New York's Jewish Jews: The Orthodox Community in the Interwar Years »

In this first interpretive historical account of the American Orthodox Jewish experience, Jenna Weissman Joselit investigates the ways in which pious Jews reconciled the requirements of religious tradition with the freedoms of interwar America. Through its focus on representative American Jewish institutions such as the synagogue and the rabbinate and on the sacred ritual life of Orthodox women, New York's Jewish Jews reveals how a self-consciously modern, American, and decidedly middle class Orthodoxy evolved before 1945.

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Attractively produced book traces an era of unprecedented creativity and achievement in literature, the visual arts, architecture, music, dance, theater, and social and political thought in a series of illustrated essays by respected scholars, critics and commentators. Traces the development of a distinctive American orthodoxy by first and second generation immigrant Jews in New York City during the 1920's and 1930's. Choosing from a variety of Western and traditional influences, the community established new behavioral, cultural, and institutional parameters. Paper edition (unseen), $12.95. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)