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Jewish Communities on the Ohio River: A History (Ohio River Valley Series)
by Amy Hill Shevitz&“An engaging regional history with immense national significance . . . An excellent chronicle of the minority experience in small town America.&” —Ava F. Kahn, author of Jewish Voices of the California Gold Rush In Jewish Communities on the Ohio River, Amy Hill Shevitz chronicles the settlement and development of small Jewish communities in towns along the river. In these small towns, Jewish citizens created networks of businesses and families that developed into a distinctive, nineteenth-century middle-class culture. As a minority group with a vital role in each community, Ohio Valley Jews fostered American religious pluralism as they constructed a regional identity. Their contributions to the culture and economy of the region countered the anti-Semitic sentiments of the period. Shevitz discusses the associations among the towns and the big cities of the region, especially Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. Also examined are Jewish communities&’ relationships with, and dependence on, the Ohio River and rail networks. Jewish Communities on the Ohio River demonstrates how the circumstances of a specific region influenced the evolution of American Jewish life. &“Far better composed and contextualized than most local histories of smaller Jewish communities now in print, Amy Shevitz&’s book does a commendable job of detailing local developments in terms of the broader picture of both American Jewish history and Ohio Valley history.&” —Lee Shai Weissbach, author of Jewish Life in Small-Town America: A History &“Shevitz&’s study provides both corroboration, and corrective, to the standard historiography of American Jewry . . . Shevitz provides a fascinating glimpse into the nature of small-town Jewish life, and the role Jews played in shaping their world.&” —Ohio Valley Quarterly
Jewish Community Around North Broad Street, The (Images of America)
by Allen MeyersThe cradle of Jewish life in Philadelphia began with the establishment of the first synagogue, Mikveh Israel, in 1740. With the influx of many German Jews in the 1840s, the community expanded above Spring Garden Street into the Northern Liberties neighborhood. Urban settlement of Philadelphia's Jewish population during the last quarter of the nineteenth century shifted to North Broad Street when the economy improved for the city's residents after the Civil War. North Broad Street soon boasted two elegantly designed synagogues and the newly relocated Jewish Hospital from West Philadelphia.The Jewish Community around North Broad Street weaves the tale of the Jewish community in this part of Philadelphia through a collection of rare and stunning images. The construction of the North Broad Street subway in the 1920s and the row house Jewish community known as Logan are parts of this story. The development of business districts led to a more cohesive north and northwest Jewish community that allowed for satellite Jewish enclaves to flourish, complete with their own synagogues, bakeries, kosher meat markets, and hundreds of other shops that served the general population. In the 1950s, new neighborhoods, such as Mount Airy and West Oak Lane, alleviated an acute housing shortage at a time when 110,000 Jews lived in north-central and northwest Philadelphia.
Jewish Community of Greater Buffalo (Images of America)
by Chana Revell KotzinJewish community life in Buffalo began in 1847 with the founding of Temple Beth El. A dominantly German Jewish community transformed in the 1880s as Eastern European Jews settled around William Street. Intense religious and commercial vibrancy emerged with new synagogues alongside Jewish grocery stores, kosher butchers, clothiers, and more. From this east side milieu, lyricist Jack Yellen ("Happy Days are Here Again") and composer Harold Arlen ("Over the Rainbow") emerged as part of a new generation shaping local and national American life. On the west side, Temple Beth Zion, the Jewish Federation, Jewish Community Center, Jewish Family Service, and Rosa Coplon Jewish Old Folks Home built institutions on and around Delaware Avenue. Jewish areas in Humboldt, North Buffalo, Kenmore, Amherst, Getzville, and Williamsville developed over time. Camp Lakeland continued earlier traditions of summer camping. Throughout the 20th century, Jewish Buffalonians made their marks as entrepreneurs, distinguished lawyers, award-winning writers, and Nobel Prize scientists, among other careers. The Jewish Community of Greater Buffalo showcases Buffalo and Niagara Falls Jewry over the last two centuries.
