Abstract
Within the liberal wings of American Judaism, women are increasingly prominent both as leaders and participants, and men are increasingly marginal. This gender imbalance differs from most Jewish communities historically and from many other Jewish communities around the world today, in which men characteristically played the most prominent roles in Jewish affairs as well as public religious settings and rituals. The systemic alienation of American Jewish males begins in boyhood, and has profound effects on every aspect of Jewish life. This development is of concern to Jewish leaders and policy planners because it affects not only religious but also communal and demographic realities. Jewish activities have less value, and Jewish friends and potential marriage partners seem less appealing to Jewish boys and men than they do to girls and women. American Jewish men are also less engaged than American Jewish women in the "peoplehood" aspects of Jewishness, including visiting Israel and seeing Israel as very important to their personal lives. This essay suggests that research and policy planning efforts should be placed in the broader American context, which profoundly influences American Jews. Gender imbalance is not a foregone conclusion. Jewish social history, and other Jewish societies today, show that men need not be distant from Jewishness.