ABSTRACT
I write this essay as a lifelong Reform Jew, as a sociologist (although I do not specialize in religion), and as one who has thought a bit about the nature of community in the United States and my place in it. Indeed, my interest in writing on Reform Judaism and community is a deeply personal one. Although I was raised in a devout Reform Jewish family, the son of two congregation presidents, and served as a former youth group president, as an adult I feel distanced from the Reform community. Although I am a member of a temple and attend services more regularly than some, I remain deeply troubled about whether I will be able to pass my faith on to my own son, who is studying for his bar mitzvah as I write this. To try to make some sense of this dilemma, I have wrestled with the question of why I have had such trouble recommitting to the Judaism of my parents while at the same time finding it difficult to leave.
