Description
Book SynopsisA model of Jewish community history that will enlighten anyone interested in Baltimore and its past. Winner of the Southern Jewish Historical Society Book Prize by the Southern Jewish Historical Society; Finalist of the American Jewish Studies Book Award by the Jewish Book Council National Jewish Book AwardsIn 1938, Gustav Brunn and his family fled Nazi Germany and settled in Baltimore. Brunn found a job at McCormick's Spice Company but was fired after three days when, according to family legend, the manager discovered he was Jewish. He started his own successful business using a spice mill he brought over from Germany and developed a blend especially for the seafood purveyors across the street. Before long, his Old Bay spice blend would grace kitchen cabinets in virtually every home in Maryland. The Brunns sold the business in 1986. Four years later, Old Bay was again soldto McCormick. In On Middle Ground, the first truly comprehensive history of Baltimore's Jewish community, Eric L
Trade ReviewOn Middle Ground provides a holistic approach to chronicling Baltimore's Jewish community. Drawing upon rich sources spanning over 250 years—including manuscript collections, oral histories, and newspaper accounts—this history is told in concert with the history of Baltimore's Jewish institutions, and its diverse ethnic community bringing them to life in a way that is unique to Baltimore.
On Middle Ground is a foundational work that uses Baltimore as a historical case study to analyze some of the influential culminations of American Jewish life.
—Charles L. Chavis Jr.,
The American Jewish Archives JournalEric L. Goldstein and Deborah R. Weiner trace the history of the Jews of the city of Baltimore from colonial times through the present, providing one of the few comprehensive histories of an American Jewish community outside of New York City. In addition to telling the story of the American Jewish experience at a local level, the authors ask how a variety of different factors—particularly geography, class conflict, and racial dynamics—have shaped the contours of American ethnic identity.
—Lawrence Charap,
Journal of American History[
On Middle Ground] offers an outstanding model of deeply researched local ethnic history.
—Joshua Furman, Rice University,
Journal of Southern HistoryAs award-winning historians sponsored by the Jewish Museum of Maryland, Goldstein and Weiner write as both insiders and outsiders. Community members will see names and institutions acknowledged, and scholars will find informed argument. Anecdotes enliven the social history . . . Goldstein and Weiner argue for Baltimore's place as a "city and mother in Israel" among the foundational communities of American Jewry. In so doing they ask us to rethink our assumptions. Engagingly written, cogently argued, this book, like Baltimore itself, deserves a place among the exceptional Jewish histories of Boston, Cincinnati, and New York.
—Leonard Rogoff, Jewish Heritage Foundation of North Carolina,
American Jewish HistoryOn Middle Ground: A History of the Jews of Baltimore offers a prodigiously researched and highly nuanced history of Baltimore Jewry. Readers unfamiliar with the contours of American Jewish history will find myriad connections to topics important in African American, ethnic, labor, political, and urban history.
—Mark Greenberg, Western Washington University,
Journal of Southern ReligionThe history of Baltimore Jews, as Goldstein and Weiner so deftly show, often proves to be exceptional, challenging accepted narratives of American Jewish history.
On Middle Ground persuasively demonstrates the value of a Jewish urban history that draws heavily on urban social, economic, and political studies of the past several decades.
—Deborah Dash Moore, University of Michigan,
Southern Jewish HistoryGoldstein and Weiner detail every aspect of Jewish life, including day-to-day economic obstacles and opportunities, long-term political struggles, religious observance, and efforts to build communal and social institutions. In all of these spheres, Goldstein and Weiner highlight the influence of a succession of Jewish immigrants, from a variety of locales, with diverse religious and cultural practices . . .
On Middle Ground provides a comprehensive biography of the city itself and all of its ethnic and religious communities.
—Toni Pitock, University of Delaware,
Reviews in HistoryTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsix
Introduction1
One. Baltimore's First Jews17
Two. A "City and Mother in Israel"53
Three. The Great Wave Hits Baltimore104
Four. Bawlmer Jews: The Interwar Years179
Five. From Baltimore to Pikesville244
Epilogue. The Challenges of a New Century301
Notes 321
Index 369
