This book follows renowned archaeologist Richard Freund's journey through some of the most fascinating archaeological sites of human history-including the mysterious Atlantis, Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls caves, and the long-buried Holocaust camp Sobibor. Each chapter takes readers through a different archaeological site.
In this compelling book, Lithuanian author Ruta Vanagaite holds an extended conversation with noted historian Christoph Dieckmann. His exploration of the causes and consequences of the
Holocaust in Lithuania provides the first overview for general readers that considers the perspectives of all the central groups involved—Jews, ......
Finalist, 2018 National Jewish Book Award for Modern Jewish Thought and Experience, presented by the Jewish Book Council Winner, 2019 Jordan Schnitzer Book Award, in the Jewish Literature and Linguistics Category, given by the Association for Jewish Studies A fascinating glimpse into the world of the coffeehouse and its role in shaping modern ......
2017 Jordan Schnitzer Book Award in Jewish Literature and Linguistics Honorable Mention, 2016 Baron Book Prize presented by AAJR A monster tour of the Golem narrative across various cultural and historical landscapes In the 1910s and 1920s, a "golem cult" swept across Europe and the U.S., later surfacing in Israel. Why did this story of a ......
White Privilege, Jewish Heritage, and the Struggle for Racial Equality
An absorbing account of how two Jewish brothers devoted themselves to the struggle for racial equality in the United States. In the late nineteenth century, Joel and Arthur Spingarn grew up in New York City as brothers with very different personalities, interests, and professional goals. Joel was impetuous and high-spirited; Arthur was reasoned ......
Exploring Jewish Female Representation in Contemporary Television Comedy
This book analyzes how contemporary representations of Jewish women on television challenge stereotypes of Jewish femininity, using a variety of series created by Jewish women to explore how this self-representation and evolving industry practices have come together to establish new, more diverse paradigms of Jewish femininity.
Conflict, Conversion, and Consolidation in Early Judaism and Christianit
Relying on archaeological remains and ancient sources, this book describes important identity formation processes within early Judaism and Christianity and shows how negotiations involving issues of ethnicity, stereotyping, purity, commensality, and institution building contributed to the formation of group identities.
This volume analyzes Jewish tropes in popular science fiction including Star Trek, Marvel, and other top franchises. The essays examine representations of Jewish characters and culture in the genre that range from poignant metaphor to banal tokenism.
In this compelling book, Lithuanian writer Ruta Vanagaite holds a frank conversation with noted historian Christoph Dieckmann.. Her searching exchanges with Dieckmann illuminate the most profound questions we have as we struggle to understand the causes and consequences of the Holocaust.
This book describes the pogroms of Polish Jews by their Polish neighbors in some dozen small towns and villages in Eastern Poland in the years 1941-42. The book draws on eyewitness testimony by surviving victims, bystanders, and perpetrators themselves to describe the horrific events that occurred throughout the region.
This balanced history offers a concise, readable introduction to Nazi Germany. Combining compelling narrative storytelling with analysis, Joseph W. Bendersky offers an authoritative survey of the major political, economic, and social factors that powered the rise and fall of the Third Reich.
An exploration of the emergence of Rabbinic Judaism drawing on primary sources and new methods Over the past generation, several major findings and methodological innovations have led scholars to reevaluate the foundation of Judaism. The Dead Sea Scrolls were the most famous, but other materials have further altered our understanding of ......
From the late nineteenth century through the post-Holocaust era, the world was divided between countries that tried to expel their Jewish populations and those that refused to let them in. This book brings to life the true stories of six exotic visions of a Jewish national home outside of the biblical land of Israel.
This text brings together original work to present an introductory overview of Sephardic history and culture over the past 1500 years. The book presents an overarching chronological and thematic survey of Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewry
Examines the meaning of Jewish politics in Israel In one of the first books to ask head-on what it means for Israel to be a Jewish state, Yaacov Yadgar delves into what the designation "Jewish" amounts to in the context of the sovereign nation-state, and what it means for the politics of the state to be identified as Jewish. The volume ......
A vivid look at the wartime experiences of a Jewish woman in the Confederate South Emma Mordecai lived an unusual life. She was Jewish when Jews comprised less than 1 percent of the population of the Old South, and unmarried in a culture that offered women few options other than marriage. She was American born when most American Jews were ......
