The Third Jewish Catalog: Creating Community : With a Cumulative Index to All 3 Catalogs [Paperback]

Sharon Strassfeld (Editor), Michael Strassfeld (Editor)

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Jewish Pubn Society; 1st edition (December 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0827601832
• ISBN-13: 978-0827601833
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #504,780 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Yet Another Great Resource, May 26, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Third Jewish Catalog: Creating Community : With a Cumulative Index to All 3 Catalogs (Paperback)

After wanting the First Jewish Catalog for a year, I finally went out to buy it only to discover that there were now a second and third... So I got them all, and I'm glad I did because only the Third contains an index to everything included in all three volumes. The third catalog is worth buying if only for that! It's focus is on community building.

5.0 out of 5 stars THE THIRD AND FINAL VOLUME OF A VERY HELPFUL AND INFORMATIVE SET, May 10, 2011

By 

Steven H. Propp (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Third Jewish Catalog: Creating Community : With a Cumulative Index to All 3 Catalogs (Paperback)

The Editors state in the foreword to this book, "Before you, friends and readers, lies the end product of a process that began over seven years ago with the publication of The First Jewish Catalog: A Do-It-Yourself Kit (1973)... (which) attempted to make accessible to Jews with a variety of backgrounds the richness of Jewish tradition, ritual, and custom... The Second Jewish Catalog: Sources and Resources (1975) continued this approach, advancing the discussion of Jewish practices and concepts, seeking always to make them part of modern Jewish life... 'The Third Jewish Catalog,' then, subtitled 'Creating Community,' grapples with the question of ... the people Israel and its responsibility to itself and the world. Thus, there is less ritual and more 'issues,' less 'how-to' and more pointers and signposts indicating the Jewish way for ethical living."

The book is subdivided into topics of "Justice," "Community," "Routes," "Dispersion," "Exile," "Surroundings," and "Israel." Here are some quotations from the book:

"In recent years Jewish federations have drawn a variety of adverse comments... The cultural criticism has been voiced by rabbis, Jewish educators, and organized Orthodoxy... this group makes two major charges: 1. Far too much of the federation allocations are made to hospitals, Y's, and recreational facilitites of low Jewish identification content. 2. Far too little of the federations' monies are allocated to Jewish education, Jewish cultural life, the arts, and scholarship." (Pg. 36-37)
"One of the issues that different groups and individuals have struggled with is the priority of Jewish issues over non-Jewish ones... There is a natural pull to Jewish concerns... Yet should we concern ourselves only with ourselves---even in a broad sense? Does a non-Jew who is starving to death have a greater claim on us than a Soviet Jew seeking to leave Russia?" (Pg. 49)
"Although historically the Jewish community has gone out of its way to reject intermarried couples ... I believe that the time for this 'luxury' has passed. Practicality alone ... should teach us... It is no longer in our own best interest to ignore the intermarried couple. The erosion has gone too deep." (Pg. 258)
"The truth is that Israel's influence on us is much stronger than we realize, but that is only becasue we want it that way." (PG. 337-338)

3.0 out of 5 stars I'd go higher, but a lot is out of date. This needs updating., March 6, 2011

By 

Eric Oppen (Iowa Falls, IA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Third Jewish Catalog: Creating Community : With a Cumulative Index to All 3 Catalogs (Paperback)

The three _Jewish Catalogs_ are, between them, a _Whole Earth Catalog_ for Jews who want to get more involved with their religion. Unfortunately, they were published a while ago and haven't been updated. An updated, consolidated version would be a very useful reference and tool.