Lawrence Grossman, "Living in Both Worlds: Modern Orthodox Judaism in the United States, 1945-2025" (Academic Studies Press, 2025)

In American Judaism today, Orthodoxy is the fastest growing movement. However, Orthodoxy is anything but monolithic.

Living in Both Worlds: Modern Orthodox Judaism in the United States, 1945–2025 by Lawrence Grossman explores a piece of the Orthodox story, that of Modern Orthodoxy.

For those who may be unfamiliar, Modern Orthodoxy affirms the traditional tenets and practices of Orthodox Judaism while at the same time maintaining an openness to contemporary cultural and intellectual developments. Beginning in the post-World War II era, Living in Both Worlds shows how a fledgling Modern Orthodoxy carved out an identity separate and apart from unacculturated ultra-Orthodoxy to its right and Conservative Judaism to its left, and follows its development through the first quarter of the twenty-first century as new, divisive issues such as feminism, LGBTQ rights, and the spread of academic biblical scholarship challenged its coherence, and a rejuvenated ultra-Orthodoxy contested its religious legitimacy.

This is a book that not only records history but challenges us to think deeply about question about how modernity and tradition intersect and explores the delicate dance to have fidelity to both the past and the present moment.

Rabbi Lawrence Grossman worked at the American Jewish Committee for close to 40 years, serving as director of publications and editor of the American Jewish Year Book. He earned BA and MHL degrees and rabbinical ordination from Yeshiva University, and a PhD in history from the City University of New York Graduate Center.

Rabbi Marc Katz is the Senior Rabbi at Temple Ner Tamid in Bloomfield NJ. He is the author of Yochanan's Gamble: Judaism's Pragmatic Approach to Life (JPS)

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