Conservative Jews Research Articles

Antisemitism and polarization: the political dynamics of American Jewish concerns about traditional and Israel-related antisemitism

ABSTRACT Notwithstanding the increasing alignment between social and political identities, political divisions exist within social groups as well as between them. Despite their shared traditions, American Jews face similar political divisions as Americans in general. But could the perception of a common threat, such as antisemitism, alter the dynamics of political polarization within a social group? American Jews’ concerns about antisemitism might themselves be filtered through political identities, with liberal Jews more concerned about “traditional” antisemitism (long-standing anti-Jewish stereotypes) emanating from the political right, and conservative Jews concerned about “Israel-related” antisemitism (blaming individual Jews for the actions of Israel) associated with the political left. Using a sample of over 2000 Jewish young adults, we find that, although liberal and conservative Jews are equally concerned about traditional antisemitism, conservatives are significantly more concerned about Israel-related antisemitism than liberals. We also find that, after a series of high-profile attacks on American Jews related to the 2021 Israel–Hamas conflict, liberal and conservative Jews’ concerns about Israel-related antisemitism increased at similar rates. These results suggest that, although concerns about antisemitism are influenced by political identity, rising antisemitism is unlikely to exacerbate political polarization between liberal and conservative Jews.

Social Change and Halakhic Evolution in American Orthodoxy by Chaim Waxman

Reviewed by: Social Change and Halakhic Evolution in American Orthodoxy by Chaim Waxman David Ellenson Chaim Waxman . Social Change and Halakhic Evolution in American Orthodoxy . Liverpool : Littman Library of Jewish Civilization , 2017 . vi + 226 pp. doi:10.1017/S0364009420000604 In 1967, the famed sociologist Peter Berger declared that "secularization has resulted in a widespread collapse of the plausibility of traditional religious definitions of reality." 1 Almost five decades later, in 2014, Berger was moved to conclude that this observation was simply wrong. He candidly admitted, [End Page 198] "So-called secularization theory was mistaken in the assumption that modernity necessarily leads to a decline in religion." 2 In his later work, Berger argued that the pluralism and fragmentation that marked the modern social condition led to the resurgence of traditional religion and a renewed quest for spiritual expression and meaning in the modern context. This development serves as a decisive backdrop for understanding the substance and importance of Social Change and Halakhic Evolution in American Orthodoxy by Chaim Waxman. Waxman, who (along with Samuel Heilman) is the foremost contemporary sociological commentator on the state of Orthodox Judaism, writes as the paradigmatic "insider-outsider" in all his writings on Orthodox Judaism in the contemporary setting. In this volume, he draws brilliantly on this lifetime of scholarship to illuminate the history and character of Orthodox Judaism in America in a time of religious revival. His framework is self-consciously "sociological rather than ideological or religious-legal" (3). He emphasizes throughout his book that Orthodox Judaism cannot be understood apart from the contours of the sociological and historical contexts in which Orthodox Jews and their institutions find themselves. Waxman's portrait of American Orthodox Judaism shows what distinguishes Orthodox Jews and Judaism from non-Orthodox Jews and Judaism in this nation while highlighting the breadth and diversity of American Orthodox Judaism itself. At the very outset of this volume, Waxman employs the familiar categories of "Modern Orthodox" and "ultra-Orthodox" as "ideal-types" for comprehending the nature of Orthodox Judaism both past and present in America. While each group displays a commitment to halakhic observance, the birthrates of each group, their economic success in American society, and their attitudes toward a whole host of social and cultural issues demonstrate the diversity of Orthodox opinions and practices. Waxman illuminates what distinguishes all circles of American Orthodox Jews from the non-Orthodox by highlighting their demographic, political, and cultural-religious differences. He points out that in the New York area, the birthrate in the ultra-Orthodox community is twelve times that of the non-Orthodox world and that Modern Orthodox Jews have more than double the birthrate of Reform and Conservative Jews nationwide. Politically, the Orthodox world is much more heavily Republican than the non-Orthodox one, and it fails to support the traditional wall of separation between religion and state that is championed by a majority of American Jews. While Orthodox Jews have an average income lower than non-Orthodox Jews, Waxman reports that there are proportionately a larger number of households with annual incomes of more than $150,000 in the Modern Orthodox community than exist in the non-Orthodox Jewish world. This affluence among the Modern Orthodox, combined with bloc-voting among the ultra-Orthodox that assures patronage and grants from state and local governments, play key roles in sustaining ever-burgeoning Orthodox institutions and schools. Waxman pays careful attention to history by pointing out how the immigration of Rabbi Aharon Kotler to the United States in 1941 and his establishment of [End Page 199] the ultra-Orthodox Lakewood Yeshiva, along with the arrival of 140,000 Hungarian ultra-Orthodox Jews on these shores in the aftermath of the Holocaust, combined with the current-day economic and political developments mentioned above to strengthen all sectors of American Orthodox Judaism. The result of these demographic, cultural, religious, and economic factors is that Jewish day school education has become standard among the overwhelming number of Orthodox Jews in America, whether Modern or ultra-Orthodox. Orthodox Jews, unlike most of their non-Orthodox counterparts, therefore currently inhabit what can be described anthropologically as a "thick Jewish culture." The phenomenon of "nonobservant Orthodox Jews"—who belong...

