A Time to Every Purpose: Letters to a Young Jew »

Jonathan D. Sarna is Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University, and chairs the Academic Board of the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives. Author of American Judaism: A History, he is also the chief historian of the National Museum of American Jewish History and of the 350th commemoration of Jewish life in America, 1654–2004. He lives in West Newton, Massachusetts.

The preeminent scholar Jonathan Sarna reflects on identity, family, and faith in this accessible introduction to the American Jewish experience.

A Note on Transliteration from, Hebrew

A Note on the Jewish Calendar

1 Freedom: Passover 1

2 Food, Family, and Jewish Distinctiveness: Maimuna 17

3 Remembering the Holocaust: Yom ha-Shoah 27

4 Celebrating Israel: Yom ha-Atsma'ut 41

5 Torah: Shavuot 59

6 Antisemitism: Tishah be-Av 77

7 Love, Marriage, and Declining Numbers: Tu be-Av 89

8 Judgment Without Resolution: Rosh Hashanah 97

9 The Individual and the Community: Yom Kippur 109

10 Making Choices and Improving the world: Sukkot 123

11 Assimilation and Anti-Assimilation: Hanukkah 135

12 Going Green: Tu bi-Shevat 147

13 Continuity and Happiness: Purim 155

For Further Reading 165

Notes 177

Index 189