New Membership & Financial Alternatives for the American Synagogue: From Traditional Dues to Fair Share to Gifts from the Heart - Softcover

Rabbi Kerry M. Olitzky, named one of the fifty leading rabbis in North America by Newsweek, is well known for his inspiring books that bring the Jewish wisdom tradition into everyday life. He is executive director of Big Tent Judaism, formerly Jewish Outreach Institute, and is author of many books on Jewish spirituality, healing and Jewish religious practice, including Making a Successful Jewish Interfaith Marriage: The Big Tent Judaism Guide to Opportunities, Challenges and Resources; Introducing My Faith and My Community: The Jewish Outreach Institute Guide for a Christian in a Jewish Interfaith Relationship; Jewish Paths toward Healing and Wholeness: A Personal Guide to Dealing with Suffering; Grief in Our Seasons: A Mourner's Kaddish Companion; Twelve Jewish Steps to Recovery: A Personal Guide to Turning from Alcoholism & Other Addictions―Drugs, Food, Gambling, Sex...; Facing Cancer as a Family; Life's Daily Blessings: Inspiring Reflections on Gratitude for Every Day, Based on Jewish Wisdom; 100 Blessings Every Day: Daily Twelve Step Recovery Affirmations, Exercises for Personal Growth and Renewal Reflecting Seasons of the Jewish Year and Recovery from Codependance: A Jewish Twelve Step Guide to Healing Your Soul. He is also coauthor of Grandparenting Interfaith Grandchildren; Jewish Holidays: A Brief Introduction for Christians; Jewish Ritual: A Brief Introduction for Christians; Renewed Each Day, Vol. One―Genesis and Exodus: Daily Twelve Step Recovery Meditations; Renewed Each Day, Vol. Two―Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy: Daily Twelve Step Recovery Meditations Based on the Bible and coeditor of The Rituals and Practices of a Jewish Life: A Handbook for Personal Spiritual Renewal (all Jewish Lights).

Rabbi Kerry M. Olitzky is available to speak on the following topics:

• The Jewish Twelve Step Path to Healing and Recovery
• Sparks Beneath the Surface: A Spiritual Read on the Torah
• Welcoming the Stranger in Our Midst
• How to Nurture Jewish Grandchildren Being Raised in an Interfaith Family
• Optimism for a Jewish Future

Click here to contact the author.

Rabbi Avi S. Olitzky is spiritual leader at Beth El Synagogue, St. Louis Park, Minnesota.

Dr. Ron Wolfson, visionary educator and inspirational speaker, is Fingerhut Professor of Education at American Jewish University in Los Angeles and a cofounder of Synagogue 3000. He is author of Relational Judaism: Using the Power of Relationships to Transform the Jewish Community; The Seven Questions You're Asked in Heaven: Reviewing and Renewing Your Life on Earth; Be Like God: God's To-Do List for Kids; God's To-Do List: 103 Ways to Be an Angel and Do God's Work on Earth; Hanukkah, Passover and Shabbat, all Federation of Jewish Men's Clubs Art of Jewish Living family guides to spiritual celebrations; The Spirituality of Welcoming: How to Transform Your Congregation into a Sacred Community; A Time to Mourn, a Time to Comfort: A Guide to Jewish Bereavement and Comfort and, with Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, What You Will See Inside a Synagogue (all Jewish Lights), a book for children ages 6 and up. He contributed to May God Remember: Memory and Memorializing in Judaism―Yizkor, Who by Fire, Who by Water―Un'taneh Tokef, All These Vows―Kol Nidre and We Have Sinned: Sin and Confession in Judaism―Ashamnu and Al Chet (all Jewish Lights).

Rabbi Daniel Judson, spiritual leader of Temple Beth David of the South Shore in Canton, Massachusetts, is coeditor of The Rituals and Practices of a Jewish Life: A Handbook for Personal Spiritual Renewal and coauthor of The Jewish Pregnancy Book: A Resource for the Soul, Body and Mind during Pregnancy, Birth and the First Three Months (both Jewish Lights). He is a frequent guest speaker at both Jewish and Christian congregations.

