Overview

The situation of American Jews today is deeply paradoxical. Jews have achieved unprecedented integration, influence, and esteem in virtually every facet of American life. But this extraordinarily diverse community now also faces four critical and often divisive challenges: rampant intermarriage, weak religious observance, diminished cohesion in the face of waning anti-Semitism, and deeply conflicting views about Israel. Can the American Jewish community collectively sustain and pass on to the next generation a sufficient sense of Jewish identity in light of these challenges? Who should count as Jewish in America? What should be the relationship of American Jews to Israel? In this thoughtful and perceptive book, Robert H. Mnookin argues that the answers of the past no longer serve American Jews today. The book boldly promotes a radically inclusive American-Jewish community--one where being Jewish can depend on personal choice and public self-identification, not simply birth or formal religious conversion. Instead of preventing intermarriage or ostracizing those critical of Israel, he envisions a community that embraces diversity and debate, and in so doing, preserves and strengthens the Jewish identity into the next generation and beyond.

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David Cochran Heath has worked in radio and theater for thirty-five years. He has voiced characters for computer games and public television, hosted an instructional video series for automotive repair, and was the narrator for a long-running radio program for kids. Additionally, he was the on-camera host for a documentary on the most violent courtroom shootout in US history. David lived in a village in the Philippines for four years as a teenager, and has lived with his wife in Michigan, Washington, and California. He was with Lamb's Players Theatre in Coronado, California, for thirty-one years, working full-time as a senior member of the acting ensemble and serving as the company's director of facilities. He left Lamb's Players in 2011 to concentrate on audiobooks, and has been the narrator of over 140 books, including three versions of the Bible as sole reader: ESV, KJV, and NIrV. David gets his love of stories from his father, who was a preacher for twenty-five years, a missionary for another eighteen years, and a lifelong lover of the most important story of all: God's plan of redemption in all sixty-six books of the Bible. Robert H. Mnookin is the Samuel Williston Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, the Chair of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, and the Director of the Harvard Negotiation Research Project. Before joining the Harvard faculty, Professor Mnookin was the Adelbert H. Sweet Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and the Director of the Stanford Center on Conflict and Negotiation. At Stanford, he chaired the Jewish Community Federation and served as president of the Stanford Hillel Foundation. Between 1994 and 2003, he served on the International Board of the New Israel Fund as its Secretary and Treasurer. A leading scholar in the field of conflict resolution, Professor Mnookin is the author of nine books, including Bargaining with the Devil: When to Negotiate, When to Fight.

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