Book Notes

148 . American Jewish Life SHOFAR Summer 1997 Vol. 15, No.4 Book Notes Jewish Immigrant Associations and American Identity in New York, 1880-1939, by Daniel Soyer. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997. 291 pp. $39.95. ISBN 0674 -44417-5. How did the vastnumber of Jewish immigrants from different regions of Eastern Europe fonn their American ethnic identity? In answer to this question, Daniel Soyer examines how Jewish immigrant hometown associations (landsmanshaftn) transfonned old-world communalties into vehicles for integration into American . society. Focusing on New York, where some 3,000 associations enrolled nearly half a million members, this study shows that in spite of their wide variety from politically radical and secular to Orthodox these organizations adopted the democratic practices that were seen as positive aspects ofAmerican civic culture. New York Jews and the Great Depression: Uncertain Promise, by Beth S. Wenger. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996. 288 pp. $25.00. ISBN 0-300-06265-6. Challenging the standard narrative of American Jewish upward mobility, Beth Wenger shows that Jews of the era not only worried about fmancial stability and their security as a minority group, but also questioned the usefulness of their educational endeavors and the ability oftheir communal institutions to survive. She shows the widespread changes throughout the Jewish community that enabled it to emerge from the tunnoil of this period and thrive in the post-World-War-II era. Religion and State in the American Jewish Experience, by JonathanD. Sarna and David G. Dalin. Notre Dame, IN: University ofNotre Dame Press, 1997. 368 pp. $40.00 (c). ISBN 0-268-01654-2. The authors present a range of primary source. materials which articulate the different positions held within the American Jewish community on numerous past and present church-state issues, including the constitutionality of fonner state Sunday Laws; whether or not Orthodox Jews serving the military should be permitted to wear yarmulkes while in unifonn; whether Jewish prisoners have a right to kosher food; whether prayer, nonsectarian or otherwise, should have any role in public schools; whether menorahs should be displayed alongside Christian symbols or whether all types of religious symbols should be banned from public arenas. Book Notes 149 Tradition Transformed: The Jewish Experience in America, by Gerald Sorin. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press; 1996. 304 pp. $40.00 (c); $14.95 (p). ISBN 0-8018-54,46-6 (c); 0-8018-5447-4 (p). This history ofJews in America from colonial times to the present discusses how the wave of Jewish immigration from Russia and Eastern Europe shaped gentile perceptions of the Jewish community. Ancient World and Archaeology Illness and Health Care in the Ancient Near East: The Role ofthe Temple in Greece, Mesopotamia, and Israel, by Hector Avalos. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995.490 pp. $49.95. ISBN 0-7885-0098-8. This work in medical anthropology compares the temples ofAsclepius in Greece, the temples· of GulaINinisina in Mesopotamia, and the temples of Yahweh to explain those socio-religious features that led Israel to develop its own ideas about the role of the temple in health care. Both textual materials, biblical as well as extra-canonical sources from Qumran, and the fruits ofpaleopathological research are employed. TIrreepossible functions of a temple ofa healing deity are examined in particular: petitionary, therapeutic, and thanksgiving. An Introduction to First-Century Judaism: Jewish Religion and History in the Second Temple Period,by Lester L. Grabbe. Edinburgh: T & TClark, 1996. 144 pp. $17.95 (p). ISBN 0-567-08506-6. This introduction discusses the period within its wider historical context and identifies the major sources upon which scholars depend. It also examines the main currents that together form the substance and character of Judaism and illustrates the dynamic aspects ofJewish history, including textual, revolutionary, eschatological and gnostic Judaism. Judeophobia: Attitudes Toward Jews in the Ancient World, by Peter Schafer. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997. 306pp. $35.00. ISBN 0-674-48777-X. The author locates the origin ofantisemitism in Hellenistic Egypt around 300 BCE, and argues that from there it was transporteclfrrst to Syria-Palestine and then to Rome. 150 SHOFAR Sumrn~r 1997 Vol. 15, No.4 Jews in the Mediterranean Diaspora: From Alexander to Trajan...