When we genuinely care about people, we will not only welcome them; we will listen to their stories, we will share ours, and we will join together to build a Jewish community that enriches our lives."--from the IntroductionMembership in Jewish organizations is down. Day school enrollment has peaked. Federation campaigns are flat. The fastest growing and second largest category of Jews is "Just Jewish." Young Jewish adults are unengaged and aging baby boomers are disengaging. Yet, in the era of Facebook, people crave face-to-face community."It's all about relationships." With this simple, but profound idea, noted educator and community revitalization pioneer Dr. Ron Wolfson presents practical strategies and case studies to transform the old model of Jewish institutions into relational communities. He sets out twelve principles of relational engagement to guide Jewish lay leaders, professionals and community members in transforming institutions into inspiring communities whose value-proposition is to engage people and connect them to Judaism and community in meaningful and lasting ways.

    Its founders and early sponsors--Rousseau, Herder, Fichte, Korais, and Mazzini--looked to nationalism as the manifestation of modern humanity's most essential aspirations: autonomy, unity, identity. Born of notions regarding popular freedom and sovereignty that had been gathering momentum for generations, it conjured up images of a modernizing West at once hungry for change and yearning for a return to age-old concepts of fraternity and ancient heritage. Since that time nationalism, having taken on countless different dimensions, remains a vital and dynamic force for change--whether for good or otherwise.Despite only recently becoming the subject of scholarly debate, nationalism has been the focus of a truly prodigious amount of writing. This important Oxford Reader makes the topic more accessible by offering a broad, authoritative treatment of the key contributions to the subject, while giving unprecedented depth to recent debates and issues. Edited by two of the field's most influential scholars, the readings are representative of the vast array of experience and scholarship that have shaped the concept of nationalism for over two centuries. From Ernest Renan's What is a Nation?, written in the 1880s, to the more current views of the 1990s, Nationalism gathers under one cover an impressive array of writing on everything from imagined communities to ethno-regional movements. In no other volume will students of politics, history, sociology, anthropology, international relations, and cultural studies have access to such a definitive appraisal of one of the modern world's most influential--and explosive--ideas.

    But the subject has been addressed less often by mainstream historians than by anti-Semites or apologists. In this book Jerry Muller, a leading historian of capitalism, separates myth from reality to explain why the Jewish experience with capitalism has been so important and complex--and so ambivalent. Drawing on economic, social, political, and intellectual history from medieval Europe through contemporary America and Israel, "Capitalism and the Jews" examines the ways in which thinking about capitalism and thinking about the Jews have gone hand in hand in European thought, and why anticapitalism and anti-Semitism have frequently been linked. The book explains why Jews have tended to be disproportionately successful in capitalist societies, but also why Jews have numbered among the fiercest anticapitalists and Communists. The book shows how the ancient idea that money was unproductive led from the stigmatization of usury and the Jews to the stigmatization of finance and, ultimately, in Marxism, the stigmatization of capitalism itself. Finally, the book traces how the traditional status of the Jews as a diasporic merchant minority both encouraged their economic success and made them particularly vulnerable to the ethnic nationalism of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Providing a fresh look at an important but frequently misunderstood subject, "Capitalism and the Jews" will interest anyone who wants to understand the Jewish role in the development of capitalism, the role of capitalism in the modern fate of the Jews, or the ways in which the story of capitalism and the Jews has affected the history of Europe and beyond, from the medieval period to our own.

    After a highly publicized and controversial exit from Mormonism, Lamborn intertwines the story of his awakening with psychological aspects of religious belief.

    Expanded, updated, and revised. A complete resource to the traditions and rituals for welcoming a new child to the world and into the Jewish community, and for commemorating this joyous event in family life--whatever your family constellation.Provides ceremonies you can copy for handouts so that guests are an even greater part of the experience.Special section for interfaith families helps make the celebrations inclusive, comfortable, and joyous for all.Ceremonies for girls, as well as for boys."Drawn from the wealth of mythic, historic, religious, culinary, and literary traditions that surround the arrival of a new Jewish baby, and informed by contemporary insight and practice, The New Jewish Baby Book describes the many ways that new parents can celebrate the arrival of a child, the newest member of your extended families, and a unique and precious chapter in the on-going saga of the Jewish people."--from the Introduction

     For most Pagans of any denomination, Yule is a high holy season. The ancient festival was a 12 daylong celebration beginning on the eve of the Winter Solstice (known to most Pagans as Yule) and ending at the new calendar year. This celebration was so important in ancient times that it was converted by the Christians to the 12 Days of Christmas. Many Pagans, especially those devoted to the Norse and Anglo Saxon Gods and Goddesses try to find some way to keep these 12 days, yet many are unsure exactly how to celebrate. Social media blows up in the weeks leading up to the Solstice with questions like: How do you celebrate? What do you do exactly? What activities, what rituals, what prayers and celebrations? For the past several years I have been working on this guide in an attempt to answer some of those questions for my own family and for others. This guide is a result of creating family traditions for this special and most sacred (not to mention FUN!) time of year. I put it all together into one little, handy and easy to follow guide, so that you and your family can celebrate the 12 Days of Yule together, with a little inspiration from what our family has been doing. Please enjoy!

    

    Be prepared to question the world you live in and everything you thought you knew about the universe, human origins, and the lost civilizations of the past. Discover thought-bending evidence from some of the oldest text ever written and learn the reasons why their content eventually became suppressed and hidden from most of society. Conspiracy theories or conspiracy facts, you decide what's real based on the evidence. Once you read The Stage of Time, your perspective on reality may never be quite the same way again. This book includes: -Details about the ancient civilizations that once existed around the world and the events which led to their disappearance. -Translations from ancient texts that include: The Atrahasis, Enuma Elish, Sumerian King List, Eridu Genesis, Code of Hammurabi, Emerald Tablets, and more. -The eagle and the serpent, cataclysms during the last ice age, and the influences of the Anunnaki. -Secrets of consciousness, reincarnation, spirituality, and sentient life in the universe.

