Product Description
Jewish Americans produced some of the most important writing in the U.S. in the twentieth century. This Companion addresses the distinctive Jewish American contribution to American literary criticism, poetry and popular culture. It establishes the broadest possible context for the discussion of Jewish American identity as it intersects with the corpus of American literature. Featuring a chronology and guide to further reading, the volume is valuable to scholars and students alike. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Jewish American Literature Finding its Place
I think that this book is an amazing attempt to do the impossible- to really define what Jewish American Literature is and can be.

Allen Hoffman, author of "Small Worlds" and "Two for the Devil" says that Jewish Literature is "whatever makes you reach for the herring."

The authors of this compilation take it a little further and really get into the heart of Jewish writing. If you want to understand Jewish culture, Jewish literature, or American minority literature, this book is a must-read. ... Read more

Product Description
From the early settlers to Broadway lyricists to today's great writers--a redefinition of a vital American literary tradition. This rich anthology reconsiders Jewish American literature from its seventeenth-century origins to its flourishing present. It gathers the work of 145 writers in all genres--fiction, poetry, drama, essays, journals, autobiography, song lyrics, and cartoons. Here readers will find the petitions and memoirs of the first Sephardic settlers, the Yiddish and English voices of the great era of immigration, modernist writers exploring their Americanness, and activist writers working for change. Here too is the generation of writers and poets who define postwar American literature--Arthur Miller, Tillie Olsen, Bernard Malamud, Allen Ginsberg, Cynthia Ozick, Philip Roth--and a younger generation--Art Spiegelman, Jacqueline Osherow, Melvin Jules Bukiet, Allegra Goodman--whose work makes clear that Jewish American literature continues to thrive. This collection shows as never before how literature has played a vital role in shaping and passing down the legacies of "the people of the book."Amazon.com Review
Jewish American Literature: A Norton Anthology is a comprehensive collection of Jewish American writings, from colonial times to the present. The book is organized chronologically, with thematic sections on Jewish humor, the Broadway song, and the art of translation. Editors Jules Chametzky, John Felstiner, Hilene Flanzbaum, and Kathryn Hellerstein provide enlightening introductions for each section, helping readers to discern the lines of development through the various contributions, whose genres range from autobiography to sermons to songs and jokes, by writers as diverse as Irving Berlin, Emma Lazarus, Allegra Goodman, and Woody Allen. Among the many fascinating strains to follow in this collection is the changing yet abiding role of Scripture as a source of inspiration for American Jewish writers. "It may be that in the past, Jewish civilizations survived by cleaving to the righteousness and difference inscribed in sacred texts," notes the book's general introduction. "Some would hold that this spiritual tenacity is still necessary and sufficient. Possibly so. But with it come wit and self-deprecation, moral dilemma, verbal ingenuity, aspiration, tragedy, and joy, families aplenty, nostalgia, satire--a full slice of human life at its most vocal." --Michael Joseph Gross ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Expansive and Elucidating
This book is incredible.I enjoy how it incorporates authors who, as per the anthology's title, write about both their Americanness and their Jewishness, hence the elimination of folks like JD Salinger (who is a fine writer but whose texts' themes are not "Jewish" enough for inclusion).

The most interesting pieces are possibly the earliest ones from colonial America.Hearing about Jews mouth off Peter Stuyvesant and to Redcoats is entertaining and educating, and the inclusion of non-fiction like that is a good balance.

The only criticism of the book I can see is the exclusion of religious texts, like sermons, by leading American Rabbis or scholars who helped shaped American Judaism, i.e. men and women like Solomon Schechter and Ray Frank.Obviously, there are other books to read for that area, and I recommend Jonathan Sarna's American Judaism.

Nice Introduction to J/A Literature
Nice Survey of this broad category of literature, with some amazingly arcane finds; but one should read a lot more of any given author than is presented here to develop a real appreciation for that particular writer's contribution (e.g., only a single 21-page short story is given from Nobel-prize winner Saul Bellow, which is pretty sparse in a book over 1,000 pages long and is less than is given to Bellow's little-known contemporary Tillie Olsen.) So I think the purpose of this anthology is to give the reader an appreciation more for the breadth, than the depth, of the titular subject.

It could have been better.
This anthology attempts to considerably widen the Jewish canon introducing a large number of writers (many in Yiddish_ little known to the general reading public. It also does not choose the best of the major writers, and its selections here could be improved. But it does include a great deal of interesting material. It is not the best but it certainly it is far better than nothing.

