Boundaries of Jewish identity / edited by Susan A. Glenn and Naomi B. Sokoloff.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Glenn, Susan A. (Susan Anita)

Sokoloff, Naomi B.

Series:

Samuel and Althea Stroum Books

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jews--Identity.

Jews.

Jews--United States--Identity.

Jews--Israel--Identity.

Jews--Europe--Identity.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (259 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Seattle : University of Washington Press, c2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The subject of Jewish identity is one of the most vexed and contested issues of modern religious and ethnic group history. This interdisciplinary collection draws on work in law, anthropology, history, sociology, literature, and popular culture to consider contemporary and historical responses to the question “Who and what is Jewish?”These essays are focused especially on the issues of who creates the definitions, and how, and in what social and political contexts. The ten leading authorities writing here also look at the forces, ranging from new genetic and reproductive technologies to increasingly multicultural societies, that push against established boundaries. The authors examine how Jews have imagined themselves and how definitions of Jewishness have been established, enforced, challenged, and transformed. Does being a Jew require religious belief, practice, and formal institutional affiliation? Is there a biological or physical aspect of Jewish identity? What is the status of the convert to another religion? How do definitions play out in different geographic and historical settings? What makes Boundaries of Jewish Identity distinctive is its attention to the various Jewish “epistemologies” or ways of knowing who counts as a Jew. These essays reveal that possible answers reflect the different social, intellectual, and political locations of those who are asking.This book speaks to readers concerned with Jewish life and culture and to audiences interested in religious, cultural, and ethnic studies. It provides an excellent opportunity to examine how Jews fit into an increasingly diverse America and an increasingly complicated global society.

Contents:

Are genes Jewish? : conceptual ambiguities in the new genetic age / Susan Martha Kahn

Who is a Jew? : categories, boundaries, communities, and citizenship law in Israel / Gad Barzilai

Jewish character? : stereotype and identity in fiction from Israel by Aharon Appelfeld and Sayed Kashua / Naomi B. Sokoloff

"Funny, you don't look Jewish" : visual stereotypes and the making of modern Jewish identity / Susan A. Glenn

Blame, boundaries, and birthrights : Jewish intermarriage in midcentury America / Lila Corwin Berman

Boundary maintenance and Jewish identity : comparative and historical perspectives / Calvin Goldscheider

Good bad jews : converts, conversion, and boundary redrawing in modern Russian Jewry : notes toward a new category / Shulamit S. Magnus

"Jewish like an adjective" : confronting Jewish identities in contemporary Poland / Erica Lehrer

Conversos, Marranos, and crypto-Latinos : the Jewish question in the American Southwest (and what it can tell us about race and ethnicity) / Jonathan Freedman

The contested logics of Jewish identity / Laada Bilaniuk.

Notes:

"A Samuel and Althea Stroum Book."

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

ISBN:

9780295800837

0295800836

OCLC:

708029800