Jewish Community of Hartford (Images of America)
by Jewish Historical Society of Greater HartfordHartford’s Jewish presence dates back to the mid-1600s. The earliest permanent settlers were German Jews, who purchased the first building for use as a synagogue in 1856. With increasing immigration from Eastern Europe, the population soon expanded. Jewish-owned businesses became part of Hartford’s economic life, and numerous civic and social welfare organizations were established. In 1945, many philanthropic groups consolidated to create the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford, which later relocated to West Hartford as the community shifted to the surrounding suburbs. Among the Hartford area’s most accomplished sons and daughters are entertainer Sophie Tucker, producer Norman Lear, comedienne Totie Fields, artist Sol LeWitt, and significant Zionist leaders, such as Samuel Hoffenberg and Abraham Goldstein. The Jewish Community of Hartford highlights some of the people and institutions that have helped to shape this remarkable community.
Jewish Community of Metro Detroit: 1945-2005, The (Images of America)
by Barry StiefelAfter the end of World War II, Americans across the United States began a mass migration from the urban centers to suburbia. Entire neighborhoods transplanted themselves. The Jewish Community of Metro Detroit: 1945 -2005 provides a pictorial history of the Detroit Jewish community's transition from the city to the suburbs outside of Detroit. For the Jewish communities, life in the Detroit suburbs has been focused on family within a pluralism that embraces the spectrum of experience from the most religiously devout to the ethnically secular. Holidays, bar and bat mitzvahs, weddings, and funerals have marked the passage of time. Issues of social justice, homeland, and religion have divided and brought people together. The architecture of the structures the Detroit Jewish community has erected, such as Temple Beth El designed by architect Minoru Yamasaki, testifies to the community's presence.
Jewish Community of New Orleans, The (Images of America)
by Irwin Lachoff Catherine C. KahnNew Orleans is not a typical Southern city. The Jews who have settled in New Orleans from 1757 to the present have had a very different experience than others in the South. New Orleans was a wide-open frontier that attracted gamblers, sailors, con artists, planters, and merchants. Most early Jewish immigrants were bachelors who took Catholic wives, if they married at all. The first congregation, Gates of Mercy, was founded in 1827, and by 1860, four congregations represented Sephardic, French and German, and Polish Jewry. The reform movement, the largest denomination today, took hold after the Civil War with the founding of Temple Sinai. Small as it is in proportion to the population of New Orleans, the Jewish community has made contributions that far exceed their numbers in cultural, educational, and philanthropic gifts to the city.
Jewish Community of North Minneapolis (Images of America)
by Rhoda LewinThe stories of the Jewish community of North Minneapolis are an important part of the rich and diverse mosaic of North Minneapolis history. By 1936, there were more than 16,000 Jew in Minneapolis, and 70 percent of them lived on the North Side. The Jewish Community of North Minneapolis presents an intriguing record of the earliest beginnings of Jewish communities in the city. Through the medium of historic photographs, this book captures the cultural, economic, political, and social history of this community, from the late 1800s to the present day. The Jews in North Minneapolis enjoyed a busy social and cultural life with their landsmanschaften, and shopped together at the kosher butcher shops and fish markets, grocery stores and bakeries, clothing stores, barber shops, restaurants, and other small businesses that had sprung up along Sixth Avenue North and then Plymouth Avenue. Including vintage images and tales of the community-Hebrew schools, synagogues, and social groups-this collection uncovers the challenges and triumphs of the Jewish community.
Jewish Community of Solano County (Images of America)
by Rachel Rae Moncharsh-Lessem Shoshana Deutscher-Nurik Rachel Raskin-ZrihenThis book contains images and stories of some of the Jews who have impacted Solano County. It is not a record of every Jew to pass this way, some of whom may have come intending to shed their Jewish identity by changing their names or converting. Wonderful stories emerged about extraordinary people who made their marks here with few suspecting their Jewish roots, yet they were traceable often because in death they chose to reclaim their heritage. Others came to live as Jews and built an enduring community. The story within these pages travels from the Old World to the edge of Gold Country, where there lives a tenacious, though often invisible, Jewish community.
