In his debut nov­el, Raphael D. Sil­ver — pro­duc­er of such notable films as Hes­ter Street and Cross­ing Delancey—tells the sto­ry of Eli Stone’s final days as senior rab­bi and the dra­ma sur­round­ing his suc­ces­sion. At age 65, after forty years of lead­ing Cleve­land’s largest reform con­gre­ga­tion, Rab­bi Stone is struck with a cru­el ill­ness: ALS. Soon the revered, com­mand­ing Eli is forced to face the bleak real­i­ty of los­ing his mobil­i­ty, his dig­ni­ty, and his calling.

Involv­ing a large cast of rich­ly drawn char­ac­ters, Con­gre­ga­tion’s dra­ma unfolds inside the syn­a­gogue and beyond it, from the back­rooms of Wall Street and Major League Base­ball to seclud­ed bed­rooms. Through it all — from a bit­ter strug­gle over the selec­tion of Eli’s suc­ces­sor to the hos­tile takeover of a pub­lic com­pa­ny, orches­trat­ed by the deal-mak­ing shark who hap­pens to be the boss of Eli’s only son — Sil­ver explores the com­plex bonds among peo­ple who pray together.