Many Jewish foods are beloved in American culture. Everyone eats bagels, and the delicatessen is a ubiquitous institution from Manhattan to Los Angeles. Jewish American Food Culture offers readers an in-depth look at both well-known and unfamiliar Jewish dishes and the practices and culture of a diverse group of Americans. This is the source to consult about what “parve” on packaging means, the symbolism of particular foods essential to holiday celebrations, what keeping kosher entails, how meals and food rituals are approached differently depending on ways of practicing Judaism and the land of one’s ancestors, and much more. Jonathan Deutsch and Rachel D. Saks first provide a historical overview of the culture and symbolism of Jewish cuisine before explaining the main foods and ingredients of Jewish American food. Chapters on cooking practices, holiday celebrations, eating out, and diet and health complete the overview. Twenty-three recipes, a chronology, a glossary, a resource guide, and a selected bibliography make this an essential one-stop resource for every library.

This scholarly study explores the conflicting forces of assimilation and cultural heritage in literary portrayals of Jewish American identity. In Passing Fancies in Jewish American Literature and Culture Judith Ruderman takes on the fraught question of who passes for Jewish in American literature and culture. In today’s contemporary political climate, religious and racial identities are being reconceived as responses to culture and environment, rather than essential qualities. Many Jews continue to hold conflicting ideas about their identity?seeking deep engagement with Jewish history and the experiences of the Jewish people while holding steadfastly to the understanding that identity is fluid and multivalent. Looking at carefully chosen texts from American literature, Ruderman elaborates on the strategies Jews have used to “pass” from the late nineteenth century to the present?nose jobs, renaming, clothing changes, religious and racial reclassification, and even playing baseball. While traversing racial and religious identities has always been a feature of America’s nation of immigrants, Ruderman shows how the complexities of identity formation and deformation are critically relevant during this important cultural moment.

History of the Jewish People in America is a thorough historical account of Jewish communities in both South and North America starting from the earliest days of Spanish colonization all the way to the beginning of the 20th century. _x000D_ Contents:_x000D_ The Participation of Jews in the Discovery of the New World_x000D_ Early Jewish Martyrs Under Spanish Rule in the New World_x000D_ Victims of the Inquisition in Mexico and in Peru_x000D_ Marranos in the Portuguese Colonies_x000D_ The Short-lived Dominion of the Dutch Over Brazil_x000D_ Recife: The First Jewish Community in the New World_x000D_ The Jews in Surinam or Dutch Guiana_x000D_ The Dutch and English West Indies_x000D_ New Amsterdam and New York_x000D_ New England and the Other English Colonies_x000D_ The Religious Aspect of the War of Independence_x000D_ The Participation of Jews in the War of the Revolution_x000D_ The Decline of Newport; Washington and the Jews_x000D_ Other Communities in the First Periods of Independence_x000D_ The Question of Religious Liberty in Virginia and in North Carolina_x000D_ The War of 1812 and the Removal of Jewish Disabilities in Maryland_x000D_ Mordecai Manuel Noah and His Territorialist-Zionistic Plans_x000D_ The First Communities in the Mississippi Valley_x000D_ New Settlements in the Middle West and on the Pacific Coast_x000D_ The Jews in the Early History of Texas_x000D_ Conservative Judaism and Its Stand Against Reform_x000D_ The Discussion About Slavery_x000D_ Lincoln and the Jews_x000D_ Participation of Jews in the Civil War_x000D_ Immigration From Russia Prior to 1880_x000D_ Relations With Russia_x000D_ The Passport Question_x000D_ The American-Jewish Committee_x000D_ The Jews in the Dominion of Canada_x000D_ Jews in South America, Mexico and Cuba

Jewish American writing is an exciting and controversial genre within post-war literature. Jewish American Literature since 1945 offers a student guide to the major writers, their key works, and their cultural and philosophical backgrounds. The theoretical underpinnings of the literature--including the postmodern, the masternarrative and metafiction--are also introduced in an accessible form. The themes, issues and philosophies of key writers such as Saul Bellow, Erica Jong, Arthur Miller, Cynthia Ozick, Philip Roth, and Isaac Bashevis Singer are inter-related, and wider literary and historical topics are explained.

