LEADER 04935nam 2200697 a 450 001 9910967202203321 005 20240418050208.0 010 $a9780295800653 010 $a0295800658 024 7 $a10.1515/9780295800653 035 $a(CKB)2550000000036264 035 $a(EBL)3444295 035 $a(OCoLC)740449416 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000644263 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)12227289 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000644263 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10676083 035 $a(PQKB)11235525 035 $a(MdBmJHUP)muse38606 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL3444295 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10468611 035 $a(CaONFJC)MIL810421 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC3444295 035 $a(DE-B1597)726208 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780295800653 035 $a(EXLCZ)992550000000036264 100 $a19950316d1995 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aur|||||||nn|n 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 10$aPortrait of American Jews $ethe last half of the 20th century /$fSamuel C. Heilman 205 $a1st ed. 210 $aSeattle $cUniversity of Washington Press$dc1995 215 $a1 online resource (210 p.) 225 1 $aThe Samuel and Althea Stroum lectures in Jewish studies 300 $aSecond printing (pbk.), 1998. 311 08$a9780295974705 311 08$a0295974702 311 08$a9780295974712 311 08$a0295974710 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. 165-186) and index. 327 $aContents ; Preface ; Prologue ; 1. Starting Over: Acculturation and Suburbia, the Jews of the 1950's ; 2. The Emergence of Two Types of Jews: Choices Made in the 1960's and 1970's ; 3. Quality versus Quantity: The Challenge of the 1980's and 1990's ; Notes ; Index 330 $aHas America been a place that has preserved and protected Jewish life? Is it a place in which a Jewish future is ensured? Samuel Heilman, long-time observer of American Jewish life, grapples with these questions from a sociologist?s perspective. He argues that the same conditions that have allowed Jews to live in relative security since the 1950s have also presented them with a greater challenge than did the adversity and upheaval of earlier years.The second half of the twentieth century has been a time when American Jews have experienced a minimum of prejudice and almost all domains of life have been accessible to them, but it has also been a time of assimilation, of swelling rates of intermarriage, and of large numbers ignoring their Jewishness completely. Jews have no trouble building synagogues, but they have all sorts of trouble filling them. The quality of Jewish education is perhaps higher than ever before, and the output of Jewish scholarship is overwhelming in its scope and quality, but most American Jews receive a minimum of religious education and can neither read nor comprehend the great corpus of Jewish literature in its Hebrew (or Aramaic) original. This is a time in America when there is no shame in being a Jew, and yet fewer American Jews seem to know what being a Jew means.How did this come to be? What does it portend for the Jewish future? This book endeavors to answer these questions by examining data gleaned from numerous sociological surveys. Heilman first discusses the decade of the fifties and the American Jewish quest for normalcy and mobility. He then details the polarization of American Jewry into active and passive elements in the sixties and seventies. Finally he looks at the eighties and nineties and the issues of Jewish survival and identity and the question of a Jewish future in America. He also considers generational variation, residential and marital patterns, institutional development (especially with regard to Jewish education), and Jewish political power and influence.This book is part of a stocktaking that has been occurring among Jews as the century in which their residence in America was firmly established comes to an end. Grounded in empirical detail, it provides a concise yet analytic evaluation of the meaning of the many studies and surveys of the last four and a half decades. Taking a long view of American Jewry, it is one of very few books that build on specific sociological data but get beyond its detail. All those who want to know what it means and has meant to be an American Jew will find this volume of interest. 410 0$aSamuel and Althea Stroum lectures in Jewish studies. 606 $aJews$xCultural assimilation$zUnited States 606 $aJudaism$zUnited States 606 $aJudaism$y20th century 615 0$aJews$xCultural assimilation 615 0$aJudaism 615 0$aJudaism 676 $a305.892/4073 700 $aHeilman$b Samuel C$01093441 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910967202203321 996 $aPortrait of American Jews$94345302 997 $aUNINA