Customer Reviews

American Judaism (The Chicago history of American civilization)

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Nathan Glazer's American Judaism is on the whole a good if dated history of Judaism's history in the United States. It focuses heavily on the intellectual end of the subject matter, with a major emphasis on how the religion has evolved in response to the American environment.

The main focus of the book is on the emergence of Reform and Conservative Judaism, with somewhat less attention paid to Orthodox and the Hasidim. A writer for Commentary magazine, Glazer at times seems to overly favor Conservative Judaism, though not to the extent that it becomes a screed. Furthermore, in the final chapter, he overemphasizes the importance of support for the state of Israel to a 'truly' Jewish identity. This is a faily minor point in an overall good book.

If I had to make one criticism, it would be that Glazer's vision of Judaism focuses exclusively on rabbis and thinkers such as Mordecai Kaplan. It does not give enough attention to lay members of the Jewish community, let alone specific sub-groups such as women. Nevertheless, it is a good introduction to Jewish American history.