The Vanishing American Jew: In Search of Jewish Identity for the Next Century

by Alan M. Dershowitz

Book Overview

In this urgent book, Alan M. Dershowitz shows why American Jews are in danger of disappearing - and what must be done now to create a renewed sense of Jewish identity for the next century. In previous times, the threats to Jewish survival were external - the virulent consequences of anti-Semitism. Now, however, in late-twentieth-century America, the danger has shifted. Jews today are more secure, more accepted, more assimilated, and more successful...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316181331
• ISBN13: 9780316181334
• Release Date: March 1997
• Publisher: Little Brown and Company
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.2" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

It recognizes the problem

This book is to be commended for recognizing a real problem. The American - Jewish community is declining in numbers. It is an aging community, one with high- rates of intermarriage, and low rates of fertility. It is a community which is an increasingly small percentage of American society as a whole. Why is this important? I think that there are two answers, one for Jews and another for American non- Jews. Jewish communities have thrived in various places in the world, and then disappeared. The American Jewry community is an especially important one for the Jewish people historically especially in its relation to Israel and the Jewish people as a whole. As for the second reason, I would maintain that for general American society the survival and thriving of an American- Jewish community is important because this community has made great contributions to American life in many different areas, and as on the whole been a great creative factor in the shaping of American civilization. In considering the situation of American Jews it is necessary to understand that the challenges and character of American life are different from those that the Jews have known elsewhere. Only in America have Jews been given a kind of access and acceptance which in our own time means that there is virtually no discrimination against them. It is because America accepts the Jews, and adopts so much of what is Jewish as part of itself that assimilation happens so readily in the United States. Clearly to preserve its own tradition and way the Jews of America have to ( This is Dershowitz's major recommendation) greatly increase the quality and quantity of Jewish education. Sadly most American Jews are very ignorant about their own traditions. And one encouraging element in American - Jewish life is the intense return to Jewish learning by a certain minority of the population. Clearly learning to understand what the Jewish community and its history is , is central to preserving Jewish identity. Another point. Since the publication of Dershowitz's book there has been a dramatic increase in world-wide anti-Semitism. This often takes the form of Anti- Zionism and is directed primarily against Israel. American Jews have in the past played an important role in helping support the survival of Israel. Though support for Israel among the broad American public is relatively stable over the past forty years, and though there is massive Christian Evangelical support for Israel there is also now in the US a strong anti- Semitic, anti- Israel movement which combines Islamic fundamentalists, Palestinian Arab nationalists, those of the extreme right, and perhaps even more alarmingly , extreme left, politically. A strong American Jewish community is an important element in ensuring an Israel which can survive in the future. In this regard one additional element in strengthening Jewish young people's identity as Jews is through their traveling to and knowing Israel. The special 'Birthr

A great read both for Jews and non-Jews

Book Review: The Vanishing American Jew By: Alan M. Dershowitz Review By: Joshua W. Delano Alan M. Dershowitz uses his keen intellect to delve into the issue of The Vanishing American Jew with the same vigor and attentiveness he has applied to his storied criminal defense practice. Dershowitz makes a case that the prominent threat no longer lays within institutional anti-Semitism in America. Instead, he points out the threat to Jews and their way of life by assimilation. No longer do the Jews have to be united against a common enemy such as the Nazism of the Holocaust generation or Government sanctioned anti-Semitism. Intermarriage to non-Jews and assimilation into American society is now the primary danger to a people who've survived through so much persecution and toil. Some 50 percent of Jews will marry non-Jews, and their children will most often be raised as non-Jews. In Dershowitz's view, the Jewish people will vanish from the planet sometime in the next hundred or so years. The threats to Jews are no longer external by his account. No longer are Jews in danger from the genocidal acts of Hitler or those fringe groups of present day whose threats Dershowitz discounts as marginal. Now Jews are threatened by themselves and the fact that as a people they've accomplished the American dream, becoming assimilated into the mainstream of this country. Likely, there is no better person to take on this subject with a unique perspective both of Jewish religion and custom, as well as legal and political activism. Dershowitz has become an institution as well as a magnet to many young legal minds who aspire to greatness by choosing Harvard Law School, where he has enjoyed a successful tenure. While dissecting the situation, the author elaborates on points such as Neo-Nazi whites and Nation of Islam anti-Semites uniting in lockstep against the Jews of present day. These threats are what he labels, as marginal and nothing compared to what Jews have faced in the past. He points out when he speaks to older Jewish audiences, he is often, "accused sometimes stridently, of minimizing anti-Semitism and am told that it is worse than ever." They see the glass as not half-full or half-empty, but instead as cracked and unfixable. A sentiment he says is in contrast with the reality of acceptance and notes that Jews are more so a part of mainstream America today than ever before. The author points out that the older generation's identities are so tied up with their victimization, they are incapable of accepting the good news that the situation is improving. In comparison, a 1988 poll of Jewish students at Dartmouth College poignantly notes: When asked whether they believed that their Jewish ness would in any way hamper their future success, not a single student answered in the affirmative. Dershowitz considers this the current reality. Whereas, the threat from black or Aryan neo-Nazi types is marginal, Dershowitz explains that the greater threa