Projecting Religious Demographics: The Case of Jews in the United States

AbstractDrawing upon the comprehensive survey of the American Jewish population conducted in 2013 by the Pew Research Center, we estimate the trajectory of the population and its denominational segments, 50 years into the future. Our analysis relies upon estimates of the population in 2013, fertility rates, marriage behaviors, and denominational switching patterns as inputs into a model of population demographics. We project that over the next 50 years, the demographics of U.S. Jews are likely to change dramatically, with the share of the population that is Orthodox rising from 12 percent to 29 percent, with their share of the child population increasing from 22 percent to 51 percent. Among Reform and Conservative Jews, the number of 30‐ to 69‐year‐olds is projected to drop by approximately 46 percent over this period. We also project a slight drop in the total Jewish population followed by a recovery propelled by the growing Orthodox population.

Faith in Beauty and Progress: Temple Beth El

ABSTRACT In the 1920s Harrisburg's acculturated Reform and Conservative Jews found in City Beautiful aesthetics and ideals the architecture and ideology appropriate for expressing publicly their cultural identity as thoroughly modern Americans and Jews. Temple Beth El and Temple Ohev Sholom, both built on Front Street in uptown Harrisburg, stand as the ultimate material outcome and testimony to the synergistic interweaving of early twentieth century American and Jewish progressivism. A book commemorating Temple Beth El's 1928 dedication, produced by J. Horace McFarland's Mount Pleasant Press in 1930, documents in word and image connections between the founding of the congregation, the building of its temple, and the sensibilities and goals of the City Beautiful movement.

Time and Tradition as Reflected in the Etz Hayim Torah Commentary

AbstractAt the beginning of the twenty‐first century, the Conservative Movement in North America published a Torah commentary reflecting its historical and theological elucidation of Judaism. This commentary, Etz Hayim, evinces a number of features that the following essay subjects to critical comment and analysis. These include: the commentary’s emphasis on historical context as critical to deciphering the Torah narratives and its laws; the presupposition that Judaism functions as an organism constantly in flux, open to patterns of progress and decline, with an aptitude for rebirth and self‐renewal; and that the pivotal rubrics of belonging, believing, and behaving are quintessential features of Jewish identity. While these characteristics are relatively uncontroversial, the same cannot be said for the editorial decision to divide, on the same page, the commentary’s 'historical' and 'homiletical' segments – a feature which effectively drives underground the option to integrate spiritual values and lessons using the tools of modern critical scholarship. Another unfortunate feature of Etz Hayim is that its two essays on Jewish law (Halakha) offer contrasting, competitive interpretations of how the halakhic process actually works in the minds of Conservative decisors. Yet these alternate approaches are not sufficiently delineated for the lay reader. Finally, while Etz Hayim does highlight value concepts that function as goads to ritual observance, the various contributors to the commentary and to the appended essays never fully engage why Conservative Jews ought to become serious practitioners of Jewish tradition. These shortcomings notwithstanding, Etz Hayim does offer a template of hope and expectation: through its historical‐religious experiences, the Jewish people facilitates an ethical worldview of particular, and of universal, merit.

