Behind the headlines US Jews have a 'thirst for spirituality' that is unquenched

Join ToI Community as Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove calls for a new American Judaism

Access Wednesday’s Behind the Headlines series by becoming a ToI Community member today and hear how this need for deep reckoning and rethinking in US Jewry may be its salvation

By ToI Staff 27 October 2020, 10:38 pm

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Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove, head rabbi at New York's Park Avenue Synagogue. (courtesy)

Please join us this Wednesday, October 28, for a special Behind the Headlines interview, exclusively for The Times of Israel Community.

Two years following the massacre at Pittsburgh, deep in the throes of the coronavirus crisis, and just ahead of a polarizing United States presidential election, Park Avenue Synagogue Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove will discuss the pressing need for a new vision of American Jewry, as congregations across the nation experience unprecedented upheaval.

Just as Judaism has reinvented itself and thrived over millennia, despite one disaster after another, he believes it is again time for a reckoning among Jewish institutions and congregations. Cosgrove’s vision for the future is inspiring and comforting. American Jews are “thirsty for spirituality,” he says — how can we quench that thirst?

Cosgrove, a leading voice in Conservative Judaism, has served as head rabbi of New York’s 138-year-old Park Avenue Synagogue since 2008. He is the author of 11 collections of selected sermons, and his essays and op-eds frequently appear in leading publications. We will discuss two of his timely sermons — Let There Be Disruption (pre-COVID) and Let There Be Reconstruction (post-COVID).

Pope Francis stands in between Rabbi Elliot J. Cosgrove, left, and Iman Khalid Latif, right, executive director of the Islamic Center and chaplain to the students at New York University, during a multi-religious service at the Sept. 11 Memorial Museum in New York, on Friday Sept. 25, 2015. (L’Osservatore Romano/Pool Photo via AP)

Cosgrove will speak with Amanda Borschel-Dan, The Times of Israel’s Deputy Editor.

The discussion will be aired on YouTube on Wednesday, October 28, at 8 p.m. EDT, 5 pm PDT. A recording will be available for Community members after this time at the same link.

If you’d like to join the session with Cosgrove on October 28 — it’s not too late. Become a Times of Israel Community member today and you’ll gain access to this Wednesday’s special session, along with all of our upcoming exclusive webinars. You’ll also gain an ad-free experience of the ToI site and apps, and a weekly insider letter from David Horovitz.

If you are already a ToI Community member, you’ll receive a link to this session by email.