Download or read book The Americanization of the Jews written by Robert Seltzer and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 1995-02-01 with total page 492 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did Judaism, a religion so often defined by its minority status, attain equal footing in the trinity of Catholicism, Protestantism, and Judaism that now dominates modern American religious life? THE AMERICANIZATION OF THE JEWS seeks out the effects of this evolution on both Jews in America and an America with Jews. Although English, French, and Dutch Jewries are usually considered the principal forerunners of modern Jewry, Jews have lived as long in North America as they have in post- medieval Britain and France and only sixty years less than in Amsterdam. As one of the four especially creative Jewish communities that has helped re-shape and re-formulate modern Judaism, American Judaism is the most complex and least understood. German Jewry is recognized for its contribution to modern Jewish theology and philosophy, Russian and Polish Jewry is known for its secular influence in literature, and Israel clearly offers Judaism a new stance as a homeland. But how does one capture the interplay between America and Judaism? Immigration to America meant that much of Judaism was discarded, and much was retained. Acculturation did not always lead to assimilation: Jewishness was honed as an independent variable in the motivations of many of its American adherents- -and has remained so, even though Jewish institutions, ideologies, and even Jewish values have been reshaped by America to such an degree that many Jews of the past might not recognize as Jewish some of what constitutes American Jewishness. This collection of essays explores the paradoxes that abound in the America/Judaism relationship, focusing on such specific issues as Jews and American politics in the twentieth century, the adaptation of Jewish religious life to the American environment, the contributions and impact of the women's movement, and commentaries on the Jewish future in America.
Download or read book The Americanization of the Jews written by Robert Seltzer and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 1995-02 with total page 492 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book The Americanization of the Jews written by Robert Seltzer and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 1995-02 with total page 492 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book The Wonders of America written by Jenna Weissman Joselit and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2002-05 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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
Download or read book The Americanization of the Synagogue 1820 1870 written by Leon A. Jick and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 564 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A classic account of the growth and development of Reform Judaism in 19th century America is now in paperback with a new Foreword.
Download or read book The Vanishing American Jew written by Alan M. Dershowitz and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 1998-09-08 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the meaning of Jewishness in light of the increasing assimilation of America's Jews and suggests ways to preserve Jewish identity.
Download or read book Who Rules the Synagogue written by Zev Eleff and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Who Rules the Synagogue?' explores how American Jewry in the nineteenth century transformed from a lay dominated community to one whose leading religious authorities were rabbis.
Download or read book Jews and Booze written by Marni Davis and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2014 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this work, Marni Davis examines American Jews' long and complicated relationship to alcohol during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the years of the national prohibition movement's rise and fall.
Download or read book JPS The Americanization of Jewish Culture 1888 1988 written by Jonathan D. Sarna and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2021-09 with total page 470 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Published to mark the 100th anniversary of The Jewish Publication Society, Jonathan Sarna’s engaging blend of anecdote and analysis presents the personalities and the controversies, the struggles and the achievements behind a century of publishing by the oldest English-language publisher of Jewish books in the world. Includes black and white photographs and extensive listings of JPS officers and editors, governing boards, and authors, translators, and illustrators, up to 1988.
Download or read book The Chosen Wars written by Steven R. Weisman and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 2019-08-20 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “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).
Download or read book Theories of Americanization written by Isaac Baer Berkson and published by . This book was released on 1920 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Hanukkah in America written by Dianne Ashton and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2018-09-25 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the ways American Jews have reshaped Hanukkah traditions across the country In New Orleans, Hanukkah means decorating your door with a menorah made of hominy grits. Latkes in Texas are seasoned with cilantro and cayenne pepper. Children in Cincinnati sing Hanukkah songs and eat oranges and ice cream. While each tradition springs from its own unique set of cultural references, what ties them together is that they all celebrate a holiday that is different in America than it is any place else. For the past two hundred years, American Jews have been transforming the ancient holiday of Hanukkah from a simple occasion into something grand. Each year, as they retell its story and enact its customs, they bring their ever-changing perspectives and desires to its celebration. Providing an attractive alternative to the Christian dominated December, rabbis and lay people alike have addressed contemporary hopes by fashioning an authentically Jewish festival that blossomed in their American world. The ways in which Hanukkah was reshaped by American Jews reveals the changing goals and values that emerged among different contingents each December as they confronted the reality of living as a religious minority in the United States. Bringing together clergy and laity, artists and businessmen, teachers, parents, and children, Hanukkah has been a dynamic force for both stability and change in American Jewish life. The holiday’s distinctive transformation from a minor festival to a major occasion that looms large in the American Jewish psyche is a marker of American Jewish life. Drawing on a varied archive of songs, plays, liturgy, sermons, and a range of illustrative material, as well as developing portraits of various communities, congregations, and rabbis, Hanukkah in America reveals how an almost forgotten festival became the most visible of American Jewish holidays.
Download or read book Speaking of Jews written by Lila Corwin Berman and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2009-03-10 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Beyond Stereotypes written by Bruce Zuckerman and published by Purdue University Press. This book was released on 2014 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book The Americanization of Zionism 1897 1948 written by Naomi Wiener Cohen and published by UPNE. This book was released on 2003 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author demonstrates the uniqueness of American Zionism through a 50-year historical overview of the Jewish community in the United States and its relationship to its own government, to European events and to political developments in the yishuv.
Download or read book The Americanization of the Holocaust written by Alvin Hirsch Rosenfeld and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 62 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contends that when Americanized, the Holocaust undergoes universalization and loses its specific Jewish character. This tendency can be seen in the expositions of museums such as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, and the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, as well as in the art work "Holocaust Project" by Judy Chicago, where the Holocaust is equated with the sufferings of the Blacks in America and the abuse of women. Another tendency is the American reluctance to confront the brutal and horrific essence of the Holocaust. For instance, the play "The Diary of Anne Frank", by F. Goodrich and A. Hackett, and the film version both downplay Anne's Jewishness and the fact that all of the characters are doomed to death. The latter tendency led to the growing cult of survivors and rescuers as the bright side of the Holocaust, manifested in Spielberg's "Schindler's List" and the proliferation of books on Righteous Gentiles, as well as the founding of the Institute of the Righteous Acts and the Jewish Foundation of Christian Rescuers by R. Schulweis. Virtuous as they are, the Gentile rescuers cannot counterbalance the evil of the Nazi Holocaust.
Download or read book Elvis in Jerusalem written by Tom Segev and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2003-05 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on personal experience as well as all kinds of artifacts from Israeli popular cultureshopping malls, fast food, public art, television, religious kitschhe puts forward his controversial view that the sweeping Americanization of the country, rued by most, has had an extraordinarily beneficial influence, bringing not only McDonalds and Dunkin Donuts but the virtues of pragmatism, tolerance, and individualism.
