Primary Format: Cloth
ISBN: 9781611685091
Published: 11/04/2014
Pages: 478
Size: 7 x 10 in.
Subject(s):

American Jewish History: A Primary Source Reader


Edited by Gary Phillip Zola and Marc Dollinger

Paper: $40.00
E-book: $39.99
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"Setting the gold standard for the field, Zola and Dollinger's source reader is indispensable for those teaching modern Jewish history."

Pamela S. Nadell, American University

Presenting the American Jewish historical experience from its communal beginnings to the present through documents, photographs, and other illustrations, many of which have never before been published, this entirely new collection of source materials complements existing textbooks on American Jewish history with an organization and pedagogy that reflect the latest historiographical trends and the most creative teaching approaches. Ten chapters, organized chronologically, include source materials that highlight the major thematic questions of each era and tell many stories about what it was like to immigrate and acculturate to American life, practice different forms of Judaism, engage with the larger political, economic, and social cultures that surrounded American Jews, and offer assistance to Jews in need around the world. At the beginning of each chapter, the editors provide a brief historical overview highlighting some of the most important developments in both American and American Jewish history during that particular era. Source materials in the collection are preceded by short headnotes that orient readers to the documents’ historical context and significance.

[This] stunning new collection of documents . . . conveys the remarkable breadth and extraordinary diversity of the American Jewish experience across 350 years. The editors show keen sensitivity to the maturation of American Jewish historiography. Their selections capture the voices of America's Jews and illuminate their lives through the prisms of business and labor, immigration and adaptation, religion and Zionism, family life and philanthropy, politics and antisemitism. Setting the gold standard for the field, Zola and Dollinger's source reader is indispensable for those teaching modern Jewish history.
—Pamela S. Nadell, Director, Jewish Studies at American University

American Jewish History: A Primary Source Reader . . . offers a panoramic sweep of religion, politics, popular culture, and more, and it will, I predict, become the key compendium of primary documents for the study of the American Jewish past.
—Hasia R. Diner, American Jewish History, New York University

GARY PHILLIP ZOLA is the executive director of the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives and professor of the American Jewish experience at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati. MARC DOLLINGER is Richard and Rhoda Goldman Endowed Chair in Jewish Studies and Social Responsibility, San Francisco State University.

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