Jewish Community of South Philadelphia, The: Images Of America (Images of America)
by Allen MeyersFor many Jewish immigrants to America, Philadelphia's row houses provided an instant community of neighbors where they were able to combine the traditions of the Old World with newAmerican ideals. In their flight to a new land and a new life, Jewish immigrants found a place to call home in South Philadelphia. This unprecedented collection of images celebrates the people and places of this community, from their struggles to their triumphs and the family bonds that provided their strength along the way. The Jewish Community of South Philadelphia is a tribute to tradition and pride that will serve as a valuable tool in teaching the history of Jewish immigrants in America. Join Allen Meyers in this exploration of the past that will be enjoyed for generations to come.
Jewish Community of St. Louis: 1890-1929 (Images of America)
by Diane EvermanThe St. Louis Jewish community began in the early 19th century and increased rapidly in the decades surrounding the turn of the century. Jewish immigrants brought skills and determination that helped the community evolve and prosper, but they faced challenges to survive, acculturate, and flourish. Not everyone had easy lives or great wealth, yet most worked to succeed and help others. Jewish endeavors covered all spheres, from small businesses to the Freund Bakery and Stix, Baer and Fuller Department Store to the Lesser-Goldman Cotton Company. Many garment district businesses were owned and run by Jews. Philanthropy and social betterment created the Young Men's Hebrew Association, the Jewish Sanatorium, the Home for Aged & Infirm Israelites, the Jewish Hospital, and many other entities. Members of the Jewish community proudly served in World War I and participated in clubs and organizations, as well as in political, civic, and cultural affairs.
Jewish Community of Washington, D.C., The (Images of America)
by Dr Adam Garfinkle Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington Dr Martin GarfinkleThe Jewish community of Washington, D.C., located in the political nexus of the United States, has often enjoyed attention from people of every level of influence, including the president of the United States. On May 3, 1925, Calvin Coolidge attended the cornerstone laying ceremony of the Washington Jewish Community Center. Herbert Hoover, as a former president, was vocal in his denunciation of Nazi Germany's treatment of the Jews. His voice garnered the support of many United States senators in 1943, including two from Maryland and one from Virginia. Ronald Reagan sent his personal regards to the Ohev Shalom Talmud Torah Congregation on their 100th anniversary celebration on April 10, 1986.
Jewish Community of West Philadelphia, The: Images Of America (Images of America)
by Allen MeyersThe Jewish community of Philadelphia west of the Schuylkill River is a composite of seven distinct neighborhoods surrounding West Philadelphia proper. These include Fortieth and Girard, Parkside, Wynnefield, Overbrook Park, Wynnefield Heights, Southwest Philly, and Island Road.A gathering of seventy-five thousand Jewish people in West Philadelphia during the twentieth century qualified the area known as "a city within a city" as a second settlement area. Excellent public transportation included the famed Market Street Elevated. The West Philadelphia Jews flourished and supported dozens of synagogues and bakeries, and more than one hundred kosher butcher shops at the neighborhood's height from the 1930s through the 1950s. Newly arrived immigrants embraced traditional Jewish values, which led them to encourage their offspring to acquire a secondary education in their own neighborhoods as a way of achieving assimilation into the community at large. The Jewish Community of West Philadelphia portrays Jewish life throughout West Philadelphia in the mid-twentieth century. The book captures rare, nearly forgotten images with photographs gleaned from the community at large.
Jewish Consumer Cultures in Nineteenth and Twentieth-Century Europe and North America (Worlds of Consumption)
by Paul Lerner Uwe Spiekermann Anne SchenderleinThis book investigates the place and meaning of consumption in Jewish lives and the roles Jews played in different consumer cultures in modern Europe and North America. Drawing on innovative, original research into this new and challenging field, the volume brings Jewish studies and the history and theory of consumer culture into dialogue with each other. Its chapters explore Jewish businesspeople's development of niche commercial practices in several transnational contexts; the imagining, marketing, and realization of a Jewish national homeland in Palestine through consumer goods and strategies; associations between Jews, luxury, and gender in multiple contexts; and the political dimensions of consumer choice. Together the essays in this volume show how the study of consumption enriches our understanding of modern Jewish history and how a focus on consumer goods and practices illuminates the study of Jewish religious observance, ethnic identities, gender formations, and immigrant trajectories across the globe.
