Jewish American History, Life & Values
(see also Jewish Europe before the Holocaust, Holocaust & Zionism)
Basics:
On the Web: Specialized Sites
American Jewish World Service. Works to alleviate poverty, hunger & disease everywhere.
European Research Center on Migration & Ethnic Relations.
Machers. Wide-ranging Jewish issues site.
Kadetsky, Elizabeth. "My neighbor, my enemy," Nation (12/30/91):839-842.
Pogrebin, Letty Cottin. "Blacks & Jews: different kinds of survival," Nation (9/23/91).
Szuchman, Mark D. "Visions of the melting pot in the American city: the US & Argentina in the period of mass immigration," in Stack (ed.) The Primordial Challenge: Ethnicity in the Contemporary World (Westport CT , 1986).
In the Library: Non-Fiction Books
Ariel, Yaakov. Evangelizing the Chosen People: Missions to the Jews in America, 1880-2000 (Chapel Hill: U. North Carolina, 2002)
Bernarde, Scott R. Stars of David: Rock ‘n’ Roll’s Jewish Stories (Hanover NH: U. of New England, 2003).
Breslauer, S. Daniel. The Ecumenical Perspective & the Modernization of Jewish Religion (Missoula MT: Scholars, 1978).
Brook, Vincent. Something Ain't Kosher Here: The Rise of the Jewish Sitcom (New Brunswick NJ: Rutgers, 2003)
Cohen, Edward. The Peddler's Grandson: Growing Up Jewish in Mississippi (NY: Delta, 2002).
Cohen, Steven M. & Arnold M. Eisen. The Jew Within: Self, Family & Community in America (Bloomington: Indiana U, 2000).
Cowan, Paul. An Orphan in History: Retrieving a Jewish Legacy (NY: Doubleday, 1982).
__________. A Torah is Written (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1986).
__________ & Rachel Cowan. Mixed Blessings: Marriage Between Jews & Christians (NY: Doubleday, 1987).
Cox, Harvey. Common Prayers: Faith, Family, & a Christian's Journey Through the Jewish Year (NY: Houghton Mifflin, 2001).
Epstein, Isidore. Judaism: A Historical Presentation (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1959).
Epstein, Lawrence J. The Haunted Smile: The Story of Jewish Comedians in America (NY: Public Affairs, 2002).
Evans, Eli N. The Provincials: A Personal History of Jews in the South (Chapel Hill: U. of North Carolina, 2005).
Ewen, Elizabeth. Immigrant Women in the Land of Dollars: Life & Culture on the Lower East Side, 1890-1925 (NY: Monthly Review, 1985).
Finkelstein, Norman. Modern Poetry & Jewish-American Identity (Albany: SUNY, 2001).
Fremont, Helen. After Long Silence (NY: Delta, 2000).
Gilbert, Martin. A Jewish History Atlas (NY: Macmillan, 1969).
__________. The Jews in the 20th Century: An Illustrated History (NY: Schocken, 2001).
Heschel, Abraham. The Earth is the Lord's: The Inner World of the Jew in East Europe (NY: H. Schuman, 1950).
__________. The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man (NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1952).
__________. God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism (NY: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1955).
Holli, Melvin g. & Peter d'A. Jones (eds.) The Ethnic Frontier: Group Survival in Chicago & the Midwest (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1977).
Kahn, Ava & Marc Dollinger. California Jews (Hanover NH: U. of New England, 2003).
Kahn, Roger. The Passionate People: What It Means to Be a Jew in America (NY: Morrow, 1968).
Kaplan, Dana Evan. American Reform Judaism (New Brunswick NJ: Rutgers, 2003).
Kaplan, Edward K. & Samuel H. Dresner. Abraham Joshua Heschel: Prophetic Witness (New Haven: Yale, 1998).
Kasimow, Harold & Brian L. Sherwin (eds.) No Religion is an Island: Abraham Joshua Heschel & Interreligious Dialogue (Maryknoll NY: Orbis, 1991).
Klingberg, Hadon Jr. When Life Calls Out to Us: The Lives & Lifework of Viktor & Elly Frankl (NY: Doubleday, 2001).
Kushner, Tony & Alisa Solomon (eds.) Wrestling with Zion: Progressive Jewish-American Responses to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (NY: Grove, 2003).
Leavy, Jane. Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy (NY: HarperCollins, 2002).
Leonard, Joann Rose. The Soup Has Many Eyes: From Shtetl to Chicago, One Family's Journey Through History (NY: Bantam, 2001).
McGraw, Eliza L. Two Covenants: Representations of Southern Jewishness (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State U., 200?).
Mendes-Flohr, Paul & Jehunda Reinharz. The Jew in the Modern World: A Documentary History (NY: Oxford, 1995).
Nuland, Sherwin B. Lost in America: A Journey with My Father (NY: Knopf, 2003).
