Collective Portraits: The Anthological Imagination of Leo W. Schwarz

In 1935 the literary intellectual Leo W. Schwarz published The Jewish Caravan, an anthology of stories spanning the entirety of Jewish historical experience. Two years later Schwarz published a follow-up volume, A Golden Treasury of Jewish Literature. Together, the anthologies formed a landmark testament to the richness of Jewish literary culture and attempted to buoy the flagging morale of American Jewry during the 1930s. Aimed primarily at an American audience, Schwarz's anthologies were among the first to include Jewish writing by American authors. Largely absent from leading American anthologies of the day, writers such as Waldo Frank, Thyra Samter Winslow, Albert Halper, Meyer Levin, and others were recognized by Schwarz as members of the centuries-long Jewish literary fraternity. Schwarz's anthological project thus helped give rise to the concept of an American Jewish literature—a body of work meant to help connect American Jewry to the Jewish experience in its most global aspect.