Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Now Available: Twentieth Century Jews: Forging Identity in the Promised Land and the Land of Promise by Monty Noam Penkower I hope this message finds you well. Academic Studies Press is pleased to announce the publication of Twentieth Century Jews: Forging Identity in the Land of Promise and in the Promised Land by Monty Noam Penkower. Academic Studies Press works with all wholesalers and library suppliers. If you are interested in ordering directly, please visit our website www.academicstudiespress.com or email [email protected] and reference that you are a Hasafran member to receive a special discount and free shipping. We look forward to hearing from you! Twentieth Century Jews: Forging Identity in the Land of Promise and in the Promised Land By Monty Noam Penkower ISBN 978-1-936235-20-9 (cloth) $65.00 / £54.50 407 pp., November 2010 Series: Judaism and Jewish Life Bibliographic Data: 1. Jews -- United States -- Identity. 2. Jews -- Israel -- Identity. 3. United States -- Ethnic Relations. I. Title. Topic Areas: American History American Studies Israel Studies Identity Studies Level: Academic / General This extensively researched collection of essays lucidly explores how members of the ever-beleaguered Jewish people grappled with their identities during the past century in the United States and in Eretz Israel, the new centers of Jewry's long historical experience. With the pivotal 1903 Kishinev pogrom setting the stage, the author proceeds to examine how the Land of Promise across the Atlantic exerted different influences on Abraham Selmanovitz, Felix Frankfurter, the founders of the American Council for Judaism, and Arthur Hays Sulzberger. Professor Penkower then shows how the prospect of nationalism in the biblically covenanted Promised Land engendered other tensions and transformations, ranging from the plight of Hayim Nahman Bialik, to rivalry within the Orthodox Jewish camp, to on-going strife between the political Left and Right over the nature of the emerging Jewish state. About the Author: Monty Noam Penkower is Professor Emeritus of Jewish History at the Machon Lander Graduate School of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem. He was Victor J. Selmanowitz Professor of Modern Jewish History at Touro College in New York City, and also taught at Bard College, Rutgers University, and Stern College, and in the graduate History Departments of New York University and Yeshiva University. His numerous publications include The Federal Writers' Project (1977); The Jews Were Expendable: Free World Diplomacy and the Holocaust (1983); The Emergence of Zionist Thought (1986); The Holocaust and Israel Reborn: From Catastrophe to Sovereignty (1994); and Decision on Palestine Deferred: America, Britain and Wartime Diplomacy, 1939-1945 (2002). The Jews Were Expendable received the B'nai B'rith A.D.L. Merit for Educational Distinction and, together with The Emergence of Zionist Thought, garnered the second Samuel Belkin Memorial Literary Award from Yeshiva University. Reviews: "Professor Monty Noam Penkower has once again presented readers with a fascinating volume that focuses on a pivotal period in the modern Jewish experience. With chapters ranging from the Kishinev Pogrom of 1903, through an exploration of figures of secular and religious Jewish stature in the United States such as Justice Felix Frankfurter and Rabbi Abraham Selmanovitz, and up to a discussion of controversial political activists in Palestine such as Haim Arlosoroff and Shlomo Ben-Yosef, Penkower keeps readers spellbound with the depth and breadth of his knowledge. Drawing on archival material found on three continents, he has created a multidimensional picture of Jewish life in Europe, the United States and Israel during the first decades of the twentieth century, and captured the essence of the social, political, religious and economic dilemmas which world Jewry faced during those fateful years. He introduces us to the protagonists of his story in an extremely readable fashion, and skillfully guides us through their deliberations and decisions, giving us a sense of being privy to the behind-the-scenes activities in all cases. Reading this book is a must for anyone interested in understanding some of the complexities of the Jewish twentieth century experience." --Judy Baumel-Schwartz, Chair of the Graduate Program in Contemporary Jewry, Department of Jewish History, Bar-Ilan University "This is a wide-ranging, deeply researched, carefully constructed series of studies dealing with significant subjects and personalities that adds considerably to our understanding of the major issues that confronted the Jewish people in the twentieth century. Its twin foci are American Jewry and developments in the Land of Israel. With regard to both, Penkower is a wise and erudite analyst, and a suggestive scholarly interpreter." --Steven T. Katz, Director, Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies, Alvin J. and Shirley Slater Chair in Jewish and Holocaust Studies, Boston University "Twentieth Century Jews portrays critical movements and leading personages in the era's two fastest growing centers of Jewish life. It illuminates both the issues that shaped Jews in America and Israel, and the great questions that continue to divide them." --Jonathan D. Sarna, Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History, Brandeis University Table of Contents: Introduction ix Part 1: A TURNING POINT 1. The Kishinev Pogrom of 1903 1 Part II: IN THE LAND OF PROMISE 2. Abraham Isaac Selmanovitz: Guardian of Tradition 43 3. The "Jewish Seat" of Justice Felix Frankfurter 75 4. The Genesis of the American Council for Judaism 115 5. The Jewish Times of Arthur Hays Sulzberger 143 Part III: IN THE PROMISED LAND 6. The Silences of Bialik 185 7. A Lost Opportunity for Orthodoxy 221 8. Haim Arlosoroff's Murder and Israel's Political Divide 261 9. Shlomo Ben-Yosef: From a British Gallows to Israel's Pantheon to Obscurity 311 Bibliography 357 Index 385 All the best, Christa Kling Sales and Marketing Academic Studies Press 28 Montfern Avenue Brighton, MA 02135 Tel: 617-782-6290 Fax: 857-241-3149 www.academicstudiespress.com --- Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) =========================================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: [email protected] SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: Listproc @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: galron.1 @ osu.edu Ha-Safran Archives: Current: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html History: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/history.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org
