Speaking of Jews

Rabbis, Intellectuals, and the Creation of an American Public Identity

Bibliographic Data

ID19938426
AuthorsLila Corwin Berman (0000-0001-5619-5837, corresponding author)
Year2009
Pages280
Publication date2009-03-10
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueSpeaking of Jews (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherUniversity of California Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1525/9780520943704
OpenAlexW1500137825
Open LibraryOL29602510M
ISBN9780520943704
LanguageEN
Citations received25
References cited4

Lila Corwin Berman asks why, over the course of the twentieth century, American Jews became increasingly fascinated, even obsessed, with explaining themselves to their non-Jewish neighbors. What she discovers is that language itself became a crucial tool for Jewish group survival and integration into American life. Berman investigates a wide range of sources—radio and television broadcasts, bestselling books, sociological studies, debates about Jewish marriage and intermarriage, Jewish missionary work, and more—to reveal how rabbis, intellectuals, and others created a seemingly endless array of explanations about why Jews were indispensable to American life. Even as the content of these explanations developed and shifted over time, the very project of self-explanation would become a core element of Jewishness in the twentieth century

Art · History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Jewish Identity and Society · ethnic relations · Identity · Jews · Judaism and social problems · Religion and sociology · Social conditions · united states

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