The triumph of Brexit and Trump is the lazy eye of a perfect storm: Populist fears seep through the cracks in the social contract. 2016 marked the return of the tribe, 2017 will show the force of the tribe in action.
The coming Trump administration presents so many potential risks, it’s hard to know which to feel anxious about. When I feel overwhelmed, I find that it helps to make lists. Here, then, in a rough order of danger, but also grouped by category, are 50 things for American Jews to be worried about as the new administration takes shape.
The overall American Jewish population size is stable and growing, but its character is shifting dramatically. The Orthodox population (Haredi, centrist, and modern) is exploding. The non-Orthodox are in sharp decline.
Orthodox groups are growing quickly, but stopping at numbers misses an underlying, vital issue. Why is it that Orthodox couples have large families?
Family deficiencies and the need to perform are equal threads in this mother-daughter narrative.
The differences between Orthodox Judaism and alternative streams are many, but, put simply, they revolve around a difference in expectations and the importance of feelings.
Liberal Jewish movements are in demographic free fall and the key to arresting that fall is deeper commitment to Torah and mitzvot.
Steven M. Cohen’s attempt to quantify the shifting nature of the Jewish community succeeds in its portrayal of a rapidly growing Orthodox community but signally fails to capture an equally seismic shift of paradigm in the progressive, non-Orthodox, younger millennial demographic.
The Anti-Defamation League is supporting legislation that Rachel Roberts says erases the distinction between anti-Israel speech and anti-Semitism.
147Standing with Trump’s primary targets will earn us the hatred of the white nationalists — but that’s actually a sign that we’re doing the right thing, Tony Karon writes.
13Karen Brodkin, who literally wrote the book on how Ashkenazi Jews came to be considered white, now doubts whether that status will last.
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