American Rabbis: Facts and Fiction (review)

158 SHOFAR Fa112000 Vol. 19, No.1 American Rabbis: Facts and Fiction, by David J. Zucker. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1998. 317 pp. $35.00. When one reads a book written by a colleague about one's own profession, it is like holding up a mirror to one's soul. Such is the feeling ofthis reviewer upon fmishing the book American Rabbis: Facts and Fiction, by Rabbi David J. Zucker. Certainly Rabbi Zucker is eminently qualified to write such a book, one that is instructive for rabbis and congregants alike. A former congregational rabbi, as well as a professor of Religious Studies and a chaplain serving acare community near Denver, Rabbi Zucker writes with much insight and sensitivity about the entire spectrum ofrabbinical-congregational life from traditional Judaism through more liberal branches of Judaism. Rabbi Zucker obviously understands the rabbinate and effectively deals with its pitfalls as well as its pinnacles. Yet having said all this, the reviewer does take issue with one aspect of the book. Not only does Rabbi Zucker analyze his subject in terms offacts and realities, but he also has chosen to intertwine into his narrative examples and illustrations from fiction, both novels and short stories, written about the rabbinate since 1950. This reviewer asserts that it was not necessary to bring into the book such fictional material, since its inclusion, though interesting from a literary point of view, was found to be a distraction from the issues and problems ofdaily rabbinical-congregational life. There is obviously enough material in short stories and fictional books about the rabbinate to warrant a separate book dealing with such a topic. The supportive evidence and factual information about the rabbinate presented by Rabbi Zucker from real life are sufficiently illuminating and straightforward as to offer the reader a fine historical, sociological, and psychological perspective on the American rabbinate. Written in 1998, American Rabbis: Facts and Fiction is timely and statistically as well as informationally useful. The increasing numbers of women rabbis in the nonOrthodox branches ofJudaism, the struggles within American Judaism overthe Reform movement's acceptance of"Patrilineal Descent" as a norm for determining Jewishness in contemporary times, and the growing acceptance in Reform Judaism ofmeaningful ritualism and rnitzvot, are but a few examples of the freshness of the information imparted in ~abbi Zucker's book. One ofthe strongest aspects ofthe book is in the author's analysis ofthe difficulties as well as the joys ofserving as a rabbi. It is apparent in Rabbi Zucker's thoughtful and considered reflections upon the rabbinate as a profession, that he has "served in the trenches" and knows whereof he writes. Will the myriad and complex changes occurring within contemporary American society impact upon American Jews and will not only the American Jewish community but its rabbinate survive as we face the next century? Despite assimilation, acculturation and the rise in mixed marriages, Rabbi Zucker is confident and optimistic, as he quotes the sociologist Charles Silverman, "In some segments ofthe American Jewish community, moreover, generational change is now accompanied by an intensification, not a diminution, ofreligious observance. We are, in fact, in the early stages ofa major revitalization ofJewish religious, intellectual, Book Reviews 159 and cultural life-one that is likely to transform as well as strengthen American Judaism." And what of the rabbinate itself? Here, too, Rabbi Zucker is sanguine. "Simon Schwartzfuchs has written that the 'history of the last thousand years, and even more that ofthe last century, shows that no Jewish community has ever endured for a lengthy period if deprived ofthe services of the rabbi. The nature ofpostexilic Judaism makes survival impossible without a teacher and a guide. ' The rabbis will continue to be both those teachers and those guides." As a congregational rabbi ofalmost forty years, I was heartened and reassured to read my colleague's closing words, "Rabbis have the opportunity of working with and helping in every area of Jewish concern. Rabbis are in a position to influence the future of Judaism." For a revealing and absorbing study of the American rabbinate, the reader is urged to read Rabbi David J. Zucker's American Rabbis: Facts and Fiction. An exhaustive bibliographical section, including numerous references...