The Americanization Of The Jews

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.

A classic account of the growth and development of Reform Judaism in 19th century America is now in paperback with a new Foreword.

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.

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.

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.

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.