Inventing Jewish Ritual: New American Traditions » (New Edition)

The author invites readers to explore how Jewish practice can be more meaningful through renewing, reshaping, reviving and creating new rituals -- blessings for newborn baby daughters, Miriam's cup, becoming an elder, & more. American Judaism is a dynamic cultural process open to change & renewal.

Publishers Weekly

Many of the new and provocative rituals Ochs began gathering a decade ago are now seamlessly woven into Jewish practice: naming ceremonies for baby girls, Rosh Hodesh groups, women's seders, healing services. "What is utterly novel today," she concludes, "may be the 'traditional' Judaism of tomorrow." Ochs, author (Sarah Laughed; Words on Fire) and professor of religious studies, is herself a ritual innovator, crafting ceremonies for teenagers who receive their driver's licenses and office-warmings with "interactive mezuzot." Ritual innovation, she says, remains based in texts, actions, objects and understandings about God, spurred by a "democratic" search for spirituality and Jewish feminism. Her explorations of the origins and context of rituals, from red threads to chocolate Seder plates and prayers for September 11, are eye-opening. Three larger case studies focus on Miriam's tambourine, Holocaust Torahs and wedding booklets, and lists of resources, books and Web sites abound. Ochs doesn't gloss over questions of authenticity, endurance and discomfort, but offers a clear, informative discussion of a dynamic process that will continue to change the face of American Judaism. (July)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

Acknowledgments     IX
Foreword     XI
Introduction: Becoming a Ritual Innovator     1
Democracy, Open Access, and Jewish Feminism     39
The Narrative Approach     57
Material Culture: New Rituals and Ritual Objects     87
Stretched by Innovation     112
Change: Resisting and Acclimating     138
Case Study 1: Miriam's Tambourine     166
Case Study 2: The Holocaust Torah     187
Case Study 3: The Wedding Booklet     214
Epilogue: Inheriting Invented Traditions     250
Record, Take It Down, Collect     258
Index     271