SEPT. 8, 2004

CULTURE
Jews mark 350th anniversary of American Jewish life

In 1654, twenty-three Jewish refugees from South America sailed into what is now Manhattan and established the first permanent Jewish community in North America. U.S. Jews begin a yearlong observance this month that includes both celebration of enormous achievements and sober reflection on declining numbers and religious observance.

The observance begins as Jews begin their new year with Rosh Hashanah, which begins at sundown Sept. 15, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which begins at sundown Sept. 24.

Across the country, exhibits, community activities and religious observances will honor Jews' success and contribution to life in America. At the same time, Jews are grappling with numerous challenges:
• Secularization - according to the 2001 American Jewish Identity Survey, 48 percent of American Jews say they do not belong to a synagogue. Thirty-five percent identified their religious outlook as "secular," and 15 percent described it as somewhat secular.
• Intermarriage - The 2000-01 National Jewish Population Survey showed that the Jewish population is growing older and smaller. Its birthrate is dropping, while intermarriage is on the rise.
• Israel - As violence in the Middle East escalates, American Jews are divided about supporting Israel as they have never been before. In addition, there are now more Jews in Israel than in the rest of the world, making Jews no longer a Diaspora people.
• Politics - Of the three major world religions, only Judaism is getting smaller. How will this change the voice of Jews in American politics?
• Anti-Semitism - Continued and, in some cases, increasing incidents of anti-Semitism in the United States and around the world have caused great concern.

Why it Matters
Many Jews, both secular and religious alike, say these issues will determine the future of the Jewish faith as it is practiced in the United States.

Questions for reporters
• There is little consensus among the branches of Judaism about who is a Jew. What does it mean to be "Jewish" today? How does being Jewish affect people's daily lives and decisions?
• How are Jews addressing issues surrounding of intermarriage? Of conversion, which Jews traditionally have not encouraged?
• How do religious Jews envision the future of their faith when so many American Jews say they are secular? Why do so many Jews consider themselves secular, and what are Jewish congregations doing to address that?
• What role are Jews playing in American politics? How does the division over the question of Israel play out in Jewish communities? On college campuses? In Jewish homes?

Skip to background

Click the map for interview sources in your state and region

The anniversary
on the Web
• The Commission for Commemorating 350 Years of American Jewish History has a web site that documents the history of Jewish communal life in America. There is a section on the 23 Jews who came to New Amsterdam in 1654 and a section on how Jews celebrated the anniversary 50 and 100 years ago.
• Celebrate 350 maintains a calendar of celebrations and exhibits around the United States.

National sources

• Alice Herman is the director of Celebrate 350, an umbrella association that coordinates national anniversary events. Contact 212- 629-0500 ext. 350, alice@celebrate350.org.
• Jonathan Sarna is a professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., and author of American Judaism: A History (Yale University Press, 2004). He says one of the main questions confronting American Jews is how Judaism will define itself as it gets smaller. Read an interview with him by Beliefnet.com. Contact 781-736-2977, sarna@brandeis.edu.
• Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin is senior rabbi of The Temple in Atlanta, Ga. He has crafted a list of sermon ideas for Celebrate 350 and says the greatest issue facing American Judaism is being able to discern the points of convergence between American secular values and Jewish values. This, he says, is crucial if the Jewish community is to have anything of value to itself and to America. Contact 404-873-1731, jsalkin@the-temple.org.
• Sylvia Barack Fishman and Shulamit Reinharz are co-directors of the Haddasah-Brandeis Institute at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass. Fishman is the author of Double or Nothing? Jewish Families and Mixed Marriage (Brandeis University Press, 2004), and Reinharz is director of the university's women's studies program. Both have written extensively about Jewish women's roles within modern American Judaism. Contact via Nancy Vineberg, director of communications, 781-736-8110, vineberg@brandeis.edu.
• Steven T. Rosenthal is author of Irreconcilable Differences? The Waning of the American Jewish Love Affair with Israel (University Press of New England, 2001) and an associate professor of history at the University of Hartford in West Hartford, Conn. He has written that the erosion of a consensus on Israel has driven a wedge in American Jewry. Contact 860-768-4645.
• Phyllis Chesler is co-founder of the International Committee for Women of the Wall, an advocacy group for Jewish women's religious and human rights. She says the greatest issue confronting American Jews is their relationship to "the Islamist war" against Israel and the United States. She can also discuss the effort by Jewish women for a place to pray at the Wailing Wall and how this relates to the future of Judaism. She lives in New York City. Contact via email only, pchesler@phyllis-chesler.com.
• The Jewish Week, an independent community newspaper in New York, is recognized widely as the largest and most respected Jewish newspaper in America. Contact editor and publisher Gary Rosenblatt at 212-921-7822 ext. 215, gary@jewishweek.org.
• Rabbi Goldie Milgram is founder and executive director of ReclaimingJudaism.org, which offers seminars and web-based resources on the application of Jewish spiritual practice for spiritual seekers and teachers. She wrote Reclaiming Judaism as a Spiritual Practice: Holy Days and Shabbat (Jewish Lights, 2004). Contact rebgoldiem@aol.com.
• Rabbi Irwin Kula is president of CLAL, the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, a think tank dedicated to training Jewish leaders. Rabbi Tsvi Blanchard is director of organizational development at CLAL and an Orthodox rabbi. He has written about what it means to be Jewish in the 21st century. Contact via telephone through Ruth Bregman, 212- 779-3300, ext116), or contact Rabbi Kula via email at ikula@clal.org and Rabbi Blanchard at tblanchard@clal.org.
• Abraham Foxman is the national director of the Anti-Defamation League which exists to combat anti-Semitism. He has written and spoken extensively on the dangers of anti-Semitism. Contact adlmedia@adl.org.

