Daniel Soyer

Beyond the Synagogue Gallery. .. and Beyond

Judaisms encounter with America in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was partly an encounter with the countrys particular culture, and partly an encounter with modernity in general. In other places as well, modernity meant the breakdown of the traditional corporate Jewish community and therefore of the stability of Jewish identity. It also brought about the tentative separation of Jewish peoplehood from Jewish religion. In some places, especially in the West, it became possible to be a Jew by religion and a member of the local nation at the same time. Elsewhere, as in Eastern Europe, many Jews forsook the faith of their ancestors, but remained Jews by nationality. In this context, the relative openness of American society offered many enticements for Jews to join the cultural mainstream. More than in most places, the voluntarism of American society made any sort of adherence to the community, or even any sort of Jewish identity, a matter of individual choice. There was, of course, a price exacted for becoming full members of a predominantly Christian society. Jews had to downplay aspects of Judaism and Jewish culture that set them apart from others and to adhere to broadly defined behavioral norms. Not that all Jews found this so onerous-many were eager to blend in and quickly assimilated the perspective of the surrounding society. Still, those who wished to maintain Judaism in some form were faced with the task of defining the limits of acceptable practice and behavior-both as Jews and as Americans. The question was, how far could Judaism bend to accommodate American norms and still be recognizable as Judaism? Inevitably, the encounter with America was also an encounter with Protestantism. The two books under consideration here treat very different