Jews and the American Religious Landscape

Jews and the American Religious Landscape explores major, complementary facets of American Judaism and Jewish life through a comprehensive analysis of contemporary demographic data. Focusing on the most important aspects of social development—geographic location, socioeconomic stratification, family dynamics, group identification, and political orientation—the volume adds empirical value to questions concerning the strengths of Jews as a religious and cultural group in America and the strategies they have developed to integrate successfully into a Christian society.

Drawing heavily on findings made available by the Pew Research Center, Jews and the American Religious Landscape shows that Jews, like other religious and ethnic minorities, strongly identify with their religion and culture, yet their particular religiosity, along with such factors as population dispersion, professional networks, and education, have created different outcomes in various contexts. Living under the influence of a Christian majority and a liberal political system has also cultivated a distinct ethos of cooperation and egalitarianism, enabling Judaism to absorb new groups in ways that mirror its own integration into American life. Rich in meaningful information thoughtfully construed, this book presents a remarkable portrait of what it means to be an American Jew today.

Uzi Rebhun is an associate professor of the demography of the Jewish people and holds the Shlomo Argov Chair in Israel-Diaspora Relations at the A. Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is also a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute. His books include The Wandering Jew in America (2011), American Israelis: Migration, Transnationalism, and Diasporic Identity (2013), The Social Scientific Study of Jewry: Sources, Approaches, Debates (2014), and Research in Jewish Demography and Identity (2015).