Jewish on their own terms: how intermarried couples are changing American Judaism

This book provides a complex, insightful portrait of intermarried couples and the new forms of American Judaism that they are constructing. It tells the stories of intermarried couples, the rabbis and other Jewish educators who work with them, and the conflicting public conversations about intermarriage among American Jews. Ethnography is used to describe the compelling concerns of all of these parties and places their anxieties firmly within the context of American religious culture and morality.>

Defining Judaism by debating intermarriage -- American contradictions: conversations about self and community -- What you are and what's in your heart -- Translating Jewish experience -- Sovereign selves in a fractured community -- Moving forward, inconclusively: the crisis of Jewish identity

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Defining Judaism by Debating Intermarriage -- 2. American Contradictions: Conversations about Self and Community -- 3. "What You Are" and "What's in Your Heart" -- 4. Translating Jewish Experience -- 5. Sovereign Selves in a Fractured Community -- 6. Moving Forward, Inconclusively: The Crisis of Jewish Identity -- Afterword -- Notes -- References -- Index