Like most Christians, Mary Blye Howe was uninformed about Jewish ritual and tradition. To satisfy her curiosity she joined a Jewish study group held in the home of a Hasidic rabbi. A Baptist Among the Jews is Howe's first-person account of her eye-opening experience of studying with that welcoming group and how this experience led her to a deeper, richer relationship with her God. While learning about the traditions of Judaism and studying the Torah, Howe discovered a new world of worship and ritual that expanded her experience to include several different Jewish groups, among them Reform, Con... View More...
Eminent scholar Yehuda Bauer traces the Holocaust to its deepest roots by examining the history of the Jews' interaction with other cultures throughout history, a detailed portrait of the Jewish presence in Eastern Europe in the early 20th century, and an exhaustive depiction of the events before and during World War II. Professor Bauer's text is considered a masterly and authoritative work. View More...
Winner of the Mark Lynton History PrizeA "Los Angeles Times" Best BookA Koret Jewish Book Award Finalist "A Past in Hiding" is a survivor story and historical investigation that offers new insight into daily life in the Third Reich and the powers and pitfalls of memory. At the outbreak of World War II, Marianne Strauss, the sheltered daughter of well-to-do German Jews, was an ordinary girl, concerned with her studies, friends, and romance. Almost overnight she was transformed into a woman of spirit and defiance, a fighter who, when the Gestapo came for her family, seized the moment and went un... View More...
This brilliant analysis of American Judaism in the last half of the 20th century won the 1993-94 National Jewish Book Award for the best book on contemporary Jewry and also was named an Outstanding Book of 1993 by Choice. Jack Wertheimer examines how fundamental changes in American society have affected Jewish religious and communal life, paying special attention to contradictions and schisms that threaten the integrity of American Jewish practices and beliefs. A People Divided remains an essential primer for anyone interested in the ongoing debate about what constitutes Jewishness and who is ... View More...
This brilliant analysis of American Judaism in the last half of the 20th century won the 1993-94 National Jewish Book Award for the best book on contemporary Jewry and also was named an Outstanding Book of 1993 by Choice. Jack Wertheimer examines how fundamental changes in American society have affected Jewish religious and communal life, paying special attention to contradictions and schisms that threaten the integrity of American Jewish practices and beliefs. A People Divided remains an essential primer for anyone interested in the ongoing debate about what constitutes Jewishness and who is ... View More...
The years between 1880 and 1920 marked the third great migration of Jews tothe U.S.--including more than two million from the Russian empire, Austria-Hungary, and Rumania. A Time for Building describes the experiences of Jews who stayed in the large cities of the Northeast and Midwest as well as those who moved to smaller towns in the deep South and the West.
Between 1820 and 1880, European Jews arrived in the United States in ever greater numbers. While later Jewish immigrants would criticize their "rush" to assimilation, the Jews of this period created the institutions that continue to shape Jewish life in America. In A Time for Gathering, Hasia Diner describes this "second wave" of Jewish migration. View More...
In A Time for Searching, Henry Feingold chronicles the turbulent period between 1920 and 1945--when Jews were poised to enter the mainstream of American life--and explores issues that would preoccupy America's Jewish community for the rest of the century. Despite the specter of anti-semitism, signs of success and acceptance were everywhere.
In 1993 distinguished historian Nancy L. Grant organized "Blacks and Jews: An American Historical Perspective," a conference held at Washington University in St. Louis and dedicated to the exploration of Black-Jewish relations in twentieth-century America. Featuring presentations by historians, sociologists, and political scientists, this conference reflected Grant's devotion to scholarship on multicultural relations and the continuing struggle for racial equality in the United States. After Grant's untimely death in 1995, V. P. Franklin and the other contributors completed the work of readyin... View More...
There is a tug of war going on for the future of America. At one end of the rope are those who think America is a secular nation; at the other end are those who believe religion is at the root of our country's foundation. In this paperback release of the thought-provoking America's Real War, renowned leader and speaker Rabbi Daniel Lapin encourages America to re-embrace the Judeo-Christian values on which our nation was founded, and logically demonstrates why those values are crucial to America's strength in the new millennium. View More...
