Most American Jews today will probably tell you that Judaism is inherently democratic and that Jewish and American cultures share the same core beliefs and values. But in fact, Jewish tradition and American culture did not converge seamlessly. Rather, it was American Jews themselves who consciously created this idea of an American Jewish heritage and cemented it in the popular imagination during the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. History Lessons is the first book to examine how Jews in the United States collectively wove themselves into the narratives of the nation, and came to view the American Jewish experience as a unique chapter in Jewish history.
Beth Wenger shows how American Jews celebrated civic holidays like Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July in synagogues and Jewish community organizations, and how they sought to commemorate Jewish cultural contributions and patriotism, often tracing their roots to the nation's founding. She looks at Jewish children's literature used to teach lessons about American Jewish heritage and values, which portrayed—and sometimes embellished—the accomplishments of heroic figures in American Jewish history. Wenger also traces how Jews often disagreed about how properly to represent these figures, focusing on the struggle over the legacy of the Jewish Revolutionary hero Haym Salomon.
History Lessons demonstrates how American Jews fashioned a collective heritage that fused their Jewish past with their American present and future.
Beth S. Wenger is professor of history and director of the Jewish Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of The Jewish Americans: Three Centuries of Jewish Voices in America and New York Jews and the Great Depression: Uncertain Promise.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 Chapter One: In Search of American Jewish Heritage 15 Chapter Two: Civic Performances: Jews and American National Holidays 58 Chapter Three: War Stories: Jewish Patriotism on Parade 96 Chapter Four: Historical Tales: Educating American Jewish Children 135 Chapter Five: Sculpting an American Jewish Hero: The Myths and Monuments of Haym Salomon 179 Epilogue: American Jewish Heritage after World War II 210 Notes 231 Index 265
What People are Saying About This
Deborah Dash Moore
Arguing that American Jews have created a distinctive American Jewish heritage that interweaves Judaism with democracy, Wenger's compelling and elegant book shows that this heritage rewrites both Jewish and American history into a relatively seamless whole. — Deborah Dash Moore, director of the Jean and Samuel Frankel Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan
From the Publisher
"Arguing that American Jews have created a distinctive American Jewish heritage that interweaves Judaism with democracy, Wenger's compelling and elegant book shows that this heritage rewrites both Jewish and American history into a relatively seamless whole."—Deborah Dash Moore, director of the Jean and Samuel Frankel Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan"History Lessons tells an important story, one that analyzes the ways in which a minority group—in this case, American Jews up to the end of World War II—constructed a history for themselves. Wenger has tackled a virtually untapped vein of material. There is certainly nothing like this book in American Jewish history."—Hasia R. Diner, New York University
Diner
History Lessons tells an important story, one that analyzes the ways in which a minority group—in this case, American Jews up to the end of World War II—constructed a history for themselves. Wenger has tackled a virtually untapped vein of material. There is certainly nothing like this book in American Jewish history. — Hasia R. Diner, New York University
