With the resurgence of Orthodoxy's role on the national Jewish scene has come an increasingly bitter set of debates about what may legitimately be defined as Orthodox. As part of a renewed interest in what might be termed the leftward boundary of Orthodoxy, some scholars have dedicated themselves to laying bare the heterogeneous nature of Orthodox life. In their work, the experiences of yesteryear are used to caution those who might assume that “Orthodox” behavior and praxis have always been defined conservatively. One of the most prolific scholars has been Jeffrey Gurock, a historian who has published on topics such as the history of Yeshiva University and Mordecai Kaplan's place within traditional Judaism. Gurock has clear aims for Orthodox Jews in America, and he does not shy away from placing them front and center. The book begins with an introduction in which Gurock details the environment in his childhood shul in the Bronx, illustrating the ways in which respected members of the community tried to balance their Jewish and secular commitments. These stories are a microcosm of the book's overall goal: to show that American Orthodoxy has always been a place of blurred boundaries and best intentions. Perfect halakhic fidelity has not historically been the be-all and end-all of a place in the Orthodox community. Indeed, Gurock argues that for much of American history, this fidelity has been an ideal rather than a reality for most. Assimilating into American culture has often meant difficult choices and diverse responses for observant Jews.

Orthodox Jews in America, then, is a polemic, rewriting the Jewish American experience in order to highlight changes in the ways in which Orthodoxy has been defined. It traces the trajectory of Orthodoxy from a large movement with a big-tent philosophy to a movement that has sacrificed size for its own definition of halakhic integrity. It will certainly shake up those who believe that Orthodoxy is unchanging in its tenets, as illustrated by the issue of separate gender seating in the synagogue, which was not actually a stipulated requirement for membership in the Orthodox Union in the 1940s. The book begins with a focus on the first few religious Jewish immigrants, and concludes strongly in discussing the current conflicts of Orthodox factionalism. It contains a particularly good exploration of the Orthodox feminist movement. Gurock is generous and lucid in both his explication of the dissatisfactions that have led to women's increased role within some Orthodox settings, and the views of those who oppose such change. In the middle of the book, however, the organization becomes a bit less clear, with some doubling back on historical periods in order to follow the profiled figures and institutions. Given his prior work, it is not surprising that Gurock spends a significant amount of time discussing New York's Jewish day schools and colleges. In general, his detailed work on the Jewish educational revolution shows the ways in which both the day school movement and the rise of traditional European yeshivot on American soil set the stage for the contemporary Orthodox renaissance. The book also shines in its use of anecdotes and product advertisements to illustrate the ways in which America has adapted to the Orthodox Jew as consumer and vice versa. As opposed to other currents of American culture that often created negative pressure on observant Jews, the nation's capitalist impulse is one that has smoothed the way for Orthodox life with innovations from the electric razor to the Shabbat timer.

Orthodox Jews in America suffers somewhat from unevenness in tone, as Gurock clearly perceives himself to be both an academic and an advocate (despite his sympathetic approach, he occasionally uses terms such as “miscreants” to describe those who deviate from halakhically acceptable behavior). But more importantly, he gives short shrift to some of the reasons that Jews may have chosen to leave Orthodoxy. A major premise of the book is that observance has always been difficult in America, and that one of the key aspects of a “Torah uMadda” style of synthesis is that it allows Orthodox Jews to value both worlds without drifting into the arms of the Conservative or Reform movements. But this means that the “loss” of Jews to these movements tends to be framed in terms of their accommodation to the exigencies of modern life and not to deeper theological questioning. Wishing to drive on Shabbat or eat cheeseburgers can be in themselves reasons for changing allegiances, but they may also symbolize the way in which many Jews have come to believe that halakhah is not constitutive of Jewish values.

Frankly, the most cogent criticism of the book is that it could have used better editing. Almost every page contains typos and grammatical errors, as well as generally ungainly sentence structures. This should not be the kind of impression left by an otherwise extremely important book that contributes significantly to a more complex picture of observant Judaism.