Masorti

Masorti’s special Sestercentennial issue (70:1) honors America’s 250th anniversary with an array of groundbreaking articles by leading scholars of American Judaism. At almost 400 pages, this dedicated work contains 18 articles, a thoughtful introduction, a review essay, and reflections on critical scholarship. From the American Revolution to the present, this volume explores the impact of the American experiment on Jewish life, religion and culture. Pressing issues like antisemitism, mental health, Jewish education, Zionism, denominational boundaries, conversion, and vernacular religion receive fresh analysis along with cultural topics like music, liturgy, prayer, and sports. The studies use traditional historiography and innovative autobiographical methodology (autoethnography). Contributors encompass a heterogeneous group of secular academic scholars; Conservative, Orthodox, Reform rabbis and laity; Jews by choice and Jews by birth.ContentsIntroduction: America’s Transformation of Jewry 7Jonathan RosenbaumReflections and PrayersReflections from the New Chancellorof the Jewish Theological Seminary 14Mike UramPrayers for the Sestercentennial 16Joseph H. ProuserPart 1: Colonial & Early National PeriodsTake the Torah and Run: Gershom Mendes Seixas, Galut, andJewish Life in the New American Nation 19Lance J. Sussman and Lynda BarnessThe Americanization of New York’s Congregation B’nai Jeshurun 39Jonathan D. SarnaAmerica-Founded on Biblical Precepts? 51Elliot DorffPart 2: Nineteenth and Twentieth CenturiesConservative Judaism in America and Its Interpreters (Abstract) 63Eli Lederhendlerהתופעה הקונסרבטיבית ביהדות האמריקאית ופרשנות לקיומה 66אלי לדרהנדלרTheodore Seixas Solomons: The Sierra Club’s Trailblazing Humanist 81Michael HobermanThe Making of Jewish Values in Postwar America 100Zev EleffPart 3: The Role of Autobiography in HistoriographyPorous Denominational Boundaries: A Riverdale Memoir 115Adam S. FerzigerLiving and Making History as a Historian 128Shuly Rubin SchwartzAn American Jewish Story 141Tom BakerPart 4: Jewish Life and LivingSports as a Safe Space and as a Defining Religious MomentDuring a Troubling Time for American Jews 149Jeffrey S. GurockWhere The Tunes Come From:The Conservative Movement’s Musical DNA 160Matthew AusterkleinNorthern Lights: Another Look at Communal Educationin the Upper Mississippi Valley 195Earl SchwartzPart 5: Trends and Values, Challenges and OpportunitiesVernacular American Judaism 214Deborah Dash MooreThe Mental Health Crisis for Clergy and Beyond in a Post-COVID Era 227Nicole GuzikLee Levinger and the Fight Against Antisemitism 240Jessica S. CoopermanZionism in the Conservative Movement:The Model To Move Forward 261Erez ShermanEmerging Communities and the Memetic Future of the Jewish People (Abstract) 273Juan MejiaComunidades emergentes y el futuro memético del pueblo judío 279Juan MejiaThe Oneness of Humanity: An Introduction to and Annotated Translation of Rabbi Morris Adler’s 'The Foundations of Democracy in the Jewish Tradition' 308Jonah RankPart 6: Review EssayMichael Hoberman, Imagining Early American Jews (Oxford University Press, 2025); Pamela S. Nadell, Antisemitism, An American Tradition (W. W. Norton, 2025) 371Yisroel BenporatAbout the Contributors 375