Jewish Cryptotheologies of Late Modernity: Philosophical Marranos (Routledge Jewish Studies Series)
by Agata Bielik-RobsonThis book aims to interpret ‘Jewish Philosophy’ in terms of the Marrano phenomenon: as a conscious clinamen of philosophical forms used in order to convey a ‘secret message’ which cannot find an open articulation. The Marrano phenomenon is employed here, in the domain of modern philosophical thought, where an analogous tendency can be seen: the clash of an open idiom and a secret meaning, which transforms both the medium and the message. Focussing on key figures of late modern, twentieth century Jewish thought; Hermann Cohen, Gershom Scholem, Walter Benjamin, Franz Rosenzweig, Theodor Adorno, Ernst Bloch, Jacob Taubes, Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida, this book demonstrates how their respective manners of conceptualization swerve from the philosophical mainstream along the Marrano ‘secret curve.’ Analysing their unique contribution to the ‘unfinished project of modernity,’ including issues of the future of the Enlightenment, modern nihilism and post-secular negotiation with religious heritage, this book will be essential reading for students and researchers with an interest in Jewish Studies and Philosophy.
Jewish Cultural Nationalism: Origins and Influences (Routledge Jewish Studies Series)
by David AberbachJewish Cultural Nationalism explores the development of Jewish nationalism from the Bible to modern times, focusing on particular movements and places as well as texts which signified, or themselves brought about, change: the Bible (Hebrew prayer book), and the modern Hebrew literature, particularly in Tsarist Russia. While the influence of the Hebrew Bible alone on nationalism in individual periods has been subject to much scholarly study, the present work is unusual in its emphasis on the continuity of Jewish cultural nationalism and its influences through Hebrew texts.
Jewish Cultural Studies (Raphael Patai Series in Jewish Folklore and Anthropology)
by Simon J. BronnerJewish Cultural Studies charts the contours and boundaries of Jewish cultural studies and the issues of Jewish culture that make it so intriguing—and necessary—not only for Jews but also for students of identity, ethnicity, and diversity generally. In addition to framing the distinguishing features of Jewish culture and the ways it has been studied, and often misrepresented and maligned, Simon J. Bronner presents several case studies using ethnography, folkloristic interpretation, and rhetorical analysis. Bronner, building on many years of global cultural exploration, locates patterns, processes, frames, and themes of events and actions identified as Jewish to discern what makes them appear Jewish and why. Jewish Cultural Studies is divided into three parts. Part 1 deals with the conceptualization of how Jews in complex, heterogenous societies identify themselves as a cultural group to non-Jews and vice versa—such as how the Jewish home is socially and materially constructed. Part 2 delves into ritualization as a strategic Jewish practice for perpetuating peoplehood and the values that it suggests—for example, the rising popularity of naming ceremonies for newborn girls, simhat bat or zeved habat, in the twenty-first century. Part 3 explores narration, including the global transformation of Jewish joking in online settings and the role of Jews in American political culture. Bronner reflects that a reason to separate Jewish cultural studies from the fields of Jewish studies and cultural studies is the distinctiveness of Jewish culture among other ethnic experiences. As a diasporic group with religious ties and varying local customs, Jews present difficulties of categorization. He encourages a multiperspectival approach that considers the Jewish double consciousness as being aware of both insider and outsider perspectives, participation in ancient tradition and recent modernization, and the great variety and stigmatization of Jewish experience and cultural expression. Students and scholars in Jewish studies, cultural studies, ethnic-religious studies, folklore, sociology, psychology, and ethnology are the intended audience for this book.
Jewish Denver: 1859-1940 (Images of America)
by Jeanne E. AbramsIn 1859, during the Pike's Peak gold rush, at least 12 Jews joined the great migration to Colorado in search of gold and a brighter future. The unpredictability of mining and a growing demand for supplies encouraged many of these Jewish settlers to establish small businesses in Denver and in towns and mining camps across the state. By the early 1870s, Jewish benevolent societies and a congregation were established. Denver's dry, mild climate attracted patients with tuberculosis, and two Jewish sanatoriums were opened in the city around the beginning of the 20th century. Many of the predominantly Eastern European Jews who came in search of better health made Denver their home, thus augmenting the early Jewish population significantly. Today Jewish life flourishes in Colorado, and Jewish citizens continue to play a vital role in its culture and development.
Jewish Difference and the Arts in Vienna: Composing Compassion in Music and Biblical Theater (German Jewish Cultures)
by Caroline A. KitaThis study “brings to life a circle of writers and composers, with analyses of their major, minor . . . and forgotten works of Jewish music theater” (Abigail Gillman, author of Viennese Jewish Modernism).During the mid-19th century, the works of Arthur Schopenhauer and Richard Wagner sparked an impulse toward German cultural renewal and social change that drew on religious myth, metaphysics, and spiritualism. The only problem was that their works were deeply antisemitic and entangled with claims that Jews were incapable of creating compassionate art. By looking at the works of Jewish composers and writers who contributed to a lively and robust biblical theatre in fin de siècle Vienna, Caroline A. Kita shows how they reimagined myths of the Old Testament to offer new aesthetic and ethical views of compassion.These Jewish artists, including Gustav Mahler, Siegfried Lipiner, Richard Beer-Hofmann, Stefan Zweig, and Arnold Schoenberg, reimagined biblical stories through the lens of the modern Jewish subject to plead for justice and compassion toward the Jewish community. By tracing responses to antisemitic discourses of compassion, Kita reflects on the explicitly and increasingly troubled political and social dynamics at the end of the Habsburg Empire.
Jewish Eating and Identity Through the Ages (Routledge Advances In Sociology Ser.)
by David C. KraemerThis book explores the history of Jewish eating and Jewish identity, from the Bible to the present. The lessons of this book rest squarely on the much-quoted insight: 'you are what you eat.' But this book goes beyond that simple truism to recognise that you are not only what you eat, but also how, when, where and with whom you eat. This book begins at the beginning – with the Torah – and then follows the history of Jewish eating until the modern age and even into our own day. Along the way, it travels from Jewish homes in the Holy Land and Babylonia (Iraq) to France and Spain and Italy, then to Germany and Poland and finally to the United States of America. It looks at significant developments in Jewish eating in all ages: in the ancient Near East and Persia, in the Classical age, throughout the Middle Ages and into Modernity. It pays careful attention to Jewish eating laws (halakha) in each time and place, but it does not stop there: it also looks for Jews who bend and break the law, who eat like Romans or Christians regardless of the law and who develop their own hybrid customs according to their own 'laws', whatever Jewish tradition might tell them. In this colourful history of Jewish eating, we get more than a taste of how expressive and crucial eating choices have always been.
Jewish Economies (Volume 1): Development and Migration in America and Beyond: The Economic Life of American Jewry
by Simon KuznetsNobel Laureate Simon Kuznets, famous as the founder of modern empirical economics, pioneered the quantitative study of the economic history of the Jews. Yet until now his most important work on the subject was unpublished. These volumes bring to the public, for the first time, the most important work written on Jewish economic history since that of Werner Sombart a century ago.In the first volume, Kuznets uses extensive, original data to trace trends in the economic life of American Jews. He measures quantitatively for the first time the legendary economic success of American Jews and discusses the foundations of these achievements. Tracing their distinctive concentration in the professions, he exposes the causes of the extreme inequalities in American Jewish economic life. The immigrant origin of nearly all American Jews offers a unique case study in the process of assimilation that made American Jewry the ultimate American success story. This offers an ideal prelude to the second forthcoming volume, Comparative Perspectives on Jewish Migration.The volume's editors also provide a unique perspective on Kuznets' work. In the introduction, Weyl shows that many of Kuznets' most influential ideas, were inspired by his study of the economic history of the Jews. Through careful analysis of shared themes, and dozens of hours of detailed interviews, Lo and Weyl reveal a new dimension of Kuznets' thought to historical inquiry.
