And They Shall Be My People: An American Rabbi and His Congregation

by Paul Wilkes

Publisher:

Grove Press

, 2007

Overview

A “lucid, compassionate, [and] inspiring" chronicle of an American Rabbi’s struggle to keep the faith of his congregation ( Chicago Tribune).
 
Journalist Paul Wilkes spent a year with Rabbi Jay Rosenbaum of Congregation Beth Israel in Worcester, Massachusetts. He silently observed the Rabbi’s life and work, got to know his congregation, and listened in as he performed the myriad tasks both spiritual and practical that occupy a Rabbi’s long day. Wilkes quickly learned that Rabbi Rosembaum is an extraordinary individual—a spiritual leader deeply committed to his congregation, a Jewish scholar steeped in ancient tradition, and an American man too familiar with the temptations of secular society.
 
Wilkes watched as Rabbi Rosenbaum worked—with unyielding confidence and nearly constant frustration—to draw his conservative congregation into more than just intermittent observance. This fascinating, thought-provoking book is at once an intimate portrait of a year in a rabbi’s life and a vivid account of the state of American Judaism today.

Praise for And They Shall Be My People

“A wonderful book . . . Lucid, compassionate, [and] inspiring.” —Chicago Tribune
 
“The heart of his book is the story of a community acting out the dilemma and contradictions of its dual identity . . . A useful contribution to the ethnography of modern religious life.” —Edward Hirsch, The New York Times Book Review
 
“A striking and valuable book. . . . A powerful, haunting story for a society easily seduced by new emphases and values.” —Gerald I. Wolpe, The Philadelphia Inquirer
 
“To call this ‘a revealing portrait’ is an understatement. It is a mirror of organized Jewish life.” —Robert L. Wolkoff, The Plain Dealer
 
“An engaging and affectionate book . . . One can only marvel at Wilkes’s keen powers of observation.” —Harold P. Aspis, Hadassah
 
“A kind of primer on Judaism, Jewish sociology, and American Jewish history.” —Elliot Abrams, Commentary

Product Details

• Title: And They Shall Be My People: An American Rabbi and His Congregation
• Author: Paul Wilkes
• Publisher: Grove Press
• Print Publication Date: 2007
• Logos Release Date: 2023
• Pages: 368
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Ebook
• ISBNs: 9780802196552, 9780802137258, 0802137253, 0802196551
• Resource ID: LLS:9780802196552
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2025-11-28T14:23:51Z

About Paul Wilkes

Paul Wilkes (born 1938) is an American writer of Slovak origin and filmmaker who is best known for his focus on religion, especially Roman Catholicism and its monastic tradition. He was born the youngest of seven children to immigrant parents, both Slovaks, in Cleveland, Ohio, where he attended Cathedral Latin High School. At Marquette University he received his B.A. in 1960. He then entered the U.S. Navy as a communications officer, serving from 1961 to 1964. In 1967 he completed an M.A.