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Jewish New York: The Remarkable Story of a City and a People
The definitive history of Jews in New York and how they transformed the city
Jewish New York reveals the multifaceted world of one of the city’s most important ethnic and religious groups.
Jewish immigrants changed New York. They built its clothing industry and constructed huge swaths of apartment buildings. New York Jews helped to make the city the center of the nation’s publishing industry and shaped popular culture in music, theater, and the arts. With a strong sense of social justice, a dedication to civil rights and civil liberties, and a belief in the duty of government to provide social welfare for all its citizens, New York Jews influenced the city, state, and nation with a new wave of social activism.
In turn, New York transformed Judaism and stimulated religious pluralism, Jewish denominationalism, and contemporary feminism. The city’s neighborhoods hosted unbelievably diverse types of Jews, from Communists to Hasidim. Jewish New York not only describes Jews’ many positive influences on New York, but also exposes their struggles with poverty and anti-Semitism. These injustices reinforced an exemplary commitment to remaking New York into a model multiethnic, multiracial, and multireligious world city.
Based on the acclaimed multi-volume set City of A History of the Jews of New York winner of the National Jewish Book Council 2012 Everett Family Foundation Jewish Book of the Year Award, Jewish New York spans three centuries, tracing the earliest arrival of Jews in New Amsterdam to the recent immigration of Jews from the former Soviet Union.
Jewish New York reveals the multifaceted world of one of the city’s most important ethnic and religious groups.
Jewish immigrants changed New York. They built its clothing industry and constructed huge swaths of apartment buildings. New York Jews helped to make the city the center of the nation’s publishing industry and shaped popular culture in music, theater, and the arts. With a strong sense of social justice, a dedication to civil rights and civil liberties, and a belief in the duty of government to provide social welfare for all its citizens, New York Jews influenced the city, state, and nation with a new wave of social activism.
In turn, New York transformed Judaism and stimulated religious pluralism, Jewish denominationalism, and contemporary feminism. The city’s neighborhoods hosted unbelievably diverse types of Jews, from Communists to Hasidim. Jewish New York not only describes Jews’ many positive influences on New York, but also exposes their struggles with poverty and anti-Semitism. These injustices reinforced an exemplary commitment to remaking New York into a model multiethnic, multiracial, and multireligious world city.
Based on the acclaimed multi-volume set City of A History of the Jews of New York winner of the National Jewish Book Council 2012 Everett Family Foundation Jewish Book of the Year Award, Jewish New York spans three centuries, tracing the earliest arrival of Jews in New Amsterdam to the recent immigration of Jews from the former Soviet Union.
658 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 10, 2017
About the author
Deborah Dash Moore
29 books7 followersDeborah Dash Moore (born 1946, in New York City) is the former Director of the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies and a Frederick G.L. Huetwell Professor of History and Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Moore taught for many years at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. While there she served intermittently as head of Religious Studies and helped found a program in Jewish Studies. At Vassar, Deborah Dash Moore wrote and co-edited numerous books, articles and collections. She was a highly regarded educator and classroom professor in addition to her scholarship.
Her first book, At Home in America: Second Generation New York Jews (1981), explores how the children of immigrants created an ethnic world that blended elements of Jewish and American culture into a vibrant urban society. To the Golden Cities: Pursuing the American Jewish Dream in Miami and L. A. (1994) follows those big city Jews who chose to move to new homes after World War II and examines the type of communities and politics that flourished in these rapidly growing centers.
Issues of leadership, authority and accomplishment have also engaged her attention, first in B'nai B'rith and the Challenge of Ethnic Leadership (1981), and more recently in the award-winning two-volume Jewish Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia (1997), which she edited with Paula Hyman.
Her 2004 book, GI Jews: How World War II Changed a Generation, charts the lives of fifteen young Jewish men as they faced military service and tried to make sense of its demands, simultaneously wrestling with what it meant to be an American and a Jew. GI Jews, a Washington Post Best Book of the Year, is a powerful, intimate portrayal of the costs of a conflict that was at once physical, emotional, and spiritual.
