About the Book
Harold I. Saperstein served as rabbi of Temple Emanu-El of Lynbrook, N.Y., from 1933 until his retirement in 1980. The specific contours of his career reflect a sustained effort to use the pulpit of this suburban temple to communicate a Jewish perspective based on personal encounters with great issues of the day-including the rise of Nazism and the Holocaust, the civil rights era, the McCarthy era, and other turning points in American history. The fifty-two sermons in this book have been selected, introduced, and annotated by Marc Saperstein, whose award-winning books on the history of Jewish preaching have established him as a leading expert on this subject. No other book illustrates as effectively the value of the sermon as a resource for understanding the challenges faced by American Jews at some of the most dramatic moments in the turbulent history of this century.
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 Nazi Nationalism, 1933
Chapter 2 Are We Civilized?, 1933
Chapter 3 The Call to Battle, 1934
Chapter 4 The Great Olympic Idea, 1935
Chapter 5 Must There Be War?, 1936
Chapter 6 Can Jews Afford to Be Pacifists. 1937
Chapter 7 Return to Thy People, 1938
Chapter 8 Unconquered, 1939
Chapter 9 The World We Make (Introduction), 1940; Sufferance Is the Badge, 1940
Chapter 10 Undying Fires, 1941
Chapter 11 The Mount of Sacrifice, 1942
Chapter 12 What Have We Jews to Be Thankful For?, 1942
Chapter 13 Farewell, 1943
Chapter 14 The Call of the Shofar, 1944
Chapter 15 The Voice of Joy and Gladness, 1945
Chapter 16 A Jewish Veteran Returns, 1946
Chapter 17 Passover-For Our Day, 1946
Chapter 18 The Resistance Movement in Palestine, 1946
Chapter 19 Thieves in the Night, 1947
Chapter 20 Israel and Us, 1948
Chapter 21 A Prince in Israel, 1949
Chapter 22 Outside the Law, 1949
Chapter 23 Chains of the Messiah, 1950
Chapter 24 Birth of a Nation, 1951
Chapter 25 "I Lift My Lamp," 1952
Chapter 26 The Fruits of Sacrifice, 1953
Chapter 27 Promise and Fulfillment, 1954
Chapter 28 How Leadership Fails, 1957
Chapter 29 Message from the Movies, 1958
Chapter 30 Jewish Life Behind the Iron Curtain, 1959
Chapter 31 Moral Issues of the Eichmann Case, 1961
Chapter 32 New Frontiers in Catholic-Jewish Relationships, 1962
Chapter 33 The American Dream, In Color, 1963
Chapter 34 Martyr for the American Dream, 1963
Chapter 35 "The Deputy"-Where Does the Guilt Lie, 1964
Chapter 36 The War on Poverty, 1965
Chapter 37 On the Freedom Trail in Alabama, 1965
Chapter 38 The Dilemma of Vietnam, 1966
Chapter 39 A Great Miracle Happened There, 1967
Chapter 40 An American Tragedy, 1968
Chapter 41 Portnoy's Complaint, And Mine, 1969
Chapter 42 The Ordeal of Soviet Jewry, 1970
Chapter 43 Dissent-Jewish Style, 1971
Chapter 44 Keepers of the Keys, 1972
Chapter 45 The War of the Day of Judgment, 1973
Chapter 46 Slaughter of the Innocent, 1974
Chapter 47 How My Mind Has Changed, 1975
Chapter 48 The Dream Shattered, 1975
Chapter 49 The Harvest of '77, 1977
Chapter 50 Jonestown and Masada, 1978
Chapter 51 Farewell to the "Me Decade," 1980
Chapter 52 Days I Remember, 1973
About the Author :
Harold I. Saperstein is Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Emanu-El of Lynbrook, N.Y., where he served for 47 years. Marc Saperstein is the Charles E. Smith Professor of Jewish History and Director of the Program in Judaic Studies at George Washington University. He is the author of four books, including Jewish Preaching 1200-1800 (1989) and Your Voice Like a Ram's Horn (1996), both winners of the National Jewish Book Award.
Review :
This selection from a lifetime of sermons is a treasure. We see a half-century of American Jewish history though the eyes of a learned rabbi who fought for justice and decency all his life. Rabbi Saperstein evoked for me the actions and the passions of all those days, and my admiration for him rose sermon by sermon.
Rabbi Harold I. Saperstein was a student of Stephen S. Wise. It is no wonder, then, that his preaching was a judgment on his time, reflecting the cadences and power of the biblical prophets. . . . This remarkable book is evidence of a burning fire in the marrow of the preacher's bones. It also points to the need for the prophetic voice, speaking with clarity and force about the ongoing issues of our own day.
This is a gem of a book, important reading for anyone interested in the inner life of American Jewry in the middle of the twentieth century. . . . What is remarkable in these sermons is that they not only read well, they remain interesting for their texture and nuance even decades after they were presented.
Reading these sermons now helps us to relive what was perhaps the most challenging era of Jewish history in millennia. We are indebted to Harold Saperstein for having appreciated the historic character of our generation and for having carefully preserved his homiletical output as a legacy to our posterity for generations to come.
