I admire people like Maggie Anton. Anton, a mother and clinical chemist, was not given a strong Jewish education. Later, though, she started to take classes in Talmud. She felt so passionate about her learning that she decided to write books. If you'd prefer to snuggle with a good book than watch football over the holiday weekend, you might want to try Anton's first book Rashi's Daughters, Book I: Yoheved. While I don't think this book is for everyone, as a feminist who happens to like historic fiction and love Jewish history, I found the book entertaining and enlightening. Tell Me Another Morning, by Zdena Berger, is a second recommendation for those who prefers books to footballs.
An awful lot of young American Jews today don't care at all about Israel. A 2007 study, which polled 1,700 non-Orthodox American Jews, found American Jewish detachment from Israel is growing and strongest among younger Jews. The study, conducted by Professors Steven M. Cohen and Ari Y. Kelman, found that of American Jews under 35, only about half (48 percent) think "Israel's destruction would be a personal tragedy" and only about half (54 percent) are "comfortable with the idea of a Jewish State." For Jews over 65, those percentages are 78 percent and 81 percent. (
American Jews have a great deal for which to be thankful. In the long history of the Diaspora, Jews have never been as prosperous, organized, influential and accepted as they are today in the United States. The secular holiday of Thanksgiving is an opportunity for American Jews to express their appreciation for the bounty and religious freedom they enjoy.