The Politics of Nonassimilation: The American Jewish Left in the Twentieth Century by David Verbeeten

Reviewed by: The Politics of Nonassimilation: The American Jewish Left in the Twentieth Century by David Verbeeten Philip Mendes (bio) The Politics of Nonassimilation: The American Jewish Left in the Twentieth Century. By David Verbeeten. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2017. 229 pp. From approximately 1830–1970 (and particularly between 1890–1950), an informal political alliance existed between Jews and the political Left. This was never an alliance of all Jews and all Left groups. But it was an alliance between key sections of the Left and key sections of politically active Jews at various times and in various places. Historians typically attribute this Jewish-Left association to a number of key factors, including that Jews were victims of both class and ethnic oppression; an implied association between Jewish religious and cultural values such as tzedakah (charity), tikkun olam (repairing the world) and socialist philosophy; the concentration of Jews in urban communities given that socialism was primarily an urban rather than rural or peasant phenomenon; the strong emphasis on education and intellectual training within the Jewish religious tradition that may have made Jews more receptive to ideas of social and political reform; and the fact that Jews were a global tribe and, as wanderers, had a much less parochial view of the world than other nations who were limited by national boundaries, cultures and traditions. A new book by Canadian researcher David Verbeeten proposes a new explanation for the ongoing Jewish-Left connection. He argues that Jewish Leftism serves as a means of preserving a secular ethnic Jewish identity in the face of external pressures to assimilate. He demonstrates that Jews in America have enjoyed unprecedented upward mobility since the early twentieth century as reflected in access to higher education and [End Page 317] professional occupations, and equally that antisemitism has significantly declined. Yet paradoxically, despite their growing affluence and acceptance, they have continued to stand up for oppressed groups such as the proletariat, African Americans, and even, ironically, the Palestinians. Verbeeten attempts to explain this sociological contradiction by exploring previously neglected case studies from three generations of left-wing Jews in America. The first generation, that of the mass wave of early twentieth century Eastern European immigrants, is examined through the memoirs of Alexander Bittelman, a prominent theorist and founder of the American Communist Party (CPUSA). Bittelman was born in the Ukraine in 1892 and moved to New York City in 1912. Like many Jewish radicals, Bittelman was not assimilated. Rather, he seems to have been influenced toward left-wing politics by his Jewish background, and particularly his childhood experiences of both poverty and antisemitism. Jews were disproportionately involved in the CPUSA, and Verbeeten notes that the CPUSA was significantly more middle class than other western Communist parties, precisely because of the presence of so many middle-class Jewish doctors, lawyers and dentists. These Jews appears to have formed a Yiddish-speaking Communist sub-culture comprising a close cultural network of friends, neighbours, work colleagues and family. The second generation in Verbeeten’s study is that of the children of the earlier immigrants who moved into adulthood during the inter-war period. Their experience is constructed through the anti-racist activities of the American Jewish Congress during and after World War Two, including its prominent participation in the civil rights movement. Verbeeten notes that the alignment of Jews (as one of the wealthiest subgroups in America) with African Americans (one of the poorest) in a supposedly common struggle for equality and social justice was increasingly rejected by many African Americans who questioned whether Jewish and black interests were in fact compatible. The third generation is that of the grandchildren born after World War Two, framed via their involvement in the New Jewish Agenda (NJA) from 1980–92, which supported numerous left-wing causes including gender equality, gay rights, the sanctuary movement for Central American refugees, and Palestinian statehood. This section adds considerably to our understanding of the revival in recent decades of Jewish-identifying groups on the political Left. NJA’s early endorsement of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict provoked hostility from conservative Jews. But notably its public critique of Israeli government policies such as...

