Community and polity

About this book

This edition of Community and Polity is designed to serve two purposes: to provide a basic survey of the structure and functions of the American Jewish community and to suggest how that community should be understood as a body politic, a polity that is not a state but is no less real from a political perspective. This revised and updated edition of Community and Polity examines the transformations taking place in local community federations and in the countrywide federation movement, the decline of the mass-based organizations, the shift in the forms and organization of Jewish education, the changes taking place in the synagogue movements, and the problems of Jewish unity generated by intermovement competition. The book also looks at the new ambiguity in the sphere of community relations, the impact of demographic shifts on Jewish community organization, the institutionalization of new relationships between the American Jewish community and Israel, and the emergence of new model organizations to mobilize and serve the Jewish community.