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Book Review
| American Judaism: A History. By Jonathan D. Sarna. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004. xx, 490 pp. $35.00, ISBN 0-300-10197-X.)
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| In celebration of American Jewry's 350th birthday, Professor Jonathan D. Sarna has delivered his awaited history of the denominational aspect of the Jewish experience. It is written in a muscular lucid prose and uses some of the latest monographic materials, especially in those areas where he has previously done research. It possesses in good measure the hallmark of good history, a seamless flowing narrative style, and insights that come only from someone who has thought long and hard about the material he is presenting. |
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Unlike the American Jewish experience, the story of Judaism in America is not a happy one. It shares with other American churches a continuous struggle merely to survive. In the early period the rabbis did not come, and Jews often abandoned practices such as sabbath observance and shechita (religious laws for animal slaughter) that were difficult to observe, especially in remote areas of settlement. America's free dynamic spirit put the tenets of an ancient faith to the test, and the faith did not fare well. Jews used their newfound freedom to cast off the bonds of religious authority. There emerged a pluralistic accommodationist Judaism. It is the story about how an Abrahamic faith based on commandment was compelled to rely on persuasion. The now separate branches developed strategies and leaders, such as Isaac Leeser and Isaac M. Wise, the founder of the Reform movement, to become the persuaders. The book contains a well-told account of the complex story of the split between the Orthodox and Conservative movements, which occurred more gradually and on terms different from those generally accepted. Sarna is especially strong on the contemporary flux in the Orthodox branch, especially the different development of Modern and Agudath Orthodoxy. In a sense, what is rendered is the history of how Judaism coped with the strong modernizing impulse of the host culture. Democratization, part of that ongoing process, tended to place the welfare of the laity above the worship of the deity. The verdict on whether the accommodation worked is not yet in. There are true believers who are convinced that the steps taken amounted to an abandonment of the faith and others who feel that more needs to be done. |
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