What the Collapse of the Two-State Solution Means for Palestinian and Israeli Nationalism

What the Collapse of the Two-State Solution Means for Palestinian and Israeli Nationalism

A Banquet Partaken in Peace: Rethinking Kosher for Christians

A Banquet Partaken in Peace: Rethinking Kosher for Christians Daniel G. Deffenbaugh Better a crust eaten in peace than a banquet partaken in anxiety. – Aesop I really never gave much thought to the religious significance of eating until the summer of 2001. In June of that year, I was awarded a William H. Coolidge fellowship to study at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, and this—unbeknownst to me when I applied—included the requirement that all fellows take their weekday meals at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Up until this time, my only experience with eating kosher had been two or three Passover seders that I had attended while in seminary, and watching my Jewish friends in high school eat matzo for a week every spring in lieu of the only slightly tastier fare served in our lunch room. The Books of Moses in which these laws are recorded were for me a scriptural no man's land, and the Mishnah and Talmud, where the commandments are further expounded, were little more than words on the page of some dusty history book. After all, I was Christian and had long understood that such laws were no longer binding for those who are in Christ. So when our small group of fellows was informed that our meals would be taken amidst a much larger community of Conservative Jews, I regarded the news as simply an unexpected opportunity to indulge in a little cultural tourism. I did not know then how profoundly my faith would be challenged by the people and practices I encountered there. It was obvious from day one that I and my small cohort of Christian scholars were outsiders who needed a refresher course—if ever we had a course—in eating what is “fit,” the literal definition of kosher. These rules apply not only to what is eaten but also to how and when certain foods may be prepared and consumed. The seminarians who scrambled through the lines were caught up in their own theological discussions and matters of the heart, so we were pretty much left to our own powers of observation to discern what was acceptable. And we made mistakes. Several of us were horrified one day during our first week when one of our own decided she would like to have a little peach yogurt with her chicken sandwich. Even before she could place the container on her tray, she was met by one of the workers in the cafeteria and given a stern talking to. Apparently this combination was strictly prohibited by the commandment—stated three times in the Torah for emphasis—that “you shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk” (Ex. 23:19; Ex. 34:26; Deut. 14:21), legislation that later came to be interpreted as a proscription against any mixture of meat and dairy. And there were other guidelines that had to be rigorously observed. Plates, utensils, and drinks needed to remain on trays at all times, never touching the tables. Outside food, right down to the smallest granola bar, was strictly prohibited. The entire dining area was supervised by a rabbi, no less, and his staff—whom we quickly dubbed “the kosher police”—were as vigilant as hawks on the hunt. With so much riding on what and how I ate, I considered it the better part of wisdom simply to play it safe and order the same meal, day in and day out, for five weeks straight. Better to enjoy my crust in peace, I thought, than to suffer the anxiety of feasting improperly on the banquet laid out before me. In situations like these, I think our immediate response is to focus on the sheer impracticality of such customs, and for the first few days of what I have since come to call “my tuna fish and fruit salad summer” I resorted to this natural defense mechanism. I will admit to a touch of smugness as I pondered the astronomical odds of milk from a mother cow ending up in the same city, let alone on the same tray, as meat from one of her offspring. All the variables of our modern agricultural system...

