American Jews & the Separationist Faith: The New Debate on Religion in Public Life

During the past half century, most American Jews believed that religion should be rigorously separated from public life. Convinced that a rigid "wall of separation" was best for both religion and the state, they steadfastly opposed the presence of any religious symbols or practices in the public arena.
But the separationist position did not go unchallenged. Prominent among its critics was Will Herberg, who argued that the state's "neutrality" in religious matters could not be "a neutrality between religion and no-religion, any more than ... it could be a neutrality between morality and no-morality."
In recent years, this position has gained more support. Some former separationists now think that to expunge all religious symbols from the public arena may actually infringe upon the free exercise of religion; or that the complete secularization of public life amounts to an unhealthy hostility toward religion; or that state support for religious schools is needed if American Judaism is to flourish.
In brief and provocative essays, forty Jewish lawyers, rabbis, professors, writers, and policy analysts here offer varying perspectives on the role of religion in American public life.