Her Works Praise Her: A History Of Jewish Women In America From Colonial Times To The Present - Hardcover

Diner, Hasia; Benderly, Beryl

3.61

28 ratings by Goodreads

9780465017119: Her Works Praise Her: A History Of Jewish Women In America From Colonial Times To The Present

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0465017118 ISBN 13: 9780465017119

Publisher: Basic Books, 2002

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

From salons in Federal Philadelphia to Frontier homesteads to settlement houses in city slums to 1970s consciousness-raising sessions, American Jewish women have brought a distinctive sense of self and community to bear on the economic, social, and family life around them. Hasia R. Diner and Beryl Lieff Benderly draw upon long-neglected public records, private diaries, memoirs and letters to overturn the widespread notion that Jewish life began at Ellis Island and happened only in New York. They offer a complex portrait of flesh-and-blood characters such as Emma Lazarus, Mrs. Wyatt Earp, Ethel Rosenberg, Betty Friedan, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The result is a comprehensive account of how America transformed generations of Jewish women--and how these women transformed America.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:

Hasia R. Diner, Ph.D., is the Paul B. and Sylvia Steinberg Professor of American Jewish History at New York University. Her books include A Time for Gathering, Erin's Daughters in America, and The Almost Promised Land. She lives in New York City. Beryl Lieff Benderly, an award-winning journalist and author, has written eight books, including Dancing Without Music, The Myth of Two Minds, and The Growth of the Mind (with Stanley I. Greenspan). She lives in Washington, D.C.

From Publishers Weekly:

New York University historian Diner (Lower East Side Memories) and award-winning journalist Benderly (Dancing without Music) present a well-researched and consistently absorbing chronicle, the first social history of American Jewish women, according to the publisher. From the moment they arrived in New Amsterdam (to the displeasure of Peter Stuyvesant, who referred to them as "enemies and blasphemers of the name of Christ"), Jewish women have (like other women, and men for that matter) struggled to pave their way in American society and to improve the lot of others. That this country is home to the "largest, richest, freest Jewish community in the world," the authors contend, "is largely the work of women doing the sacred tasks of Jewish womanhood." By the late 1700s, they were initiating charity projects and realizing the Jewish concept of tzedakah, and while their primary loyalty was to other Jewish immigrants, they became involved with the wider community as well. When Christian interest in proselytizing increased, Jewish women took the lead in resisting it. Rebecca Gratz (1781-1869), for example, hired a tutor to teach her Hebrew and arranged for family members to attend lessons. The 20th century witnessed the ascendance of Jewish women to the forefront of just about every social justice movement: they were involved in organizing labor unions, building hospitals and settlement houses, running vocational programs and establishing job-referral agencies. But while the authors give considerable attention to Jewish women's passionate involvement in the feminist movement, they ignore their significant contributions to the gay and lesbian movement. This is a minor point, however, in a fundamental contribution to women's and Jewish studies that is certain to inform and engage. 16 pages of b&w illus. not seen by PW.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.