List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
David N. Myers
Part I. First Sermon
1. Chapel Sermon, October 30, 1948
Commentary by Rabbi Samuel Karff
Part II. Inspirations
2. Sigmund Freud, May 11, 1956
Commentary by Professor Peter Loewenberg
3. Bertrand Russell's Autobiography: Three Passions in Life
Commentary by Dr. Joan Beerman
4. Looking at Kafka, January 8, 1982
Commentary by Professor Saul Friedlander
5. The Legacy of MLK, January 15, 1982
Commentary by the Reverend James M. Lawson Jr.
6. First Encounter with George (Regas), April 13, 2005
7. Why the Prophets Are Important, May 20, 1983
Commentary by Professor Jack Miles
Part III. Faith, Doubt, and Duty
8. Handwritten Reflections on Doubt, undated
Commentary by Rabbi Rachel Timoner
9. Can We Excommunicate God? April 30, 1965
Commentary by Professor Rabbi Rachel Adler
10. Duty of the Rabbi, undated
Commentary by Rabbi Richard Levy
11. From the Diary of a Leo Baeck Temple Rabbi, February 5, 1971
Commentary by Rabbi Kenneth Chasen
12. Rabbi Beerman's To-Do List
13. Yom Kippur Eve-Vocation of a Rabbi, September 17, 1972
Commentary by Rabbi Sharon Brous
14. Fast between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur to Protest Munich and Vietnam, September 1972
Commentary by Professor Steven J. Ross
15. My Troubles with God; God's Troubles with Me, February 9, 1979
Commentary by David Rintels
16. The Beginnings of an Outline for Jews to Consider, undated
Commentary by Aziza Hasan
Part IV. Social Justice
17. The Kindest Use a Knife, October 16, 1953
Commentary by Rabbi John L. Rosove
18. Is There a Relationship between Judaism and Social Justice?
April 14, 1954
Commentary by Rabbi Zoë Klein
19. The Problems of the City: A Jewish Dilemma, February 4, 1966
Commentary by Professor Rabbi Aryeh Cohen
20. UCLA Teach-In on Vietnam War, March 24, 1966
Commentary by Rabbi Sanford Ragins
21. Notes for Symposium on Black Power, January 6, 1967
Commentary by Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller
22. Letter to President Lyndon Johnson, April 13, 1967
Commentary by Judith Viorst
23. Rosh Hashanah Eve, September 30, 1970 (5731)
Commentary by Professor Jonathan D. Greenberg
24. How I Lost the Election in St. Louis, July 9, 1971
Commentary by Professor William Cutter
25. Invocation for Religious Leaders for McGovern, June 1, 1972
Commentary by the Reverend J. Edwin Bacon
26. Survival in a Nuclear Age, February 17, 1984
Commentary by the Reverend George F. Regas
27. California People of Faith against the Death Penalty, October 16, 2001; April 20, 2002
Commentary by Mike Farrell
28. Piece on Human Condition Written for the Office of the Americas, November 2, 2002
Commentary by Stephen Rohde
29. A Vision for a Bewildering Time: Commencement Address at Washington & Jefferson College, May 18, 2007
Commentary by Professor David Ellenson
30. Letter to President George W. Bush, April 11, 2008
Commentary by Norman Lear
31. Human Rights Watch, November 17, 2009
Commentary by Jane Olson
32. A Sermon for All Saints, July 3, 2011
Commentary by Mel Levine
Part V. Israel/Palestine
33. Time in Israel, Parts I and II, November 1967
Commentary by Daniel Sokatch
34. CCAR Breira Statement, 1977
Commentary by Professor Michael A. Meyer
35. Yom Kippur Morning, October 11, 1978
Commentary by Milton Viorst
36. Yom Kippur Eve, September 26, 1982
Commentary by Connie Bruck
37. Visions of Peace in the Middle East, October 31, 1992
Commentary by Salam al-Marayati
38. A Sermon for Yom Kippur Morning, October 1, 2006
Commentary by Rabbi Brant Rosen
39. Exchange of Letters with Bruce Ramer, October 2006-January 2007
Commentary by Bruce Ramer
40. A Sermon for Yom Kippur Morning, October 4, 2014
Commentary by Professor Nomi M. Stolzenberg
Sayings of Leonard I. Beerman
Notes
List of Contributors
Index

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more.
The Eternal Dissident offers rare insight into one of the most inspiring and controversial Reform rabbis of the twentieth century, Leonard Beerman, who was renowned both for his eloquent and challenging sermons and for his unrelenting commitment to social action. Beerman was a man of powerful word and action-a probing intellectual and stirring orator, as well as a nationally known opponent of McCarthyism, racial injustice, and Israeli policy in the occupied territories. The shared source of Beerman's thought and activism was the moral imperative of the Hebrew prophets, which he believed bestowed upon the Jewish people their role as the "eternal dissident." This volume brings Beerman to life through a selection of his most powerful writings, followed by commentaries from notable scholars, rabbis, and public personalities that speak to the quality and ongoing relevance of Beerman's work.