American Jews: Their Story

Plot

This is a book about the Jews of the United States. Curiously such a book must begin without defining its subject. Perhaps the most difficult questions the reader will encounter from page to page are the simple ones of identity: who are the Jews, how are they recognized, wherein are they different? Only after knowing the whole story will the answer become clear. In a way the Jews are a religious denomination, an immigrant group, a separate nation. Thus the Jews cannot adequately be treated from any of the conventional points of view. Yet the adjective jewish in their titles is more than a whimisical accident. It is the product of along history in this country, and of a still longer history in the Old World. Only through an understanding of that history shall we be able to learn who the Jews are and what problems now beset them as Americans.