In 2008, Moore published American Jewish Identity Politics (University of Michigan), a collection of essays by such notable Jewish studies scholars as Hasia Diner, Jonathan Sarna, and Paula Hyman.
In 2011, her book Gender & Jewish History (Indiana University Press), written with co-editor Marion Kaplan in honor of historian Paula Hyman, was awarded the National Jewish Book Award in the category of Anthologies and Collections.
In September 2012, NYU Press published a three-volume series edited by Moore, City of Promises: A History of the Jews of New York. This history was selected for the National Jewish Book Award.
Moore taught for many years at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. While there she served intermittently as head of Religious Studies and helped found a program in Jewish Studies. At Vassar, Deborah Dash Moore wrote and co-edited numerous books, articles and collections. She was a highly regarded educator and classroom professor in addition to her scholarship.
Her first book, At Home in America: Second Generation New York Jews (1981), explores how the children of immigrants created an ethnic world that blended elements of Jewish and American culture into a vibrant urban society. To the Golden Cities: Pursuing the American Jewish Dream in Miami and L. A. (1994) follows those big city Jews who chose to move to new homes after World War II and examines the type of communities and politics that flourished in these rapidly growing centers.
Issues of leadership, authority and accomplishment have also engaged her attention, first in B'nai B'rith and the Challenge of Ethnic Leadership (1981), and more recently in the award-winning two-volume Jewish Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia (1997), which she edited with Paula Hyman.
Her 2004 book, GI Jews: How World War II Changed a Generation, charts the lives of fifteen young Jewish men as they faced military service and tried to make sense of its demands, simultaneously wrestling with what it meant to be an American and a Jew. GI Jews, a Washington Post Best Book of the Year, is a powerful, intimate portrayal of the costs of a conflict that was at once physical, emotional, and spiritual.
In 2008, Moore published American Jewish Identity Politics (University of Michigan), a collection of essays by such notable Jewish studies scholars as Hasia Diner, Jonathan Sarna, and Paula Hyman.
In 2011, her book Gender & Jewish History (Indiana University Press), written with co-editor Marion Kaplan in honor of historian Paula Hyman, was awarded the National Jewish Book Award in the category of Anthologies and Collections.
In September 2012, NYU Press published a three-volume series edited by Moore, City of Promises: A History of the Jews of New York. This history was selected for the National Jewish Book Award.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 12, 2017
A definitive and very readable study of the Jewish history of New York, from the 1600s to present day. I believe that this volume is one for the bookshelf though and not for the Kindle.
Many thanks to Netgalley for providing me with this ARC, for which I have given a voluntary and unbiased review.
Many thanks to Netgalley for providing me with this ARC, for which I have given a voluntary and unbiased review.
May 30, 2018
A very interesting and well-documented book. Greatly amplified my knowledge of the city where I lived for so long. Included profiles of many historical figures and events, many of which I knew, but not in such depth. Recommend!
March 7, 2019
There are some less interesting segments but overall it does an admirable job in telling the story of a race of people settling in a new land over three centuries.
Read
January 24, 2021It was definitely interesting and well written although a lot of the history is probably pretty well-known now. I didn't learn much but I did enjoy the journey!
Read
March 14, 2023Great book
November 26, 2017
'This volume narrates the history of the New York Jews, with an eye to their distinctive story as well as consciousness of how Jews embedded their particularity within the city's contentious past'. Jewish New York is nowadays a reality of the diasporic Jewish history and present, and this book, based on serious historical and sociological data, might create at least one more topic for a further academic investigation. For instance, the issue of American Zionism, and therefore the ways in which American Jews are positioning themselves in relation with the state of Israel and the everyday political struggles from the country.
