Description
Book SynopsisA compelling account of how a group of Hasidic Jews established its own local government on American soilSettled in the mid-1970s by a small contingent of Hasidic families, Kiryas Joel is an American town with few parallels in Jewish historybut many precedents among religious communities in the United States. This book tells the story of how this group of pious, Yiddish-speaking Jews has grown to become a thriving insular enclave and a powerful local government in upstate New York. While rejecting the norms of mainstream American society, Kiryas Joel has been stunningly successful in creating a world apart by using the very instruments of secular political and legal power that it disavows. Nomi Stolzenberg and David Myers paint a richly textured portrait of daily life in Kiryas Joel, exploring the community's guiding religious, social, and economic norms. They delve into the roots of Satmar Hasidism and its charismatic founder, Rebbe Joel Teitelbaum, following his journey from ninete
Trade Review"A New Yorker Best Book of the Year"
"Honorable mention for the Saul Veiner Book Prize, American Jewish Historical Society"
"Extraordinary and riveting."
---Gideon Lewis-Kraus, The New Yorker"
An extraordinarily detailed and fascinating analysis.
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---Glenn C. Altschuler, Jerusalem Post"A brilliant, eye-opening, thought provoking, easy to read and enjoyable book."
---Israel Drazin, Times of Israel"An impressive charting of the legal, cultural, and political machinery set in motion by the creation of a new religious settlement, which eventually became a bona fide municipality. . . . Stolzenberg and Myers provide a fluidly written, lively account of what happens when game but untested religious pioneers encounter the very different challenges of the suburbanized countryside."
---Lis Harris, New York Review of Books"Anyone interested in the future of Jews in diaspora (not only Hasidic Jews) should be grateful to [Stolzenberg and Myers] for what they’ve accomplished. . . . Fine-grained in their narrative, offering impressively detailed documentation, leaving plenty of room for the interplay of contingency, strong and often clashing personalities, and the larger structural issues of capital, territory, and state law."
---Jonathan Boyarin, Marginalia"
[American Shtetl] describes in arresting detail the trajectory and triumph of arguably one of the most paradoxical villages in the United States. But the fact-intensive story Myers and Stolzenberg captivatingly tell also permits the astute observer to extract an important insight of constitutional significance: religious minorities do not always lack the political power to protect their interests, as is often assumed. Kiryas Joel may not be rich, but it has clout.
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---Zalman Rothschild, Los Angeles Review of Books"
I. . . recommend [American Shtetl] to anyone seriously interested not only in the central topic of religious diversity, whether in the United States or elsewhere, but also the various uses (and abuses) of litigation. . . . American Shtetl is a "must-read" book for anyone interested in the realities of religious pluralism in America.
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---Sandy Levinson, Balkinization"[
American Shtetl is] a tale of religion, race, real estate, identity politics and so much more. An important read for anyone looking to understand American Hasidic Jewishness."
---Emily Burack, Hey Alma"
Some of the things that make American Shtetl so special is the attention to detail, the fresh perspective, and the respect for the subject matter. Myers and Stolzenberg meticulously describe the major events and lawsuits that defined the early history of [Kiryas Joel], and the personalities that shaped each one.
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---Joel Petlin, The Monsey Mevaser"
Fascinating. . . . This is an American story as well as a Jewish one.
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---Dominic Green, Jewish Chronicle"Nomi M. Stolzenberg and David N. Myers make a compelling case that the village is far from an unreconstructed throwback to a European shtetl. Rather, it is a thoroughly American phenomenon."
---Leah Libresco Sargeant, First Things"An engaging and extremely well-researched history of the growth and development of Kiryas Joel."
---Ben Rothke, Jewish Link"Stolzenberg (Univ. of Southern California Gould School of Law) and Myers (Univ. of California, Los Angeles) argue persuasively, if counter-intuitively, that the development of Kiryas Joel is “'quintessentially American'."
---J. D. Sarna, Choice"Fascinating and very enlightening."
---Chaim I. Waxman, Contemporary Jewry"A knowledgeable, opinionated inventory of the Chinese reception of Greek philosophy."
---Carl Mitcham, Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy
