The first colonial American synagogues were formed on the Atlantic seaboard in the second half of the 17th century. A colonial synagogue represented a kehillah kedosha, or holy community, bringing together and fulfilling many social and religious functions for Jews.... Read more about Colonial Synagogue Community
In the 18th century, many Jewish synagogues adopted American Christian forms of worship and organization. Jews democratized synagogue leadership and began employing hazzans, spiritual leaders who had less traditional authority than rabbis and whose roles were similar to those of Christian pastors. American Jews also began to participate in American culture and civic life.... Read more about Early Americanization
More Ashkenazi (Central and Eastern European) than Sephardic (Iberian) Jews immigrated to the U.S. in the 19th century, leading to the fracturing of singular synagogue-communities into multiple congregations with varying levels of Americanization. The Jewish American landscape shifted from synagogue-communities to a community of synagogues.... Read more about Antebellum Judaism
After the Civil War, many German-born rabbis immigrated to the United States, where they helped to organize and solidify the Jewish Reform movement. They sought to align the Jewish and the American experience and to loosen many traditional rules and requirements of Jewish prayer and practice. ... Read more about Classical Reform
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many Jews emigrated from the Pale of Settlement, a large Polish and Russian territory in which Jews were allowed to live in impoverished shtetls (small Jewish villages). Most immigrant Jews from these areas had not cultivated the same religious reforms as the Jews of Germany and Western Europe. As a result, these new Jewish immigrants to America developed a more traditional movement called Orthodox Judaism.... Read more about Immigrant Orthodoxy
Both the Modern Orthodox and Conservative Jewish movements, now quite distinct, were created in the early 20th century not through the efforts of any one leader, but through the creation of organizations and schools built upon shared values. Since then, the Conservative movement has become the more liberal and Orthodox the more conservative movement in religious practice and doctrine.... Read more about Orthodoxy in Transition
Eastern European Jewish immigrants brought to America a strong sense of Yiddishkeit, or social, political, and cultural “Jewishness,” which manifested most prominently in the political movement of Zionism throughout the late 19th and 20th centuries.... Read more about Ethnic Jewishness
After World War II, many American Jews moved to the suburbs and further assimilated into American culture. While Jewish institutions rose in prominence during this period, Jewish religious practice diminished. Additionally, the recognition of the horrors of the Holocaust elicited a specifically modern and American reexamination of Jewish theology.... Read more about Postwar Judaism
In the second half of the 20th century, American Jews expressed a growing sense of Jewish peoplehood through support for Israel and for Soviet Jews. Simultaneously, some American Jews found new opportunities for spiritual expression in Jewish mysticism and the formation of a havurah, an informal Jewish worship community.... Read more about Countercultural Judaism
While many Jewish institutions define themselves as specifically Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, or Reconstructionist, contemporary American Judaism contains a strain of intra-Jewish pluralism, in which Jewish identity is not solely defined by denominational commitments. This strain of internal Jewish pluralism has led to a flourishing of educational and organizational opportunities for American Jews whose Jewish identity does not revolve around specific Jewish practices. ... Read more about Jewish Pluralism
In the 18th century, many Jewish synagogues adopted American Christian forms of worship and organization. Jews democratized synagogue leadership and began employing hazzans, spiritual leaders who had less traditional authority than rabbis and whose roles were similar to those of Christian pastors. American Jews also began to participate in American culture and civic life.... 
More Ashkenazi (Central and Eastern European) than Sephardic (Iberian) Jews immigrated to the U.S. in the 19th century, leading to the fracturing of singular synagogue-communities into multiple congregations with varying levels of Americanization. The Jewish American landscape shifted from synagogue-communities to a community of synagogues.... 
After the Civil War, many German-born rabbis immigrated to the United States, where they helped to organize and solidify the Jewish Reform movement. They sought to align the Jewish and the American experience and to loosen many traditional rules and requirements of Jewish prayer and practice. ... 
Eastern European Jewish immigrants brought to America a strong sense of Yiddishkeit, or social, political, and cultural “Jewishness,” which manifested most prominently in the political movement of Zionism throughout the late 19th and 20th centuries.... 
While many Jewish institutions define themselves as specifically Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, or Reconstructionist, contemporary American Judaism contains a strain of intra-Jewish pluralism, in which Jewish identity is not solely defined by denominational commitments. This strain of internal Jewish pluralism has led to a flourishing of educational and organizational opportunities for American Jews whose Jewish identity does not revolve around specific Jewish practices. ...