Jewish Life in the United Slates
LEVITAS, IRVING
Jewish Life in the United States The Jews: Social Pattern of an American Group. Edited hy Marshall Sklare. Free Press. 669 pp. $10.00. Reviewed by Irving Levitas Director of education, Jewish...
...That this transformation had its effect on the individual, too, is readily apparent...
...This book brings together a collection of essays, some previously published, some written particularly for this volume, analyzing with sociological methods and statistical details the natirre and character of the American Jewish community...
...As Carlin and Mendlovitz point out in their essay, the American rabbi, in the main, is no longer a "religious authority" today but an "intellectual," who must be able to discuss nuclear fission as well as religious ceremonials...
...This book is really a primary source...
...As such, it fills a long felt need and bids well to became the starting-off point for any further discussion of American Jewish life...
...Weinrib and Dr...
...Two essays, by Dr...
...or in an unworded motivation toward acceptability, the individual Jew finds himself (on other than the professional levels) responding to the demands that Jewish life be not noticeably "different," even if maintained...
...An analysis by Sklare and Greenblum shows that in small towns, as well as in middle-size communities, there is a tendency to work out a "comfortable" adjustment to being a Jew in a Gentile environment...
...There were many to whom these addresses had a somewhat exaggerated ring...
...Thus, there existed a constant feeling of "belonging," which reflected itself particularly in the second and third generations of American Jewish immigrants...
...the various essays in the remaining part of the book indicate some variations on this theme...
...Jerome Weidman's recent novel on anti-Gentilism, The Enemy Camp, is a case in point...
...Reviewed by Irving Levitas Director of education, Jewish Community Center, Kansas City EVER SINCE 1954, there has been a growing mood of confidence in the creative capacity of the American Jewish community...
...Halpem, on the historical background of Jews in America immediately set the theme of the book...
...The two essays by Fuchs and Cohn on Jewish liberalism indicate a variant, insofar as the complex of Jewish theology seems to find adequate representation on the part of most Jews in supporting liberal movements and international cooperation...
...That this has its effects on religious attitudes is obvious...
...They make the decisive point that the unique feature of American life in general was the fact that it had no Middle Ages, that there was no previous ghetto sociology imposed by law...
...there were others to whom this attitude was more a promise than a reality...
...Whether it is reflected in the phrase "what will the Christians think...
...The celebration during that year of the 300th anniversary of Jewish immigration to America brought forth a flood of speeches and articles prophesying a new "Golden Age" in American Jewish history...
...Comparisons with Christian worship services, the role of the Protestant minister as compared to that of the rabbi and other similar points indicate that all these areas are affected by this process of adjustment...
...Although Kurt Lewin's studies are not included in this volume, the general theme is indebted to his work...
...The question of identification with a minority group on the part of the individual Jew is still paramoimt...
...No one can effectively discuss contemporary American Jewish life without reference to it...
...The drive toward securing a position in the American scene, albeit in the middle class, which is examined in the second section, provides background to the problem of the new social stratification from which any analysis of American Jewish life must be made...
Vol. 42 • January 1959 • No. 4
