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Raised in affluence and a security in which antisemitism was more a topic in history books than a living reality, this group of Jewish women confronted opportunities for individual and collective accomplishment unmatched in any previous cohort. Higher education became the norm and advanced degrees were common. A fluidity in gender roles in America yielded a wider array of choices than in the past. The idea of a Jewish construction of womanhood itself was contested, further expanding possibilities for this cohort largely unburdened by historical memory, whether personal, collective, or symbolic. As the United States changed, so did the character of Jewish assimilation.

Increasing numbers of Jews postponed both marriage and motherhood. Age of marriage rose rapidly as did age at the birth of a first child. Careers increasingly provided a focus of identity, rather than voluntarism. Politics remained important, but this group was not defined by its commitment to feminism as were the baby boomers. Many viewed the women’s movement as past, although they appreciated reaping its benefits. An articulate minority criticized the movement’s mistakes: its emphasis on equality with men, its reluctance to recognize lesbians, its blindness about race, its middle-class dimensions. The Holocaust continued to provide an emotional and spiritual anchor. By contrast, only those most committed to Jewishness incorporated Israel into their identity.

Unlike previous cohorts, this last generation included a significant minority of women of mixed parentage. When these women chose to identify and act as Jews, they introduced new perspectives drawn from Christianity and Buddhism, as well as other religions and cultures. For example, Angela Warnick Buchdahl became the first Asian-American woman rabbi, serving a major Reform congregation. Often what attracted them to Judaism differed from the values of third-, fourth-, and fifth-generation American Jewish women. Some brought a consciousness of race and intersectionality to Jewish communal organizations.

Over the twentieth century Jewish women followed diverse paths of assimilation in America. At times the majority society largely dictated their choices; at other times they faced an array of possibilities so that their own cultural values proved critical to the road taken. Irrespective of the receptivity of the United States to Jews and the extent of antisemitism, Jewish women have always had to confront the challenge of reconciling Jewish gender roles with American norms. Difficulties of reconciliation periodically stimulated Jewish women to challenge American gender roles, helping to fuel second wave feminism. Yet despite impressive achievements in fashioning successive versions of American Jewish womanhood, Jewish women have continued to be the butt of cruel jokes, such as those about JAPs. Such stereotyping suggests that American Jewish women differ from other women of their socioeconomic class, that they remain outsiders in cultural style despite their accomplishments, and that Jewish men do not necessarily share their understanding of desirable gender roles.

The assimilation of Jewish women during the twentieth century provides perhaps more evidence of continuity than disruption. Each cohort accepted the centrality of marriage and motherhood; child rearing and transmitting culture to the next generation remained vital tasks. Each group also understood Judaism to be a religious culture rooted in family life. A tradition of political activism similarly endured, even as the issues changed, as did a tradition of political leadership. Yet American Jewish women at the end of the twentieth century looked very different from those of a century earlier. But then, so did America.