In this book the author, a recognized authority on Jewish life and thought, poses the question, 'How are we to think about the social and political setting for our religious and ethnic life as Jewish Americans and American Jews?' He gives his answer in six parts: I. What is at Stake in Debates on Zionism and Judaism? II. Zionism and Judaism in Theory III. A Zionist Theory of American Judaism IV. Zionism and Judaism in Practice V. American Jews and the State of Israel VI. The Failure of Nerve: Anti-Semitism and the Self-Ghettoization of 'Jewish Studies.' In Part II, the author states that 'Zionism, that is to say, the view that the Jews form a people, one people, and that the Jews constitute a political entity that deserves a state and a politics of its own, characterizes all Judaisms,' and he explains why.