Abstract
The idea that ours is an “evolving” American Jewish community seems, at first glance, self-evident. A closer look, however, discloses that the word “evolving” is cognate to “evolution,” a controversial term in modern culture that most of the time is used all too loosely. “Evolution” has meant different things to different people, and each meaning is ideologically freighted.
According to Raymond Williams, the word “evolution” derives from a Latin forerunner meaning “to unroll,” as in “unrolling a book.” Used in this sense, “evolution” impliesinherentdevelopment, the unrolling of something that already exists. In the nineteenth century, particularly under the