Twenty-five percent of all American Jews live in the Western United States, representing a distinctive and growing voice within Jewish life. Participation and identity in these communities show different features from the rest of American Jewry, in part reflecting the … [Read More]
Category Archives: Publications
More than 50 American Jewish federations completed local Jewish community studies from 1993 to 2010. Below examples are cited of how the results of these studies have been utilized to guide Jewish community decision-making.1 The North American Jewish Data Bank … [Read More]
Introduction1 Jewish men and women in the United States have become characterized by a gender imbalance that differs from most Jewish communities historically and from many other Jewish communities around the world today. In liberal Jewish America, women have become … [Read More]
There is a conflict between personal interests and collective Jewish welfare. As private citizens, we seek the former; as Jewish leaders, however, our primary concern should be the latter. Jewish leadership is entrusted with strengthening the collective Jewish endeavor. The … [Read More]
In the mid-twentieth century, Marshall Sklare, the “dean of American Jewish sociology,” declared regarding Orthodoxy that “the history of their movement in this country can be written in terms of a case study of institutional decay.”1 Indeed, it was not only … [Read More]
Steven M. Cohen observes: “When discussing ‘identity’ of Jews the term ‘identity’ is misleading. When applied to Jews, its connotations are too individual, too static, and too attitudinal. ‘Jewish identity’ is—or should be seen as—a social identity, referring not only … [Read More]
“In the mid-1970s Daniel Elazar wrote a comprehensive and seminal book, Community and Polity, which analyzed the structure of organized Jewish life in the United States.1 Elazar documented ways in which American Jewry had successfully developed from being highly fragmented to … [Read More]
The condition and comfort level of Jews are influenced to a great extent by society at large. Hence, to assess the future of American Jewry attention must also be given to potentially major changes in the social, political, and economic … [Read More]
Published in American Jewry’s Comfort Level by Manfred Gerstenfeld and Steven Bayme, 2010 American Jewry, like the America of which it is a component, in the years following World War II perceived itself as poised to undertake global responsibilities. By far … [Read More]
The conclusion of a strategic document should be short. The propaganda battles against Israel have developed over the past decades into a major war. The battles have also become far more sophisticated. Israel, however, has not properly organized its defenses, … [Read More]