Around the turn of the 20th century the idea of combining the Jewish house of worship with a center for community, educational, and social activities arose as a way of melding and meeting the needs of Jews in a changing social and religious environment. David Kaufman's fascinating examination shows how a quintessentially American institution -- the synagogue-center -- evolved into the primary locus of Jewish identification in this country. This study encompasses social, religious, architectural, and American Jewish history to clarify the synagogue-center's many roles: as service agency, communal gathering place, unifying symbol, and sectarian institution fostering Jewish culture and education. But Kaufman also shows that as a unique amalgam of the religious and the secular, these centers embody a basic duality of American Jewish identity, a fundamental tension between Jews who see themselves primarily as members of a religious faith, and those who define themselves in more sociopolitical terms, that is, as nationality, as ethnic group, as a people. By presenting itself as an alternative to the traditional synagogue, the synagogue-center serves as an historic departure in the construction of Jewish community and remains one of the most significant innovations of American Judaism.