Jewish Economies (Volume 2): Development and Migration in America and Beyond: Comparative Perspectives on Jewish Migration
by E. Glen Weyl Simon Kuznets Stephanie LoNobel Laureate Simon Kuznets, famous as the founder of modern empirical economics, pioneered the quantitative study of the economic history of the Jews. Yet, until now, his most important work on the subject was unpublished. This second collection of previously unavailable material issued by Transaction brings to the public, for the first time, the most important economic work written on Jewish migration since that of Werner Sombart a century ago.This volume of Kuznets' work includes three main essays. The first, titled "Immigration and the Foreign Born," was Kuznets' first work on immigration and discusses the impact of the general foreign born on the U.S. Kuznets and his co-author, Ernest Rubin, offer the essay as a quantitative antidote to the misinformation that led many Jews to support the restrictions ending Jewish migration in the 1920s. The second, "Israel's Economic Development," discusses the impact of mass immigration and other factors on Israeli productivity, providing in English for the first time one of the first detailed studies of the economic development of the state of Israel. The final essay, on "Immigration of Russian Jews to the United States," is the most famous of Kuznets' writings and provides a clear view, backed by a seminal paper that launched the contemporary social scientific study of Jewry. It discusses the details of the labor force, skills, and general structure of Eastern European Jewish immigrants to the U.S.
Jewish Education (Key Words in Jewish Studies)
by Ari Y KelmanMost writing about Jewish education has been preoccupied with two questions: What ought to be taught? And what is the best way to teach it? Ari Y Kelman upends these conventional approaches by asking a different question: How do people learn to engage in Jewish life? This book, by centering learning, provides an innovative way of approaching the questions that are central to Jewish education specifically and to religious education more generally. At the heart of Jewish Education is an innovative alphabetical primer of Jewish educational values, qualities, frameworks, catalysts, and technologies which explore the historical ways in which Jewish communities have produced and transmitted knowledge. The book examines the tension between Jewish education and Jewish Studies to argue that shifting the locus of inquiry from “what people ought to know” to “how do people learn” can provide an understanding of Jewish education that both draws on historical precedent and points to the future of Jewish knowledge.
Jewish Education and History: Continuity, crisis and change (Routledge Jewish Studies Series)
by Moshe AberbachMoshe Aberbach (1924-2007) was a leading educator and scholar in Jewish studies, specialising in the field of Jewish education in the talmudic period. This book draws on a representative selection of his writings over a fifty year period, and includes essays on Saadia Gaon and Maimonides, coverage of biblical and talmudic studies, and discussions of the roots of religious anti-Zionism and of the Lubavitch messianic movement in the context of similar movements in Jewish history. Focusing on the history of Jewish education and linking the Roman destruction of the Jewish state in 70 CE with Jewish survival after the Holocaust, and how survival of both depended on a strong system of education and the moral example set by teachers, the book explores the vital importance of education to Jewish survival from biblical times to the present. The book includes an autobiographical memoir of Moshe Aberbach’s childhood in Vienna, as well as a biographical Foreword by his son, David. It will be of great interest to Bible scholars and students of Jewish Studies, History, the Holocaust and Jewish social psychology.
Jewish Education and Society in the High Middle Ages
by Ephraim KanarfogelPaperback edition of a favorite text on the literary creativity and communal involvement in the production of the Tosafist corpus.
Jewish Emancipation: A History Across Five Centuries
by David SorkinThe first comprehensive history of how Jews became citizens in the modern worldFor all their unquestionable importance, the Holocaust and the founding of the State of Israel now loom so large in modern Jewish history that we have mostly lost sight of the fact that they are only part of—and indeed reactions to—the central event of that history: emancipation. In this book, David Sorkin seeks to reorient Jewish history by offering the first comprehensive account in any language of the process by which Jews became citizens with civil and political rights in the modern world. Ranging from the mid-sixteenth century to the beginning of the twenty-first, Jewish Emancipation tells the ongoing story of how Jews have gained, kept, lost, and recovered rights in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, the United States, and Israel.Emancipation, Sorkin shows, was not a one-time or linear event that began with the Enlightenment or French Revolution and culminated with Jews' acquisition of rights in Central Europe in 1867–71 or Russia in 1917. Rather, emancipation was and is a complex, multidirectional, and ambiguous process characterized by deflections and reversals, defeats and successes, triumphs and tragedies. For example, American Jews mobilized twice for emancipation: in the nineteenth century for political rights, and in the twentieth for lost civil rights. Similarly, Israel itself has struggled from the start to institute equality among its heterogeneous citizens.By telling the story of this foundational but neglected event, Jewish Emancipation reveals the lost contours of Jewish history over the past half millennium.