Jewish Stars in Texas : Rabbis and Their Work - Hardcover

Weiner, Hollace Ava

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0890969000 ISBN 13: 9780890969007

Publisher: Texas A & M Univ Pr, 1999

Synopsis

"This thoroughly researched volume, covering a time span from the 1870s through the 1920s, tells the lively stories of eleven rabbis, their lives, and their Texas towns, from big cities such as Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio to the remote locales of Hempstead and Brownsville."--BOOK JACKET.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

Texas Jews may be only a small proportion of the state's population, but their leaders have often shone as unlikely stars in this Bible Belt state. Grounded in the culture that gave rise to Christianity and thus sharing many of the community's values, rabbis schooled outside the region brought erudition and an exotic individuality to the frontier. Furthermore, a rabbi's prophetic sense of social justice, honed through centuries of Talmudic thought, gave a Hebrew minister moral clout in a vigilante climate.

Because Texas synagogues were small, rabbis served entire communities, evolving into public figures recruited for an array of roles. They blessed stock shows and rodeos. They founded hospitals, symphonies, and charities. They broadcast Sunday sermons over the radio. They challenged the Ku Klux Klan and fought for academic freedom and prison reform. Their names are etched on cornerstones and scrawled on state documents. Welcomed as leaders of the Chosen People, rabbis thrived, and many stayed their entire careers.

Rabbis who accepted a call to the Lone Star State when it was still on the edge of the frontier often ventured out West as a last resort. Some were freelancers, never ordained. Others came because they had no better pulpit offers. A number had left Europe as rebels, seeking to escape traditional religious practices. These maverick rabbis were drawn to places with little Jewish history or hierarchy -- communities such as Beaumont, Galveston, Fort Worth, Lubbock, El Paso, and Tyler -- where they created their own religious blueprints.

This thoroughly researched and engaging volume, covering a time span from the 1870s through the 1920s, tells the lively stories of elevenrabbis, their lives, and their Texas towns, from big cities such as Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio to the remote locales of Hempstead and Brownsville. Sit back and enjoy Texas history through rabbinical eyes.

About the Author

HOLLACE AVA WEINER, a native of Washington, D.C., graduated from the University of Maryland and for ten years was a journalist with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Her research into Texas rabbis has been published in American Jewish History, and her essay on Corpus Christi Rabbi Sidney Wolf is in the anthology Quiet Voices: Southern Rabbis and Black Civil Rights. She lives in Fort Worth

Edition details

• Publisher: Texas A & M Univ Pr
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0890969000
• ISBN 13: 9780890969007
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 302