New Rabbi

Complete with a new Afterword that brings the book up to date, The New Rabbi is the riveting chronicle of Har Zion Temple on Philadelphia's Main Line, which for the last seventy-five years has been one of the largest and most influential congregations in America. For thirty years Rabbi Gerald Wolpe has been its spiritual leader, a brilliant sermonizer of wide renown-but now he has announced his retirement. It is the start of a remarkable nationwide search process largely unknown to the lay world-and of much more. For at this dramatic moment Wolpe agrees to give extraordinary access to Fried, inviting him-and the reader-into the intense personal and professional life of the clergy and the complex behind-the-scenes life of a major Conservative congregation. The result is a front-row seat at the usually clandestine process of choosing a new rabbi-as what was expected to be a simple search for a successor nearly tears a venerable congregation apart. Rich in anecdote and scenes of wonderful immediacy, this is a captivating book about the search for personal faith, the tension between secular concerns and ancient tradition in affluent America, and the dramatic life of a landmark congregation as it seeks to reinvent itself for the next generation.Fried, Stephen is the author of 'New Rabbi' with ISBN 9780553380750 and ISBN 0553380753.