The Jewish American Paradox

Who should count as Jewish in
America? What should be the relationship of American Jews to Israel? Can the
American Jewish community collectively sustain and pass on to the next
generation a sufficient sense of Jewish identity?

The situation of American Jews today
is deeply paradoxical. Jews have achieved unprecedented integration, influence,
and esteem in virtually every facet of American life. But this extraordinarily
diverse community now also faces four critical and often divisive challenges:
rampant intermarriage, weak religious observance, diminished cohesion in the
face of waning anti-Semitism, and deeply conflicting views about Israel.
Can the American Jewish community
collectively sustain and pass on to the next generation a sufficient sense of
Jewish identity in light of these challenges? Who should count as Jewish in
America? What should be the relationship of American Jews to Israel?
In this thoughtful and perceptive
book, Robert H. Mnookin argues that the answers of the past no longer serve
American Jews today. The book boldly promotes a radically inclusive
American-Jewish community—one where being Jewish can depend on personal choice
and public self-identification, not simply birth or formal religious
conversion. Instead of preventing intermarriage or ostracizing those critical
of Israel, he envisions a community that embraces diversity and debate, and in
so doing, preserves and strengthens the Jewish identity into the next
generation and beyond.