Will American Jews survive their success? Or will the United
States' uniquely hospitable environment lead inexorably to their
assimilation and loss of cultural identity? This is the conundrum
that Seymour Lipset and Earl Raab explore in their wise and learned
book about the American Jewish experience.
Jews, perhaps more than any ethnic or religious minority that
has immigrated to these shores, have benefited from the country's
openness, egalitarianism, and social heterogeneity. This unusually
good fit, the authors argue, has as much to do with the
exceptionalism of the Jewish people as with that of America. But
acceptance for all ancestral groups has its downside: integration
into the mainstream erodes their defining features, diluting the
loyalties that sustain their members.
The authors vividly illustrate this paradox as it is experienced
by American Jews today--in their high rates of intermarriage, their
waning observance of religious rites, their extraordinary academic
and professional success, their commitment to liberalism in
domestic politics, and their steadfast defense of Israel. Yet Jews
view these trends with a sense of foreboding: "We feel very
comfortable in America--but anti-Semitism is a serious problem";
"We would be desolate if Israel were lost--but we don't feel as
close to that country as we used to"; "More of our youth are
seeking some serious form of Jewish affirmation and
involvement--but more of them are slipping away from Jewish life."
These are the contradictions tormenting American Jews as they
struggle anew with the never-dying problem of Jewish
continuity.
A graceful and immensely readable work, " Jews and the New
American Scene" provides a remarkable range of scholarship,
anecdote, and statistical research--the clearest, most up-to-date
account available of the dilemma facing American Jews in their
third century of citizenship.