Sabbatical Year and Jubilee in Twenty-First-Century America

Sabbatical Year and Jubilee in Twenty-First-Century America

Preface

We have reason to celebrate the publication of this volume endorsed by ISNA and JTS. Last year, we at ISNA celebrated the 50th anniversary of our organization. Half a century of growth and development in a pluralist democracy is in itself a special experience for our Muslim community. A few years ago, we realized that the Muslim and the Jewish communities in America were growing in isolation from each other. Our success and prosperity was in some ways facilitated by our close cooperation and dialogue with various Christian denominations and organizations. But this was not true with respect to Muslim and Jewish Americans. Both communities learned about each other through the writings of their own coreligionists, many of whom were distorting the images of each other and looking at each other from the lens of the excesses committed in the Holy Land. This was a very dangerous situation. If this was allowed to continue, we would have the tensions of the Middle East visiting us here and pushing both communities to build walls of separation and see extremism thrive. We had an alternative available: Open up our communities to each other and let the dialogue begin in a big way. The good will that could be generated here would be a great asset in solving the conflict back in the Holy Land itself. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the leaders in the largest Jewish denomination, the URJ, had been thinking along the same lines. We developed a joint pilot project from this initiative called the Children of Abraham. A book with this name was written jointly by Muslims and Jews and endorsed by ISNA and the URJ. This book served as a guide for a group of mosques and synagogues that we twinned for dialogue. The response from the communities was very encouraging. This gave birth to many related and independent initiatives and projects that have proliferated since then. While we were thinking that Reform Judaism alone would open the doors to Muslim-Jewish dialogue, I received a call from Rabbi Burton Visotzky of JTS telling me that he and their Chancellor Arnold Eisen were coming to Washington, DC for the Conservative Rabbinic Assembly's annual conference and that they would like to visit us at our office. Both of them came, and this was our first friendly encounter with the leaders of the Conservative Jewish community in America. They passionately made the point that the Conservative Jews were equally interested in participating in and advancing Muslim-Jewish dialogue and solidarity. I recall asking them, if that is so, then “what took you so long to come here?” We started our work in earnest. We jointly sponsored three annual seminars with JTS: the first at JTS in New York, the second at Harford Seminary in Connecticut, and the last organized by ISNA in Washington, DC. The papers that are included in this volume of The Muslim World are the products of these seminars. They point to a new horizon of cooperation. Jewish Muslim dialogue has built a strong alliance between the two communities to fight against Islamophobia and anti-Semitism and to stand up together in the corridors of power against various kinds of injustices and iniquities around us. We have indeed witnessed this in a robust interfaith movement: The Shoulder to Shoulder Campaign: Standing with American Muslims; Upholding American Values. Additionally, these dialogues prepared our Imams to go to Holocaust sites and internalize the facts of human suffering and pain inflicted on the Jewish community in history. The papers here point in a unique direction, identifying the joint struggle in approaching our respective religious texts, and reviving or reforming our regulations and traditions. It is amazing to see that the challenges of interpreting and reinterpreting certain practices and foundational principles of our jurisprudence are so similar. The struggle to maintain authenticity while remaining relevant in a pluralistic, democratic society is nearly identical at JTS and in our Fiqh Council. We have so much to learn from each other. Does this mean that the two communities will consult each other when faced with new issues, such as end of life and surrogate motherhood? They have a strikingly common methodology to be true to their guiding principles. This would provide a new context to the verse repeated twice in the Quran (cf. 16:43 and 21:7): If you are in doubt, “Go and ask the scholars of the scriptures that came before you.”

From Jerusalem to New York: Researching Jewish Erosion and Resilience

This paper tells two stories, one of Jewish erosion and one of Jewish resilience. It weaves together a research topic, intermarriage, with the personal stories of a researcher who has conducted Jewish demographic studies in the United States and Israel. To illustrate the connectedness of the personal and the professional, a state-of-the-art research project with a longitudinal design is discussed: how the project came to life as well as its various components, purposes, methodology, and sponsors. Second, the paper delves into the personal narrative of the researcher, showing how the area of study, the assumptions, and the questions she asks reflect personal roots, and are affected by life experiences and personal aspirations. The researcher’s career has been devoted to questions of deep personal interest and relevance. The paper demonstrates how personal and professional lives have enhanced each other. The Longitudinal Study of Young Conservative Jews 1995-2003 provided a valuable opportunity to examine how young people’s perceptions evolve from their adolescence in their middle school years through high school and into young adulthood in college. A key finding was that young Conservative Jews do not in general share their parents’ anxiety about inter-religious dating. Only a small minority said they dated only Jews, but most of them remained committed to Judaism, and to marrying fellow Jews. Thus, their stories reveal both Jewish erosion and Jewish resilience. The researcher’s professional life bled over into her personal life as she experienced the challenge of raising a Jewish child who grew from an infant to a teenager over the course of the longitudinal study.

Jewish Denominations and Longevity

This study examined the relationship between affiliation with one of three denominations within Judaism representing a conservative-liberal continuum of Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Judaism. The criterion for affiliation was burial in a cemetery maintained by these denominations. Longevities of married congregants born 1850-1910 were compared, controlling for birth year. Orthodox Jews had the shortest life spans (77 years); Conservative and Reform Jews had very similar life spans (80.7 years). Differences in years of survival of husbands after death of a spouse did not differ significantly. Reform widows survived longest (16.5 years) after death of a spouse. Conservative and Reform widows did not differ significantly from one another.

