This pessimistic view of Orthodoxy was a theme of two of
the most important books on American Judaism written by sociologists in the 1950s: Nathan Glazer’s American Judaism and
Marshall Sklare’s Conservative Judaism. Glazer described Orthodoxy as incompatible with middle-class respectability.
Orthodoxy’s future lay with those whom he described as a “particularly backward and archaic group of Jews.” Sklare said in a
much-quoted statement that “Orthodox adherents have succeeded
in achieving the goal of institutional perpetuation to only a limited
extent; the history of their movement in this country can be written in terms of a case study of institutional decay.” For American
Jews, Sklare concluded, “Orthodoxy bears the stigma of the ‘ghetto.’ They feel that Orthodox procedures are out of keeping with
the type of behavior expected of the middle class, that Orthodoxy
will not raise their status among fellow-Jews of higher social position, and also that Orthodoxy will not help to improve Jewish Gentile relations.” The future of traditional Judaism in America,
Sklare concluded, lay not with Orthodoxy but with the more dignified and higher-status Conservative Judaism.
[Edward Shapiro, A Shtetl in the Sun: Orthodoxy in Southern Florida]
