25年前,犹太神学院前院长路易斯·芬克尔斯坦曾批评美国犹太人投入了太多的精力去研究公元1世纪的巴勒斯坦犹太教,而不去研究20世纪的美国犹太人。经过一代人之后,在对1世纪的巴勒斯坦犹太教究竟搞清楚了多少还说不太准的同时,显而易见的是今天对美国犹太人内部情况的了解要比以前多得多。指出这一点,也许是具有讽刺意味的。 Twenty-five years ago, Louis Finkelstein, former dean of the Jewish Theological Seminary, had criticized American Jews for putting too much effort into studying Palestinian Judaism in the first century AD, instead of studying 20th-century American Jews. After a generation, while it is not clear how many first-century Palestinian Judaism was clear, it is clear that today there is much more understanding of the internal conditions of the American Jews than before. It may be ironic to point this out.