Description
Book SynopsisSixteen senior scholars of American Jewish history- among the men and women whose work and advocacy have moved their discipline into the mainstream of academia - converse on the intellectual and personal roads they have traveled in becoming leaders in their areas of expertise. Through their thoughtful and candid recollections of the challenges they faced in becoming accepted academics, they retell the story of how the study of the Jews and Judaism in the United States rose from being long dismissed as an amateurish enterprise not worthy of serious consideration in the world of ideas to its position today as a respected field in communication with all humanities scholars. They also imagine and chart the direction the writing on American Jews will take in the coming era.
Trade Review“This well-written and engaging book includes essays by sixteen leading Jewish historians including Hasia Diner, Stephen Whitfield, and Jonathan Sarna. … the engaging essays in this excellent book demonstrate that the discipline of Jewish American History has truly arrived. Recommended for all libraries, especially those with interests in American Jewish history, American history in general, and Jewish studies.” —David B. Levy, Lander College for Women,
AJL Reviews May/June 2019 -- David B. Levy * AJL Reviews *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: A Community of Scholars Who Grew a Field
Jeffrey S. Gurock
Chapter 1—Finding My Way: Uniting American Jewish Women's History and U.S. Women's History
Joyce Antler
Chapter 2—Reconstructing American Jewish Historical Studies
Dianne Ashton
Chapter 3—A Meandering and Surprising Career
Mark K. Bauman
Chapter 4—How I Became an American Jewish Historian and What That Meant For My Professional Life
Hasia Diner
Chapter 5—A Scholar-Athlete’s Discovery of American Jewish History
Jeffrey S. Gurock
Chapter 6—Object Lessons
Jenna Weissman Joselit
Chapter 7—How I Learned to Call America “the States” and Became an American Jewish Historian
Eli Lederhendler
Chapter 8—Sidewalk Histories or Uncovering the Venacular Jewishness of New York City
Deborah Dash Moore
Chapter 9—Becoming an “All-of-a-Kind” Jewish Historian
Pamela S. Nadell
Chapter 10—Joining Historians as an Anthropologist at the Table of American Jewish Culture
Riv–Ellen Prell
Chapter 11—My Life in American Jewish History
Jonathan D. Sarna
Chapter 12—From Kremenets to New York: My Personal Journeys as a Historian
Shuly Rubin Schwartz
Chapter 13—Finding My Place in “the Great Tradition”
Gerald Sorin
Chapter 14—Peripatetic Journeys
Beth S. Wenger
Chapter 15—The Past from the Periphery
Stephen J. Whitfield
Chapter 16—On Rabbis, Doctors and the American Jewish Experience
Gary Phillip Zola
