Jews in Christian America : the pursuit of religious equality / Naomi W. Cohen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cohen, Naomi W. (Naomi Wiener), 1927-2018.

Series:

Studies in Jewish history

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jews--United States--Politics and government.

Jews.

Jews--Legal status, laws, etc.

United States.

Politics and government.

Religion and state--United States.

Religion and state.

Jews--Legal status, laws, etc--United States.

Constitutional history--United States.

Constitutional history.

United States--Ethnic relations.

Ethnic relations.

Jews--Politics and government.

Local Subjects:

United States--Ethnic relations.

Physical Description:

viii, 300 pages ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : Oxford University Press, 1992.

Summary:

A driving force in the history of American Jews has been the pursuit of religious equality under law. Jews reasoned that state and federal legislation or public practices which sanctioned religious, specifically Christian, usages blocked their path to full integration within society. Always a small minority and ever fearful of the outspoken proponents of the Christian state, nineteenth-century Jews became ardent defenders of church-state separation. In the twentieth century, Jewish defense organizations took a prominent role in landmark court cases on religion in the schools, Sunday laws, and public displays of Christian symbols. Over the last two centuries, Jews shifted from support of a neutral-to-all-religions government to a divorced-from-religion government, and from defense of their own interests to the defense of other religious minorities. Jews in Christian America traces in historical context the response of American Jews to the issues presented by a Christian-flavored public religion. Discussing the contributions of each major wave of Jewish immigrants to the reinforcement of a separationist stand, Cohen shows how Jewish communal priorities, pressures from the larger society, and Jewish-Christian relationships fashioned that response. She also makes clear that the Jewish community was never totally united on the goals and tactics of a separationist posture; despite the continued predominance of the strict separationists, others argued the adverse effects of that position on communal well-being and on the very survival of Judaism.

Contents:

From Toleration to Freedom

Separationism Takes Root

The Christian Agenda

Separationism Is Moderated

Overview: 1945-1965

Tests of Released Time

The Case of the Innocuous Prayer

Scripture in the Schools

Sabbaths and Symbols.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 247-291) and index.

National Jewish Book Awards - Jewish History, Winner, 1993

ISBN:

0195065379

9780195065374

OCLC:

24630879

Publisher Number:

33468948 +UKX

Online:

Publisher description