The Future of American Jewry

Publication Date: January 1995

Publisher: Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs

Author(s): Daniel J. Elazar

Research Area: Culture and religion

Keywords: Jewish Identification; Jewish Continuity; History; Migration

Type: Other

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

The author differentiates between the United States and American Jewry and then discusses five conspicuous patterns of Jewish American adaptation to American life beginning in the mid 1970s. He offers four proposals on how to adapt and remain Jewish. The author is cautiously optimistic about the ability of American Jewry to rebuild a viable Jewish life in the United States. He argues that Judaism cannot be preserved through ethnicity alone. Rather, he concludes that Jewishness can only survive if built around Judaism.