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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 974.461004924
EAN num: 9780300107876
ISBN number: 0300107870
Label: Yale University Press
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 384
Printing Date: July 01, 2005
Publishing house: Yale University Press
Sale Popularity Level: 100856
Studio: Yale University Press
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Published on the 350th anniversary of the very first Jews to arrive in America, this comprehensive history of the Jews of Boston is now available in a revised and updated paperback edition. The stunning work combines illuminating essays by distinguished Jewish historians with 110 rare photographs to trace the community from its tentative beginnings in colonial Boston through its emergence in the twentieth century as one of the most influential and successful Jewish communities in America. The volume also presents fascinating information about Boston’s synagogues and Jewish neighborhoods as well as the evolution of Jewish culture in Boston and the United States.
Praise for the previous edition:
“The writing is engaging and lucid, and the superb, profuse illustrations enhance the text. While numerous community histories have been published, this volume is in a class by itself--and will set the standard for all future works of this kind.”—Library Journal
“For those of us who grew up with anecdotes of what being a Jew was like in, say, the South End in 1910, or in Roxbury or Chelsea in 1920, this history, collected in one place for the very first time, fills in the blanks. It gives us the context for our inherited folk tales.”—Alan Lupo, Boston Globe
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Rated by buyers -
I purchased this book because it covered Jews in Colonial American and my prior knowledge had been confined to the very small Jewish communities (only a few dozen families) in New York City, Newport, Rhode Island, and Philadelphia before and during the Revolutionary War. I was somewhat disappointed to find that the Jew who came to Boston in 1649 remained in the colonies for less than three months. Others came and went for another century and apparently only one resided in Boston in 1695. New York remained the dominant Jewish community throughout and a permanent Jewish community was not truly established in Boston until 1843 when enough emigrants had arrived to ensure consistent minyanim.
Of note is that Protestants in America including those in Boston actively recruited Jews from Central Europe to emigrate in the early 19th century. They sincerely hoped (and expected) the Jews would convert to Christianity and saw themselves as saviors doing God's work in saving Jewish souls. Of course, the reality was that few converted.
The essays that make up this book are extremely well written although they add a gloss for the average reader. It is intended to generate a sense of pride in the Jewish community, and no doubt succeeds handsomely. Certainly this volume far eclipses works presenting histories of other ethnic and religious groups in the US such as Roman Catholics, Scotch-Irish, Germans, Presbyterians, etc. But the most valuable aspect for the non-Jew is that this volume presents the lives and histories of Jews for Jews, not Jews as how they want to be seen by non-Jews. Their posture towards a benevolent US, albeit heavily laced with virulent strains of anti-semitism, is fascinating. The US provided a (compared to the states in Europe) safe place for Jews to live and prosper and they responded with a surfeit of community activism and philanthropy.
As a final aside, this volume did not materially aid me in my research into colonial America. In particular I was searching for Jewish participation in the Revolutionary War, and if the reader can offer any references that could be of use, I would be most appreciative. Unfortunately, this book skipped over such items, and indeed all wars in which the US participated, except for the recruitment of 8,000 Jewish men into the "Jewish Legion" of the British Army in 1917 which fought in Palestine. Perhaps a future volume could add an essay or two concerning Jews in the US military.
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