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Virtually unknown outside of her adopted hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, Jane Edna Hunter was one of the most influential African American social workers and progressive activists of the early to mid-twentieth century.

In her autobiography A Nickel and a Prayer, Hunter presents an enlightening two-part narrative that recollects her formative years in the post–Civil War South and her activist years in Cleveland. Published in 1940, Hunter’s autobiography recalls a childhood filled with the pleasures and pains of family life on the former plantation where her ancestors had toiled, adventures and achievements in schools for African American children, tests and trials during her brief marriage, and recognition and respect while completing nursing training and law school. When sharing the story of her life as an activist, Hunter describes the immense obstacles she overcame while developing an interracial coalition to support the establishment of the Working Girls Home Association (later, the Phillis Wheatley Association), a progressive institution intended to house and help unmarried African American women and girls, and nurture its growth from a rented home that provided accommodations for twenty-two women to a nine-story building that featured 135 rooms.

This new and annotated edition of A Nickel and a Prayer includes the final chapter, “Fireside Musings,” that Hunter added to the second, limited printing of her autobiography and an introduction that lauds her as a multifaceted social activist who not only engaged in racial uplift work, but impacted African American cultural production, increased higher education opportunities for women, and invigorated African American philanthropy. This important text restores Jane Edna Hunter to her rightful place among prominent African American leaders of the twentieth century.

Following the events of September 11, 2001, American Muslims found themselves under unprecedented scrutiny. Muslim communities in the United States suffered from negative representations of their religion, but they also experienced increased interest in aspects of their faith and cultures. They seized the opportunity to shape the intellectual contribution of American Muslims to contemporary Muslim thought as never before. Muslim women in particular—often assumed to be silenced, oppressed members of their own communities—challenged stereotypes through their writing, seeking to express what it means to be a Muslim woman in America and carrying out intra-Muslim debates about gender roles and women’s participation in society. Hammer looks at the work of significant female American Muslim writers, scholars, and activists, using their writings as a lens for a larger discussion of Muslim intellectual production in America and beyond.

Centered on the controversial women-led Friday prayer in March 2005, Hammer uses this event and its aftermath to address themes of faith, community, and public opinion. Tracing the writings of American Muslim women since 1990, the author covers an extensive list of authors, including Amina Wadud, Leila Ahmed, Asma Barlas, Riffat Hassan, Mohja Kahf, Azizah al-Hibri, Asra Normani, and Asma Gull Hasan. Hammer deftly examines each author’s writings, demonstrating that the debates that concern American Muslim women are at the heart of modern Muslim debates worldwide. While gender is the catalyst for Hammer’s study, her examination of these women’s intellectual output touches on themes central to contemporary Islam: authority, tradition, Islamic law, justice, and authenticity.

This ebook is not sold by CCAR Press and must be ordered from the external ebook stores below.

This companion volume to Gates of Prayer includes essays on worship, liturgy, holiness, theology, music, and more, written by leading thinkers of their day. Also included are notes on Gates of Prayer written by Chaim Stern and A. Stanley Dreyfus. An invaluable resource for anyone interested in the history and development of liturgy and Reform Jewish practice.
 

A religious commentary to help High Holy Days worshipers unlock the message behind the liturgy. Covers the history and tradition of the prayers, music in the service, synagogue poetry, the role of God, sin, repentance, and much more. Also includes comprehensive notes to Gates of Repentance and a thorough index.
 

After having developed and published a new High Holy Day machzor, the CCAR invites Reform Jews to engage in study on related themes. This collection includes a wealth of material for individual or group study, including presentations on Un'taneh Tokef, Kol Nidrei, and Avinu Malkeinu, High Holy Day-themed essays from back issues of the CCAR Journal, and discussion questions.

This groundbreaking collection of LGBTQ prayers, poems, liturgy, and rituals is both a spiritual resource and a celebratory affirmation of Jewish diversity. Giving voice to the private and public sectors of queer Jewish experience, Mishkan Ga'avah is also a commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of both the Stonewall Riots and the first pride march, reflecting the longtime advocacy of the Reform Movement for full LGBTQ inclusion.

This beautiful compilation contains contemplative readings and prayers for many different moments of spiritual need, including illness, surgery, treatment, hearing good news, transitions, addiction, infertility, end-of-life, and more.

This Grateful Heart offers an anthology of modern day psalms and prayers to lift us up, inspire our days, and mark our milestones. Written by Jewish poet and liturgist Alden Solovy, the collection provides nearly 100 readings, spanning topics from the simple delights of daily living to the complexities of grief; from the celebration of major turning points like bar and bat mitzvah to the more solemn commemoration of lost lives and ended relationships; and from the awe-filled moments of the High Holy Days to the observance of secular holidays. For clergy, this collection offers supplementary material for use in services and life cycle rituals; for the individual, this collection can serve as a way to give voice to the joys and sorrows of everyday life.

Like its predecessor, This Grateful Heart, this volume of creative liturgy opens a door into the transformative power of prayer. Structured to reflect the morning service found within Mishkan T'filah, this collection invites a deeply personal prayer experience that will strengthen our connection to Judaism and to the Reform siddur.

Writing on Water grasps the phenomenon of sound in prayer, that is, a meaning in sounds and soundscapes, and a musical essence in the act of praying.

The impetus for the book arose from the author’s fieldwork among traditional Jews during the era of communism in Budapest and Prague. In that period the Jewish religion and Jewishness in general were supressed and rituals became semi-secret and turned inward. The book is a witness to these communities and their rituals, but it goes beyond documentation. The uniqueness of the sounds of the rituals compelled the author to try to comprehend how melodies and soundscapes became the sustaining/protective environment, as well as the vehicle, for the expression of a world-orientation—in a situation where open discourse was inconceivable.

The book is based on extensive interviews, musical recordings, photographs and scholarly analyses. It is unique in its choice of communities, its wealth of original documents, and its novel interpretation of sound.

Writing on Water is creative non-fiction. The presentation is evocative and poetic, but at the same time it transmits knowledge. The book can aid research and serve in courses in philosophy, religion, music, ethnomusicology, anthropology, aesthetics, Jewish studies, folklore, oral history, and performance studies. It is also a work of art and literature.