ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a comparative overview of the United States and European Jewish populations and their relationship with wider society. It presents some problems unique to contemporary American Jewry from a more specialized sociological perspective, and suggests a theory to explain the current trends, which also leads to a solution to the challenges facing all diaspora Jewry. The crucial issue for Jewish historical and communal development is the exceptionalism of United States society and most importantly, the fact that it was the first new nation, a post-feudal society. All the nineteenth century Jewish "isms" created to deal with der Judenfrage have collapsed or are irrelevant to the new world order we face. Until 1945, as a people ideologies and communal institutions did a good job of saving Judaism but a poor job of saving Jews. American Jews face a truly revolutionary situation — how to create a diaspora ideology in the context of a tolerant and non-threatening environment.