Another rave
Anybody's who is at all interested in Jewish culture will learn a lot from this book --and enjoy it too.It's got a great section on Jews on broadway, an hysterical piece by Woody Allen, another highly readable set of Jewish jokes --one can find historical information, interesting stuff on the immigrant's experiece, poetry, old and new, short stories as well as the standards like Roth and Bellow...You can pull this book down and start anywhere -- all the pieces are short so you don't get overwhelmed -- and feel instantly the richness and depth of the Jewish-American tradition. ... Read more

Product Description
In this fully revised and expanded edition, Nickelsburg introduces the reader to the broad range of Jewish literature that is not part of either the Bible or the standard rabbinic works. This includes especially the Apocrypha (such as 1 Maccabees), the Pseudepigrapha (such as 1 Enoch), the Dead Sea Scrolls, the works of Josephus, and the works of Philo. This new edition also has an enormously helpful CD-ROM, including biblical citation hyperlinks to the NRSV, web links to primary documents, chapter summaries, and discussion questions. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Almost Scholarly
I got this book because Nickelsburg is one of the leading scholars in intertestimental literature.In scholarly works, I expect a very exacting respect for the difference between fact and surmise. Nickelsburg knows his topic, but I found myself frustrated by his dedication to literary analysis, such as his division of Isaiah into three different Isaiahs from different time periods. This is an opinion shared by other scholars, but it is still not a fact in the sense of "we dug this up and dated it thus for these reasons." This makes it harder to assess the accuracy of his other statements, especially if one is not completely sold on literary analysis as a tool.The argument might be made that he was trying to write a general book for the common man, but the common man does not read books about intertestimental Jewish literature.With that caution, it is about the only book I have found that has an orderly presentation of this literature.His notes and bibliography are excellent, so one is certainly empowered to do further digging and make up ones own mind.

A Great Study Guide
Very useful for the class I took on the Dead Sea Scrolls. Very informative and was a good tool in my studies. Easy to read well orgainized. Very coherent.

New Vistas for Many Readers
In this book, Nickelsburg places a number of non-canonical books into their historical setting. He begins with a brief history of the Return and the Dispersion then goes on to explain how nu-merous books came about as a response to the Dispersion, the wake of Alexander the Great, the Romans and Herod the Great, and on through the Second Revolt. Consider that the Book of Judith may tell the story of the time of Nebuchanezzar but its many parallels describe the times of Judas Maccabeus. Or the DSS commentary on Habakkuk probably shows that when the Mac-cabeans tampered with the priesthood not all of Israel was solidly behind them.

For many readers Nickelsburg's _Jewish Literature_ will open up new ways to read and understand ancient Jewish writings. ... Read more

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1895. The essays found in this work were delivered in the form of addresses before the largest associations in the great cities of Germany. These addresses were born of devoted love to Judaism, and are entitled: A Glance at Jewish Literature; The Talmud; Jew in the History of Civilization; Women in Jewish Literature; Moses Maimonides; Jewish Troubadours and Minnesingers; Humor and Love in Jewish Poetry; Jewish Stage; Jew's Quest in Africa; Jewish King in Poland; Jewish Society in the Time of Mendelssohn; Leopold Zunz; Heinrich Heine and Judaism; and Music of the Synagogue. ... Read more

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A Gathering of Angels: Angels in Jewish Life and Literature looks at Jewish history in a unique wayDthrough the eyes of angels. A rabbi and a scholar, Morris B. Margolies pores through nearly three thousand years of literature and lore in an enlightening exploration of the angels, who shape and reflect Jewish beliefs, hopes, and fears. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Angels in Jewish Culture
I love this book. There are so many books about angels, but there are precious few of Angels in Jewish culture. I highly recommend this book to anyone who believes in angels (I do) and specifically people of the Jewish faith. I'm so glad I was able to get this book from Amazon.com as I had left my copy behind after I moved out of my marital home after my divorce. Going to a bookstore is hard for me, and as I remember the price was much higher when I bought it there.

Angel angel shining bright in the soul at darkest night
One very interesting section of this work has to do with the abundance of angels that appear during the time of the Apocrypha and Psuedigrapha period, a time of crisisfor the Jewish people in Israel. Celestial messengers and helpers multiplied so much so that according to Margolies they were denied a place in the Canon.
This book is a gathering of Hebrew and Jewish angels from the Bible to Isaac Singer. It has brief introductions and explanations but is not a deep philosophical work, but rather a work of story and example.
How to put it all together in meaning terms is I think left to the reader. But the author has done a very illuminating work of assembling and introducing the divine helpers. ... Read more

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Jewish tales, Bible stories, legends and historic accounts from every generation and every land come to life in this captivating collection of short selections designed to introduce pre-readers to the glories of Jewish storytelling.

