Apparently, May is Jewish American Heritage Month. How could I not know about this until more than halfway through the month? I’m a huge history nerd, and I work for the Jewish Publication Society, for cryin’ out loud! – I’m almost ashamed of myself.
Well, then, here’s a shoutout to Jewish American Heritage Month, with only 11 days left to go. When you get a chance, you should check out the official website, which has some lovely online exhibitions, webcasts, and oral history projects. It also features a treasure trove of links to archives and special collections – the sorts of goodies that make history buffs like me salivate.
And it seems like D.C. is the place to be for Jewish American History fans this month. In addition to contributing to that fantastic website, the Library of Congress, National Archives, National Gallery of Art, and U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum have been hosting films, lectures, and special panels in honor of Jewish American Heritage Month. (Makes me feel a little jealous – at least we’ve got the National Museum of American Jewish History here in Philadelphia, though it’s still under construction.)
So, to keep me (and the rest of you folks who don’t live in D.C.) from feeling left out of the party, I’ve decided to feature three JPS books that deal with the American Jewish (or Jewish American?) experience. First up, we have American Jewish History, a colorful survey of the 350 years of, well, American Jewish history. Next, Encounter with Emancipation chronicles the German-Jewish immigrant experience from 1830-1914 (I love this topic – my great-grandparents came to the States from Germany in 1905!). And finally, where would we be without Zayda Was a Cowboy? Hilarious title, fascinating exploration of the little-known story of Jewish immigrants to Galveston, Texas.
Now it’s your turn – what are some of your favorite books about American Jewish history?
-Naomi
#1 by Michael Makovi on October 22, 2009 - 9:05 pm
Well, I haven’t read them yet, but I’ve been wanting to read Saul Lieberman and the Orthodox and A Modern Heretic and a Traditional Community: Mordecai M. Kaplan, Orthodoxy, and American Judaism.
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And in Rabbi Dr. J. H. Hertz’s essays (I’ve read three of his six volumes of essays), his conflation of “Orthodox” and “Positive-Historical” is absolutely fascinating.
(Harvey Meirovitch wants to conclude that Rabbi Hertz was therefore a Conservative Jew, but I compiled a list of Orthodox rabbis who’d be Conservative by the same standards Meirovitch gives. Rabbi Yehiel Weinberg and Rabbi Moshe Shmuel Glasner were on that list, and Rav Kook made that list three times over! And based on one of Meirovitch’s standards (that Rabbi Hertz referred to Solomon Schechter in good terms), I could actually get the entire Litvish Haredi world designated as Conservative: the Litvaks cite Rabbi Yehiel Weinberg, and Rabbi Yehiel Weinberg refers to Solomon Schechter as “Rabbi”; ergo, the Litvaks are Conservative! I firmly believe that Rav Hertz was Orthodox, but be that as it may, we at least learn that one must be very carefuly trying to anachronistically apply contemporary denominational labels to people who lived decades ago. But I must say, the historical data Meirovitch adduces is breathtaking; the information he gathers on Rabbi Sabato Morais explicates very much about Rabbi Hertz’s philosophy.)
I haven’t read any books about Conservative Judaism in America, but I’m sure one could write some fascinating stuff. After all, Congregation Shearith Israel, along with Rabbis Sabato Morais and Henry Pereira Mendes, helped found both the OU and JTS! So when Rabbi Hertz conflates “Positive-Historical” and “Orthodox”, you know something juicy is happening. (Plus, the first English translator of Rabbi Hirsch’s Nineteen Letters taught briefly at JTS, and YU and JTS contemplated a merger. Isn’t history just plain awesome?)
#2 by Michael Makovi on October 22, 2009 - 9:14 pm
Ooh, get this juicy tidbit, heard by me personally on Shabbat from Rabbi Hayyim Angel at Congregation Shearith Israel one Shabbat:
Years ago, Shearith Israel was contemplating becoming Conservative. A young man of some twenty years of ago, a certain Benjamin Cardozo stood up. He gave an impassioned talk about how, observant or not (he himself was the latter), everyone must preserve the true authentic Judaism for their posterity. (Queue in a drash about morasha (“heritage”, to be preserved) versus nahala (“inheritance”, to be expended as desired).) Thanks solely to Cardozo, Shearith Israel remained Orthodox. I bet not many law students know that side of Cardozo!
It’s like a story my rabbi told: my rabbi had a student learning in university in Australia. The professor handed out a paper on Milton, and bemoaned how its author was no longer writing, that he had disappeared, whereas he had used to prolifically write wonderful pieces on Milton. My rabbi’s student piped up: “Oh, you mean Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein! He’s the head of a Jewish sect in the Judean desert!”.