BRANCHES AND MOVEMENTS WITHIN JUDAISM
• Rabbi Eric Yoffie is president of the Union for Reform Judaism (formerly Union of American Hebrew Congregations). He says the most important issue confronting American Judaism is the need for religious renewal because what really sustains Jews is not unity against anti-Semitism or on the status of Israel, but commitment to their own religious traditions. Contact 212-650-4150, presurj@urj.org.
• Rabbi Jerome Epstein is executive vice president of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. He says the most critical issue facing Jews today is apathy because many Jews do not think Judaism is important to their daily lives and they make only a minimal commitment to concrete action on the values that Judaism stresses. Contact 212-533-7800, epstein@uscj.org.
• Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb is the executive vice-president of the Orthodox Union, an umbrella organization of Orthodox synagogues in the United States. He says the inability to answer the question "Why be Jewish?" is one of the major challenges facing the religion today. Contact via Stephen Steiner, director of communications, 212-613-8318, steiners@ou.org.
• Rabbi Zalman Shmotkin is director of Chabad.org and a spokesperson for Chabad-Lubavitch Orthodox branch of Judaism. He says that while there are great problems with apathy and assimilation, there is a great Jewish renaissance and spiritualization of the Jewish community. He also says Judaism has become more accessible. Contact 917-804-7137, zs@chabad.org.
• Phill Goldberg is the director of communications for the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation, an umbrella organization for Reconstructionist congregations. Contact pgoldberg@jrf.org.
• Debra Kolodny is executive director of Aleph: Alliance for Jewish Renewal, an organization for Jewish renewal congregations and groups. She says the issues confronting Jews today provide opportunities for growth and spiritual revitalization. Contact 301-565-0719, debraruth@mac.com.

JEWISH ORGANIZATIONS
• American Jewish Committee is a communal organization that promotes human rights and understanding. It has regional offices in many states. E. Robert Goodkind is president and David Harris is executive editor. Contact via the public relations department, 212-751-4000, pr@ajc.org.
• American Jewish Congress is a civic organization that fights for human rights. It maintains seven regional offices in the United States. Jack Rosen is chairman and Paul Miller is president. Contact Juda Engelmayer, chief information officer, 212- 360-1587, jengelmayer@ajcongress.org.
• Rabbinical Council of America is an association of Orthodox rabbis. Contact Rabbi Basil Herring, executive vice president, 212-807-7888 ext. 105, bherring@rabbis.org.
• Hillel is an organization that promotes Jewish life and identity on college campuses. It lists campus groups by state and city. Contact 202-449-6534.
• B'nai B'rith International is an organization that promotes Jewish unity and continuity. It maintains a number of regional offices around the United States. Contact 202-857-6600.
• The Center for Cultural Judaism promotes the secular side of Judaism. Contact Myrna Baron, executive director, 212-564-6711, myrna@culturaljudaism.org.

SEMINARIES
• Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion is a Reform college with campuses in Cincinnati and Los Angeles. Contact Jean Bloch Rosensaft, senior national director for public affairs, 212-824-2209, jrosensaft@huc.edu.
• The Jewish Theological Seminary of America trains rabbis in the Conservative tradition. Contact Sherry Kirschenbaum, media relations director, 212-678-8950.
• Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Wyncote, Pa., trains Reconstructionist rabbis. Contact Gerald Cohen, director of public affairs 215-576-0800, ext.7, gcohen@rrc.edu.
• University of Judaism in Bel-Air, Calif. has a Conservative ordination program. Contact Iris Waskow, director of communications, 310-440-1529, iwaskow@uj.edu, or Rabbi Cheryl Peretz, assistant dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, 310-476-9777, ext. 213, ziegad@uj.edu. (Ed. note: The University of Judaism merged with Brandeis-Bardin to become American Jewish University in 2007.)

Background

• Celebrate 350 offers a timeline of Jewish life in America.
• View tables from the American Jewish Identity Survey (2001) as listed on the Jewish Virtual Library. Read the survey as posted on the web site of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
• Read the 2001 National Jewish Population Survey of posted on the Jewish Virtual Library.
• Read an essay by Rabbi Irwin Kula, "Jewishness in a New Era: Continuity, Discontinuity or Transformation?"
• Read an article by Rabbi Tsvi Blanchard in the Journal of Jewish Communal Service (Fall 2002) about how to think about being Jewish in the 21st century. (Click on Rabbi Blanchard, then click on the first article link.)
• The Library of Congress will open an exhibit on 350 years of Jewish communal life in America on Sept. 9, 2004.