Eli Lederhendler teaches at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he is the current head of the Institute of Contemporary Jewry and holds the Stephen S. Wise Chair in American Jewish History and Institutions. He is the author of several books, including The Road to Modern Jewish Politics (1989), winner of the National Jewish Book Award, and New York Jews and the Decline of Urban Ethnicity 1950–1970 (2001), winner of the Koret Jewish Book Award. He is also co-editor of the annual journal Studies in Contemporary Jewry and has edited and contributed to scholarly publications in Israel and the United States.

'The level of scholarship is superb … This is an outstanding, original study that will, quite possibly, fundamentally change the way we think about American Jewish history.' Tony Michels, University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Prologue; 1. Down and out in eastern Europe; 2. Being an immigrant: ideal, ordeal, and opportunities; 3. Becoming an (ethnic) American: from class to ideology; Afterword.

Eli Lederhendler teaches at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he is the current head of the Institute of Contemporary Jewry and holds the Stephen S. Wise Chair in American Jewish History and Institutions. He is the author of several books, including The Road to Modern Jewish Politics (1989), winner of the National Jewish Book Award, and New York Jews and the Decline of Urban Ethnicity 1950–1970 (2001), winner of the Koret Jewish Book Award. He is also co-editor of the annual journal Studies in Contemporary Jewry and has edited and contributed to scholarly publications in Israel and the United States.

'The level of scholarship is superb … This is an outstanding, original study that will, quite possibly, fundamentally change the way we think about American Jewish history.' Tony Michels, University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Prologue; 1. Down and out in eastern Europe; 2. Being an immigrant: ideal, ordeal, and opportunities; 3. Becoming an (ethnic) American: from class to ideology; Afterword.