"Practical.... Synagogues are well advised to think through these issues with the Olitzkys as their guide."
―Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, PhD, professor of liturgy, Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion; author, Rethinking Synagogues: A New Vocabulary for Congregational Life and other books

"At a time when the current dues model is no longer aligned with contemporary values, synagogues must seek alternatives.... A much needed resource for those who have begun this search."
―Cantor Adina Frydman, executive director, SYNERGY: UJA-Federation of New York and Synagogues Together

“Very helpful in freeing us from the bounds of the status quo and in stimulating creative thought.”
―Rabbi Edward Feinstein, Valley Beth Shalom, Encino, California; author, The Chutzpah Imperative: Empowering Today's Jews for a Life That Matters

“An important resource for those congregational leaders that are ready to do the hard but necessary work to re-think their way of doing business.”
―Rabbi Sidney Schwarz, senior fellow, Clal―The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership; author, Jewish Megatrends: Charting the Course of the American Jewish Future

“A strong book!... An ideal starting point. Buy a stack of these and reboot the conversation.... Full of interesting and tested new models that will push you to write your own chapter for the next volume on this topic.”
―Rabbi B. Elka Abrahamson, president, Wexner Foundation

“An enormous array of very useful offerings that will help inform the critical deliberations congregations and their leaders must be having as they set a course for a bright Jewish future.”
―Rabbi Aaron Panken, PhD, president, Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion

“The Rabbis Olitzky have faced head on what many of us are afraid to look at: for synagogues to survive they must change. Their compelling book is rooted in their love of synagogues, and it is their optimism about what is possible which allows them to examine models that, however radical, all suggest a vision of Jewish communal survival.”
―Rabbi Mychal Springer, chair, professional and pastoral skills and director, Center for Pastoral Education, The Jewish Theological Seminary

“A very helpful, thorough guide for synagogue and Jewish communal leaders, clergy and prospective clergy.... A veritable playbook that addresses the key questions involved with each model, the pitfalls to be avoided and the process synagogue leadership must utilize to implement them.... A must-read for all who care about the future of synagogue affiliation and its financial stability ... in essence, the future of Jewish life in America.”
―Rabbi Norman Cohen, professor emeritus of midrash, Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion; author, Believing and Its Tensions: A Personal Conversation about God, Torah, Suffering and Death in Jewish Thought

“Offers new thinking and new models of affiliation. Whether we are committed to old ways or searching for new ones, this work will provoke reflection and open possibilities.”
―Dr. Steven M. Cohen, research professor of Jewish social policy, Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion

“Finally, a book that not only explains the challenges facing American synagogues today, but actually offers realistic, creative and constructive ways to overcome them.... Give[s] synagogues of every size the tools and the confidence to look beyond what is―to what needs to be.”
―Rabbi David Rosen, senior rabbi, Congregation Beth Yeshurun, Houston, Texas

“[The] Rabbis Olitzky ... ask critical questions and suggest bold solutions, all in the service of vitalizing synagogues.... A helpful sourcebook for important conversations.”
―Rabbi Deborah Waxman, PhD, president, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and Jewish Reconstructionist Communities

“Packed with clarifying ideas and refreshing experiments, encourages us to get ahead of the curve, to be ambitious in our aspirations.”
―Rabbi Yael Splansky, Holy Blossom Temple, Toronto, Ontario; author, URJ's “Reform Voices of Torah: 2012 Commentary on Deuteronomy”

“Instead of focusing on the doom and gloom of synagogue life, the Rabbis Olitzky write a practical and common 'cents' book about how our temple communities can grow and thrive.”
―Craig Taubman, musician; founder, Pico Union Project, Los Angeles, California

“Honestly, lovingly and productively examines the difficult issue of synagogue membership.... An intelligent and well-balanced book, based on careful research.... Should be a requirement for all rabbis, lay leaders and rabbinical students to read, ponder and begin to think about what the future of their organization should look like.”
―Rabbi Asher Lopatin, president, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School