Not overly optimistic . . . I think you're right on -- especially if the shift, over the past decade or so, in Jewish fiction, a move back toward an understanding of Jewish ritual and tradition (albeit sometimes in a re-configured fashion, one applicable in a more contemporary context) is any indication of this. Jewish writers aren't writing assimilationist literature anymore. They (writers like Steve Stern, Allegra Goodman, Rebecca Goldstein, Tova Mirvis, Pearl Abraham, Nomi Eve, Myla Goldberg, and many others) express in their fiction a more profound longing for Jewish community rather than a desire to blend in to mainstream culture or shed the tell-tale Yiddishisms of their grandparents and great-grandparents -- something that we did not see for the greater part of the 20th century.