Jewish life and American culture / Sylvia Barack Fishman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fishman, Sylvia Barack, 1942-

Series:

SUNY series in American Jewish society in the 1990s

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jewish way of life.

Jews--Cultural assimilation--United States.

Jews.

Judaism--United States--History--20th century.

Judaism.

Jews--United States--Identity.

United States--Ethnic relations.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (263 p.)

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York, 2000.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Jews in the United States are uniquely American in their connections to Jewish religion and ethnicity. Sylvia Barack Fishman in her groundbreaking book, Jewish Life and American Culture, shows that contemporary Jews have created a hybrid new form of Judaism, merging American values and behaviors with those from historical Jewish traditions.Fishman introduces a new concept called coalescence, an adaptation technique through which Jews merge American and Jewish elements. Analyzing the increasingly permeable boundaries in the ethnic identity construction of Jewish and non-Jewish Americans, she suggests that during the process of coalescence, Jews combine the texts of American and Jewish cultures, losing track of their dissonance and perceiving them as a unified Jewish whole.The author generates data from diverse sources in the social sciences and humanities, including the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey and other statistical studies, interviews and focus groups, popular and material culture, literature and film, to demonstrate the pervasiveness of coalescence. The book pays special attention to gender issues and the relationship of women to their Jewish and American identities.A blend of lively narrative and scholarly detail, this book includes useful tables, accessible figures and models, and fascinating illustrations which present the educational, occupational, and behavioral patterns of American Jews, organizational profiles, family formation, religious observance, and the impact of Jewish education.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Tables and Figures

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Analyzing the Evidence

Coalescing American and Jewish Values

Tracing Educational and Occupational Patterns

Learning about Jewish Education

Educating for Jewish Living

Forming Jewish Households and Families

Observing Religious Environments in Jewish Homes

Profiling Jewish Organizational Connections

Negotiating both Sides of the Hyphen

The Methodology of the National Jewish Population Survey

Notes

Subject Index

Index of Names

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 211-233) and indexes.

ISBN:

9780791492741

0791492745

OCLC:

47011549