What do American Jews believe?

Abstract

AMERICAN JEWS and American Judaism have lately come under increasing pressure from a variety of sources, ranging from secularism and movements of personal and sexual liberation to multiculturalism, religious syncretism, and, on the other side, a newly assertive Christian conservatism. To the challenge of contemporary American culture, ever larger numbers of Jews appear to be responding by assimilating, marrying out, or otherwise falling away-although among some there has also been an intense and perhaps surprising movement in the opposite direction, toward a return to religious practice. ¶ In the face of these realities, we would like you to address the following two groups of questions concerning your own personal beliefs and your view of the religious scene: (from Introduction)