David N. Myers 
The Eternal Dissident [EPUB ebook] 
Rabbi Leonard I. Beerman and the Radical Imperative to Think and Act

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The Eternal Dissident offers rare insight into one of the most inspiring and controversial Reform rabbis of the twentieth century, Leonard Beerman, who was renowned both for his eloquent and challenging sermons and for his unrelenting commitment to social action. Beerman was a man of powerful word and action—a probing intellectual and stirring orator, as well as a nationally known opponent of Mc Carthyism, racial injustice, and Israeli policy in the occupied territories. The shared source of Beerman’s thought and activism was the moral imperative of the Hebrew prophets, which he believed bestowed upon the Jewish people their role as the “eternal dissident.” This volume brings Beerman to life through a selection of his most powerful writings, followed by commentaries from notable scholars, rabbis, and public personalities that speak to the quality and ongoing relevance of Beerman’s work.

Зміст

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

David N. Myers


Part I. First Sermon

1. Chapel Sermon, October 30, 1948

Commentary by Rabbi Samuel Karff


Part II. Inspirations

2. Sigmund Freud, May 11, 1956

Commentary by Professor Peter Loewenberg

3. Bertrand Russell’s Autobiography: Three Passions in Life

Commentary by Dr. Joan Beerman

4. Looking at Kafka, January 8, 1982

Commentary by Professor Saul Friedlander

5. The Legacy of MLK, January 15, 1982

Commentary by the Reverend James M. Lawson Jr.

6. First Encounter with George (Regas), April 13, 2005

7. Why the Prophets Are Important, May 20, 1983

Commentary by Professor Jack Miles


Part III. Faith, Doubt, and Duty

8. Handwritten Reflections on Doubt, undated

Commentary by Rabbi Rachel Timoner

9. Can We Excommunicate God? April 30, 1965

Commentary by Professor Rabbi Rachel Adler

10. Duty of the Rabbi, undated

Commentary by Rabbi Richard Levy

11. From the Diary of a Leo Baeck Temple Rabbi, February 5, 1971

Commentary by Rabbi Kenneth Chasen

12. Rabbi Beerman’s To-Do List

13. Yom Kippur Eve—Vocation of a Rabbi, September 17, 1972

Commentary by Rabbi Sharon Brous

14. Fast between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur to Protest Munich and Vietnam, September 1972

Commentary by Professor Steven J. Ross

15. My Troubles with God; God’s Troubles with Me, February 9, 1979

Commentary by David Rintels

16. The Beginnings of an Outline for Jews to Consider, undated

Commentary by Aziza Hasan


Part IV. Social Justice

17. The Kindest Use a Knife, October 16, 1953

Commentary by Rabbi John L. Rosove

18. Is There a Relationship between Judaism and Social Justice?

April 14, 1954

Commentary by Rabbi Zoë Klein

19. The Problems of the City: A Jewish Dilemma, February 4, 1966

Commentary by Professor Rabbi Aryeh Cohen

20. UCLA Teach-In on Vietnam War, March 24, 1966

Commentary by Rabbi Sanford Ragins

21. Notes for Symposium on Black Power, January 6, 1967

Commentary by Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller

22. Letter to President Lyndon Johnson, April 13, 1967

Commentary by Judith Viorst

23. Rosh Hashanah Eve, September 30, 1970 (5731)

Commentary by Professor Jonathan D. Greenberg

24. How I Lost the Election in St. Louis, July 9, 1971

Commentary by Professor William Cutter

25. Invocation for Religious Leaders for Mc Govern, June 1, 1972

Commentary by the Reverend J. Edwin Bacon

26. Survival in a Nuclear Age, February 17, 1984

Commentary by the Reverend George F. Regas

27. California People of Faith against the Death Penalty, October 16, 2001; April 20, 2002

Commentary by Mike Farrell

28. Piece on Human Condition Written for the Office of the Americas, November 2, 2002

Commentary by Stephen Rohde

29. A Vision for a Bewildering Time: Commencement Address at Washington & Jefferson College, May 18, 2007

Commentary by Professor David Ellenson

30. Letter to President George W. Bush, April 11, 2008

Commentary by Norman Lear

31. Human Rights Watch, November 17, 2009

Commentary by Jane Olson

32. A Sermon for All Saints, July 3, 2011

Commentary by Mel Levine


Part V. Israel/Palestine

33. Time in Israel, Parts I and II, November 1967

Commentary by Daniel Sokatch

34. CCAR Breira Statement, 1977

Commentary by Professor Michael A. Meyer

35. Yom Kippur Morning, October 11, 1978

Commentary by Milton Viorst

36. Yom Kippur Eve, September 26, 1982

Commentary by Connie Bruck

37. Visions of Peace in the Middle East, October 31, 1992

Commentary by Salam al-Marayati

38. A Sermon for Yom Kippur Morning, October 1, 2006

Commentary by Rabbi Brant Rosen

39. Exchange of Letters with Bruce Ramer, October 2006–January 2007

Commentary by Bruce Ramer

40. A Sermon for Yom Kippur Morning, October 4, 2014

Commentary by Professor Nomi M. Stolzenberg


Sayings of Leonard I. Beerman

Notes

List of Contributors

Index

Про автора

David N. Myers is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Center for Jewish History in New York. He is also Sady and Ludwig Kahn Professor of Jewish History at the University of California, Los Angeles.