This quarterly journal is one of the premier scholarly publications in the field of American Jewish history. Each issue contains peer-reviewed articles, book reviews, and research notes that examine the historical experience of American Jews from a variety of perspectives. The journal covers everything from the colonial era to the present day, and includes contributions from some of the leading scholars in the field. This is an essential resource for anyone studying the history of Judaism in America. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

The first synagogue in colonial America was built in New York City in 1730 on land that was purchased for £100 plus a loaf of sugar and one pound of Bohea tea. The purchase of this land was especially noteworthy because until this time, the Jews had only been permitted to buy land for use as a cemetery. However, by the time the Revolutionary War began, the Jewish religious center had become fairly large. Early in their stay in New Amsterdam and New York, many Jews considered themselves to be transients. Therefore, they were not interested in voting, holding office or equal rights. However, as the 18th century came to a close, Jews were able to accumulate large estates, and they recognized that they needed citizenship. After a brief overview of the Jews' migrations around Europe, the West Indies and the North and South American continents, this book describes the hardships faced by the Jewish people, beginning with New Amsterdam and New York and continuing with discussions of their experiences in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, New England, and in the South. Subsequent chapters discuss anti-Semitism, slavery and the Jews' transformation from immigrant status to American citizen.

Down and out in Eastern Europe -- Being an immigrant: ideal, ordeal, and opportunities -- Becoming an (ethnic) American: from class to ideology.

The Nazis needed oil. The Arabs wanted the Jews and British out of Iraq. The Mufti of Jerusalem forged a far-ranging alliance with Hitler resulting in the June 1941 Farhud, a Nazi-style pogrom in Baghdad that set the stage for the devastation and expulsion of the Iraqi Jews and ultimately almost a million Jews across the Arab world. The Farhud was the beginning of what became a broad Nazi-Arab alliance in the Holocaust.

This title was first published in 2000. With the advent of the Second World War, fascism became inextricably associated with anti-Semitism. It is hardly surprising, therefore, to find that a significant number of Jewish people were politically inclined towards the left and were actively involved in socialist movements. The essays in this volume seek to arrive at an understanding of Jewish involvement in Labour movements outside Israel from the end of the First World War to the final stages of World War Two. This was a period which saw the creation of several international socialist institutions. Gail Malmgreen looks at the American Jewish Labor Committee and examines the interaction between trades unions and the Jewish community. Deborah Osmond, Christine Collette and Jason Heppell discuss the contributions made by Jews living in Britain to Labour politics, including the Communist Party of Great Britain and the Labour and Socialist International. The reactions and stances of the British Labour party in relation to Zionism and the Holocaust are the subjects of essays by Isabelle Tombs and Paul Kelemen. David De Vries's study of the position of Jewish white-collar workers in British-ruled Palestine provides another perspective on the complex web of relationships between British and Jewish identity, class, labour and politics. An invaluable bibliography by Arieh Lebowitz of sources for the study of Jewish interaction with the American and British Labour movements completes this important survey.

American Jewry explores new transnational questions in Jewish history, analyzing the historical, cultural and social experience of American Jewry from 1654 to the present day, and evaluates the relationship between European and American Jewish history. Did the hopes of Jewish immigrants to establish an independent American Judaism in a free and pluralistic country come to fruition? How did Jews in America define their relationship to the 'Old World' of Europe, both before and after the Holocaust? What are the religious, political and cultural challenges for American Jews in the twenty-first century? Internationally renowned scholars come together in this volume to present new research on how immigration from Western and Eastern Europe established a new and distinctively American Jewish identity that went beyond the traditions of Europe, yet remained attached in many ways to its European origins.