A Certain People AMERICAN JEWS AND THEIR LIVES TODAY by Charles E. Silberman (Summit: $19.95; 458 pp.)

This is undoubtedly the best written and the best researched study of the state of American Jewry that we have had in many years. I say this even though I am not completely convinced that its thesis is correct.

Charles E. Silberman has written an ebullient book describing the remarkable transformation of American Jewry in this last generation. It is indeed an extraordinary success story. We Jews have gone from shtetl to steerage to slum to city to suburbs in a short time, and we have moved from the fringes of American life to the very center of academia, industry, the arts and the sciences. Silberman is right in his claim that anti-semitism is no longer the serious factor that it once was and that the doors of opportunity are open to Jews.

And yet, his book reminds me of the old quip: “If it is so good, why is it so bad?” I don’t think that he gives as much weight as he should to the centrifugal forces in Jewish life, to the many who are indifferent or illiterate, to those who are leaving--not in an act of rebellion--but who are simply drifting away into the majority culture.

The truth is probably somewhere in between the fatuous optimists and the professional pessimists. A free society is seductive, and therefore many will drop out; but a free society is also an opportunity, and therefore many will drop in. Only time will tell which trend will predominate. Meantime, Silberman has given us a remarkably informative, well-written and upbeat book that makes the case for a thriving Jewish life as well as it can be made. Some of me is not convinced but all of me hopes that he is right, and therefore I urge everyone to read his book and to listen respectfully to his argument.