American Judaism: A Symposium on Jonathan Sarna's Award-Winning Book

28 Historically Speaking September/October 2006 American Judaism: A Symposium on Jonathan Sarna's Award-Winning Book* Chris Beneke There haven't been many denominational histories like this one. That was the consensus reached by a distinguished panel of speakers assembled to discuss Jonathan D. Sama's monumental American Judaism: A History (Yale University Press, 2004), winner of the 2004 National Jewish Book Award. The symposium, held at Bendey College in Waltham, Massachusetts, and co-sponsored by the Historical Society, featured comments by Nancy T. Ammerman of Boston University,Jon Butler of Yale University, and David B. Starr of Hebrew College. Professor Sarna of Brandeis University was also present to offer his thoughts on the book, which chronicles 350 years of Jewish history in the United States. Ranging across social, cultural, and religious history, American Judaism synthesizes a vast body of scholarship (much of it Sarna's) on the subject. Buder maintained that the book represents the best denominational history that has ever been written about any religious group in American history. Ammerman and Starr were only slighdy less effusive in their praise. Sarna, by contrast, focused on die limits of his achievement and the work that remains to be done. David Starr began the conversation. He focused on the ways in which American Judaism beckons us to reflect on the various ways that different kinds of Jews (specifically Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews) experienced the transition to modernity. One of the more important points that die book highlights, Starr argued, was diatJewish social integration did not require emancipation from the social and cultural patterns of the past. Noting that Sarna's book may reinforce the perception that AmericanJudaism represented a departure fromJudaism elsewhere, Starr contended thatAmericanJudaism provokes a range of intriguing questions, as well as providing some of the tools for answering them. How different, Starr asked, was early American Judaism from its early modern counterparts? How different is it today? Did American Jewish life change because of settlement or resettlement or because of internal changes that were already underway ? Does it matter that American Jews may comprise the first Jewish community since that of Alexandrian Greece not to have its own language? These questions, Starr concluded, could all be considered more fruitfully in light of the exceptional research that went into AmericanJudaism. * The symposium was co-sponsored by the Historical Society, Yale University Press, Gann Academy, the Center for the Arts and Sciences at Bentley College, the Bentley College Spiritual Life Center, and the Bentley College Department of History. Nancy Ammerman noted diat AmericaJudaism is, in fact, unique in a number of ways. She concentrated her remarks on the distinguishing features of Judaism in America, which include non-establishment ; voluntarism; lay involvement; internal diversity ; and the ever expanding and sometimes controversial role of women. For Ammerman, AmericanJudaism highlights how the American expeJon Butler, Howard R. Lamar Professor of American Studies, History, and Religious Studies and Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Yale University, speaks at Bentley College. rience has called fordi distinctive ways of being religious . In a nation free of church establishments, she argued, religious authority has always been difficult to maintain. Consequendy, American Judaism has been shaped by the same divisive—and invigorating —forces that drive so much of American Christian history. Non-traditional forms of participation in synagogue life, especially the active role of women, she contended, testify to the unconventional forms of faith that America continually cultivates. Jon Buder also emphasized die astonishing religious creativity that American Judaism richly details. Like another great denominational history, Jay Dolan's The American Catholic Experience, Sarna's AmericanJudaism treats its subject in comprehensive terms, paying attention to the laity and die clergy, institutions and ideas, cohesion and conflict. The book, Buder maintained, devotes die right amount of space to more recent developments. AmericanJudaism , like American Christianity, has become more deeply rooted in the nation's culture as time has passed—in contrast to what has occurred in other developed countries. According to Buder, Sarna's book is notable for the way it details die innovative character of AmericanJudaism. It demonstrates that creativity, rather than devotion to the past, has given American Judaism its vitality...