The New American Judaism

Jack Wertheimer sets out to describe and analyze the current landscape of American Jewish life as it is practiced by people who belong to the synagogues associated with the major Jewish religious denominations: Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox. He interviewed a large cohort of leaders, examined contemporary writings about American Jewish religious life, and applied his own observational lens as a member of the class of professional Jewish scholars and teachers to determine and describe current trends. The book begins with the assertion that “American Judaism is not in decline, but is being transformed” (2). The evidence he provides throughout the text led me to conclude that this transformation is not, for the most part, one that Wertheimer values. The book is divided into three sections. The first describes how Reform, Conservative, and three varieties of Orthodox (Modern, Haredi, and Sephardi) leaders interpret how their congregants live out their Jewish lives. Wertheimer explains that Conservative and Reform rabbis think most of their congregants do not believe in a traditional God. Rather, they are involved in synagogue life to experience Jewish community. They associate their affiliation with being moral and are most interested in celebrating and mourning key life events. Yet on average they spend less and less time in synagogue or doing home-based ritual observances. Orthodox congregants may or may not believe in a traditional God, but they are willing to structure their daily lives based on a standard of correct Jewish behavior (even if they fail to live up to the standard). Unlike their liberal co-religionists, they tend to have high Jewish literacy rates. The Haredi separate themselves from secular society, whereas the Modern Orthodox try to live in two worlds. Wertheimer includes Sephardi (Southern hemispheric origin) communities here because their practices, although culturally different, are based on assumptions and a worldview shared with their Ashkenazi (Northern hemispheric origin) Orthodox co-religionists.

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