Schmoozing : the private conversations of American Jews

How do Jews in America see themselves?Today most Jews are as familiar with sushi as gefilte fish. They are virtually indistinguishable from their gentile neighbors. Yet while they are happy to leave behind the ethnic stereotypes, many fear losing the values that have led to their communal success and achievement. How can Jews preserve their cultural heritage without lapsing into chauvinism? Which are the values that will carry the Jewish community into the twenty-first century?And so Jews talk.From the rigorously observant to the resolutely atheistic, they discuss self-image and core communal values. And Joshua Halberstam, writer, philosopher, and the son of a distinguished family of rabbis, has gone behind closed doors to listen to these private conversations -- which give us remarkable insight into the texture and tenor of American-Jewish life.… (more)