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Although the Jewish community has suffered major traumas and upheavals, it has simultaneously achieved unprecedented attainments in every aspect of its collective life – political freedom and equality in democratic countries, a cultural renascence, and a political and cultural rebirth in and through Israel. The American Jewish community represents the largest aggregate of Jews living under one government. American Jewry is heir to a Jewish tradition that has been in the making for some thirty centuries, and while the Jewish cultural legacy has served as a potent force in mobilizing the continued loyalty of many Jews to the larger Jewish community, it has ceased to have meaning for many of its constituents. American contemporary climate of thought and taste has made Judaism irrelevant to many. This and many other factors have resulted in a spiritual vacuum for many, but especially for Jews, which many yearn to have filled.
This text poses questions such as "Is life good?," "What does it mean to be an American?," "What are the options available to Jews?," "How does one experience the Jewish heritage intellectually and emotionally?," "What theological and general concepts and what ethical values pervade the Jewish heritage?," "How are they concretized in the life of the individual and the community?," and "what are the problems that confront the Jewish heritage?"
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| All of us are to some extent endowed by our Creator with those spiritual and intellectual capacities whereby some among us are particularly distinguished. Every one is potentially an artist, an artisan, and a philosopher. If we were not so endowed, the exceptionally gifted would have no audience. Their achievements would find neither understanding nor response. |
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