From Haven to Home: 350 Years of Jewish Life in America - Hardcover

Michael W. Grunberger; Hasia R. Diner; Leonard Dinnerstein; Eli Evans

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0807615374 ISBN 13: 9780807615379

Publisher: George Braziller Inc., 2004

Synopsis

This year marks the 350th anniversary of the first Jewish settlement in America. From Haven to Home celebrates this important occasion by bringing together an eminent group of Judaic scholars who take stock of American Jewish life, from the arrival of the first small group in Manhattan in 1654 to the present. The contributors examine a wide range of topics, including the early history of the American Jewish community and the various significant phases of Jewish immigration, which saw the initial group of twenty-three burgeon into a thriving community of several million by the early twentieth century. Also addressed is the role of Jews in the Civil War and in World War II, anti-Semitism in America, the daily life and struggles of American Jewish women, and American Jews and politics. The essays are amply illustrated with items from the collection of the Library of Congress's Hebraic Section, among them the first Hebrew bible printed in America and the first Yiddish American cookbook, as well as selections of photographs, prints, diaries, maps, and sheet music. Central to the Jewish experience in America is that country's commitment to ideals of freedom, opportunity, religious liberty, equality, and pluralism. The continuity of the faith, in fact, depends on it. From Haven to Homethe story of Jews in Americais therefore also the story of America and American ideals. 100 color illustrations.

About this title

About the Author:

Hasia R. Diner is Director of the Goldstein-Goren Center for American Jewish History and Paul S. and Sylvia Steinberg Professor of American Jewish History at New York University. She is the author of The Jews of the United States, 1645 to 2000; Hungering for America: Italian, Irish and Jewish Foodways in the Age of Migration; Her Works Praise Her: A History of Jewish Women in America from Colonial Times to the Present; The Lower East Side Memories: The Jewish Place in America; In the Almost Promised Land: American Jews and Blacks, 1915–1935; and A Time for Gathering, 1820–1880: The Second Migration (Volume 2 of The Jewish People of America, edited by Henry Feingold) and coeditor of Remembering the Lower East Side: American Jewish Reflections.

From Publishers Weekly:

A Chanukah menorah with each of its eight branches topped by a mini Statue of Liberty exemplifies as well as anything in this fascinating volume the deep connection that Jews have developed with America and its culture over the past 350 years. This handsome volume, which explores that connection, accompanies an exhibit at the Library of Congress, which will also travel to Cincinnati, New York City and Los Angeles. But the book stands on its own, both as a historical assessment and as a lovely coffee table book filled with illuminating images from the Library’s vast holdings. Many of the articles are by major scholars, such as Jonathan Sarna, Deborah Dash Moore and Leonard Dinnerstein. Jack Wertheimer’s essay on "American Jewry Since 1945" includes posters highlighting Jewish concerns, such as the demand to free Soviet Jewry. Sarna’s essay on Judaism in America includes the title page of Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise’s Reform prayer book, appropriately titled Minhag Amerika (the American rite). The bad is remembered—the lynching of Leo Frank, the anti-Semitic rants of Father Coughlin—but so is the good—the joys of Yiddish theater, the flourishing of Jewish women in America. Comprehensive, beautiful and erudite, this is an excellent gift for anyone interested in Jewish American history and culture.
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About this edition

• Publisher: George Braziller Inc.
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0807615374
• ISBN 13: 9780807615379
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 243