The authors consciously focused their research on a selection of moderately affiliated Jews, giving 1,005 persons an opinion survey and conducting individual or group interviews with 60. And in a volume that is at once concise and sprawling, the authors chart their lives. It cannot be increased or lessened by observance, in-marriage, communal affiliation, or any other normative behavior. They feel no need to express or enact their identity in regular activity. Consistency is no longer prized.
Theology is irrelevant.
In analyzing their data, the authors strive for an academic detachment. And yet this book cannot help but be read within the larger debate about the nature of both Jewish and American community. The concern about Sheila-ism and its variants in Jewish life has animated the work of Jack Wertheimer, Chaim Waxman and Steven Bayme, among others, who believe that boundaries contribute to Jewish vitality. Messrs. Cohen and Eisen generally avoid entering this fray. Perhaps they wanted a temperate tone so that their book would be read, as it should, for its trove of information and insights rather than as a partisan tract.