For many of us, the period between 1970 and 2010 was not only the best of times for American Jewish life but also, it could be argued, the most comfortable time for Jews in the two thousand years of the Jewish diaspora.

Prior to this period, Jews in America, though clearly living in greater freedom than most Jewish communities, experienced many of the constraints on a free life that Jews had lived throughout the centuries. In many instances, Jews either still felt discrimination, as for example Harvard had unofficial quotas on the number of Jewish students, and certain neighborhoods were known to not be open to Jewish home purchases, or Jews basically learned that progress toward full acceptance in society was predicated on not being too Jewish. For so many American Jews, this tradeoff was acceptable but hardly ideal. 

All this began to change in the 1950s and 1960s, a product both of broader changes in society and with it a greater willingness of Jews to stand up for who they are. 

The civil rights movement was the centerpiece of this change which obviously........

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