American Reform Judaism: An Introduction

Rating:
Summary: covers all the obvious points . . .
Review: described in the editorial reviews, which means it is a pretty good read for someone who is not very knowledgeable but is probably less useful for readers more familiar with Reform.

One thing that I liked: Kaplan's willingness to note that some of the Reform movement's current problems are identical to those that Reform rabbis were complaining about as early as the 1880s; evidently, there is something about liberal religion that leads to a large but apathetic membership.

One thing that I wish Kaplan had put in: more primary source material - perhaps in the form of an appendix with the text of the Reform platforms, etc. that Kaplan writes about.

Rating:
Summary: covers all the obvious points . . .
Review: described in the editorial reviews, which means it is a pretty good read for someone who is not very knowledgeable but is probably less useful for readers more familiar with Reform.

One thing that I liked: Kaplan's willingness to note that some of the Reform movement's current problems are identical to those that Reform rabbis were complaining about as early as the 1880s; evidently, there is something about liberal religion that leads to a large but apathetic membership.

One thing that I wish Kaplan had put in: more primary source material - perhaps in the form of an appendix with the text of the Reform platforms, etc. that Kaplan writes about.