The Jewish American Paradox - by Robert H Mnookin (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

"A
revolutionary (some would say heretical) revision." -New York Times Book Review

"In
a remarkable book at once deeply personal and deeply learned, one of America's

leading
intellectuals invites us to a fascinating conversation about what it means to
be

Jewish.
This book deals with issues that have preoccupied me personally for many years,

and
after almost every chapter I wanted to pick up the phone and continue the

conversation
Mnookin started." --Robert D. Putnam,
professor of public policy,

Harvard, and author of American Grace: How Religion
Divides and Unites Us

"A
master course in negotiating the most important questions a person--or a
people--can

confront.
Mnookin's focus on the contemporary challenges of Jewish identity illuminates

the
larger issue of what it is to be self-critically human in a world for which few
feel

sufficiently
prepared, much less at home. The Jewish American Paradox is an important

book
for Jews, Americans, and everyone who hopes for a better future."

--James Carroll, author of Constantine's
Sword and The Cloister

"Mnookin
presents a terrific case that Judaism should be a welcoming umbrella. My

whole
Jewish education was based on what you cannot do, what you cannot eat, when

you
cannot drive, play ball, etc. In an optimistic, almost nondoctrinal evangelical
spirit, this

book
focuses on what you can do." --Harold
Holzer, director of Roosevelt House

Public Policy Center at Hunter College and Historian

"The
Jewish American Paradox is a powerful combination of meditation on faith
and rigorous legal analysis of the dilemmas facing American Jews. The author
invites the reader to join his journey, and to learn surprising insights along
the way."--Steve Weisman, author of

The Chosen Wars: How Judiasm
Became An American Religion

"Robert
Mnookin' s important new book is a brilliant analysis with positive
prescriptions

at
a critical time for the American Jewish community. Rampant intermarriage here
and

conservative&#