Ethnicity, Geography and Jewish Community

by Sherry Israel

From The Reconstructionist, Spring 1995
Reprinted with permission.

In any discussion of community and contemporary American Jewry, it is essential that we pay attention to the wide context in which we live. Too often, we seem to forget that the complex realities of Jewish life today did not arise in a vacuum, that we are profoundly influenced by the currents of modern American culture.

Twenty years ago, Daniel Elazar characterized the American Jewish community as a series of concentric circles of participation, ranging from the ``Integrals'' at the center (those for whom Jewishness is the central factor of their lives, whether as religion, nationalism, or involvement in Jewish affairs) all the way out to ``Peripherals,'' ``Repudiators,'' and ``Quasi-Jews.'' In this voluntary society, boundaries between categories are fluid, with considerable movement in and out of the categories. More to the point, he noted that ``what characterizes a society composed of concentric circles is precisely the fact that there are no [imposed] boundaries; what holds people within it is the pull of its central core.''

Elazar likened the action of that core to a magnet. How strongly the magnet can maintain the system, can pull individuals in toward the core of Jewish participation, depends on the magnetic strength of the core itself and on the degree of the ``iron filings of Judaism'' in each individual. What Elazar did not much discuss was the competing forces pulling individuals away from the core, but even as he wrote, these were intensifying.

For most of the twentieth century, America's Jews concentrated on becoming Americans. It was a Jew, after all --- Israel Zangwill --- whose play ``The Melting Pot'' introduced that term into the vocabulary of American ethnic discussion. Our parents and grandparents, and the institutions of the Jewish community devoted to helping them learn the ways of America life, did not worry much about also staying Jewish. That was a given, enforced by the ethnic divisions and religious separation taken for granted by the rest of America. There may not have been any formal external boundaries, but there were strong exit barriers.

By now, we have succeeded terrifically in becoming Americanized. At the same time, the externally-imposed walls of separation have come down completely. What of community under these circumstances?

• Ethnic Options
• Weakened Bonds
• Core and Periphery Today
• The Institution Aspect of Community
• Strategies of Response
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