Abstract
In the 1950s sociologist Nathan Glazer presciently noted that for Jews in America there was a tradeoff of Judaism for Jewishness. Jewishness was defined by the secular culture—which was impossible; but Judaism, reported Glazer, was flourishing, indeed had triumphed.
Nothing endures like change.
—Heraclitus
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Notes
- 1.
The term “orthodox” dates back to the early Christian era. Orthodoxy meant adherence to the doctrines of the early Church as defined by Church councils.
- 2.
We ought to note that one of the challenges for researchers in this arena is that of counting religionists. Each religion and denomination has its own approach. Mormons and Baptists push up their numbers; people tend to remain on their books even when they no longer identify and show up. Catholics are more careful in their counting. Methodists charge church dues and fees based on church membership. And in the case of American Jews, counting is fraught with danger: who—social scientists, Jewish communal leaders, professionals—wants to be in the position of declaring, definitively, who is a Jew!
- 3.
Even converts to Judaism are identified as “having stood, personally, at Sinai.”
- 4.
Some analysts suggest, however, that antisemitism as the basis for Jewish identity is the last way station for that Jew on his or her journey out of Jewry.
- 5.
Denominationalism is a term that was first used by dissenting Protestants in the seventeenth century, to distinguish themselves from the Church of England, the State Church. Denominations may differ doctrinally, but share a belief in and commitment to fundamental tenets of Christianity Further, no member of a given denomination would deny the legitimacy as a Christian of a member of a different denomination. American Judaism is not truly denominational. Orthodoxy, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionism are “movements.”
- 6.
An important dynamic in the diminution of a Traditionalist (“Orthodox”) population in the early decades of the twentieth century was that there were almost no “elite” religionists—rabbis and others who were literate in the textual and intellectual underpinnings of Judaism—who arrived in the New Land during the great immigration from Russia, 1880–1920. The overwhelming majority were “folk” religionists, those who were traditionally observant, literate in Hebrew to the extent that they could recite easily the daily prayers and with a rudimentary knowledge of Scripture, but without the reservoir of learning that could sustain successive generations of vibrant traditional Judaism. Orthodoxy to a large measure disappeared from the American scene during the 1930s and 1940s, only to re-emerge, with energy and vibrancy, with the immigration of the survivors of the destruction of European Jewry.
- 7.
See Conclusion.
- 8.
“The Shrinking Jewish Middle—and What To Do About It,” The David W. Belin Lecture in American Jewish Affairs (#27, 16 March 2017).
- 9.
Cohen, 8.
- 10.
Cohen. The question for demographers is who is exploding. There is no question that the sectarian Orthodox is well above Zero Population Growth (Z.P.G.); but what about the Modern Orthodox? The fertility rate of this community, well under half of the Orthodox in the USA, was under Z.P.G. some years ago, but the fertility rate has crept up. At this point the Modern Orthodox are kee** pace with Z.P.G. A stable population –that is, a population that will not shrink in numbers—requires a birthrate of between 2.1 and 2.2 children per family.
- 11.
Cohen, 11.
- 12.
Ari Feldman and Laura E. Adkins, “Orthodox to Dominate American Jewry in Coming Decades,” The Forward (June 12, 2018).
- 13.
The Board of Delegates was subsequently incorporated into the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the congregational body of Reform Judaism (now the Union for Reform Judaism).
- 14.
There is much debate around the question of when the campaign on behalf of Soviet Jewry began. For our purposes we will suggest that it was 1963, when Israel (which had for some years been advocating on behalf of Soviet Jews) put pressure on the American Jewish community to get involved in an organized manner on behalf of freedom for Jews in the Soviet Union.
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Chanes, J.A. (2023). Introduction: Judaism Is Now A Choice. In: Chanes, J.A., Silk, M. (eds) The Future of Judaism in America. Studies of Jews in Society, vol 5. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24990-7_1
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