The Jews in America - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0002153238 ISBN 13: 9780002153232

Publisher: Collins Pub San Francisco, 1989

Synopsis

The United States now has the largest Jewish population of any country in the world. This vibrant and diverse community of nearly six million has flourished in America's atmosphere of religious freedom, tolerance and enterprise. THE JEWS IN AMERA is the result of the most ambitious photographic project ever to focus on the American Jewish community. Over the course of nearly a year, 60 of the nation's finest magazine and newspaper photographers spread out across the country, creating a composite portrait of contemporary American Jewish life, recording it traditions, beliefs and achievements. From the row houses of Brooklyn to Jewish cowboys in California, from a Bar Mitzvah in Houston to a chicken soup cook-off in Minneapolis, the photographs document a small bright chapter in the long history of a people. Photographs depicting Jewish customs and traditions are accompanied by clear, concise explanations which make the book accessible to Jews and non-Jews alike. THE JEWS IN AMERICA also features an introductory essay by acclaimed author Chaim Potok and is produced by the editors and photographers of the bestselling 'Day in the Life' series.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

A glossy, predictable paean to American Jewry by the producers of the Day in the Life series, this oversize collection of photographs traverses the country, capturing cowboys and Soviet Jewry activists, magicians and roving rabbis. The belabored point here is that Jews have special customs--circumcision, bar mitzvah, Passover seder--that set them apart, but Jews are also as American as apple pie. Hence, many of the 197 pictures, most of them color, reiterate that Jews are just regular folk: there are cozy multigenerational shots and photos of Jewish doctors, astronauts, hikers, soldiers, prisoners, casket-makers, emotionally disturbed youth. Cohen, co-editor of Christmas in America , plays up a familiar ethnic focus on food and stardom (a photograph of Steven Spielberg and his mom, Leah Adler, who owns a kosher L.A. restaurant, combines the two themes). A picture of the Jewish attorneys of a Century City law firm smacks of ghettoization and one of a woman immersing herself in a Brooklyn ritual bath is intrusive.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Collins Pub San Francisco
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0002153238
• ISBN 13: 9780002153232
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 223
• Editor: Cohen David