There is a tug of war going on for the future of America. At one end of the rope are those who think America is a secular nation; at the other end are those who believe religion is at the root of our country's foundation. In this paperback release of the thought-provoking America's Real War, renowned leader and speaker Rabbi Daniel Lapin encourages America to re-embrace the Judeo-Christian values on which our nation was founded, and logically demonstrates why those values are crucial to America's strength in the new millennium. View More...
First published in 1957, Nathan Glazer's classic, historical study of Judaism in America has been described by the New York Times Book Review as a remarkable story . . . told briefly and clearly by an objective historical mind, yet with a fine combination of sociological insight and religious sensitivity. Glazer's new introduction describes the drift away from the popular equation of American Judaism with liberalism during the last two decades and considers the threat of divisiveness within American Judaism. Glazer also discusses tensions between American Judaism and Israel as a result of a re... View More...
This magisterial work chronicles the 350-year history of the Jewish religion in America. Tracing American Judaism from its origins in the colonial era through the present day, Jonathan Sarna explores the ways in which Judaism adapted in this new context. How did American culture - predominantly Protestant and overwhelmingly capitalist - affect Jewish religion and culture? And how did American Jews shape their own communities and faith in the new world? Jonathan Sarna, a preeminent scholar of American Judaism, tells the story of individuals struggling to remain Jewish while also becoming Americ... View More...
Anne Frank lived a life filled with the enthusiasms and hopes shared by many young women coming into adulthood. But the times Anne lived in and wrote of in her diary made her simple life extraordinary. In over one hundred photographs, many which have never been published, this poignant memoir brings to life the harrowing story of one young Jewish woman's struggle to survive during a period of history which must never be forgotten.
"All libraries will want this: for classroom units studying the Holocaust, for kids reading the diary, for everyone who remembers it." - Booklist
Focuses on the children of Eastern European immigrants who settled in Manhattan, looking at the modified synagogues, philanthropic organizations, and other associations organized by second-generation Jews in New York. View More...
Traces the history and experience of the Jewish world from ancient to modern times in a volume organized into sections on history, culture, and the Jewish world today. View More...
Boychiks in the Hood is your passport to the Hasidic underworld -- a destination far different from popular expectations. Join Robert Eisenberg as he hangs out with an ex-Deadhead in Antwerp, makes a pilgrimage to the grave of the revered Rebbie Nachman in the Ukraine, munches mini-bagels with Rollerblading kosher butchers in Minnesota, discovers the last remaining religious Jews in Poland, talks sex with a karate-champion-turned-rabbi in Israel, and more.Simultaneously respectful and hilarious, Boychiks in the Hood is a surprising and unforgettable journey through the world's flourishing Hasi... View More...
Boychiks in the Hood is your passport to the Hasidic underworld -- a destination far different from popular expectations. Join Robert Eisenberg as he hangs out with an ex-Deadhead in Antwerp, makes a pilgrimage to the grave of the revered Rebbie Nachman in the Ukraine, munches mini-bagels with Rollerblading kosher butchers in Minnesota, discovers the last remaining religious Jews in Poland, talks sex with a karate-champion-turned-rabbi in Israel, and more.Simultaneously respectful and hilarious, Boychiks in the Hood is a surprising and unforgettable journey through the world's flourishing Hasi... View More...
I was raised in full consciousness of being Jewish. I was sent to a Yiddish shule and I can read and speak Yiddish. But I am not a Yiddish speaking Jew: Yiddish is not part of my essence. I am not a believer. I do not celebrate the holidays, nor do I atone for my sins on Yom Kippur. And I have transmitted virtually nothing of Yiddishkeit to my children. This failure of mine became the subject of a quarrel with my father who told me I had in effect thrown away the gift of Yiddish he had given me. My children were no longer Jews. . . ". What it means to be a Jew lies at the very heart of A Matte... View More...
The Holocaust was a complex and horrifying experience that affected millions of people in Europe. The nearly 13 years of Nazi rule had an enormous influence on the day-to-day existence of people in every walk of life: Jews and non-Jews, perpetrators and rescuers, collaborators and resisters, officials and ordinary citizens. Nearly all of Europe's Jews were victims. Students, teachers, and interested readers can explore how the daily lives of these victims, despite their heroic efforts to survive and maintain a normal existence, became increasingly untenable and for most eventually ended in dea... View More...