Well written, enjoyable and on the mark

A well-written easy-to-read book that right on the mark as it tackles one of the most difficult problems in contemporary judaism. As with all of Dershowitz' books, this one is filled with humor, meticulously researched and contains compelling arguments in support of his view that organized judaism is failing to provide the proper educational foundation to ensure the continuation of reform and conservative judaism in the USA. Even if you, like me, do not share Mr. Dershowitz' orthodox background or left-wing politics, don't let that deter you from reading this excellent book.

Inspiring, goes to the heart of a crucial issue

While I could write a great deal about this important, and (I hope) influential book, and I don't agree with all of Mr. Dershowitz's conclusions and proposed solutions, the most meaningful thing I can say about it is that it has energized ME, a 46-year old lifelong secular Jew, to try to fulfill my long-held dream to organize Fringe Jews (unaffiliated Jews, alienated Jews, fractional Jews, Gentiles related to Jews, etc.) so that we can all together find ways to feel connected, and to connect our children, to the Jewish world, without being made to feel bad about not being religious, and to have the Chutzpah (to borrow Dershowitz's theme from his earlier book) to assert our right to a place at the table of 21st Century Jewish culture and civilization, but also the sense of responsibility to get whatever version of Jewish literacy we believe we need, and to give it to our kids. Thank you, Mr. Dershowitz!

"The Vanishing American Jew"---NOT so "vanishing" afterall!

Let me say right from the beginning that I am a non-practicing, totally "Secular" American Jew. Apart from the fact that I was born a Jew; have been blissfully married to the same Jewish woman for over thirty-five years; have a son who was bar mitzvah'd (because my mother-in-law would have made our life a hell if he hadn't been); as well as a daughter who WASN'T "bas"-mitzvah'd because she was lucky enough to be born a girl and did not have to be "mitzvah'd" ANYTHING to win family approval as a Jew---apart from , and because of all I have just said, I have often asked myself: "What right do I have to CONSIDER MYSELF A JEW?" I mean--I have rarely stepped foot in a Synagogue for heaven's sake! Attended a Passover service or fasted on the High Holy Days.I don't speak or understand the Jewish language and have only an elementary knowledge of Jewish customs and traditions.(enough to 'get by' and that's about it.) So AM I A JEW?, I have often asked myself. Do I DESERVE TO THINK OF MYSELF AS A JEW? The easy answer for me has always been YES---because I am a "Reformed" Jew and as such, can be as relgious (or non-religious) as I want and still be thought of as a Jew---at least by other, non religious, secular Jews. Just one more thing before I address my comments specifically to Dershowitz's, scholarly and extremely readible and informative book, "The Vanishing American Jew"---an extremely IMPORTANT thing: I FEEL that I am a Jew---feel it to the very depths of my being! I LIKE "BEING" A JEW; feel TOTALLY COMFORTABLE being a Jew; and never have wanted to be anything but Jewish or being a Jew! .... Now to the Dershowitz book and why I feel "The Vanishing American Jew" should be read by all Jews, and even non-Jews alike---in fact, by ANYONE who is interested in the significance and meaning of the Jewish faith in particular, but to those who are Gentile in their beliefs and traditions as well. A brief synopsis of the book: Dershowitz points out that the Jewish religion is in jeapordy of "vanishing" because anti-Semitism is on the wane throughout our country (as well as in other parts of the world)and because the Jewish people are no longer as beseiged by enemies as in the past and are becoming more and more accepted into the "mainstream" of American life, intermarriage is becoming more and more acceptable by members of the Jewish and Christian faith. Because of intermarriage, there is an increasing likelihood, says the author, that children and grandchildren will no longer feel as closely "bound" to the Jewish faith as in the past---and that, in fact, the very ESSENCE of Judaism is in japordy of disappearing. Whereas being surrounded by enemies and fighting against them was previously the bond for holding Jews together---now, says Dershowitz, the real enemy lies WITHIN OURSELVES. We have become so "successful" (not just in a monetary sense, but in a humanistic sense, as well, that we are on the verge of losing our ID