    Here’s what you will learn in this book; you will learn about the Buddha, history of Buddha and Buddhism, teachings of Buddha, about Buddhist philosophy, the 3 universal truths, noble truths, sufferings, eight fold path, divisions of Buddhism, the 5 precepts, how to practice Buddhism and more.Download your book today and learn Buddhism plain and simple.

    . . . I did have stories. I hadn’t dared to tell many people about them, but I definitely had had what I believed to be encounters with the Divine. I wondered if many other people had stories too. What happened next surprised me most. I realized that a Divine intelligence that many people call God is connecting with millions of people every day. These are their stories.” —from the IntroductionIn God Stories, Jennifer Skiff shares the extraordinary experiences of people who have felt the power of God’s presence in their lives and been forever changed. A doctor opens the chest of a dying heart patient to discover her heart is healed; Marines watch as a fellow soldier in Iraq is hit by a powerful explosion only to discover, when the dust settles, that he is still standing and has no injuries; a struggling couple receive an answer to a prayer and are prevented from making a mistake that could cost them their children; a young woman loses her boyfriend on 9/11 and receives a message that brings her peace.Reassuring, hopeful, and unforgettable, these amazing confirmations of divine intervention will lift your spirit and leave you wondering—and even remembering—when your life was touched by a miracle.

    Rabbi Bradley Artson, one of the truly inspirational and knowledgeable teachers of Torah of our time, weaves together the insights of ancient rabbis and sages, medieval commentators and philosophers, and modern scholars and religious leaders. The reflections in this collection offer three different commentaries on each of the 50 Torah portions, enlightening you into the Torah's infinite layers of meaning and offering opportunities to discover interpretations of your own.The Bedside Torah is an introduction to Jewish text study that is both learned and engaging . . . The language is conversational, the insights provocative, and the chapters are just the right length for reading before an inspired night's sleep. --Anita Diamant, author of The New Jewish Wedding, Choosing a Jewish Life, How to Be a Jewish Parent, The Red Tent, and Good HarborBradley Artson is one of the most insightful and articulate rabbis of his generation, as this volume clearly attests.--Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good PeopleIn The Bedside Torah, Rabbi Artson combines wisdom garnered from traditional Jewish sources and commentaries with anecdotes and insights drawn from his own life as well as the lives of all those he has served. In so doing, he has turned each weekly Torah portion into a series of revelations for the reader. The Bedside Torah is a treasure that will surely enrich the religious life of Jews as well as all those who seek comfort and guidance from Jewish scriptures.--Rabbi David Ellenson, Ph.D., president, Hebrew Union College--Jewish Institute of Religion

    Boyd adds another counterintuitive and provocative thesis to his corpus. While conservative scholars and pastors have struggled for years to show that the Bible is without errors, Boyd considers this a fool's errand. Instead, he says, we should embrace the mistakes and contradictions in Scripture, for they show that God chose to use fallible humans to communicate timeless truths. Just as God ultimately came to save humanity in the form of a human, God chose to impart truth through the imperfect medium of human writing. Instead of the Bible's imperfections being a reason to attack its veracity, these "problems" actually support the trustworthiness of Christian Scripture. Inspired Imperfection is required reading for anyone who's questioned the Bible because of its contradictions.

    How and why did this quintessential American folk-hero and pioneering industrialist become one of the most obsessive anti-Semites of our time-a man who devoted his immense financial resources to publishing a pernicious forgery, The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion? Once Henry Ford's virulent media campaign against the Jews took off during the "anxious decade" following World War I, how did America's splintered Jewish community attempt to cope with the relentless tirade conducted for ninety-one consecutive weeks in the automobile manufacturer's personal newspaper, The Dearborn Independent? What were the repercussions of Ford's Jew-hatred extending deeply into the 1930s? Drawing upon previously-uncited oral history transcripts, archival correspondence, and family memoirs, Neil Baldwin answers these and other questions, examining the conservative biases of the men at the inner circle of the Ford Motor Company and disentangling painful ideological struggles among an elite Jewish leadership reluctantly pitted against the clout and popularity of "The Flivver King."

    She never imagined when she grew up, she'd be lured into a polygamous marriage, spend her spare time dumpster diving to feed her kids, and fighting to escape her increasingly demented husband.How was she lured into such a lifestyle? What was day to day life like in the polygamous community? What eventually drove Miller to seek a new way of life?My Life As a Sister Wife: What You Don't Know Can Hurt You is the gripping, true-life story of Miller's life, beginning with her traumatic childhood and ending with her eventual freedom from a polygamous cult in Utah.

    In Daring to Ask for More, Melody Mason has shone the light of God’s Word on the path to true revival—Holy Spirit-inspired, daring, audacious prayer. I know this book will be a tremendous blessing to many.Doug Batchelor, President and Speaker, Amazing Facts If prayer is “the key in the hand of faith to unlock heaven’s storehouse” as Steps to Christ declares, then Melody Mason’s new book is long overdue. Daring to Ask for More is precisely God’s strategic appeal to this generation living on the edge of eternity. Daring to Ask for More indeed! May our hearts be stirred up as never before to seek God through prayer as never before, while there is still time.Dwight K. Nelson, Senior Pastor, Pioneer Memorial Church, Andrews University Melody Mason’s new book, Daring to Ask for More, is driving me to my knees. My needs are so great and my resources so few, what self-righteousness it is to pray so little. Thank you for that push!Frank Fournier, President, ASI