Reading aloud is the very best way to introduce young children to new worlds, real and imaginary-and to the great pleasures found between the covers of books.This wide-ranging and engaging collection will introduce young and old alike to Biblical heroes, magical and mythical characters, kings, prophets, historic figures and real-life adventurers from Israel, America and many other lands.

Selected and retold by well-known children's author Barbara Diamond Goldin, the stories are designed to be read in ten minutes or less, and the strength and richness of the narratives make them ideal at bedtime.From the stories of Moses, Solomon and Jonah to the legends of the Golem of Prague and the hapless inhabitants of Chelm, and including selections from such renowned writers as Sholom Aleichem and Isaac B. Singer, this is sure to become a treasured volume, read, reread, passed down and loved for years to come. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

You'll read it out loud, over and over again!
What a wonderful book! 'One-Hundred & One Read-Aloud Jewish Stories' is such a pleasure to read and so enjoyable - for both children and adults.It is the perfect book for a family to read over and over.This book encompasses a wide variety of stories from the Torah, Talmud & Midrash to contemporary Jewish writers, stories of Israel and the Diaspora.The stories are written in such a simple, understandable and most importantly, enjoyable way.This is a treasure you'll keep for many years to come in your book collection - you can't go wrong.

Timing is of the essence
At this time in history, this volume is a valuable addition to any library. Children and adults can gain a greater appreciation for the Jewish heritage, Jewish religion and Jewish people. This generous collection includes stories and poetry from over 30 different notable books by well-known authors of the Jewish community that have been published in the last sixty-four years.

If you do not know about the holidays: Yom Ha-Zikaron and Yom Ha-Atzmaut, you will want to read this book. You will gain a much deeper appreciation for Israel, and the situation of today's state of affairs... ... Read more

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Is there such a thing as a distinctive Jewish literature? While definitions have been offered, none has been universally accepted. Modern Jewish literature lacks the basic markers of national literatures: it has neither a common geography nor a shared language—though works in Hebrew or Yiddish are almost certainly included—and the field is so diverse that it cannot be contained within the bounds of one literary category.

Each of the fifteen essays collected in Modern Jewish Literatures takes on the above question by describing a movement across boundaries—between languages, cultures, genres, or spaces. Works in Hebrew and Yiddish are amply represented, but works in English, French, German, Italian, Ladino, and Russian are also considered. Topics range from the poetry of the Israeli nationalist Natan Alterman to the Russian poet Osip Mandelstam; from turn-of-the-century Ottoman Jewish journalism to wire-recorded Holocaust testimonies; from the intellectual salons of late eighteenth-century Berlin to the shelves of a Jewish bookstore in twentieth-century Los Angeles.

The literary world described in Modern Jewish Literatures is demarcated chronologically by the Enlightenment, the Haskalah, and the French Revolution, on one end, and the fiftieth anniversary of the State of Israel on the other. The particular terms of the encounter between a Jewish past and present for modern Jews has varied greatly, by continent, country, or village, by language, and by social standing, among other things. What unites the subjects of these studies is not a common ethnic, religious, or cultural history but rather a shared endeavor to use literary production and writing in general as the laboratory in which to explore and represent Jewish experience in the modern world.

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So many books, so little time! Where do you start? With this book: Linda Silver's guide to the most notable books for young readers.

Here are a top librarian's picks of the best in writing, illustration, reader appeal, and authentically Jewish content in picture books, fiction and non-fiction, for early childhood through the high school years.

You'll find the classics like K'tonton and the All-of-a-Kind Family books, right on to Terrible Things, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, and today's bestsellers, along with hundreds of others.

Chapters are organized by subject and entries within each include a succinct description of the book and author, and Silver's own insights on what makes it worth reading. There are title, subject, author, and illustrator indexes, title-grouping by reading level, and lists of award winners.

