American Jewry and the Oslo Years

In the early 1990s, American Jewish political efforts seemed to be a success story, having won battles to get Jews out of the USSR and to have the Holocaust widely commemorated. Then the 1993 Israeli-PLO Olso Accords wreaked havoc on the traditional unified support for any Israeli government. Meanwhile, internal communal concerns included rising intermarriage, declining affiliation, and intensifying religious tensions. Broad-based membership groups declined, the influence of "mega-donors" rose, and a sense of collectiveness waned. As the Oslo period crashed into the Second Intifada, American Jewish groups rushed to defend Israel, but found a smaller, less interested and more splintered community of supporters. In analyzing what this meant for the American and Israeli Jewish communities—critical constituencies in negotiations—this book explores diverse sources, including newly released biographies, interviews by the author, extensive Jewish and national newspaper reporting, speeches, opinion surveys, important shifts in US Jewish identity, Bill Clinton's unusual bond with American Jewry, and emerging trends in American Christian perspectives.

Neil Rubin is an associate editor at the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, a visiting assistant professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and a popular speaker on college campuses and to adult education groups. His main interests are the evolving American Jewish-Israeli Jewish relationship, inter- and intra-faith dialogue, American Jews in politics, and Israeli politics.