Jewish Ghettos in Sighet and Dąbrowa Górnicza

Jewish Ghettos in Sighet and Dąbrowa Górnicza

Health Impact of Jewish Religious Observance in the USA: Findings from the 2000–01 National Jewish Population Survey

Using data from the 2000-01 National Jewish Population Survey (NJPS) (N=5,148), effects of eight religious measures were investigated in relation to two health outcomes, standard single-item indicators of self-rated health and presence of an activity-limiting health condition. Seven of the religious measures were associated bivariately with one or both health indicators. Through two-step OLS regression of each health indicator onto all of the religious measures, adjusting for age and other sociodemographic correlates, two measures of synagogue involvement remained statistically significant. Follow-up analysis revealed a net health impact of religious observance primarily limited to Orthodox and Conservative Jews.

Exploration of Jewish Ethnic Identity

Despite a growing amount of research on the topic of ethnic identity, Jews, and the important aspects of a Jewish identity, have not been included in the multicultural and psychological literature. Using consensual qualitative research (C. E. Hill et al., 2005), the authors sought to gain an understanding of Jewish ethnic identity in 10 American young adults, ages 20–27, who identified as Conservative Jews. Six themes were identified: (a) perception of Jewish identity based in multiple influences, (b) personalization of a Jewish identity, (c) reinforcers of a Jewish identity, (d) challenges in holding on to Jewish identity, (e) critical incidents necessitating the expression of one's Jewishness, and (f) critical incidents necessitating the denial of one's Jewishness.

Learning to Talk: Conversation Across Religious Difference

Bringing adults to speak about their religious belief and practice requires moving beyond what is deemed socially polite. Yet the plural nature of U.S. society increasingly demands that adults develop just such conversational capacities. This article offers a description of conversation as suggested by Nicholas Burbules, and reports on the findings of a qualitative research study set in an adult interreligious learning project involving Roman Catholics and Conservative Jews. This article reports on the study's primary finding, that conversation across difference is a learned activity, and suggests educational strategies for promoting conversation among learners.

The Earnings of American Jewish Men: Human Capital, Denomination and Religiosity

This paper analyzes the determinants of the earnings of American Jewish men using the 2000/01 National Jewish Population Survey. Non-response to the question on earnings is analyzed. Earnings are related to conventional human capital variables, as well as Jewish-specific variables. Except for the size of place and region variables, the standard human capital variables have similar effects for Jews and the general population. Jewish day schooling as a youth enhances earnings. Earnings vary by denomination, with Conservative Jews earning the most. The effect on earnings of religiosity (measured by synagogue attendance) is not monotonic. Earnings are highest for those who attend only once a week.

Conceptualizing reform judaism in an age of religious pluralism

Introduction The acculturation of Jews in the United States has been both a blessing and a curse. As Jews have become more accepted in American society, the rates of intermarriage have increased while religious observance has decreased. Intermarriage has created much conflict within the Jewish community because many fear that the children of intermarried couples will not be raised as Jews and the continuity of the Jewish faith and people is under threat. As Egon Mayer writes, "The potential for extinction this time, however, is not the result of hate and persecution but rather of love and absorption-by-matrimony into a benignly accepting majority."1 Not only are Jews intermarrying in large numbers, many are also marrying converts to Judaism. This development has alarmed many Orthodox and Conservative Jews who fear that these converts are choosing Judaism for romantic reasons rather than for spiritual convictions. Immanuel Jakobovits writes that most people convert "not because they fall in love with Judaism, but because they fall in love with a Jewish person."2 He concludes that "conversion for the sake of the family" rather than spirituality is harmful to Judaism.3 Both intermarriage and conversion have been viewed as the result of assimilation and secularization. According to secularization theory, modernity has dramatically altered the function and significance of religion. This does not mean that religion holds no importance today, but that the institution of religion no longer holds the same authority as it once did over economic, political, and social structures. Bryan Wilson writes:

Jew vs. Jew: The Struggle for the Soul of American Jewry (review)

