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The wonders of America : reinventing Jewish culture 1880-1950 / Jenna Weissman Joselit.
LIBRA E184.J5 J837 1994
Available from offsite location
Library at the Katz Center - Stacks E184.J5 J67 1994
By Request
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Joselit, Jenna Weissman.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Jews--United States--Social life and customs.
- Jews.
- Jews--Material culture.
- United States.
- Manners and customs.
- Jews--Material culture--United States.
- United States--Social life and customs--20th century.
- Jews--Social life and customs.
- Physical Description:
- xi, 349 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
- Edition:
- First edition.
- Place of Publication:
- New York : Hill and Wang, [1994]
- Summary:
- "The selective relish with which most American Jews affirm their identity - consuming kosher delicacies once a year, extravagantly celebrating the bar mitzvahs of their sons and the weddings of their daughters has usually given rise to satire or consternation. The Wonders of America offers an alternative perspective, for this innovative social history of Jewish culture highlights the cultural ingenuity and adaptive genius of American Jewish life - from the end of the nineteenth century through the postwar period."--BOOK JACKET. "Drawing on advertisements and etiquette manuals, sermons and surveys, Jenna Weissman Joselit offers a lively, mordant, and richly illustrated account of how American Jews created their distinctive culture. In vivid, often humorous detail, she describes how they raised their children, decorated their homes, shopped and cooked, celebrated holidays, and marked birth, marriage, and death as they became at home in America. Her fresh, original analysis makes clear that it is not the theoretical debates of rabbis and scholars but the small choices of daily life that shape and sustain a culture."--BOOK JACKET.
- Contents:
- Introduction
- Kissing business
- Yidishe Nachas
- Red-letter
- Home Sweet Haym
- Kitchen Judaism
- The call of the Matzoh
- A last farewell.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 297-337) and index.
- National Jewish Book Awards - Jewish History, Winner, 1995
- ISBN:
- 0809027577
- 9780809027576
- OCLC:
- 32055657
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