Speaking of Jews : Rabbis, Intellectuals, and the Creation of an American Public Identity.
- CA : University of California Press, (c)2009.
- 1 online resource (281 pages).
- The S. Mark Taper Foundation imprint in Jewish studies .
Includes bibliographies and index.
Cover; Title; Copyright; Contents; List of Illustrations; Acknowledgments; Introduction: Presenting Jews to America; 1. Spiritual Missions after the Great War: The Reform Movement and the Jewish Chautauqua Society; 2. The Ghetto and Beyond: The Rising Authority of American Jewish Social Science in Interwar America; 3. The Sacred and Sociological Dilemma of Jewish Intermarriage; 4. Serving the Public Good and Serving God in 1940s America; 5. Constructing an Ethnic America: Oscar Handlin, Nathan Glazer, and Post-World War II Social Research. 6. What Is a Jew? Missionaries, Outreach, and the Cold War Ethnic Challenge7. A Jewish Marilyn Monroe and the Civil-Rights-Era Crisis in Jewish Self-Presentation; Conclusion: Speaking of Jews; Notes; Selected Bibliography; Index; A; B; C; D; E; F; G; H; I; J; K; L; M; N; O; P; R; S; T; U; V; W; Y; Z.
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 o.
9780520943704
Jews--Identity.--United States Jews--Social conditions--United States--20th century. Jewish leadership--History--United States--20th century. Judaism and the social sciences. Religion and sociology--United States. Social Science. History.