Zion in America: The American Jewish Experience

From the very beginning of Jewish settlement in the New World, Jews understood that America was a very different place.  Vast areas of arable land, the expanding frontier, a plethora of religions and races, and the influence of the Enlightenment created an environment in which Jews thrived. There was a price, however, that Jews had to pay for this unprecedented freedom.  To this day Jews have struggled with the question of how to remain Jewish in a society in which everything is open to them.  Assimilation, not anti-Semitism is the perennial problem confronting the American Jewish community.