American Jewry and the Re-Invention of the East European Jewish Past

Description

The postwar decades were not the ""golden era"" in which American Jews easily partook in the religious revival, liberal consensus, and suburban middle-class comfort. Rather it was a period marked by restlessness and insecurity born of the shock about the Holocaust and of the unprecedented opportunities in American society. American Jews responded to loss and opportunity by obsessively engaging with the East European past. The proliferation of religious texts on traditional spirituality, translations of Yiddish literature, historical essays , photographs and documents of shtetl culture, theatrical and musical events, culminating in the Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof, illustrate the grip of this past on post-1945 American Jews. This study shows how American Jews reimagined their East European past to make it usable for their American present. By rewriting their East European history, they created a repertoire of images, stories, and ideas that have shaped American Jewry to this day. Contents Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction 1. The Search for New Modes of Jewishness in Postwar America 2. Launching a Discourse: YIVO’s Bridge From the Old World to the New 3. New (York) Jewish Intellectuals: The Past as Culture 4. Religious Culture as an Antidote to Liberal Judaism and Secular Jewishness 5. Spiritual Needs, the Past, and the Denominational Landscape 6. From East European Radicalism to Postwar American Progressivism 7. Presenting a Rich Jewish Culture: The Eternal Light and Life Is with People 8. Making Jewishness Meaningful: In School and in Hasidism 9. Tevye in Kasrilevke, the Fiddler in America: East European Jewishness in Literature 10. Conclusion: Re-Inventing Jewishness Out of Memory Bibliography Index