Who Are We Now?

Interpreting the Pew Study on Jewish Identity in America Today

Who is a Jew in 21st century America?

Is membership in “the tribe” defined by shared religious beliefs? Common ethnic backgrounds? Familiar holiday practices? Similar tastes in culture and cuisine? And what do the widely varying answers to those questions mean for the future of the American Jewish community?

In 2013, at the suggestion of Jewish Daily Forward editor Jane Eisner, the Pew Research Center completed the most comprehensive and credible survey ever conducted among American Jews. Its findings were nothing short of astounding to communal leaders, demographers and individual Jews alike.

In this new e-book, the venerable Forward – the premier source of news, analysis and cultural coverage that matters to the American Jewish community – explains and analyzes the Pew report, with contributions from its own journalists and other experts, including:
• Elka Abrahamson, president of the Wexner Foundation
• Sarah Bunin Benor, associate professor of contemporary Jewish studies at Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion
• Steven M. Cohen, research professor of Jewish social policy at Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion
• Sergio DellaPergola, professor emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• Jane Eisner, editor-in-chief of the Jewish Daily Forward
• Dan Friedman, managing editor of the Jewish Daily Forward
• J.J. Goldberg, editor-at-large for the Forward, and author of "Jewish Power: Inside the American Jewish Establishment"
• Bethamie Horowitz, research professor at New York University and director of the 1991 New York Jewish Population Study
• Josh Nathan-Kazis, staff writer for the Jewish Daily Forward
• Leonard Saxe, Klutznick Professor of Contemporary Jewish Studies at Brandeis University and director of the Steinhardt Social Research Institute
• Carla Naumburg, writer, clinical social worker, contributing editor for Kveller.com, and mother
• Martyna Starosta, digital media producer for the Forward
• Alan Wolfe, professor of political science and director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College.

Startling, sobering and sometimes even amusing, this accessible collection of articles and essays will inform and enlarge the critical conversation among American Jews about their communal future.

Includes a helpful discussion guide for educators, community and book groups, and leaders of Jewish organizations. With a preface by Samuel Norich, publisher and CEO of the Forward and the author of “What Will Bind Us Now? A Report on the Institutional Ties Between Israel and American Jewry.”