Abstract
What role do Judaism and Jewish existence play in America? Conversely, what role does America play in matters Jewish there? Michael Marmur and David Ellenson have taken on the monumental task of allowing us to listen to distinctive voices in the cacophony of those who have shaped the bold and shifting soundscape of American Jewish thought over the last few generations. American Jewish Thought Since 1934: Writings on Identity, Engagement, and Belief takes Mordecai Kaplan’s Judaism as a Civilization (1934) as the “Archimedean point” thanks to which Jewish thought in America acquires a distinctive set of characteristics. The present volume