What a Brilliant Irish Catholic Teaches about the Discontents of the Jews: Reflections on John Murray Cuddihy and “The Ordeal of Civility”

with Rabbi John Moscowitz

How exactly did most of our grandparents or great grandparents lurch from a Yiddish speaking (and thinking!) tribal, East European culture to a mannered Protestant one in but a generation or so? JM Cuddihy, in the most interesting book of its kind, offers his trenchant thinking on this “wrenching” and inadequately understood saga. Come to hear about this “ordeal of civility” and its implications for us.

HBT Members: for the zoom link to this study session, please go to holyblossom.org/hhd

John Moscowitz arrived in Toronto in 1987 from Los Angeles as Associate Rabbi before becoming the congregation’s Sr. Rabbi in 2000. He served in that role for fourteen years, during which time (among other things) he initiated the synagogue’s renewal project. The author of “Evolution of An Unorthodox Rabbi”, Rabbi Moscowitz is writing a memoir (which he anticipates publishing before the Messiah arrives). He is Holy Blossom’s rabbi emeritus.