Reviewed by: Jew vs. Jew: The Struggle for the Soul of American Jewry Leonard Dinnerstein Jew vs. Jew: the Struggle for the Soul of American Jewry, by Samuel G. Freedman. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000. 397 pp. $26.00. Although in most other lands acceptance of Jews lasted for relatively short periods, throughout American history Jews have had a home in this country. Only between the ends of World Wars I and II (approximately 1919–1945) did Jews seriously worry about the pervasiveness of American antisemitism. Some Jews even feared that what was happening in Hitler’s Germany could also occur in the United States. At the end of the Second World War, however, American attitudes began to change, and in 1955 historian Oscar Handlin wrote that the position of Jews in the United States was far better than anyone could have possibly imagined only two decades earlier. By the 1970s laws and customs had evolved so that educational, employment, and social barriers (except for exclusive country clubs) had all but disappeared. One still finds animosity amongst disgruntled members of minority groups, skinheads, and religious fanatics. But these groups constitute a small minority of the American population. According to the Anti-Defamation League, in 1998 about 12 percent of the population harbored strong negative feelings about Jews. [End Page 166] Now that acceptance is no longer a significant issue in the United States, Samuel Freedman informs us that the greatest problem for American Jews is the attitudes and prejudices of other Jews. Through personal observation, extensive interviews, and use of secondary sources, he has concluded that the biggest divide within American Jewry stems from differences in behavior and belief. From Great Neck to Jerusalem he has witnessed “the struggle that pits secularist against believer, denomination against denomination, gender against gender, liberal against conservative, traditionalist against modernist within each branch. It is a struggle being waged on issues ranging from conversion standards to the peace process [in Israel], from land use to the role of women in worship. It is a struggle that has torn asunder families, communities, and congregations” (p.23). His narrative then takes us from a Jewish summer camp in the Catskills to orthodox congregations in Jacksonville, Florida, Denver, and Los Angeles. There are discussions of Jewish secularists, Reform Jews, Conservative Jews, Conservadox Jews, Modern Orthodox Jews, and ultra Orthodox Jews. It seems that most of them find difficulty living with Jews whose religious practices differ significantly from their own. Should the ultra Orthodox dictate who is and who is not a Jew? Should Reform Jews and Jewish secularists try to keep Orthodox institutions from expanding in their communities? Should women be granted the same rights and privileges as men in synagogues and temples? These topics dominate Freedman’s analyses, and they seem to plague many individual Jews as well. Some Jews want to assimilate into, while others want to accommodate to, the dominant culture. Since the late 1960s when the Six Day War in Israel gave Jews the world over a great sense of confidence and belonging, there has been a much more positive attitude about being Jewish. In the United States the war coincided with the great changes of the decade and ethnicity soon became chic. People wore pins indicating their pride in being Italian or Polish. Michael Novak wrote a book (The Rise of the Unmeltable Ethnics) praising Slavs and Greeks. In 1973 the federal government passed legislation encouraging celebrations of one’s ethnic heritage. And a number of Jews raised in secular homes suddenly decided that they would be more comfortable living a more observant life. Although it is unlikely that observant Jews constitute even 10 percent of the American Jewish population, they receive disproportionate attention in the media. Many Jews who have striven their entire lives to be accepted as Americans are somewhat uncomfortable with religious Jews and their practices. In fact, the more religious individuals and groups are, the more intense is the Jewish hostility towards them. It is one thing, of course, to have the freedom to observe one’s faith; it is quite another to insist that all Jews in the community behave in similar fashion. Freedman is quite...

The religious right: a reference handbook

This second edition of an award winning reference work updates and expands its examination of the and its influence on our government, citizens, society, and politics. The religious right is a label that encompasses groups as diverse as mainline and evangelical Protestants, conservative Jews, and Catholics. What prompted these movements to begin? Although there has never been an absolute wall between church and state in the United States-a generation before the Civil War, churches already clashed over slavery-the movement has mostly developed since World War II. This book describes the developing intimacy between the current Religious Right and conservative Republicans. This second edition of The Religious Right includes an up to date chronology, new biographical sketches, a survey of conservative Christian attitudes, directories of organizations both critical and supportive of the Religious Right, and a 150 page annotated bibliography including radio and TV programs. * Biographies of the men and women who have advanced the cause and an up to date chronology illuminate the movement's goals * Further research is aided by annotated listings of print and nonprint resources, websites, and organizations affiliated with the right, as well as those in opposition