In this Book
- Speaking of Jews: Rabbis, Intellectuals, and the Creation of an American Public Identity
- Book
- 2009
- Published by: University of California Press
summary
Lila Corwin Berman asks why, over the course of the twentieth century, American Jews became increasingly fascinated, even obsessed, with explaining themselves to their non-Jewish neighbors. What she discovers is that language itself became a crucial tool for Jewish group survival and integration into American life. Berman investigates a wide range of sources—radio and television broadcasts, bestselling books, sociological studies, debates about Jewish marriage and intermarriage, Jewish missionary work, and more—to reveal how rabbis, intellectuals, and others created a seemingly endless array of explanations about why Jews were indispensable to American life. Even as the content of these explanations developed and shifted over time, the very project of self-explanation would become a core element of Jewishness in the twentieth century.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Title Page, Copyright
- pp. i-vi
- List of Illustrations
- pp. ix-x
- Acknowledgments
- pp. xi-xiv
- Conclusion: Speaking of Jews
- pp. 168-174
- Selected Bibliography
- pp. 235-252
Additional Information
ISBN
9780520943704
Related ISBN(s)
9780520256804
MARC Record
OCLC
694144873
Pages
280
Launched on MUSE
2014-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No