AUTHOR | Roberta Kwall, “Polarized: Why American Jews are Divided and What to Do About It”
Law professor and “Jewish Journal” columnist Roberta Kwall’s “Polarized” (named a top ten read by “Publisher’s Weekly”) offers a multidisciplinary examination of major divides within the American Jewish community prior to, and in the wake of, the Israel-Hamas war, and lays out a blueprint for how American Jewry can develop a much-needed, vocal center capable of productive discourse despite areas of disagreement.
Polarization has long been a pressing problem facing the American Jewish community to the extent that American Jews are among the most divided communities in the United States, a fracture that has deepened dramatically in the wake of the October 7th terrorist attacks against Israel and the ensuing Israel-Hamas war.
Drawing on insights from law, sociology, psychology, history and Jewish tradition, Kwall examines how these divisions developed, how they reflect and differ from polarization in our broader society, and, most importantly, how and why polarization poses an existential threat to American Jewish communal life and how generation gaps and campus culture have intensified these conflicts.
Fortunately, Kwall offers a path forward for rebuilding a strong American Jewish center capable of sustaining disagreement without fragmentation. She proposes a consensus platform to promote communal dialogue, institutional planning, and educational initiatives by prioritizing respectful discourse over ideological victory.
Author reception, book sales + signing after the event.
In partnership with Jewish Book Council.
Part of Chew on This! Speaker Series: Blueprint for Belonging
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ABOUT
Roberta Rosenthal Kwall is the Raymond Niro Law Professor at DePaul. She is a monthly columnist for “The Jewish Journal.” Kwall’s prior books include: “Remix Judaism: Transmitting Tradition in a Diverse World” (Rowman & Littlefield, 2020), “The Myth of the Cultural Jew” (Oxford UP 2015), “The Soul of Creativity” (Stanford UP, 2010) and “The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Law” (2025) (co-editor/contributor).