The evolution of the Jewish community is analized back in the 17th century, which makes this volume a valuable source of information for recreating a process of creating mentalities and social patterns. It also offers a multi-layered approach, which goes back and forth from the economic, cultural, social and citizens rights perspectives, creating a pretty accurate landscape where people are relocating continously, adapting their habits from the Old Country while maintaining a certain degree of individuality. With more than a million Jews living in New York, the city is considered a symbol of Jewish life in the diaspora but at the same time, at least in the last 2 decades, there are Jewish communities in many other locations in the USA, which increases the diversity of Jewish life. Although the book has the focus on NYC, a short comparison would have even better outline the specificities of the city. Another omission of the book in my opinion is that it ignores the strong Israeli community in the city, which although remains a distinctive group among the various Jewish communities, it has its own dynamic and specific influence on the cultural patterns and habits of the bigger group as such.
The book is a recommended read to anyone looking to become familiar, in an academic way, with the Jewish history of New York, either for academic or pure knowledge purposes.
Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review
The evolution of the Jewish community is analized back in the 17th century, which makes this volume a valuable source of information for recreating a process of creating mentalities and social patterns. It also offers a multi-layered approach, which goes back and forth from the economic, cultural, social and citizens rights perspectives, creating a pretty accurate landscape where people are relocating continously, adapting their habits from the Old Country while maintaining a certain degree of individuality. With more than a million Jews living in New York, the city is considered a symbol of Jewish life in the diaspora but at the same time, at least in the last 2 decades, there are Jewish communities in many other locations in the USA, which increases the diversity of Jewish life. Although the book has the focus on NYC, a short comparison would have even better outline the specificities of the city. Another omission of the book in my opinion is that it ignores the strong Israeli community in the city, which although remains a distinctive group among the various Jewish communities, it has its own dynamic and specific influence on the cultural patterns and habits of the bigger group as such.
The book is a recommended read to anyone looking to become familiar, in an academic way, with the Jewish history of New York, either for academic or pure knowledge purposes.
Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review
October 11, 2017
Jewish New York by Moore, Gurock, Polland, Rock, & Soyer is a free NetGalley ebook that I read in early October.
Each of these authors contribute chapters to a near-tome on the Jewish population of New York from 1654 to 2015. This book has full-page photos, is somewhat timed to surges in migration, and includes topics such as celebrating religious observances; assimilating while also following social and food-related practices; networking within one's neighborhood; Reform, Revisionists, Conservative, Zionists, Hasidim, and Orthodox synagogues; Political stances; fighting in the Civil and World Wars; facing antisemitism and racism; living in tenement housing to apartment buildings; Jewish cafes, restaurants, and delis; expansion of corporate businesses (banks, hospitals) and department stores; offering charity to the poor and newly immigrated; involvement in theater, writers, music, art, film, photography, publishers, and fashion design; politicians, socialism, protests, and activism; commercialized, mobile, and privatized funeral services and memorials; day & parochial schools, Jewish centers, and higher education.
Each of these authors contribute chapters to a near-tome on the Jewish population of New York from 1654 to 2015. This book has full-page photos, is somewhat timed to surges in migration, and includes topics such as celebrating religious observances; assimilating while also following social and food-related practices; networking within one's neighborhood; Reform, Revisionists, Conservative, Zionists, Hasidim, and Orthodox synagogues; Political stances; fighting in the Civil and World Wars; facing antisemitism and racism; living in tenement housing to apartment buildings; Jewish cafes, restaurants, and delis; expansion of corporate businesses (banks, hospitals) and department stores; offering charity to the poor and newly immigrated; involvement in theater, writers, music, art, film, photography, publishers, and fashion design; politicians, socialism, protests, and activism; commercialized, mobile, and privatized funeral services and memorials; day & parochial schools, Jewish centers, and higher education.
November 11, 2017
Comprehensive series of essays/chapters on Jews in New York City from immigrant arrival to today. Overall, a more rigorous read since it is well researched and leans to a more academic style. Definitely worth a read for a nonfiction reader who has an interest in jewish history and/or the history of NYC.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews