Jewish Life in the American West

Jewish Life in the American West

Author: Ava Fran Kahn

Publisher: Heyday

Published: 2004-02

Total Pages: 143

ISBN-13: 9781890771775

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Puts aside many stereotypes and examines the less-told story of the migration of Jews to Californiaand the West from the mid-19th century to the 1920's


The Chosen Few

The Chosen Few

Author: Maristella Botticini

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 346

ISBN-13: 0691144877

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Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein show that, contrary to previous explanations, this transformation was driven not by anti-Jewish persecution and legal restrictions, but rather by changes within Judaism itself after 70 CE--most importantly, the rise of a new norm that required every Jewish male to read and study the Torah and to send his sons to school. Over the next six centuries, those Jews who found the norms of Judaism too costly to obey converted to other religions, making world Jewry shrink. Later, when urbanization and commercial expansion in the newly established Muslim Caliphates increased the demand for occupations in which literacy was an advantage, the Jews found themselves literate in a world of almost universal illiteracy. From then forward, almost all Jews entered crafts and trade, and many of them began moving in search of business opportunities, creating a worldwide Diaspora in the process.


Jewish Women Pioneering the Frontier Trail

Jewish Women Pioneering the Frontier Trail

Author: Jeanne E. Abrams

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 0814707203

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Western Jewish women's level of involvement at the vanguard of social welfare and progressive reform, commerce, politics, and higher education and the professions is striking given their relatively small numbers."--Jacket.


Modernity and the Jews in Western Social Thought

Modernity and the Jews in Western Social Thought

Author: Chad Alan Goldberg

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2017-05-23

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 022646055X

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The French tradition: 1789 and the Jews -- The German tradition: capitalism and the Jews -- The American tradition: the city and the Jews


The Soul of Judaism

The Soul of Judaism

Author: Bruce D. Haynes

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2018-08-14

Total Pages: 269

ISBN-13: 1479811238

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Explores the full diversity of Black Jews, including bi-racial Jews of both matrilineal and patrilineal descent; adoptees; black converts to Judaism; and Black Hebrews and Israelites, who trace their Jewish roots to Africa and challenge the dominant western paradigm of Jews as white and of European descent. The book showcases the lives of Black Jews, demonstrating that racial ascription has been shaping Jewish selfhood for centuries. It reassesses the boundaries between race and ethnicity, offering insight into how ethnicity can be understood only in relation to racialization and the one-drop rule. Within this context, Black Jewish individuals strive to assert their dual identities and find acceptance within their communities. Putting to rest the notion that Jews are white and the Black Jews are therefore a contradiction, the volume argues that we cannot pigeonhole Black Hebrews and Israelites as exotic, militant, and nationalistic sects outside the boundaries of mainstream Jewish thought and community life. it spurs us to consider the significance of the growing population of self-identified Black Jews and its implications for the future of American Jewry.


Jews of the American West

Jews of the American West

Author: Moses Rischin

Publisher: Wayne State University Press

Published: 1991

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 9780814321713

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In a series of nine original essays, the editors and other leading American historians bring dramatically new perspectives to bear on our understanding of the West, its Jews, and other Americans, both old and new. Whether comparing the history of the Jews of the West with the Jewish experience in the older regions of the country or bringing attention to the uniquely local aspects of the western experience, the contributors to this landmark volume perceive the West as an increasingly important and vital presence in the nation's history. The agrarians of Utah's Clarion and the cureseekers of Denver, no less than the boomers of Tucson, have been representative Americans, Jews, and westerners. Essays on the role of intermarriage, the shared encounter of immigrants and migrants, and the response to the founding of the State of Israel by western pioneer families, tell us much about the interaction of the West with our American world nation.


Pioneer Jews

Pioneer Jews

Author: Harriet Rochlin

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 262

ISBN-13: 9780618001965

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Contributions of the Jewish men and women who helped shape the American frontier.


America and Zion

America and Zion

Author: Moshe Davis

Publisher: Wayne State University Press

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13: 9780814330340

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Moshe Davis was a preeminent scholar of contemporary Jewish history and the rounding head of the Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. A recognized leader in the field of bicultural American/Jewish studies, he was a mentor to educators and academics in both Israel and North America and an active colleague of American Christian scholars involved in interfaith study and dialogue. These wide-ranging essays, many of them presented at a colloquium that Professor Davis had planned but did not live to attend, honor him by exploring the theme of Zion as an integral part of American spiritual history and as a site of interfaith discourse. Not only do these essays stress the role of individuals in history, but they also incorporate views outside those of mainstream religions. American attitudes toward the land of the Bible reflect both Jewish values that arose from their abiding attachment to Zion and the uniquely American Christian vision of a utopian pre-industrial, pre-urban, pre-secularized world. Whereas American Christians expected to be lifted out of their ordinary lives when they visited the Holy Land, Jews saw in their affinity for Zion a strong link to their American environment. Jews viewed America's biblical heritage as a source of practical values such as fair play and equality, social vision and political covenant. In inviting such comparisons, these essays illuminate the relationship of Judaism to America and the richness of American religious experience overall.


Embracing a Western Identity

Embracing a Western Identity

Author: Ellen Eisenberg

Publisher:

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780870718182

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In Embracing a Western Identity, Ellen Eisenberg places Jewish history in the larger context of western narratives, challenging the traditional view that the "authentic" North American Jewish experience stems from New York. The westward paths of Jewish Oregonians and their experiences of place shaped the communities, institutions, and identities they created, distinguishing them from other American Jewish communities. Eisenberg traces the Oregon Jewish experience from its pioneer beginnings in the mid-nineteenth century to the highly concentrated Portland communities of the mid-twentieth century.