The American Jewish Year Book, now in its 116th year, is the annual record of the North American Jewish communities and provides insight into their major trends. Part I presents a forum on the Pew Survey, “A Portrait of American Orthodox Jews.” Part II begins with Chapter 13, "The Jewish Family." Chapter 14 examines “American Jews and the International Arena (April 1, 2015 – April 15, 2016), which focuses on US–Israel Relations. Chapters 15-17 analyze the demography and geography of the US, Canadian, and world Jewish populations. In Part III, Chapter 18 provides lists of Jewish institutions, including federations, community centers, social service agencies, national organizations, synagogues, Hillels, day schools, camps, museums, and Israeli consulates. In the final chapters, Chapter 19 presents national and local Jewish periodicals and broadcast media; Chapter 20 provides academic resources, including Jewish Studies programs, books, articles, websites, and research libraries; and Chapter 21 presents lists of major events in the past year, Jewish honorees, and obituaries. An invaluable record of Jewish life, the American Jewish Year Book illuminates contemporary issues with insight and breadth. It is a window into a complex and ever-changing world. Deborah Dash Moore, Frederick G. L. Huetwell Professor of History and Judaic Studies, and Director Emerita of the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, University of Michigan A century from now and more, the stately volumes of the American Jewish Year Book will stand as the authoritative record of Jewish life since 1900. For anyone interested in tracing the long-term evolution of Jewish social, political, religious, and cultural trends from an objective yet passionately Jewish perspective, there simply is no substitute. Lawrence Grossman, American Jewish Year Book Editor (1999-2008) and Contributor (1988-2015)

With works by over 100 poets, The Bloomsbury Anthology of Contemporary Jewish American Poetry celebrates contemporary writers, born after World War II , who write about Jewish themes. This anthology brings together poets whose writings offer fascinating insight into Jewish cultural and religious topics and Jewish identity. Featuring established poets as well as representatives of the next generation of Jewish voices, it includes poems by Ellen Bass, Charles Bernstein, Carol V. Davis, Edward Hirsch, Jane Hirshfield, David Lehman, Jacqueline Osherow, Ira Sadoff, Philip Schultz, Alan Shapiro, Jane Shore, Judith Skillman, Melissa Stein, Matthew Zapruder, and many others.

This comprehensive and analytical history of American Jews and Judaism from the Colonial Era to the present explores the impact of America on Jews and of Jews on America. Covering more than four centuries from the Colonial Era forward, Jewish American Chronology offers an introduction to the history of American Jews and Judaism, using individual examples, personality profiles, and illustrations to bring fundamental patterns and major themes to life. Arranged chronologically, the entries illustrate how a variety of different Jewish groups and individuals have adapted to America, both changing in accordance with time and place and retaining tradition and culture, even as they became thoroughly American. Readers will learn how Jews have created community and institutions, confronted anti-Semitism, and interacted among themselves and with other groups. They will read about immigration, migration, and socioeconomic mobility. And they will discover how Jews have filled critical economic niches, contributed disproportionately in a variety of endeavors, and changed over time and in reaction to circumstances. In this wide-ranging work, Jewish Americans are depicted in a balanced and accurate manner, describing Nobel Prize winners and standout economic success stories as well as those who achieved fame and notoriety in other ways.

The Holocaust is often said to be unrepresentable. Yet since the 1990s, a new generation of Jewish American writers have been returning to this history again and again, insisting on engaging with it in highly playful, comic, and “impious” ways. Focusing on the fiction of Michael Chabon, Jonathan Safran Foer, Nicole Krauss, and Nathan Englander, this book suggests that this literature cannot simply be dismissed as insensitive or improper. It argues that these Jewish American authors engage with the Holocaust in ways that renew and ensure its significance for contemporary generations. These ways, moreover, are intricately connected to efforts of finding new means of expressing Jewish American identity, and of moving beyond the increasingly apparent problems of postmodernism.

A vivid collection, bringing together a wide selection of contemporary poets, essayists, and fiction writers, that demonstrates the continuing vitality of Jewish American writing. The collection embraces tradition and innovation and is as diverse as it is consistently stimulating, sure to become required reading for enthusiasts of contemporary American literature.