Historians Public Practice American 1890 1970
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By Jonathan D. Sarna. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004. xx, 490 pp. $35.00, ISBN 0-300-10197-X.) In ‘American Judaism: A History’, Brandeis University’s well known historian Jonathan D. Sarna gives an account of 350 years of American Judaism history in a straight forward and readable manner. With an optimistic view towards the history and likewise the future of Judaism in America, Sarna describes the developments in the American Jews faith in God, their religious practices, religious traditions and organizations and also conceptions like intermarriage which was and still is a severe threat to the survival of the Jewish faith in America with bright detail. The book has won a good deal of awards including the 2004 National Jewish book Award. This book is when it comes to the history of the Jewish religion in America, it is not with regards to the history of Jews in America. Even even though the life and actions of Jews in America are discussed in sure parts of the book nevertheless they all serve the intention of telling the history of the Jewish faith in America. Jonathan Sarna is a Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University, and chairs the Academic Board of the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives. He is the author of more than twenty books on American Jewish history and life including his upcoming book titled ‘Illustrated American Judaism’ which will be published in October 2008. He is also the chief historian of the National Museum of American Jewish History and of the 350th commemoration of Jewish life in America. In 1654 when over 20 Jews came to New Amsterdam (today’s New York) the introductory group migration of Jews to North American took place and what ensued was a huge migration of Jews to America making Jews the second biggest religious group in the United States after Christians. According to Sarna Jewish exercise in the United States has not been in the frame works of a without doubt or question specified framework or boundary but rather Judaism in the US has constantly been reinvented according to the time and place were it was being practiced. This has been one of the core reasons why Judaism has pulled through until today. According to Sarna one of the major challenges faced by Jews in America was how to maintain and uphold Jewish exercises like watching Sabbath, synagogue attendance and not eating forbidden meat. Unlike Jews in Europe who saw discipline and from time to time punishment as the key to upholding Jewish law, Jews in America after an primary short amount of time of not successful attempts in forced upholding of Jewish exercises in a very diverse Jewish community rather chose to fetch the maintenance of Judaism and it is core values to the center of their concern. This approach is apparent for example in 1757 Another primary topic the book touches upon is the conception of Denomination which emerged in eighteen century America that meant no queer church was the dominant church and likewise all were equivalent according to the law. This primarily influenced movements for reinventing Judaism in dissimilar ways in the US. Although it is crucial to note that these movements in Judaism were not as strong as the denomination which took place in Protestantism and devised a great deal of dissimilar sects. The movements within the Jewish faith in the United States are necessary in where Judaism stands today. Sarna is highly successful in describing the origins of these movements and their influence on the development of Judaism. Sarna also believes that the mutual place fear of assimilation and gradual disappearance of Judaism in America was well founded since anti-Semitism, persecution and pressure from the majority Christian population to convert minorities to Christianity was a reality in 17th and 18th century America. Also there were periods in American history were religious exercise among Jews had declined and likewise a comparatively big number of Jews intermarried with people of a dissimilar faith. At each amount of time people with a pessimistic view would see this as the end of Judaism in America, nevertheless after each amount of time there was a revitalization of faith amidst the Jews and even though these downfalls are apparent in Judaism’s history in the United States they are ordinarily accompanied by periods of ‘Awakening’. This is why Sarna sees this whole procedure as a regenerative cycle that is not destructive. Sarna has an optimistic and positive view towards the history of Judaism in America and this is apparent all around the book. Sarna does not see the periods of religious ruination and intermarriage with other religious groups as the original steps of assimilation and ultimately as means for the extinction of Judaism in the United States. Sarna nonetheless fails to specify why Judaism pulled through these circumstances when other faiths disappeared completely from the United States. Sarna himself indicates: “between 1890 and 1906, entirely 13.8 percent of the groups listed in the US Census of Religious Bodies went out of existence; amid 1912 and 1926 that rate jumped to 15.3 percent” notwithstanding he fails to explain in the book why these religions vanished and Judaism pulled through even altho a heap of of these religions reformed and reinvented themselves and likewise what were the distinct characteristics of Judaism that helped it survive in 350 years of American history. Another criticism which may be made of Sarna is that he does not explain the influence of Zionism on the Jewish faith in America with depth or detail. Sarna himself points out on page 203 of the book: “For years, no issue in Jewish life proved as divisive as Zionism” nonetheless there are merely a few pages on this subject in Sarna’s book. Assigning a chapter of the book to talk about this critical subject would have made the book a more finish history of Judaism in America. Compared to other books on the subject like ‘American Judaism’ by Nathan Glazer and ‘Judaism in America’ by Marc Lee Raphael, Sarna’s book is more focalized on the history of Judaism in America rather than on the history of the Jews in America and in this respect it remains faithful to it is title. This is one of the vantages of the book and Sarna’s works in ordinary in that Sarna focuses on the subject without unnecessary deviation to other topics and subjects which has proved very tempting for some writers. Also a heap of writers like Harvard professor Alan M. Dershowitz in his book ‘The Vanishing American Jew’ altogether disagree with Sarna’s positive stance towards the development and survival of Judaism in America and believe that unless Judaism is gravely revitalized it is doomed to gradual disappearance in America. In Conclusion “American Judaism: A History” by Jonathan D. Sarna is an priceless and comparatively balanced piece of work on the 350 years development of the Jewish faith in America. The book describes what American Jews believed as God, their religious practices, traditions, religious customs, religious organizations, Synagogues and in the end reform movements in the Jewish faith with great detail. Throughout the book Sarna has a positive view towards the history of Judaism in America seeing periods of religious ruination as natural events within a more spectacular cycle of religious reinvention and reform. Sarna is successful to a high extent in covering this tremendous and important topic in a reasonable size and readable writing style. |
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