Deborah Dash Moore, the author of numerous books on the history of American Jewry, talks about her research on the Jews of New York and about the transforming effect of the great move to the suburbs after World War II (interview by Rachel Gordan):

As Jews [during World War II] became identified with a Judaism that was considered one of the three fighting faiths of democracy, they began to [adopt] religious forms of Jewish life that followed the other two American faiths: Protestantism and Catholicism. Rather than understanding Jewishness as a way of being and perceiving the world, they came to think of it as set aside for specific occasions, such as lifecycle events or days on the calendar. Jews who moved to the suburbs especially privatized many aspects of Jewishness.