Why Is America Different?

Steven T. Katz is director of the Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies at Boston University, Boston, Ma., and holds the Alvin J. and Shirley Slater Chair in Jewish and Holocaust Studies. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in 1972.

• Chapter 1 PrefaceChapter 2 In Place of an Introduction: Some Thoughts on American Jewish ExceptionalismChapter 3 1. Enlightenment, Statesmen, and the Jews in Europe and the United States, 1776-1820Chapter 4 2. American Exceptionalism: The Case of the Jews, 1750-1850Chapter 5 3. Why and How Are Americans Different?Chapter 6 4. Immigrant Jews and the Challenge of American AthleticismChapter 7 5. American's Most Memorable Zionist LeadersChapter 8 6. Encountering Jewish FeminismChapter 9 7. Judaism and the Pluralist DynamicChapter 10 8. From Treifene Medina to Goldene Medina: Changing Perspectives on the United States Among American HaredimChapter 11 9. From Many, One? Reflections on the Notion of American JewsChapter 12 10. Superbowl Parties, Women Rabbis, and Freedom Seders: Twenty-first Century Jewish American SynergyChapter 13 11. American Anti-Semitism: The Myth and Reality of American ExceptionalismChapter 14 12. To "Make a Jew": Projecting Anti-Semitism in Post-War AmericaChapter 15 13. Jews in the United States: How Good it has BeenChapter 16 14. Anti-Semitism TodayChapter 17 15. The NYT: The Newspaper American Jews Love to HateChapter 18 16. Confessions of a Jewish JournalistChapter 19 17. Portraits of America in Jewish CultureChapter 20 18. Yiddishkeit and the American Jewish Writer: The Breakthrough ReconsideredChapter 21 19. Cinema as a Lens on America's JewsChapter 22 20. What Makes America Different: Jewish Artists and their Concerns in the Twentieth CenturyChapter 23 21. Studies in Hysteria, or Jewish Comedy from Shtetlach to ShticklachChapter 24 22. The Transformation of Traditional Jewish Music in Jewish AmericaChapter 25 23. America: Memories of Doubts and Hope