The Future of the American Jewish Community: Lo Zu Haderech

Publication Date: January 1995

Publisher: Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry

Author(s): Allen Gliksman

Research Area: Culture and religion; Social conditions

Keywords: American Jews; Jewish identification

Type: Report

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

In Contemporary Jewry 16, 122-125. The author responds to David Elazar's paper on the Future of the American Jewish Community (in the same volume). While Elazar argues that at least some of the innovations coming from within the formal institutions of the American Jewish community may have the effect of strengthening the sense of community and covenant, Gliksman believes that the bottom line is that rather than building a stronger community, much of what is going on today, especially under the fashionable rubric of 'Jewish Identity Programming,' may accelerate the process of assimilation and further undermine the sense of community and covenant.