Book Description
Assesses the current state of American Jewish life, drawing on the research and thinking of scholars from a variety of disciplines and diverse points of view.
Author : Robert Seltzer
Publisher : NYU Press
Page : 492 pages
File Size : 45,69 MB
Release : 1995-02
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 0814780008
Assesses the current state of American Jewish life, drawing on the research and thinking of scholars from a variety of disciplines and diverse points of view.
Author : Alan M. Dershowitz
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 420 pages
File Size : 46,86 MB
Release : 1998-09-08
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN : 0684848988
Explores the meaning of Jewishness in light of the increasing assimilation of America's Jews and suggests ways to preserve Jewish identity.
Author : Steven R. Weisman
Publisher : Simon & Schuster
Page : 368 pages
File Size : 27,70 MB
Release : 2019-08-20
Category : History
ISBN : 1416573275
“An important beginning to understanding the truth over myth about Judaism in American history” (New York Journal of Books), Steven R. Weisman tells the dramatic story of the personalities that fought each other and shaped this ancient religion in America in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The struggles that produced a redefinition of Judaism illuminate the larger American experience and the efforts by all Americans to reconcile their faith with modern demands. The narrative begins with the arrival of the first Jews in New Amsterdam and plays out over the nineteenth century as a massive immigration takes place at the dawn of the twentieth century. First there was the practical matter of earning a living. Many immigrants had to work on the Sabbath or traveled as peddlers to places where they could not keep kosher. Doctrine was put aside or adjusted. To take their places as equals, American Jews rejected their identity as a separate nation within America. Judaism became an American religion. These profound changes did not come without argument. Steven R. Weisman’s “lucid and entertaining” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) The Chosen Wars tells the stories of the colorful rabbis and activists—including Isaac Mayer Wise, Mordecai Noah, David Einhorn, Rebecca Gratz, and Isaac Lesser—who defined American Judaism and whose disputes divided it into the Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox branches that remain today. “Only rarely does an author succeed in writing a book that reframes how we perceive our own history. The Chosen Wars is...fascinating and provocative” (Jewish Journal).
Author : Marni Davis
Publisher : NYU Press
Page : 272 pages
File Size : 16,50 MB
Release : 2012
Category : History
ISBN : 0814720285
Examines the relationship between alcohol and the Jewish community throughout the nineteenth century and the period of Prohibition, describing the role of Jews in the liquor industry and the relationship between the anti-alcohol movement and anti-Semitism.
Author : Leon A. Jick
Publisher :
Page : 564 pages
File Size : 39,36 MB
Release : 1992
Category : History
ISBN :
A classic account of the growth and development of Reform Judaism in 19th century America is now in paperback with a new Foreword.
Author : Lila Corwin Berman
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 286 pages
File Size : 27,35 MB
Release : 2009-03-10
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780520943704
Lila Corwin Berman asks why, over the course of the twentieth century, American Jews became increasingly fascinated, even obsessed, with explaining themselves to their non-Jewish neighbors. What she discovers is that language itself became a crucial tool for Jewish group survival and integration into American life. Berman investigates a wide range of sources—radio and television broadcasts, bestselling books, sociological studies, debates about Jewish marriage and intermarriage, Jewish missionary work, and more—to reveal how rabbis, intellectuals, and others created a seemingly endless array of explanations about why Jews were indispensable to American life. Even as the content of these explanations developed and shifted over time, the very project of self-explanation would become a core element of Jewishness in the twentieth century.
Author : Jenna Weissman Joselit
Publisher : Macmillan
Page : 372 pages
File Size : 36,38 MB
Release : 2002-05
Category : History
ISBN : 9780805070026
The selective relish with which most American Jews affirm their identity -- consuming kosher delicacies once a year, extravagantly celebrating the bar mitzvahs of their sons and the weddings of their daughters -- has usually given rise to satire or consternation. The Wonders of America offers an alternative perspective, for this pioneering social history of Jewish culture highlights the cultural ingenuity and adaptive genius of American Jewish life. Drawing on advertisements, etiquette manuals, sermons, and surveys, Jenna Weissman Joselit constructs a lively and humorous account of how three generations of American Jews created their distinctive American culture. This provocative, enlightening study describes the forging of a rich and exuberant modern Jewish identity and makes it clear that it is not the theoretical debates of rabbis and scholars but the small choices of daily life that shape and sustain a culture
Author : Bruce Zuckerman
Publisher : Purdue University Press
Page : 164 pages
File Size : 47,72 MB
Release : 2014
Category : History
ISBN : 1557536996
In the decades after the Civil War, sports slowly gained a prominent position within American culture. This development provided Jews with opportunities to participate in one of the few American cultures not closed off to them. Jewish athleticism challenged anti-Semitic depictions of Jews' supposed physical inferiority and an Americanization narrative emerged that connected Jewish athleticism with full acceptance and integration into American society. This acceptance was not without struggle, but Jews succeeded and participated in the American sporting culture as athletes, coaches, owners, and fans. The contributions to this volume paint a broad picture of Jewish participation in sports, with essays written by respected historians who examine the impact of sport on Judaism. Despite the continued belief that Jewish religious or cultural identity remains somehow distinct from the American idea of the "athlete," the volume demonstrates that American Jews have made a tremendous contribution to American sports, and that sports have helped construct American Jewish culture and identity.
Author : Laura Hobson Faure
Publisher : Indiana University Press
Page : 370 pages
File Size : 26,81 MB
Release : 2022-02
Category : History
ISBN : 0253059674
While the role the United States played in France's liberation from Nazi Germany is widely celebrated, it is less well known that American Jewish individuals and organizations mobilized to reconstruct Jewish life in France after the Holocaust. In A "Jewish Marshall Plan," Laura Hobson Faure explores how American Jews committed themselves and hundreds of millions of dollars to bring much needed aid to their French coreligionists. Hobson Faure sheds light on American Jewish chaplains, members of the Armed Forces, and those involved with Jewish philanthropic organizations who sought out Jewish survivors and became deeply entangled with the communities they helped to rebuild. While well intentioned, their actions did not always meet the needs and desires of the French Jews. A "Jewish Marshall Plan" examines the complex interactions, exchanges, and solidarities created between American and French Jews following the Holocaust. Challenging the assumption that French Jews were passive recipients of aid, this work reveals their work as active partners who negotiated their own role in the reconstruction process.
Author : Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. Center for the Study of the American Jewish Experience
Publisher : Holmes & Meier Publishers
Page : 332 pages
File Size : 33,62 MB
Release : 1986
Category : History
ISBN : 9780841909342