Jewish Public Policy: Its Unexamined Premises

Publication Date: January 1991

Publisher: Jewish Communal Service Association of North America

Author(s): Murray Friedman

Research Area: Culture and religion; Politics; Social conditions

Keywords: Political Behavior; Religion; Communal Organization

Type: Report

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

The Jewish community relations field has failed to recognize and grapple with societal changes — the altered nature of the civil rights movement, the breakdown of traditional norms, and the erosion of support for Israel — that have occurred since the 1960s. These changes require an examination of the traditional community relations stance of support for the separation of church and state, for affirmative action that gives rise to quotas, and for an activist role of government in solving social and economic problems. The traditional forms of Amencan and Jewish liberalism must be redefined if the community relations field is to find effective ways of serving both the Jewish community and our fellow Americans.