Five new books touch on American Jewish identity and what will sustain it into the future.

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Gal Beckerman

Michela Buttignol

When a gunman slaughtered 11 worshipers in a Pittsburgh synagogue on a Shabbat morning last month, American Jews were left with a jumble of intense emotions: horror and fear, certainly, but also an old embattled feeling, centuries in the making. For one thing, the violence of Pittsburgh is far from the everyday reality of American Jews. Once the candlelight vigils are over, where is the solid ground for the future of American Jewish identity? It won’t come from being victims — it shouldn’t — and cultural and ethnic identity, the bagels and lox version, is disappearing fast. From where then? As a handful of new books make abundantly clear, there really is only one source left: the religion — Judaism itself, and its unique capacity for adaptation. [More]

1.  THE CHOSEN WARS: How Judaism Became an American Religion (Simon & Schuster, $30) 
2. THE NEW AMERICAN JUDAISM: How Jews Practice Their Religion Today (Princeton University, $29.95) 
3. THE JEWISH AMERICAN PARADOX: Embracing Choice in a Changing World (PublicAffairs, $28) 
4. GOD IS IN THE CROWD: Twenty-First Century Judaism (Spiegel & Grau, $28)