Rowman & Littlefield Publishers / Alban Books
Pages: 126
•
Trim: 5½ x 8½
978-1-56699-439-2 • Paperback • November 2013 • $31.00 • (£25.00)
978-1-56699-603-7 • eBook • November 2013 • $29.50 • (£25.00)
Rabbi Kerry M. Olitzky is executive director of the Jewish Outreach Institute. A leader in the development of innovative Jewish education, particularly for adults, he has shaped training programs for clergy of all faiths, especially in the area of pastoral care and counseling in the Jewish community. He has done pioneering work in the area of Jewish Twelve Step spirituality, as well as Jewish Gerontology.
Foreword by Ron Wolfson
Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1: Playlist Judaism
Chapter 2: Turning the Synagogue Inside Out
Chapter 3: The Marketplace of Ideas
Chapter 4: Intermarriage as an Opportunity, Not a Problem
Chapter 5: Don't Forget the Boomers
Chapter 6: The Dream of Israel
Chapter 7: Why Be Jewish?
Chapter 8: Leading the Jewish Community into the Future
Chapter 9: Big Tent Judaism
Notes
[E]ven though there is little in the book I disagree with (if anything), there is much that is challenging. The book has nine chapters. In fact, the book is pretty short. But I think it is radical. It recognizes what I have been saying–that Judaism, particularly what I call American suburban Judaism, is experiencing a seismic shift. This is not your grandparents’ 1960s suburban synagogue. It can’t be. The world is fundamentally different. What isn’t clear is what will emerge in its place.
— Jewish Outreach Institute
Rabbi Kerry Olitzky is an optimist. While other Jewish communal leaders worry about dwindling rates of affiliation, Olitzky points to the creation of 600 Jewish startups in the past decade. ‘I’m very optimistic about the American Jewish spirit,’ he says. Olitzky does, however, worry about ‘a dearth of adaptive leadership’: leaders who not only recognize that the American Jewish community is in transition and the communal institutions as they exist today—synagogues, JCCs, federations—may not exist tomorrow, but are also willing to reinvent those institutions. That’s why Olitzky wrote Playlist Judaism: Making Choices for a Vital Future, recently published by the Alban Institute.
— Jewish News
A thoughtful examination of the historic, social, cultural, and demographic factors eroding today’s synagogues and Jewish institutions, Playlist Judaism offers tools and strategies to guide these organizations in reshaping themselves to regain strength and vitality.
— Rick Jacobs, President, Union for Reform Judaism
Synagogues are paralyzed when leaders are afraid of change. But what’s going on outside of our walls should be prompting serious questions and transformation. Kerry Olitzky has the courage to ask those questions and the vision to shape new pathways for us all.
— Elyse D. Frishman, Senior Rabbi, The Barnert Temple; editor of Mishkan T'filah
Rabbi Kerry Olitzky's case for 'playlist Judaism' is a wake-up call for reality-based Jewish communal life, sensitive to today's most important cultural currents.
— J. Shawn Landres, Co-founder, Jewish Jumpstart; Director of Research, Synagogue 3000 / S3K Synagogue Studies Institute
If you care about engaging Next Gen Jews to Jewish life, make room for Playlist Judaism on your shelf.
— Rabbi Sid Schwarz, author of Jewish Megatrends: Charting the Course of the American Jewish Community