New Perspectives in American Jewish History: A Documentary Tribute to Jonathan D. Sarna

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Widely regarded as today’s foremost American Jewish historian, Jonathan D. Sarna had a huge impact on the academy. Sarna’s influence is perhaps nowhere more apparent than among his former doctoral students—a veritable “Sarna diaspora” of over three dozen active scholars around the world. Both a tribute to Sarna and an important collection in its own right, New Perspectives in American Jewish History was compiled by Sarna’s former students and presents previously unpublished, neglected, or rarely seen historical documents and images that illuminate the breadth, diversity, and dynamism of the American Jewish experience. Beginning with the earliest known Jewish divorce in circum-Atlantic history (1774) and concluding with a Black Lives Matter Haggadah supplement (2019), the collection travels across time and space to shed light on intriguing and generative moments that span the varieties of Jewish experience in the American setting from the colonial era to the present. The materials underscore the interrelationship of myriad themes including ritual observance, Jewish-Christian relations, civil rights, Zionism and Israel, and immigration. While not intended as a comprehensive treatment of American Jewish history, the collection offers a chronological road map of American Jewry’s evolving self-understanding and encounter with America over the course of four centuries. A brief prefatory note sets up the analytic context of each document and helps to unpack and explore its significance. The capacious and multifaceted quality of the American Jewish experience is further amplified here by a sampling of artistic texts such as photographs, advertisements, cartoons, and more.  Contents Note to Readers Acknowledgments Introduction. “The Dynamic World of the American Jew”: Jonathan D. Sarna and the Varieties of Jewish Experience / Mark A. Raider and Gary Phillip Zola 1. “Concerning a Gate He Send to Our Kakam”: A Circum-Atlantic Divorce in the Eighteenth Century, 1774 / Holly Snyder 2. “To Bigotry No Sanction”: George Washington, America’s Jews, and Religious Freedom, 1790 / Jonathan D. Sarna 3. “And Made Them Wear a Hat”: Isaac Harby Asserts the Authenticity of Bareheaded Jewish Prayer, 1826 / Gary Phillip Zola 4. “The Kingdom Restored to Israel”: Mormon Apostle Orson Hyde’s Reflections on Judaism, 1841 / Jason M. Olson 5. “A Union of Heart, a Union of Action”: Isaac Leeser and the Challenge of Jewish Education in Nineteenth-Century America, 1843 / Jeffrey Haus 6. “That We Might Become a Shining Example”: The Innovations of David Einhorn’s Prayerbook Olat Tamid, 1858 / Phil M. Cohen 7. “A Jewish Chaplain for the Cameron Dragoons”: The Real Chaplaincy Controversy of the Civil War, 1861 / Adam D. Mendelsohn 8. “In the Strictest Jewish Orthodox Stile”: A Contract between Isaac Wolf and Congregation Etz Hayim (Pittsburgh, PA), 1864 / Shari Rabin 9. “Solicited on the Ground of Humanity, Recognized as a National Duty”: The Board of Delegates of American Israelites and the Rise of American Jewish Politics, 1872–1873 / Seth Korelitz 10. “As to the Validity of the Tribal Laws of the Jews”: The Fascination of the American Press with East European Jewish Marital Life, 1883–1902 / Geraldine Gudefin 11. “For the Defense of Our Jewish Interests”: Henry Pereira Mendes’s Call for an International Synod, 1886 / Zev Eleff 12. “Conversions to and from Judaism”: Joseph Krauskopf on American Christian Missions to the Jews, 1891 / Lincoln Mullen 13. “A Careful Student of the Religion of the East”: Charles T. Strauss Converts to Buddhism at the World’s Columbian Exposition (Chicago, IL), 1893 / Emily Sigalow 14. “Without Sacrificing the Rights of Our Citizens”: Concerning the Ottoman Empire’s Restrictions on American Jews Entering Palestine, 1899 / Susanna Klosko 15. “Moses Presents the Ten Commandments to the Children of Israel”: Emile Pissis’s Stained Glass Window of Congregation Sherith Israel (San Francisco, CA), 1904–1905 / Joellyn Wallen Zollman 16. “For the Welfare of Israel in This Country”: Cyrus Adler, Henry Pereira Mendes, and the Creation of the United Synagogue of America, 1913 / Michael Cohen 17. “They Can Ship Me Anywhere”: An Ottoman Jewish Immigrant in the American Heartland, 1913 / Aviva Ben-Ur 18. “The Oriental Spanish Jewish Journal” La Amérika: The First Enduring Ladino Newspaper of the United States, 1913–14 / Aviva Ben-Ur 19. “The New Jerusalem”: A Gentile Perspective on New York’s Jews at the Turn of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, 1914 / David E. Kaufman 20. “The Gentleman Being Both a German