AJC Publishes Road Map To Help American Jews Find Their Way Around The Jewish Community

American Jewish Committee
Thursday, 25 March 1999

Who are the Jews of the United States? What are the philosophies that separate the Conservative, Reform, Orthodox, and Reconstructionist movements? What makes a federation different from an advocacy organization, an advocacy group different from a Zionist organization? What are the leading community relations agencies? What are the issues likely to occupy the Jewish community's attention over the next decade?

To help both outside observers, including politicians, diplomats and journalists, and indeed many Jews themselves sort out and demystify a diverse Jewish community, complex agenda and maze of services and institutions, the American Jewish Committee has published A Primer on the American Jewish Community.

The publication was written for AJC by Jerome A. Chanes, associate executive director of the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, a senior research fellow at the Center for Jewish Studies of the City University of New York Graduate Center, and an adjunct professor at Yeshiva University's Wurzweiler School of Social Work.

This unique 31-page AJC "road map" explores the numbers of American Jews and what those numbers mean; reviews history to explain how and why we came to be what we are; examines American political and cultural pluralism to understand how American Jews are organized; and, finally, surveys the agenda of American Jews. The report also contains a bibliography for further reading.

In his foreword to the publication, Dr. Steven Bayme, AJC Director of Jewish Communal Affairs, writes:

"At the close of the twentieth century, American Jewry is simultaneously experiencing both renewal and erosion. Clearly, no society in the history of the Diaspora has ever been as receptive to Jews as America today….

"But the American Jewish success story has come at a price. The welcome Jews have received has made many of them less distinctively Jewish. Although opportunities abound for intensive involvement in Jewish life, most Jews do not take advantage of them. There is good reason to question whether the traditional agenda of the Jewish community -- defending Israel, countering anti-Semitism, ensuring the separation of church and state, supporting the welfare state, and combating restrictions on immigration -- can address the challenge of guaranteeing Jewish survival in the twenty-first century, in a world where Jews are physically secure but spiritually undernourished.

"This Primer on the American Jewish Community should help clarify why American Jews find themselves at a crossroads today."

For more information, or to contact American Jewish Committee, see their website at: www.ajc.org