Where to now for American Jews?
By Jonathan D. Sarna, the Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University and the director of its Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program. He is the author of American Judaism: A History (Yale University Press, 2004). Contact 781-736-2977, sarna@brandeis.edu. Prophecy is a dangerous assignment for a historian of American Judaism. A cursory examination of the history of prophecies about Jews, whether in America or elsewhere, discloses that a great many of them have proven wrong. Prophecy, Yogi Berra is supposed to have observed, “is very difficult, especially about the future.” With that caution in mind, let me make three observations about Judaism in the decade ahead. First, Israel is poised to overtake the United States as the largest Jewish community in the world. Today, there is a lingering dispute concerning the size of the American Jewish population, and some insist that it still slightly exceeds that of Israel. Given Israel’s rate o
