Books, Arts & Manners: Retreat from the Temples

A People Divided: Judaism in Contemporary America, by Jack Wertheimer (Basic, 258 pp., $25)

“SERVING the Post-Christian Community,” reads the sign outside the tony, Episcopal Park Street Church in Boston. The words mean more than they are intended to mean: the liberal Christian denominations have entered a post-Christian phase, while sincere Protestant Christians have in large numbers gone elsewhere (see “Retreat from the Churches,” above). You will not find a sign like that outside New York’s Temple Emanuel—the Reform Jewish synagogue which is the equally tony mother congregation for the most liberal major denomination within Judaism.

About the Author

David Klinghoffer

David Klinghoffer, a former literary editor at NR, is a senior fellow at Discovery Institute and co-author of The Gift of Rest: Rediscovering the Beauty of the Sabbath, and other books.

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A People Divided: Judaism in Contemporary America, by Jack Wertheimer (Basic, 258 pp., $25)

“SERVING the Post-Christian Community,” reads the sign outside the tony, Episcopal Park Street Church in Boston. The words mean more than they are intended to mean: the liberal Christian denominations have entered a post-Christian phase, while sincere Protestant Christians have in large numbers gone elsewhere (see “Retreat from the Churches,” above). You will not find a sign like that outside New York’s Temple Emanuel—the Reform Jewish synagogue which is the equally tony mother congregation for the most liberal major denomination within Judaism.

About the Author

David Klinghoffer

David Klinghoffer, a former literary editor at NR, is a senior fellow at Discovery Institute and co-author of The Gift of Rest: Rediscovering the Beauty of the Sabbath, and other books.