and a Jew”: B. H. Roberts Nominates Simon Bamberger as Democratic Candidate for Governor of Utah, 1916 / Amber Taylor 21. “What Justice or Redress Can Be Gained”: East European Jewish Immigrants and Legal Aid, 1917 / Geraldine Gudefin 22. “A Prince in Israel”: S. Felix Mendelsohn’s Eulogy for Jacob H. Schiff, 1920 / Mina Muraoka 23. “The Ladies, God Bless ’Em, Used to Hold Bazaars, but Not Now”: American Jewish Women and Philanthropy, 1920 / Deborah Skolnick Einhorn 24. “No Aristocracy and No Snobocracy”: Samuel H. Goldenson and the Democratization of the Synagogue, 1922 / Dan Judson 25. “To Make Them Positive, Self-Conscious Jews”: The Shift in Reform Judaism to a Pro-Zionist Jewish Educational Agenda, 1922–1940 / Jonathan B. Krasner 26. “Conscious of Their Identity, They Marry Whom They Choose”: The Elopement of Irving Berlin and Ellin Mackay, 1926 27. “To Observe the Sabbath in Its Time-Honored Way”: Temple Adath Israel (Louisville, KY) Debates the Elimination of Sunday Worship Services, 1931 / Dan Judson and Deborah Skolnick Einhorn 28. “The Man Who Crystallizes Greatness in the Twentieth Century”: Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel (Philadelphia, PA) Honors Albert Einstein, 1934 29. “Destiny Has Bound Us Together”: Albert Einstein Speaks to Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel (Philadelphia, PA), 1934 / Lance J. Sussman 30. “Don’t Hush Me!”: American Jewish College Students and Jewish Identity in the Interwar Period, 1939 / Karla Goldman 31. “Ensuring Our Future”: The Creation of the Emergency Committee for Zionist Affairs, 1939 / Mark A. Raider 32. “Farming as a Life Occupation”: Peter Salm and the National Farm School (Bucks County, PA), 1939–42 / Kerry M. Olitzky 33. “Citizenship, Civic Virtue, and Safeguarding Democracy”: Israel S. Chipkin on American Jewish Education, 1941 / Rona Sheramy 34. “Pilgrims,” also Known as “Mayflower and ‘Illegal’ Passenger Ship”: Arthur Szyk and the Twin Promised Lands of America and Palestine, 1946 / Karla Goldman and Mark A. Raider 35. “The Greater Sin”: Jacob M. Rothschild’s Yom Kippur Sermon on American Jews, the South, and Civil Rights, 1948 / Mark A. Raider 36. “What the Jews Believe”: A Liberal Rabbi Explains Judaism to the Readers of Life Magazine, 1950 / Rachel Gordan 37. “Our Simple Duty as Jews”: Herbert A. Friedman’s Radio Address for the United Jewish Appeal, 1957 / Felicia Herman 38. “Valiant Builders and Fighters and Dreamers”: Abba Hillel Silver on American Jewish Relations with Israel, 1957 / Ofer Shiff 39. “We Must Change Our Line”: Will Maslow’s Report on the Conference of the American Zionist Committee for Public Affairs, 1960 / Mark A. Raider and Gary Phillip Zola 40. “You Don’t Have to Be Jewish to Love Levy’s”: Levy’s Real Jewish Rye Advertising Campaign, 1961 41. “An Intolerable Situation and a Moral Blot on Humanity”: American Jews Respond to the Plight of Soviet Jewry, 1964 / Amaryah Orenstein 42. “Israel’s Essential Emissary”: Golda Meir on the Cover of Time Magazine, 1969 43. “To Secure Israel’s Survival and Security”: President Gerald R. Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger Meet with American Jewish Leaders, 1976 / Mark A. Raider 44. “Power in the Promised Land”: The Incredible Hulk and Sabra, 1981 45. “Overlooked, Out There on the Rim, in the Southern Part of America”: Eli N. Evans, Macy B. Hart, and the Project of Southern Jewish History, 1987 / Shari Rabin 46. “A Natural Alliance”: Alexander M. Schindler on Black–Jewish Relations, 1987 and 1992 / Gary Phillip Zola 47. “To Shift from the Child to the Family”: American Jews and the Challenge of Continuity, 1988 / Beth Cousens 48. “The World Is Not the Same since Auschwitz and Hiroshima”: Kathy (Schwartz) Cohen’s Reflections on Tisha Beav, 1988 / Mina Muraoka 49. “To Combat Homophobia”: Jewish Activist Gays and Lesbians, 1994 / Jonathan B. Krasner 50. “Global Identity Free of Prejudices and Boundaries”: The Indian-American-Jewish Artist Siona Benjamin’s Tikkun Ha-Olam, 2000 51. “Taking This Prohibited Act and Using It to Feel More Jewish”: American Jews and Tattoos, 2000–2020 52. “Leveling the Playing Field”: Women and American Jewish Organizational Life, 2008 / Deborah Skolnick Einhorn 53. “It’s Important for People to Know I Am Who I Am”: Transgender American Jews, 2016 54. “The Kotel Belongs to All Jews Worldwide”: The American Jewish Committee and the Western Wall Controversy, 2017 / Jonathan Golden 55. “The Full Humanity and Precious Value of Every Individual Black Life”: The Haggadah Supplement of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, 2019 Glossary Select Bibliography of Works by Jonathan D. Sarna About Jonathan D. Sarna About the Contributors Index