For more than forty years there was a single synagogue in the quiet town of Willamette, Oregon. But then disagreements over gender roles, homosexuality, Israeli politics, and other issues tore the synagogue in two. Where there was once one Jewish community under one roof, there are now two hostile congregations - one liberal Reconstructivist, one conservative Orthodoxacross the street from one another.

Through a year as a participant in both congregations and in-depth interviews, Zuckerman tells the mesmerizing story of this religious schism. Strife in the Sanctuary then contemplates why religious groups split apart and how religious symbols come to mean different things for different groups.