Unfinished People: Eastern European Jews Encounter America - Hardcover

Gay, Ruth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393039919 ISBN 13: 9780393039917

Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc, 1996

Synopsis

A portrait of the Eastern European Jewish immigrants that arrived in America between 1880 and the First World War explores the ways in which they held on to their customs and traditions from life in the old country, resisting assimilation into the American melting pot.

About this title

Review:

Ruth Gay's writing traverses the paths of history from the microcosm of personal memoir to millennial histories of peoples and nations. In The Jews of Germany, she traced one and a half centuries of Jewish life in Europe. In Unfinished People, Gay describes the lives of Jewish immigrants from Eastern and Central Europe and the process through which they forged new cultural identities in America. The materials for Gay's examination of Jewish life range from historical essays to personal remembrances. Short vignettes describe the role of Yiddish theater, the changing fashions of dress and family life, and her studied opinions on Jewish-American history and identity. Her opinions are sharp and her exposition is lucid and informative.

About the Author:

Ruth Gay is the author of The Jews of Germany: A Historical Portrait. She lives in Connecticut with her husband, Peter Gay.

About this edition

• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0393039919
• ISBN 13: 9780393039917
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 310