Speaking of Jews
Author | : Lila Corwin Berman |
Publisher | : Univ of California Press |
Total Pages | : 286 |
Release | : 2009-03-10 |
ISBN-10 | : 0520943708 |
ISBN-13 | : 9780520943704 |
Rating | : 4/5 (704 Downloads) |
Download or read book Speaking of Jews written by Lila Corwin Berman and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2009-03-10 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lila Corwin Berman asks why, over the course of the twentieth century, American Jews became increasingly fascinated, even obsessed, with explaining themselves to their non-Jewish neighbors. What she discovers is that language itself became a crucial tool for Jewish group survival and integration into American life. Berman investigates a wide range of sources—radio and television broadcasts, bestselling books, sociological studies, debates about Jewish marriage and intermarriage, Jewish missionary work, and more—to reveal how rabbis, intellectuals, and others created a seemingly endless array of explanations about why Jews were indispensable to American life. Even as the content of these explanations developed and shifted over time, the very project of self-explanation would become a core element of Jewishness in the twentieth century.