High rates of intermarriage have become an obsession with Jewish community leaders. They fear the disappearance of Jews in America. But demography is not destiny. The case of the Jews shows one way ethnic communities can control their fates.
References
1.
CantorNorman. The Sacred Chain: The History of the Jews.New York: Harper/Collins, 1994. Against the broad sweep of Jewish history, Cantor projects the end of the American Jewish community and suggests some radical interventions.
2.
CohenSteven M.EisenArnold M.. The Jew Within: Self, Family, and Community in America.Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000. A thoughtful analysis of survey data and qualitative interviews focusing on the content of Jewishness and Judaism.
3.
DellaPergolaSergioRebhunUziToltsMark. “Prospecting the Jewish Future: Population Projections 2000–2080.”American Jewish Yearbook 2000. New York: American Jewish Committee, pp. 103–46. The best explication of potential population decline.
4.
DershowitzAlan. The Vanishing American Jew: In Search of Jewish Identity for the Next Century.Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1997. A popular misreading of the evidence presented in engaging reflections misses important communal developments.
5.
FarberRoberta RosenbergWaxmanChaim. Jews in America: A Contemporary Reader.Hanover: Brandeis University Press, 1999. One of the best collections of articles on the American Jewish community. Several focus on intermarriage and issues of the quality of Jewish life.
6.
HeilmanSamuel. Portrait of American Jews: The Last Half of the 20th Century.Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1995. Reviews both anthropological and statistical studies. The best book on the sociology of American Jews.
7.
TobinGary. Opening the Gates: How Proactive Conversion can Revitalize the Jewish Community.San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1999. Written by a social scientist who has conducted many community surveys; suggests policies to incorporate the intermarried.
