new essays in american jewish history is a joyous ldquo festschrift rdquo celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of the american jewish archives aja and the tenth anniversary of gary p. That position was held for many years by the indefatigable and visionary founder of aja, the historian dr. This anthology of twenty two articles represents, as the book flap jacket suggests, ldquo the best in modern american and jewish scholarship rdquo and a ldquo scholarly benchmark in the growing field of american jewish studies.

Rdquo the topics are far ranging, from synagogues in suriname to changing practices among the modern orthodox in north america. The common thread is that the reader will gain new insights into the jewish experience in south and north america. I have singled out three articles that illustrate the joy of scholarly discovery the reader will experience. Ldquo a land that needs people to increase: how the jews won the right to remain in new netherland rdquo by paul finkelman provides an analysis and a nuanced view of a familiar topic mdash the role of the jews in new amsterdam. We have all heard how peter stuyvesant was thwarted from turning away the 26 portuguese jews who landed in new amsterdam in 1664 by the efforts of the sizable number of jewish investors in the dutch west india company wic. At the time of the arrival of the refugees, jewish investment represented only 1.27 percent of the initial capitalization of the wic.

Stuyvesant did make anti semitic statements but his major reason for turning away the jews, and other religious groups, was to maintain stability in the colony. Rdquo stuyvesant was far more anti quaker and anti lutheran and virulent in his efforts to prevent them from joining the colony. Finkelman also documents the critical role the jews played in the economic development and in laying the foundation of religious and cultural toleration that have become hallmark aspects of new york.

Shuly rubin schwartz rsquo s essay, ldquo henrietta szold: the making of an icon, rdquo reflects the anthology rsquo s attention to the critical role women have played in shaping american jewish history. Schwartz describes the strategic efforts of hadassah to achieve recognition for its founder, henrietta szold 1860 ndash 1945. Their efforts culminated with the induction of szold into the national women rsquo s hall of fame in 2007, along with 217 other outstanding american women. This insured that szold rsquo s monumental achievements would be acknowledged by a broader audience. The essay ldquo robert king merton, his science, and the promise of the enlightenment rdquo by samuel haber illustrates the ldquo behind the scene rdquo information many of the articles provide. His groundbreaking work on the structure of science, deviance, social institutions, and social stratification are cited in every introductory and theoretical sociology course. The haber article traces merton rsquo s life beginning with his economically impoverished childhood, as meyer r.

Schkolnick, through to his stunning academic successes under his new legally changed name, robert king merton. Merton changed his name at 19 years old, to try to avoid encountering the rampant academic anti semitism of the period. He attended temple university and then harvard graduate school on full scholarship. Haber traces the intellectual roots of merton rsquo s brilliant work and discusses the importance the enlightenment and his cultural background played in shaping his ideas. 100 102 10.1353/ajh.2010.0 in lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: the twenty three essays in this volume were commissioned to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the american jewish archives aja and the ten year tenure of gary p.

Zola as the aja’s executive director and editor of american jewish archives journal. Marcus, as kevin proffitt’s essay jacob rader marcus and the archive he built shows, was convinced that in the wake of the holocaust, american jews must assume responsibility for jewish cultural and intellectual life and that an archive of american jewish history was necessary to fulfill this sacred task. The aja soon became, along with the american jewish historical society, the major repository of manuscripts in american jewish history. In 1948 the aja began publishing american jewish archives review, one of the two major journals in the field. They are original, although in a few cases they recycle arguments which have appeared in earlier publications.

Paul finkelman’s ‘a land that needs people for its increase:’ how the jews won the right to remain in new netherland is a brilliant revisionist account of the beginnings of jewish settlement on mainland north america in the 1650s. Sarna’s the democratization of american judaism shows how the american revolution released forces in the eighteenth century that challenged jewish communal authority and undermined practices that ran counter to freedom and the rights of the people. William pencak’s jonas phillips levy: a jewish naval captain in the early republic explores the career of a member of the prominent nineteenth century levy family which acquired monticello, thomas jefferson’s home in virginia. Hasia diner’s essay the postwar pursuit of american jewish history and the memory of the holocaust notes the great influence of the holocaust in stimulating the historical consciousness of america’s jews and in the founding of the aja. There are two essays on the jews of suriname aviva ben ur and rachel frankel’s architecture of autonomy: the blessing and peace synagogue of suriname and natalie zemon davis’s david nassy’s ‘furlough’ and the slave mattheus , one on the jews of the west william toll’s creating cultural space: jews and judaism at a public university in the 1920s , and another on the jews of the south mark k. Bauman’s beyond the parochial image of southern jewry: studies in national and international leadership and interactive mechanisms . Bauman’s provocative account of southern jewry challenges the widespread notion that southern jews were sui generis, exhibiting social and religious traits different from those of jews in other parts of the country.

There are essays on zi onism allon gal’s the united states in abba hillel silver’s world view and shuly rubin schwartz’s henrietta szold: the making of an icon , biblical scholarship leonard greenspoon’s when harry met max , and yiddish culture rakhmiel peltz’s telling the american story: yiddish and the narratives of children of immigrants . The volume is also balanced between essays that tell the stories of individuals samuel haber’s robert king merton, his science and the promise of the enlightenment and those which examine more abstract matters dianne ashton’s modern maccabees: remaking hanukkah in nineteenth century america . From yeshiva boy to syndrome , whose eponymous hero is the archetypical victim of patriarchal bias, to be particularly valuable 483.

New Essays In American Jewish History Text

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