ABSTRACT
Community and Polity is a thorough account of the organizational dynamics of American Jewry. In framing the problem of the American Jewish community in terms of assimilation versus authenticity, Elazar displays genuine appreciation for the special circumstances of Jewish life in America, which in organizational terms is probably better cast as local organization versus cosmopolitan ideology. The treatment of American Jewry as a state serves as a vehicle to understand the dialectic between political assimilation and personal authenticity. The notion of a Jewish community exists as a closed monad without any window on the larger world of the American political system. As a clustering of data, information, and insight into Jewish community life in America and how it is organized over time and space, this is a superb contribution. As a work seeking to situate Jewish community life in the context of American political life as a whole, it is far less successful.
