Who is a Jew? What is a Jew? In this all-encompassing study, Dr. Schiff probes these questions to help explain the prominence of Jewish characters in drama since World War II. The Jew has evolved into one of the most popular personages on the contemporary stage. Dramatists, both Jew and Gentile, in the United States and Europe, have been mining recently introduced concepts of the Jew to create a highly diversified and unfamiliar breed of dramatis personae.

From the Jewish Heartland: Two Centuries of Midwest Foodways reveals the distinctive flavor of Jewish foods in the Midwest and tracks regional culinary changes through time. Exploring Jewish culinary innovation in America's heartland from the 1800s to today, Ellen F. Steinberg and Jack H. Prost examine recipes from numerous midwestern sources, both kosher and nonkosher, including Jewish homemakers' handwritten manuscripts and notebooks, published journals and newspaper columns, and interviews with Jewish cooks, bakers, and delicatessen owners._x000B__x000B_Settling into the cities, towns, and farm communities of Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota, Jewish immigrants incorporated local fruits, vegetables, and other comestibles into traditional recipes. Such incomparable gustatory delights include Tzizel bagels and rye breads coated in midwestern cornmeal, baklava studded with locally grown cranberries, tangy ketchup concocted from wild sour grapes, rich Chicago cheesecakes, and savory gefilte fish from Minnesota northern pike._x000B__x000B_Steinberg and Prost also consider the effect of improved preservation and transportation on rural and urban Jewish foodways and the efforts of social and culinary reformers to modify traditional Jewish food preparation and ingredients. Including dozens of sample recipes and ample illustrations, From the Jewish Heartland: Two Centuries of Midwest Foodways takes readers on a memorable and unique tour of midwestern Jewish cooking and culture.

This book examines Torah and its interpretation both as a recurring theme in the early rabbinic commentary and as the very practice of the commentary. It studies the phenomenon of ancient rabbinic scriptural commentary in relation to the perspectives of literary and historical criticisms and their complex intersection. The author discusses extensively the nature of ancient commentary, comparing and contrasting it with the antecedents in the pesharim of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the allegorical commentaries of Philo of Alexandria. He develops a model for a dynamic understanding of the literary structure and sociohistorical function of early rabbinic commentary, and then applies this model to the Sifre — to the oldest extant running commentary to Deuteronomy and one of the oldest rabbinic collections of exegesis.

While the massive flow of immigrants to the Northeast was taking place, a number of Jews were finding their way to America through the port of Galveston, Texas. The descendants of these immigrants, now scattered throughout the United States, are hardly aware that their ancestors participated in a unique attempt to organize and channel Jewish immigration. From their recruitment in Eastern Europe to their settlement in the American West, these immigrants were supervised by a network of agents and representatives. The project, known as the “Galveston Movement,” brought over ten thousand Jews to the United States between the years 1907 and 1914.

In Gender and American Jews, Harriet Hartman and Moshe Hartman interpret the results of the two most recent National Jewish Population Surveys. Building on their critical work in Gender Equality and American Jews (1996), and drawing on relevant sociological work on gender, religion, and secular achievement, this new book brings their analysis of gendered patterns in contemporary Jewish life right to the present moment.

The first part of the book examines the distinctiveness of American Jews in terms of family behavior, labor-force patterns, and educational and occupational attainment. The second investigates the interrelationships between "Jewishness" and religious, economic, and family behavior, including intermarriage. Deploying an engaging assortment of charts and graphs and a rigorous grasp of statistics, the Hartmans provide a multifaceted portrait of a multidimensional population.

Based on the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey, this book analyzes gender equality in education, labor force participation, and occupational achievement among American Jews, and offers a comparison with the wider American population and Israeli Jews. Gender Equality and American Jews studies gender equality in education, labor force participation, and occupational achievement among American Jews, based on the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey. It first focuses on education and training as key “gatekeepers” to roles in the economy, and then on the gender differences in labor force behavior and occupational attainment. To place American Jews in perspective, they are compared to the wider American population, and to Israeli Jews, presenting a multi-dimensional analysis of American Jewishness in the 1990s. The difficulties of comparing Israel and American Jews are discussed, lending insights into the similarities and differences between the two cultures. The authors draw on a solid base of sociological literature, placing American Jews in the wider American context with comparative data. The book discusses the conclusions that can be drawn from the analysis along with some policy implications.

German and Jewish ways of life have been interwoven in Worms, Germany, for over a thousand years. Despite radical changes brought about by expulsion of Jews, wartime devastation, social advancement, cultural and religious renewal, and the Jewish community's destruction during the Holocaust, the Jewish sites of Worms display a remarkable degree of continuity, which has contributed to the development of distinct urban Jewish cultures, memories, and identities.

Tracing the recollection and invention of local Jewish historical traditions in religious commemorations, historical writings, museums, and historical monuments, and the transformation from "sites" to "sights" in the form of tourism from the Middle Ages to the present, Roemer's rich study of Worms offers a blueprint for historians interested in developing similar studies of cities over the longue duree.

This is a careful examination of the doctrine of Jewish chosenness in the light of Gersonides's thought on providential suffering and on inherited providence. Gersonides is one of the most interesting and important philosophers of the later Jewish Middle Ages. Gersonides was one of the intellectual giants of the medieval Jewish world, a thinker of remarkable diversity and ingenuity. In the light of Gersonides’ thought on providential suffering and on inherited providence, this book analyzes his position on one of the cardinal principles of Judaism: the concept of the Chosen People.