Jewish Science
A Jewish New Thought movement emphasizing God as energy.
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Jewish Science is a spiritual movement within Judaism, linked to New Thought, that interprets Jewish philosophy. Conceived by Rabbi Alfred Geiger Moses in the early 1900s, it counts many members who also attend regular synagogue services.
Quick Facts
- Founder
- Rabbi Alfred Geiger Moses
- Foundational text
- Jewish Science: Divine Healing in Judaism (1916)
- Institutionalized
- 1922 with Rabbi Morris Lichtenstein's founding of the Society of Jewish Science
- First female spiritual leader
- Tehilla Lichtenstein (1938, not ordained)
- Current locations
- Midtown Manhattan, New York
- Los Angeles, California
- study groups nationwide
Facts from the source article.
History
The movement gained prominence through radio broadcasts on WMCA and the publication of the Jewish Science Interpreter magazine. In 1938, Tehilla Lichtenstein became the spiritual leader of the Society of Jewish Science in New York, the first Jewish American woman to serve as the spiritual leader of an ongoing Jewish congregation, though she was not ordained. Today the Society's Home Center and synagogue is in midtown Manhattan, with a congregation in Los Angeles and many study groups across the country.
Affirmative prayer
Morris Lichtenstein promoted affirmative prayer as a way to gain personal benefits without believing in a supernatural God who could suspend natural laws. He saw it as a method to access an inner power considered divine but not supernatural. He taught that the origins of affirmative prayer are in the Book of Psalms, and that such affirmations are best offered in silence.
More in Jewish Religious Movements
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Jewish Science (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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