The New Judaism Summary

Intermarriage threatens to devastate American Judaism by 2010, but Judaism has a "long and storied history of surviving threats of extinction." Spain in 1492 offers Jews conversion or expulsion; many who have put down time-shares in Majorca convert, but are later hunted down by sophisticated methods. Hitler's Final Solution kills six million Jews and leaves survivors concerned about the "health hazard" of their religion. Burger King's non-kosher offerings are too delicious to resist, suggesting that contemporary Judaism cannot compete in America's "free market religious environment."

The Orthodox accept the whole Torah as coming from God, separate the sexes during worship, and believe Jackie Mason is the funniest man alive. Conservatives take the Orthodox strictness "down a notch" and prefer Woody Allen. Reform Jews are "Christians with curlier hair" and favor Carrot Top. None of these forms can sustain Jews through the...