Being Jewish in a Gentile World: A Survival Guide / A series of brief, pithy essays oiffering insights into what Jews share with their fellow citizens and also what sets them apart. Dr. Brauner addresses the challenge of how to be unique and yet at one with American society. This work is a manifesto against cultural homogenization, a guide for finding the way to celebrate and live all that is best in both worlds, the world of the Jewish people and the world-at-large.
There is no doubt that America has been the single greatest sustained experience for the Jewish people in almost 4000 years of history. The political, social, religious, and economic freedoms of American democracy have no parallel. And yet, all is not well. While American Jews are not threatened by corrosive antisemitism, pogroms and malevolence, they are endangered, in a paradoxical way, by American culture. Many important Jewish values, concepts, traditions and perceptions do not find expression in the Gentile world. Successive generations of Jews growing up in America are losing their sense of Jewish substance through acculturation with language and values which are alien to real Jewishness. The greatest challenge confronting contemporary Jewish life is identifying and holding on to those principles which define Jews and Judaism as unique.