A surprising history of how the pig has influenced Jewish identity Jews do not eat pig. This (not always true) observation has been made by both Jews and non-Jews for more than three thousand years and is rooted in biblical law. Though the Torah prohibits eating pig meat, it is not singled out more than other food prohibitions. Horses, rabbits, ......
The Forgotten Story of Jean Carroll, America's First Jewish Woman Stand-
Before Hacks and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, there was the comedienne who started it all First Lady of Laughs tells the story of Jean Carroll, the first Jewish woman to become a star in the field we now call stand-up comedy. Though rarely mentioned among the pantheon of early stand-up comics such as Henny Youngman and Lenny Bruce, Jean Carroll ......
Following the Holocaust, American literature experienced a resurgence of Jewish themes, characters, and contributions. This book focuses on the genres of science fiction and fantasy of the post-Holocaust period and argues that while the era was colored by grief, it also offered a renaissance of Jewish creative expression. The author provides an ......
Yiddish Literature Under Surveillance: The Case of Soviet Ukraine gives a broad view on Soviet Jewish literary life, and on the repression suffered by Yiddish writers under Stalinist rule. It moves from the paradigm of writing almost exclusively about the most prominent authors, whose execution in Moscow on August 12, 1952 is tragically known as ......
While conversions to Judaism are generally understudied in France, conversions of Black persons go unnoticed. The past three decades witnessed an increasing number of claims to Jewishness in Africa and conversions in the African diaspora and Israel. Their diverse life stories reflect deep spiritual quests. Scripturalizing Jewishness through ......
A Jewish Heart: A Struggle for Status and Identity in Asia is at once the saga of a modest charitable grant in 1903, an unimagined windfall ninety years later, and a history of Progressive Judaism in Asia. Enriched with profiles of key players, the author rootsthe narratives in the entrepreneurial and philanthropic activities of two legendary ......
Exploring American Jewish History through 50 Historic Treasures offers students and general readers new perspectives on the rich complexity of Jewish experiences in America. As one of America's most fascinating and enduring minorities, American Jews have played key roles in every era of American history and every region of the country. The 50 ......
Explores the long history of anti-Zionist and non-Zionist American Jews Throughout the twentieth century, American Jewish communal leaders projected a unified position of unconditional support for Israel, cementing it as a cornerstone of American Jewish identity. This unwavering position served to marginalize and label dissenters as antisemitic, ......
A Family of Israeli Holocaust Testimonies from the Cracow Ghetto Resista
Testimonial Montage: A Family of Israeli Holocaust Testimonies from the Cracow Ghetto Resistance explores interconnected testimonies of four Holocaust survivors who were members of the Akiva youth group in Cracow, Poland, who participated in the ghetto resistance. Drawing on literary and photographic discourse, Jelen extracts the contours of ......
How American Activists Mobilized to Free Soviet Jews
Reveals the mass mobilization tactics that helped free Soviet Jews and reshaped the Jewish American experience from the Johnson era through the Reagan-Bush years What do these things have in common? Ingrid Bergman, Passover matzoh, Banana Republic (R), the fitness craze, the Philadelphia Flyers, B-grade spy movies, and ten thousand Bar and Bat ......
Errant Destinations is a collection of nine literary chronicles in which contemporary Chilean- Jewish author Andrea Jeftanovic reflects on travel in its multiple variations, with reference to diverse fields of study, including references to cinema, literature, and the visual arts. This The interdisciplinary approach enhances the contemplation of ......
Conflict, Conversion, and Consolidation in Early Judaism and Christianit
Covering the period from 200 BCE to 600 CE, this book describes important aspects of identity formation processes within early Judaism and Christianity, and shows how negotiations involving issues of ethnicity, stereotyping, purity, commensality, and institution building contributed to the forming of group identities. Over time, some of these ......
Reinventing the Alliance in the 1960s, Revised Edition
Highlights Jewish participation in the civil rights movement Black Power, Jewish Politics charts the transformation of American Jewish political culture from the Cold War liberal consensus of the early postwar years to the rise and influence of Black Power-inspired ethnic nationalism. It shows how, in a period best known for the rise of ......
