The Jews of Boston (review)

For the 200 years following the 1649 arrival of Solomon Franco, a Portuguese Jewish merchant from Holland, Boston was home to only a handful of Jews. In spite of its initially slow growth, the Boston Jewish community is one of the most important, and most innovative Jewish communities in the United States. Boston’s Jews pioneered many of the institutions and ideologies that became hallmarks of American Judaism; Jewish Federations, American Zionism, Jewish campus organizations, and the havurah movement, all have roots there. While New York City offers the story of Jews in urban United States, Boston—with its relatively homogenous Jewish population, its many universities, and its ring of suburbs—presaged late twentieth-century Jewish life better than any other community.

Written in honor of the hundredth anniversary of the Combined Jewish Charities of Greater Boston, The Jews of Boston is a beautiful, large-format book, filled with pictures of the 350 years of Jewish life in the “Athens of America.” The book’s twelve essays divide into two sections tied together by the theme of Boston as both an atypical and prototypical American Jewish community. The first section provides historical background while the second offers topical essays which give the reader a deeper understanding of the Boston Jewish community and its place within American Jewish life.

Despite its sometimes self-congratulatory tone, The Jews ofBoston delivers a detailed and readable survey. Younger scholars were not overlooked in this volume and their contributions offer fresh, provocative approaches. David Kaufman’s “Temples in the American Athens: A History of the Synagogues of Boston,” for example, describes the way “interior furnishings and exterior architecture . . . linked Jews together as part of one Jewish culture and one community” (p. 184). Synagogue architecture is often ignored, but Kaufman clearly shows its importance in understanding Jewish aspirations, self-perception, and public image.

Mark Raider’s “Pioneers and Pacesetters” chronicles Boston Jews’ importance in American Zionism. Raider notes that “the strength of Boston Zionism was never contingent upon its size nor, at a later stage, its fundraising ability . . .” (p. 242). Rather, the prominence of Bostonians in American Zionism, disproportionate to their numbers, stemmed from Zionism’s popularity with eastern European Jewish immigrants and their descendants, as well as with Boston’s Jewish intellectual elite, most notably Louis D. Brandeis. The affinity for Zionism among both “uptown” and “downtown” Jews arose, in part, from Boston’s strong ethnic character and its importance as a center for progressive thought. With the example of their Irish neighbors’ struggle for an Irish Free State, and the moral social mission advocated by liberal intellectual circles, Boston was the first Jewish community to reconcile Zionist aspirations with their American self-identity. According to Raider, Boston Jews were able to “inculcate in American Jewry a sense of kinship and responsibility for the Yishuv . . .” (p. 243). Eventually Boston’s brand of Zionism became the norm throughout the United States.

Stephen J. Whitfield’s “The Smart Set: An Assessment of Jewish Culture” reminds us that, though Boston was home to Jews like Mary Antin, who felt that assimilation was beneficial and desirable; it was also home to others “who sought to make their citizenship compatible with their Jewish loyalties . . .” (p. 325). A paradigm for Jewish life in the United States, the history of Boston Jewish culture demonstrates the ultimate success of both assimilationists and those Jews who sought greater accommodation while striving to retain their Jewish identity. Perhaps the latter group can claim a more significant victory, for, as Whitfield notes, “no other Diaspora society has been so receptive to communal claims and to the legitimation of Jewish choices” (ibid.).

This collection could have easily missed, but, as the three essays mentioned demonstrate, the editors and authors have been very successful in writing a history which transcends the local story. Had this not been the case, The Jews of Boston would have had too narrow an appeal to recommend it to anyone who did not have a particular interest in Boston...