Introduction

This introductory chapter offers the rationale and suggested approaches for undertaking a new original analysis of the collective identification and of the demography of Jews in the United States of America over the half century between 1970 and 2020. US Jewry until recently was by far the largest Jewish community in the world, and today still is the largest out of Israel. The volume discusses some issues of central salience for a better understanding of the Jewish contemporary scene in the US from a social scientific perspective. It relies on the main national Jewish population surveys, many of which I followed closely in a consulting capacity. Given the dominant absolute and relative weight of American Jewry these trends carry significant implications for a broader assessment of the current status of Jews worldwide. The great amount and rigor of the data condensed and elaborated in this study does not mean to minimize the importance of qualitative research. The author, while not American – hence apparently an outsider – has himself benefited of rich professional and personal experiences in the US, which turn to be very helpful when evaluating the potentialities for human development and community policies in this great and complex community.