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Book Notes BOOK NOTES 133 Annotations written by Walter Hirsch of Purdue University (Emeritus) are. identified by the initials W.H.; those byJean-Pierre Herubel, also ofPurdue University, bear the initials J.-P.H. Reference materials in all fields are listed under "Reference." American Jewish Life A Credit to Their Community: Jewish Loan Societies in the United States, 1880-1945, by Shelly Tenenbaum. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1993. 204 pp. $29.95 (c). ISBN 0-8143-2287-5. This is a sociohistorical study ofJewish credit organizations from the 1880s until the end of World War II. Upon their arrival in the United States during this period in American Jewish life, Eastern European Jewish immigrants established hundreds of loan societies. Shelly Tenenbaum discusses the question of how these immigrant entrepreneurs raised the necessary funds to start their enterprises. Based on primary historical documents, this book analyzes the emergence, growth, and decline of three types of Jewish loan associations in America: Hebrew free loan societies, remedial loan associations, and credit cooperatives. Observing America's Jews, by Marshall Sklare, edited by Johnathan D. Sarna. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1993. 320 pp. $39.95. ISBN 0-87451-623-4. This is a record of the intellectual development of the leading figure in AmericanJewish sociology. Marshall Sklare is widely acknowledged to have been the dean of his field, a brilliant scholar whose extensive contributions to both research and writing helped establish and nurture the field. Sklare had begun to assemble this collection of his most significant writings prior to his death in March 1992. 134 SHOFAR Fall 1993 Vol. 12, No. 1 A People Divided: judaism in Contemporary America, byJack Wertheimer. New York: Basic Books, 1993. 320 pp. $25.00. ISBN 0-465-00165-3. How American is Jewish religious behavior? And how Jewish is it? A People Divided analyzes how fundamental changes in the wider society have affected Jewish religious and communal life. It also provides a look at the variety and vitality of the Judaism of the nineties-reform temples having their main services on Sunday mornings, New Age synagogues, a humanistic congregation banning any reference to a deity, an ultra-orthodox group with a cable TV channel. The book shows how each of the major Jewish denominations has responded differently to the challenges facing Judaism. Studies in Contemporaryjewry. Volume VIII: A Newjewry? America Since the Second World War, edited by Peter Y. Medding. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. 409 pp. $45.00. ISBN 0-19-507449-1. This volume focuses on the history and development of American Jewish life since World War II. Contributions include "A 'Golden Decade' for American Jews, 1945-1955," by Arthur A. Goren, "American Judaism: Changing Patterns in Denominational SelfDefinition ," by Arnold Eisen, "Value Added: Jews in Postwar American Culture," by Stephen J. Whitfield, "The Postwar Economy ofAmerican Jews," by Barry R. Chiswick, "Jewish Migration in Postwar America: The Case of Miami and Los Angeles," by Deborah Dash Moore, and "All in the Family: American Jewish Attachments to Israel," by Chaim Waxman. The volume also contains essays, book reviews, and a list of recent dissertations in the field. Art and Music Berlin Cabaret, by Peter Jelavich. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993. 322 pp. $39.95. ISBN 0-674-06761-4. Fads and fashions, sexual mores and political ideologies were subject to satire and parody on the stage of Berlin's cabarets from 1901 until the Nazi regime closed them. This book follows the changing treatment of these themes and the fate of the cabaret itself through the Imperial age, the Weimar era, and the Nazi years of German history. Jelavich argues that the Berlin cabaret was neither highly politicized nor sleazy, and that its middle ground let it cast an ironic eye on Berliners and other Germans. However, this satirical attitude Book Notes 135 toward serious themes blinded cabaret to the strength of the radical right-wing forces that ultimately destroyed it. Jelavich concludes with the Berlin cabaret artists' final performances-as prisoners in the concentration camps at Westerbork and Theresienstadt. Erinnerungen an Carl Orff (Memories of Carl Orfl), by Godela Orff. Munich: Piper, 1992. 151 pp. DM 29.80. ISBN 3...

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