The Jewish family in America is by and large a reflection of the general American family. With the rise of divorce and the increasing preference for alternative life styles, the traditional Jewish family, like its American counterpart, is under increasing challenge. When the effects of intermarriage and a lower-than-average birth rate are added in, the continuity of the Jewish family and Jewish life is under even greater threat. The essays in this volume, by distinguished scholars and social-policy theorists, assess the situation and prescribe policy measures to minimize the adverse affects of these trends when necessary or possible. Among the questions addressed are adoption, divorce, abortion, feminism, and pornography. It is the hope of the editors and contributors alike that their work will not only aid in preserving the American Jewish family, but will have wider resonance as well.

The first comprehensive history of American Jewish philanthropy and its influence on democracy and capitalism For years, American Jewish philanthropy has been celebrated as the proudest product of Jewish endeavors in the United States, its virtues extending from the local to the global, the Jewish to the non-Jewish, and modest donations to vast endowments. Yet, as Lila Corwin Berman illuminates in The American Jewish Philanthropic Complex, the history of American Jewish philanthropy reveals the far more complicated reality of changing and uneasy relationships among philanthropy, democracy, and capitalism. With a fresh eye and lucid prose, and relying on previously untapped sources, Berman shows that from its nineteenth-century roots to its apex in the late twentieth century, the American Jewish philanthropic complex tied Jewish institutions to the American state. The government’s regulatory efforts—most importantly, tax policies—situated philanthropy at the core of its experiments to maintain the public good without trammeling on the private freedoms of individuals. Jewish philanthropic institutions and leaders gained financial strength, political influence, and state protections within this framework. However, over time, the vast inequalities in resource distribution that marked American state policy became inseparable from philanthropic practice. By the turn of the millennium, Jewish philanthropic institutions reflected the state’s growing investment in capitalism against democratic interests. But well before that, Jewish philanthropy had already entered into a tight relationship with the governing forces of American life, reinforcing and even transforming the nation’s laws and policies. The American Jewish Philanthropic Complex uncovers how capitalism and private interests came to command authority over the public good, in Jewish life and beyond.

This novel “unflinchingly confronts the issue of Jewish continuity in a diverse and changing America” (Anne Roiphe, author and journalist). Feminist icon Letty Cottin Pogrebin’s second novel is the story of Zach Levy, the left-leaning son of Holocaust survivors who promises his mother on her deathbed that he will marry within the tribe and raise Jewish children. When he falls for Cleo Scott, an African American activist grappling with her own inherited trauma, he must reconcile his old vow to the family he loves with the present reality of the woman who may be his soul mate. A New York love story complicated by the legacies and modern tensions of Jewish American and African American history, Single Jewish Male Seeking Soul Mate explores what happens when the heart runs counter to politics, history, and the compelling weight of tradition. “A beautifully written and heartwarming masterpiece.” —Menachem Z. Rosensaft, founding chair of the International Network of Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors “Cleareyed, courageous.” —Kirkus Reviews

Eisen, two of the keenest observers and analysts of American Jewish life, probe beneath the surface to explore the foundations of belief and behavior among moderately affiliated American Jews."--BOOK JACKET.

Explore the challenges and blessings of interfaith families. For couples of different faiths, navigating issues of marriage and child-rearing add a layer of complexity on the road to happily ever after. Inside Intermarriage is Jim Keen's personal journal as the Christian partner in an interfaith marriage. From deciding to have a Jewish wedding, to raising his children Jewish, to learning about a new culture while maintaining his own religious identity, Keen's candid exploration of the challenges and opportunities offers comfort and strategies to couples starting down a similar road. Complete with stories of other interfaith families, and a discussion guide to help couples consider how to resolve dilemmas around holiday celebrations and family relationships, Inside Intermarriage offers a warm, humorous, and ultimately hopeful message about the power of family connection.

The concepts of gender, love, and family - as well as the personal choices regarding gender-role construction, sexual and romantic liaisons, and family formation - have become more fluid under a society-wide softening of boundaries, hierarchies, and protocols. Sylvia Barack Fishman gathers the work of social historians and legal scholars who study transformations in the intimate realms of partnering and family construction among Jews. Following a substantive introduction, the volume casts a broad net. Chapters explore the current situation in both the United States and Israel, attending to what once were considered unconventional household arrangements - including extended singlehood, cohabitating couples, single Jewish mothers, and GLBTQ families - along with the legal ramifications and religious backlash. Together, these essays demonstrate how changes in the understanding of male and female roles and expectations over the past few decades have contributed to a social revolution with profound - and paradoxical - effects on partnering, marriage, and family formation. This diverse anthology - with chapters focusing on demography, ethnography, and legal texts - will interest scholars and students in Jewish studies, women's and gender studies, Israel studies, and American Jewish history, sociology, and culture.