Taglit-Birthright Israel is considered by many to be the most successful Big Idea in the American Jewish community in recent years, sending hundreds of thousands of young people to Israel on a free, 10-day trip of connection and discovery. But even those who run and fund Birthright acknowledge that, nearly 14 years after its creation,…
The Pew Research Center’s “Portrait of Jewish Americans” has triggered much debate in the Jewish community. Its key findings — that younger Jews are not only less connected to, but are also less interested in, Jewish life — puts in sharp relief the challenge before us. If we go by numbers alone, the non-Orthodox American…
Some years back I wrote about my Uncle Morty, who left Long Island for Manhattan one day in 1959 and never returned. They found his Chevy alongside Grand Central Parkway, but no Morty. The loss was devastating. I was recalling the incident, I wrote, not for sympathy but to note that Uncle Morty was the…
When the results of the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey appeared, a sense of panic was quickly followed by a commitment to purpose. True, an intermarriage rate of 52%, later lowered in order to account for sampling difficulties, caused some to claim that assimilation was more destructive of Jewish life than Nazism was. But the…
Initial reactions to the recent Pew Research Center’s study of American Jews have been almost knee-jerk in their pessimism. One commentator called the portrait a “grim” one. Another viewed the study’s results as “devastating,” with its evidence of “so much assimilation.” This rush to gloom brings to mind the old sendoff about the definition of…
If you’ve been following the news about that new survey of American Jews from the folks at the Pew Research Center, you’ve probably heard the basics. The New York Times summed it up nicely: “a significant rise in those who are not religious, marry outside the faith and are not raising their children Jewish.” There’s…
Nothing creates controversy and polarization in the United States more than discussing same-sex marriage, and nothing brings the anxieties of American Jewry to the surface more than discussions of intermarriage. Both of these issues have gotten some attention in the American Jewish world over the past few weeks. And in the process, they have raised…
I may be one of the few writers who was not surprised this past November to read about Philip Roth’s retirement, nor was I inspired to sit shiva for the American Jewish novel. When our media announced the news (a month after being scooped by the French magazine Les Inrocks), a spate of commentary appeared…
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