Abstract
The goal of this thesis is to explore how the trends in American Jewish life in the postwar era affected the way Jews understood how to reflect their values in their synagogues. The majority of the synagogue construction occurred in the suburbs where Jews migrated at extraordinarily high rates. Through understanding the lifestyle changes caused by suburbanization, it is possible to uncover why Jews constructed synagogues that shifted away from the awe-inspiring synagogues of the years before. After the economic hardships of the Great Depression and the atrocities of the Holocaust, American Jews were confronted with the challenge of living a Jewish life, while still living as "true" Americans.