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American Jewish Life
Daniel Greene traces the emergence of the idea of cultural pluralism to the lived experiences of a group of Jewish college students and public intellectuals, including the philosopher Horace M. Kallen. These young Jews faced particular challenges as they sought to integrate themselves into the American academy and literary world of the early 20th century. At Harvard University, they founded an influential student organization known as the Menorah Association in 1906 and later the Menorah Journal, which became a leading voice of Jewish public opinion in the 1920s. In response to the idea that the American melting pot would erase all cultural differences, the Menorah Association advocated a pluralist America that would accommodate a thriving Jewish culture while bringing Jewishness into mainstream American life.
This history of American Jews and Judaism from the Colonial Era to the present explores the impact of America on Jews and of Jews on America. Covering more than four centuries from the Colonial Era forward, Jewish American Chronology offers an introduction to the history of American Jews and Judaism, using individual examples, personality profiles, and illustrations to illustrate fundamental patterns and major themes. [End Page 195]
Ancient World and Archaeology
Michael Stone challenges theologically conditioned histories of ancient Judaism devised by later orthodoxies, whether Jewish or Christian, and he stresses the importance of understanding religious experience as a major factor in the composition of ancient religious documents. Addressing the Dead Sea Scrolls and apocalyptic literature as well as recent theories, Stone emphasizes the complexity of both the raw data and the resulting picture of Judaism in antiquity.
Gerbern Oegema discusses the noncanonical literature of early Judaism—literature written between 300 B.C.E. and 200 C.E. Although much recent attention has been given to the literary and historical merits of the Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, and other deutero- and extracanonical writings, Early Judaism and Modern Culture shows that it is also important to study these literary works from a theological perspective. To that end, Oegema considers the reception of early Jewish writings throughout history and identifies their theological contributions to many issues of perennial importance: ethics, politics, gender relations, interreligious dialogue, and more.
Household archaeology has not been a common approach to studying the material culture of Ancient Israel. Until recently, the dictates of "Biblical Archaeology" led to a narrow set of questions that ignored issues such as gender, status, and production within the household. The present volume, which grew out of a session at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research, attempts to redress this issue. The seventeen papers here present the next step in household research, with the use of data collection strategies designed to answer specific questions posed by household archaeology. [End Page 196]
Art and Music
Daniel Morris looks at ten American photographers, exploring the artists' often ambivalent relationships to their Jewish backgrounds. Going against the grain of most criticism on the subject, Morris argues that it is difficult to label Jewish American photographers as unequivocal "outsiders" or "insiders" with respect to mainstream American culture. In eclectic ways, however, the contemporary photographers he highlights carry on the social justice and documentary tradition associated with the primarily Jewish Photo...
