Interfaith Friends and Ideological Foes: American Jews, Evangelicals, and Israel, 1963-2018

Interfaith Friends and Ideological Foes examines the evolution of the relationship between American Jews and evangelicals.Amy Weiss argues that Jewish interfaith partnerships with evangelicals developed as a necessary, adaptive strategy to deal with the shifting American political landscape.As evangelicals moved from a subculture to the mainstream, and as their political influence grew, their steadfast defense of Israel made them attractive partners for Jewish communal organizations.Jewish groups acknowledged-and accepted-a certain amount of ideological inconsistency to secure broad political support for Israel.This book speaks directly to today's challenges regarding polarization and the difficulty of coalition-building.Pundits and the public tend to describe the present as an especially divided time in history.Intensified support for white Christian nationalism, the rise of antisemitism, and debates surrounding Israeli governmental policies have all created a divisive American landsc