Multiple Worlds, One Identity: How American Jews Navigate Complex Belonging

When Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan introduced the concept of "living in two civilizations" nearly a century ago, he offered American Jews a revolutionary framework for understanding their complex identity. Rather than viewing their Jewish and American commitments as competing loyalties requiring an impossible choice, Kaplan proposed that Jews could—and should—be full participants in both civilizations simultaneously. Today, this framework proves even more essential as we recognize that Jewish identity in America operates not just across two civilizations, but often across multiple cultural worlds.

Beyond the Binary

Kaplan's insight was radical for its time: he rejected the either/or mentality that suggested authentic Jewish life was incompatible with full American participation. Judaism, he argued, was an evolving religious civilization with its own language, literature, customs, and folkways that could flourish alongside complete integration into American society. This meant that a Jewish American could maintain kashrut while embracing democratic values, celebrate both Sukkot and Thanksgiving as meaningful cultural moments, and draw from both traditions to create a rich, authentic life.

This framework liberated many American Jews from the false choice between assimilation and isolation. It provided intellectual scaffolding for what many were already experiencing intuitively: their Jewish identity wasn't separate from their American identity but existed in dynamic relationship with it.

The Expanding Reality

Today, Kaplan's "two civilizations" concept reveals its full power when we recognize that Jewish identity in America often encompasses three, four, or even more cultural traditions operating simultaneously. A Black Jewish person navigates what it means to be Black in America, Jewish religious and cultural practices, and broader American civic life—each tradition informing and enriching the others. Similarly, Latino Jews, Asian Jews, Middle Eastern Jews, and Jews from countless other backgrounds aren't choosing between identities but living fully within multiple civilizational contexts.

This reality challenges persistent assumptions within Jewish communities and broader society. The unstated expectation that "Jewish" means Ashkenazi or European-descended ignores both historical reality and contemporary diversity. Jewish communities have always been multiracial and global, from the ancient Jewish communities of Ethiopia and India to the vibrant Sephardic traditions of the Mediterranean and Middle East.

Contemporary Challenges and Growth

The growing visibility of Jews of color represents a tremendous opportunity for American Jewish life. As our voices and experiences gain more space in communal conversations, they are expanding and enriching the very definition of what it means to be Jewish. This visibility invites communities to reconsider long-held assumptions, redefine belonging, and embrace the full spectrum of Jewish identity as it is actually lived.

It also opens the door to new expressions of Jewish culture and practice that blend traditions, honor diverse heritages, and reflect the creativity born from living in multiple civilizations. From music and prayer to leadership and scholarship, the contributions of Jews of color are transforming Jewish spaces into more vibrant, inclusive, and spiritually alive communities.

The Ongoing Negotiation

The tensions that arise from living in multiple civilizations, including debates over Israel and Gaza, discussions about religious practice, and questions about particularism versus universalism, aren't problems to be solved but natural dynamics of a rich, complex identity. These ongoing negotiations reflect the creative work of maintaining distinct traditions within a pluralistic democracy.

In particular, the Israel-Palestine conflict exemplifies how living in multiple civilizations creates complex negotiations around values and belonging. For generations, many American Jews shared a general framework of support for Israel as a unifying good, an equation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism, and the belief that a two-state solution would create peace. Today, however, there is a wider spectrum of views—especially among younger and multiracial Jews—that is reshaping that narrative. Some are deeply committed Zionists, others identify as non- or anti-Zionist, and many are still wrestling with where they stand. What unites them is not uniformity of belief, but a desire for Jewish values—justice, dignity, safety, and liberation for all people—to guide their approach.

This fracturing of consensus reflects the broader reality of American Jewish life: living authentically within multiple civilizations means that our responses to complex issues will be informed by different cultural frameworks and moral traditions. The conversation around Israel-Palestine demonstrates how Jewish Americans draw from American democratic values, Jewish ethical teachings, and their various other cultural inheritances to form their positions.

A Living Framework

This diversity of perspective reflects the remarkable breadth of contemporary American Jewish life: religious observance ranges across movements and personal practices; geographic experiences vary dramatically between dense urban Jewish populations and smaller communities across the South, Midwest, and other regions; generational perspectives differ significantly between Holocaust survivors' descendants and younger Jews growing up in a more integrated America; and approaches to Israel, social justice, and community building continue to evolve.

One way to build on the opportunity presented by the growing visibility of Jews of color is to embrace a living framework of Jewish identity that is dynamic, inclusive, and rooted in evolution. The expanding narrative of what it means to be Jewish challenges stagnant definitions and opens space for a more expansive and honest reflection of our people.

This living framework encourages communities to invest in cultural literacy, to support diverse leadership, and to make space for the hybrid identities that characterize so much of American Jewish life today. It asks how we preserve tradition while allowing it to grow, shaped by the lived experiences of those who have long been on the margins of Jewish communal recognition.

What makes Kaplan's framework so enduring is its recognition that identity isn't static. Just as Judaism has always adapted to local contexts while maintaining core distinctiveness, American Jewish identity continues to evolve. The framework suggests that this evolution is an expression of Jewish civilization's fundamental vitality, not a loss of authenticity as some would have us think.

Living in multiple civilizations means genuine integration where each tradition enriches the others. A Korean Jewish American doesn't fragment their identity into separate compartments but creates a unified life drawing from all their cultural resources. This integration cultivates richness and creativity, and deepens the evolving conversation about what it means to be Jewish in America.

The Continuing Journey

As American society becomes increasingly diverse and interconnected, the Jewish experience of navigating multiple civilizations offers valuable insights for other communities grappling with complex identities. The lesson isn't that maintaining distinctiveness is easy, but that it's possible—and that the work of integration across traditions can produce forms of identity that are both deeply rooted and beautifully adaptive.

The question facing Jewish communities today isn't whether to embrace this multiplicity—it's already the lived reality for millions of American Jews. The question is how to create institutions, narratives, and practices that fully honor the richness of Jewish life as it actually exists: diverse, dynamic, and deeply embedded in the multiple civilizations that shape contemporary American experience.

In this light, being Jewish in America today means continuing the ancient Jewish work of maintaining particular traditions while engaging fully with the world around us—now expanded to encompass not just two civilizations, but the beautiful complexity of multiple cultural inheritances that make up the American Jewish experience.