ABSTRACT
Conflicting currents run through all the essays in this book. My deep concern for American Jewry is not entirely compatible with the detachment necessary for the social scientist seeking to describe American Jewish life. Nor, I confess am I an unreconstructed lover of all American Jews and of all things Jewish. I have a particular conception of what it means to be a Jew and although I would not attempt, even if I could succeed, to coerce all Jews into my Jewish mold, I do not view all manifestations of Jewishness with equanimity. It is very difficult to evaluate American Jewish life and various manifestations of Jewishness with objectivity when one passionately believes that some of these manifestations are harmful by one’s personal criteria of Judaic propriety. It is all too easy to permit personal Judaic conceptions to overcome scientific responsibility. I would be foolish if I believed I had overcome this problem. But I have wrestled with it to the best of my ability. The opposite choice, studying that which one cares little about, raises problems of its own. It makes for dull research from the author’s perspective and dull reading from the reader’s perspective. More significantly, it makes for research that is often removed from reality, asks the wrong kinds of questions, and provides meaningless descriptions.