Pogrebin, Letty Cottin. Deborah, Golda, & Me: Being Female & Jewish in America (NY: Crown, 1992).
Potok, Chaim. Wanderings: Chaim Potok's History of the Jews (NY: Knopf, 1978).
Raphael, Marc Lee. Judaism in America (NY: Columbia, 2003).
Rosengarten, Theodore & Dale Rosengarten (eds.) A Portion of the People: Three Hundred Years of Southern Jewish Life (Columbia SC: U. South Carolina, 2002).
Rothschild, Fritz A. (ed.) Between God & Man: An Interpretation of Judaism from the Writings of Abraham J. Heschel (NY: Free Press, 1959).
Samuel, Maurice. The World of Sholem Aleichem (NY, 1973).
Sarna, Jonathan D. & David G. Dalin. Religion & State in the American Jewish Experience (Notre Dame IN: U. Notre Dame, 199?).
__________. American Judaism: A History (New Haven: Yale, 2004).
Shepherd, Naomi. A Price Below Rubies: Jewish Women as Rebels & Radicals (Cambridge MA: Harvard, 1993).
Slomovitz, Albert Isaac. The Fighting Rabbis: Jewish Military Chaplains & American History (NY: NYU, 2002).
Watterson, Kathryn. Not By the Sword: How a Cantor & His Family Transformed a Klansman (Boston: Northeastern U, 2001).
Wischnitzer, Mark. To Dwell in Safety: The Story of Jewish Migration since 1800 (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1948).
Zwiegenhaft, Richard L. & G. William Domhoff. Jews in the Protestant Establishment (NY: Praeger, 1982).
In the Library: Fiction
Auslander, Shalom. Beware of God: Stories (NY: Simon & Schuster, 2005).
Baker, Kevin. Dreamland: A Novel (NY: HarperCollins, 1999).
Chabon, Michael. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay: A Novel (NY: Random House, 2000).
Potok, Chaim. The Chosen (NY: Simon & Schuster, 1967).
__________. The Promise (NY: Knopf, 1969).
__________. My Name is Asher Lev (NY: Knopf, 1972).
__________. In the Beginning (NY: Knopf, 1975).
__________. The Book of Lights (NY: Ballantine, 1981).
__________. Davita's Harp (NY: Knopf, 1985).
__________. The Gift of Asher Lev (NY: Knopf, 1990).
__________. The Gates of November: Chronicles of the Slepak Family (NY: Knopf, 1996).
__________. Old Men at Midnight (NY: Knopf, 2001).
Stavans, Ilan (ed.) The Oxford Book of Jewish Stories (NY: Oxford, 1998).
Roth, Henry. Call It Sleep (NY:Avon, 1962).
Roth, Philip. Goodbye Columbus & Five Short Stories (Boston: Houghton & Mifflin, 1959).
Zakrzewski, Paul. Lost Tribe: Jewish Fiction from the Edge (NY: HarperCollins, 2003).
Yezierska, Anzia. Arrogant Beggar (Durham NC: Duke U., 1996).
In the Library: For Young Readers
Roth, Philip. The Conversion of the Jews (Mankato MN: Creative Education, 1993).
In the Library: Poetry
Kamenetz, Rodger. The Lowercase Jew (Evanston IL: Northwestern, 2003).
In the Library: Photography
CD & Audio:
Film & Video:
"The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz" [1974], dir. Ted Kotcheff, 121m. Jewish life in Montreal.
"Avalon" [1991], dir. Barry Levinson, 127m. In video stores. Immigrant family makes good in suburban Baltimore.
"Crossing Delancey" [1988], dir. Joan Micklin Silver, 97m. In video stores.
"Crossroads: Boyle Heights" [2002], by John Esaki, 28m. From Japanese American National Museum. Jews at home in an ethnically diverse LA neighborhood in 1940s.
"From Swastika to Jim Crow" [1999], by Pacific Street Films, 57m. From Cinema Guild. Jewish academics, refugees from Hitler, staff historically Black colleges after World War II.
"Goodbye, Columbus" [1969], dir. Larry Peerce, 102m. In video stores. Family drama based on Philip Roth novel.
"Hester Street" [1975], dir. Joan Micklin Silver, 90m. In video stores.
"Lies My Father Told Me" [1975], Jan Kadar, 102m. Jewish immigrant life in Montreal.
"A Life Apart" [1997], dir. Menachem Daum & Oren Rudavsky, 95m. From First Run Features.
"A Price Above Rubies" [1998], dir. Boaz Yakin, 117m. In video stores. A woman's life in NY's Chassidic ghetto.
"Trembling Before G-d," [2001], dir. Sandi Simcha Dubowski, 84m. From First Run Features. Faithful gay & lesbian Orthodox Jews confront prejudices of their community in Chasidic New York as well as in Israel.
"What Makes Sammy Run?" [2004], dir. Ben Stiller, ?m. From Budd Schulberg classic novel about a businessman's life.