and eloquent writer and always a pleasure to read. --Zahavit Shalev
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An evaluation by the Chief Rabbi of the synagogue in Jewish life today,marking the 125th anniversary of the Act of parliament establishing the United Synagogues.
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