21st century America has seen religious faith tested by cultural change, social upheaval, and intellectual and moral challenges.

And American Judaism has not been immune from the dilemmas confronted by really all of America's religious

institutions. Jews across and outside the denominational spectrum have tried to adapt to the

complexities of modern life. But how are Jewish leaders cultivating the cultural antibodies

to resist the worst of modernity while at the same time taking advantage of modernity's new realities?

Which strategies are succeeding, and which are failing? And what even are the measurements that

tell us what's actually working? These are just some of the big questions Jack Wertheimer

asks in his indispensable new tour of the Jewish horizon, the new American Judaism, how Jews practice their religion today.

Welcome to the Tikva podcast. I'm your host, Jonathan Silver. This week, Professor Wertheimer

joins me for the first in a multi-part series of discussions on the defining features of contemporary

American Jewry. In this first installment of our series,

Professor Wertheimer directs our attention

to how average Jews, us in the pews,

as opposed to communal leaders or clergy,

really practice Jewish religious life.

We discuss belief in God,

how Jews observe holidays and B'nai Mitzvah,

the high points of religious experience in our community.

And we look at the Jewish community's struggle with the deep challenges of the individualist ethos of our larger culture,

the unexpected growth of American Orthodoxy, and much more.

If you enjoyed this conversation, you can subscribe to the Tikva podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, and Spotify.

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