Persistence and Flexibility: Anthropological Perspectives on the American Jewish Experience

by Walter P. Zenner (Editor)

Overview

Using a variety of anthropological approaches, the authors illustrate how the Jewish identity has persisted in the United States despite great subcultural variation and a wide range of adaptations. Within the various essays, attention is given to both mainstream Jews and to the Hasidim, Yemenites, Indian Sephardim, Soviet Emigres, and "Jews for Jesus." Institutions such as the family, the school, and the synagogue, are considered through techniques of participation/ observation and in archeological research. Persistence and Flexibility provides a means of viewing the Jewish community through the prism of key events, or rituals, and symbols.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781438424798
Publisher:	State University of New York Press
Publication date:	02/01/2012
Series:	SUNY series in Anthropology and Judaic Studies
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	25 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

1. The Cultural Anthropology of American Jewry
Walter P. Zenner and Janet S. Belcove-Shalin

Part I. IDENTITIES AND IDENTIFICATION

2. Stigma, Identity, and Sephardic-Ashkenazic Relations in Indianapolis
Jack Glazier

3. American Yemenite Jewish Interethnic Strategies
Dina Dahbany-Miraglia

4. Jewish in the USSR, Russian in the USA
Fran Markowitz

5. Learning to Be a Part-Time Jew
David Schoem

6. Integration into the Group and Sacred Uniqueness: Analysis of an Adult Bat Mitzvah
Stuart Schoenfeld

Part II. ARENAS OF JEWISH LIFE

7. A Home Away from Home: Participation in Jewish Immigrant Associations in America
Hannah Kliger

8. Family, Kinship, and Ethnicity: Strategies for Social Mobility
Myrna Silverman

9. The Hasidim of North America: A Review of the Literature
Janet S. Belcove-Shalin

10. Separatist Orthodoxy's Attitudes Toward Community: The Breuer Community in Germany and America
Steven Lowenstein

11. That Is the Pillar of Rachel's Grave Unto This Day: An Ethnoarchaeological Comparison of Two Jewish Cemeteries in Lincoln, Nebraska
David Mayer Gradwohl and Hanna Rosenberg Gradwohl

12. Jews and Judaica: Who Owns and Buys What?
Samuel Heilman

Glossary

Contributors

Index

Editorial Reviews

An illustration of how the Jewish identity has persisted in the United States despite subcultural variation and a wide range of adaptations. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews