Jonathan D. Sarna – författare

For the first time, Religion and State in the American Jewish Experience makes available critical documents which have shaped debate over religion and state issues throughout the course of American Jewish history. Following a comprehensive historical introduction, Professors Sarna and Dalin present a wide range of primary source materials articulating the different positions held within the American Jewish community on numerous past and present church-state issues: including former state Sunday Laws, or "blue laws"; dress code variations for Orthodox Jews in the military; kosher food for Jewish prisoners; school prayer; public displays of religious symbols; and whether all religious symbols should be removed from public arenas.The chapters proceed chronologically, from the colonial period to the present day, giving readers an understanding of the changes that occurred over several centuries. This book recovers the divergent voices and opinions of the American Jewish community, revealing that one single voice on these issues has never been capable of accommodating the rich variety of positions within the community. By gathering these divergent outlooks in one sourcebook, Sarna and Dalin offer a unique and well-documented look at a major aspect of being Jewish in America.

For the first time, Religion and State in the American Jewish Experience makes available critical documents which have shaped debate over religion and state issues throughout the course of American Jewish history. Following a comprehensive historical introduction, Professors Sarna and Dalin present a wide range of primary source materials articulating the different positions held within the American Jewish community on numerous past and present church-state issues: including former state Sunday Laws, or "blue laws"; dress code variations for Orthodox Jews in the military; kosher food for Jewish prisoners; school prayer; public displays of religious symbols; and whether all religious symbols should be removed from public arenas.The chapters proceed chronologically, from the colonial period to the present day, giving readers an understanding of the changes that occurred over several centuries. This book recovers the divergent voices and opinions of the American Jewish community, revealing that one single voice on these issues has never been capable of accommodating the rich variety of positions within the community. By gathering these divergent outlooks in one sourcebook, Sarna and Dalin offer a unique and well-documented look at a major aspect of being Jewish in America.

At the turn of the twenty-first century, the central question confronting Jewish leaders in America is simple: Why be Jewish? Jonathan D. Sarna, acclaimed scholar of American Judaism, believes that Why be Jewish?" is the wrong question. Judaism, he believes, is not so much a why" as a way ,a way of life, a way of marking time, a way of relating to the environment, to human beings, to family, and to God. Judaism is experienced through doing ,doing things Jewish, doing things for fellow Jews in need, doing things as a Jew to improve the state of the world. The more Judaism one does , the more one comes to appreciate what Judaism is . Using the Jewish calendar as his starting point, Sarna reflects on the major themes of Jewish life as expressed in a full year of holidays,from Passover in the spring to Purim eleven months later. Passover, for instance, yields a discussion of freedom Shavuot, a discussion of Torah Yom Kippur, the role of the individual within the Jewish community Chanukah, issues of assimilation and anti-assimilation. An essential brief introduction,or reintroduction,to the major practices of Jewish life as well as the many complexities of the American Jewish experience, this book will be essential reading for American Jews and the perfect gift for the holiday season.

The essays collected here investigate Rabbi Silver's Zionist political leadership, his impact on American Judaism, ideological orientation and relations with the leaders of the Palestine Jewish community, World Zionist Organization and the Jewish State.

The essays collected here investigate Rabbi Silver's Zionist political leadership, his impact on American Judaism, ideological orientation and relations with the leaders of the Palestine Jewish community, World Zionist Organization and the Jewish State.

A unique collection revealing the experience of Jewish soldiers and civilians during the Civil WarAt least 8,000 Jewish soldiers fought for the Union and Confederacy during the Civil War. A few served together in Jewish companies while most fought alongside Christian comrades. Yet even as they stood "shoulder-to-shoulder" on the front lines, they encountered unique challenges.In Jews and the Civil War, Jonathan D. Sarna and Adam Mendelsohn assemble for the first time the foremost scholarship on Jews and the Civil War, little known even to specialists in the field. These accessible and far-ranging essays from top scholars are grouped into seven thematic sections—Jews and Slavery, Jews and Abolition, Rabbis and the March to War, Jewish Soldiers during the Civil War, The Home Front, Jews as a Class, and Aftermath—each with an introduction by the editors. Together they reappraise the impact of the war on Jews in the North and the South, offering a rich and fascinating portrait of the experience of Jewish soldiers and civilians from the home front to the battle front.

A unique collection revealing the experience of Jewish soldiers and civilians during the Civil WarAt least 8,000 Jewish soldiers fought for the Union and Confederacy during the Civil War. A few served together in Jewish companies while most fought alongside Christian comrades. Yet even as they stood "shoulder-to-shoulder" on the front lines, they encountered unique challenges.In Jews and the Civil War, Jonathan D. Sarna and Adam Mendelsohn assemble for the first time the foremost scholarship on Jews and the Civil War, little known even to specialists in the field. These accessible and far-ranging essays from top scholars are grouped into seven thematic sections—Jews and Slavery, Jews and Abolition, Rabbis and the March to War, Jewish Soldiers during the Civil War, The Home Front, Jews as a Class, and Aftermath—each with an introduction by the editors. Together they reappraise the impact of the war on Jews in the North and the South, offering a rich and fascinating portrait of the experience of Jewish soldiers and civilians from the home front to the battle front.

Reform Judaism is not the only religious group in America to make the summer camp experience a vital part of a faith community's effort to impart its values and beliefs to its adolescents, but perhaps no group relied more on summer camp as an adjunct to home and community for this purpose. Summer camp became an important part of Reform group identity, a bulwark against the attraction of assimilation into the greater society and mere nominal Judaism. These seven essays, which commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the first Reform Jewish educational camp in the United States (Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute [OSRUI], in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin) cover a wide range of topics related to both the Reform Judaism movement and the development of the Reform Jewish camping system in the United States. Donald M. Splansky's chapter on 'Prayer at Reform Jewish Camps' documents changes in prayer services that took place both at OSRUI and in the Reform movement in general; Michael Zeldin's 'Making the Magic in Reform Jewish Summer Camps' describes the educational philosophies employed at many camps and analyzes their effectiveness; and Jonathan D. Sarna's 'The Crucial Decade in Jewish Camping' explains how social, political, and cultural conditions paved the way for the Reform camping movement.

The first novel written and published in English by an American Jewish woman.Published serially in the spiritualist journal Banner of Light­ in 1860, Cosella Wayne, or Will and Destiny is the first coming-of-age novel to depict Jews in the United States and transforms what we know about the history of early American Jewish literature. The novel never appeared in book form, went unmentioned in Jewish newspapers of the day, and studies of nineteenth-century American Jewish literature ignore it completely. Yet the novel anticipates central themes of American Jewish writing: intermarriage, generational tension, family dysfunction, Jewish-Christian relations, immigration, poverty, the place of women in Jewish life, the nature of romantic love, and the tension between destiny and free will.The narrative recounts a relationship between an abusive Jewish father and the rebellious daughter he molested as well as that daughter's efforts at finding a place in the complex social fabric of nineteenth-century America. It is also unique in portraying such themes as an unmarried Jewish woman's descent into poverty, her forlorn years as a starving orphaned seamstress, her apostasy and return to Judaism, and her quest to be both Jewish and a spiritualist at one and the same time.Jonathan Sarna, who introduces the volume, discovered Cosella Wayne while pursuing research at the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies in Jerusalem. This edition is supplemented with Cora Wilburn's recently rediscovered diary, selections from which are reprinted in the appendix. Together, these materials help to situate Cosella Wayne within the life and times of one of nineteenth-century American Jewry's least known and yet most prolific female authors.

Coming to Terms with America examines how Jews have long “straddled two civilizations,” endeavoring to be both Jewish and American at once, from the American Revolution to today.In fifteen engaging essays, Jonathan D. Sarna investigates the many facets of the Jewish-American encounter-what Jews have borrowed from their surroundings, what they have resisted, what they have synthesized, and what they have subverted. Part I surveys how Jews first worked to reconcile Judaism with the country’s new democratic ethos and to reconcile their faith-based culture with local metropolitan cultures. Part II analyzes religio-cultural initiatives, many spearheaded by women, and the ongoing tensions between Jewish scholars (who pore over traditional Jewish sources) and activists (who are concerned with applying them). Part III appraises Jewish-Christian relations: “collisions” within the public square and over church-state separation.Originally written over the span of forty years, many of these essays are considered classics in the field, and several remain fixtures of American Jewish history syllabi. Others appeared in fairly obscure venues and will be discovered here anew. Together, these essays-newly updated for this volume-cull the finest thinking of one of American Jewry’s finest historians.

Jonathan Sarna’s meticulously documented centennial history presents the personalities and the controversies, the struggles and the achievements behind a century of publishing by America’s foremost publisher of Jewish books in English.Sarna’s engaging blend of anecdote and analysis contextualizes the Jewish Publication Society within American Jewry’s evolving social, political, and cultural history. He demonstrates that the society has been a major factor.Sarna recounts the inspired struggle of the Jewish Publication Society’s founders, a group of genteel Philadelphia philanthropists including Cyrus Adler and Mayer Sulzberger, who believed fervently in the need to educate their immigrant coreligionists with Jewish books in the new vernacular.He also tells the story of Henrietta Szold, best known for her later achievements as the founder of Hadassah and Youth Aliyah. Szold worked doggedly for twenty-three years as the society’s first editor until a shattered love for a JPS author became the catalyst that led her to Palestine and Zionist leadership. Here too are fascinating accounts of the long deliberations and intense work that produced the authoritative JPS Bible translations of 1917 and 1985, translations acceptable to all major branches of Judaism.Sarna also recounts the controversy surrounding the 1973 publication of The Jewish Catalog, a project developed by the bold JPS editor Chaim Potok. The Catalog, embodying the spirit of the Jewish counterculture, not only became the best-selling JPS book after the Bible, but it also showed that JPS could meet the challenge of a new generation as it moved toward its second century.

Presents Jewish history from our earliest ancestors in the Land of Israel to our dispersion in the Diaspora through the Jewish experience in America in the 1880’s. Finally, a Jewish history book through which students can view their own lives and think about their futures! The History of the Jewish People, Volume 1 was developed and written by two esteemed scholars, Jonathan D. Sarna and Jonathan B. Krasner. This dynamic text (for grades 5-7) is a rich presentation of Jewish history from our earliest ancestors in the Land of Israel to our dispersion in the Diaspora through the Jewish experience in America in the 1880’s. Each chapter helps students consider how their lives compare with the lives of our ancestors, how each generation adapts Judaism to its time and place, and how the decisions of previous generations influence our own lives and decisions. The History of the Jewish People, Volume 1 brings these times alive through a dynamic array of famous personalities, diverse source material, clear and concise charts, engaging activities, thought-provoking questions, and exciting graphics, including 16 maps and more than 115 full-color historical and contemporary images.

Presents Jewish history from the turmoil and strife of Russia in the 1880's, to the great migration to the United States, the creation of the modern State of Israel, modern American Jewish life, and life in the Diaspora. Finally, a Jewish history book through which students can view their own lives and think about their futures! The History of the Jewish People, Volume 2 was developed and written by two esteemed scholars, Jonathan D. Sarna and Jonathan B. Krasner. This dynamic text (for grades 5-7) is a rich presentation of Jewish history from the turmoil and strife of Russia in the 1880's, to the great migration to the United States, the creation of the modern State of Israel, modern American Jewish life, and life in the Diaspora. Each chapter helps students consider how their lives compare with the lives of our ancestors, how each generation adapts Judaism to its time and place, and how the decisions of previous generations influence our own lives and decisions.The History of the Jewish People, Volume 2 brings these times alive through a dynamic array of famous personalities, diverse source material, clear and concise charts, engaging activities, thought-provoking questions, and exciting graphics, including maps and more than 80 full-color historical and contemporary images.

Explores the little-known connection between Lincoln and the JewsLincoln and the Jews provides the first full-scale history of Abraham Lincoln's relationship with American Jews. Newly republished in a second revised edition and incorporating rarely seen historical manuscripts and documents, the volume explores how Lincoln's remarkable regard for American Jews affected his path to the presidency and his policy decisions once in the White House. Lincoln counted Jews among his closest friends and, as president, placed Jews in positions of authority and both extended and protected Jewish rights.The first edition of Lincoln and the Jews won three prizes and was hailed by famed Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer as "the definitive study of a long-neglected aspect of Civil War history and Lincoln biography." This edition features little known and rarely seen documents, including some not included in the earlier edition, as well as new research and material, including a new preface highlighting the theme of antisemitism and insights which can be gleaned from this history for today.Lincoln and the Jews affirms that Lincoln's warm relationships with Jews not only broadened Lincoln personally, but, in effect, broadened America. A groundbreaking work, this stunning volume contributes to Civil War-era Jewish American history and uncovers a new facet to Abraham Lincoln's legacy.

A Centennial, writes Hebrew College President Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld, “is an invitation to reflect on the last century of teaching and learning at Hebrew College, to ask ourselves what has changed and what has endured, to explore accomplishments and share ongoing struggles, to articulate our aspirations for the next one hundred years.” A compilation of captivating essays on Jewish studies alongside powerful personal memoirs from the College’s earliest years until today, Ḥiddushim captures and celebrates the spirit of a learning community connected to its source and brimming with spiritual and intellectual creativity as it carries forward its legacy of rootedness and renewal into the future.