A wonderful reference for parents, grandparents, teachers, librarians--and, of course, the kids so dear to them. ... Read more

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In 1916 Abraham Cahan, editor of the Jewish daily The Forward, warned his Yiddish-speaking readers of the potential psychic dangers associated with their New World situation. "You will not be able to erase the old home from your heart," he cautioned his immigrant readers, transplanted from the shtetls and cities of Eastern Europe to exhilarating, if bewildering, multicultural New York. Building on Cahan’s deeply personal reflection, Haunted in the New World maps the affective landscape of modern Jewish American culture.

Drawing on scholarship in a range of disciplines, including the sociology of manners, the study of the role of foodways in the formation of ethnic identity, the psychoanalysis of shame and self-hatred, and the role of memory for those unsettled by the experience of migration, Donald Weber traces the impact of the tension between nostalgia for the world left behind and the desire to blend into American culture, as evidenced in a number of key texts in the canon of Jewish American expression. These range from early immigrant fiction and cinema, through the novels of Anzia Yezierska and Henry Roth, to Hollywood’s representation of Jews in The Jazz Singer and Gentleman’s Agreement, to Saul Bellow, Gertrude Berg (Molly Goldberg), and the comedians Milton Berle and Mickey Katz. Setting an array of figures and works in creative dialogue, Haunted in the New World offers a genealogy of those core emotions—shame and self-hatred, nostalgic longing and the impulse to forget—that organized much of 20th-century Jewish American expressive culture and transformed American culture at the same time. ... Read more

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Author of The Jewish Book of Knowledge and The Pictorial History of the Jewish People. "A must for everyone, Christians and Jews alike." --New York Times. This classic collection of more than 800 traditions, legends, parables, and songs, with a glossary of Yiddish and Hebrew words, has remained a favorite gift-giving item and a family treasure for decades. 12 pieces of sheet music. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Nice book
The book came in great condition.The only negative was that there was a personal inscription that I'm pretty sure was not disclosed when I made the decision to buy it.I don't know if that is something booksellers routinely note. The price was very inexpensive, so I can understand a bookseller not having time to write anything about that, but I would have liked to have that information.Other than that, it came quickly, and I was happy with the book.

Jewish Folklore
I was trying to replace this book that I had used for many years but had fallen apart because it was a paperback.I was delighted to find it available for purchase in hardback, and didn't care that it was used.The price was great too.

A rich and often moving collection from the Jewish Tradition
Great and classic Jewish stories are told here. The collection is diverse and vast, and comes from a wide variety of Jewish sources through the generations. This work has been in print for many years and deserves to remain so , even though there are many collections now which overlap some of its content.
Many of these stories are so great that they can be read and reread, enjoyed over and over again.

A book to come home to
Like many of the other reviewers, I started reading a copy of this book in my parents' library when I was very young, maybe 8 or 9.I started with the jokes and, as I grew older, graduated to the more complex stories.My favorite part was always the stories of the wonder-working rabbis, especially the Spanish rabbi who tried to bring about the coming of the Messiah.

I read this book over and over and over through my teenage years, and many years later, when I was in my 40s, I finally bought my own copy.Upon this later re-reading, I was able to recognize how internalized these stories had become, a part of my own intellectual landscape.

I'm not particularly observant, and I definitely fall into the Heritage Jew not Religious Jew category.But these stories fulfill needs for both types.There can be few better ways to explore the heritage of my people than by dipping into the stories included here.All the humor, cleverness, courage, scholarship, and mysticism associated with Jews and Judaism through the centuries--if not the millennia--may be found herein.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough for Jews, and I believe that non-Jews will find it a fascinating and accessible window into an oft-misunderstood or underestimated people.

A dynamic source of Jewish culture, spirit, and wit
Like one of the other reviewers, I started reading this book when I was a child, probably around 11, and continue to read it and reread it.It has some of the most wonderful Jewish jokes that exist.The most amazing thing for me personally, however, which makes me want to recommend it to others, is that I am a person who identifies a lot with being Jewish and it feels as though a huge amount of my Jewishness, and how it has affected my thinking and way of being, comes from Ausubel's Treasure of Jewish Folklore!!!I think it is one of the most enjoyable ways that a person could immerse him/herself in the essence of Jewish culture. ... Read more

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Leopold von Sacher-Masoch (1836-1895), whose name has been immortalised in the term masochism, is known today predominantly for his novel "Venus in Furs" and for his tales of dominant women and suffering men. This collection features some of his best-known Jewish tales which display the author's warm sense of humanity as well as his considerable sense of humour. Sacher-Masoch's unusual ability to capture the essence of a person or place with a telling detail brings the vanished world of Galician Jewry back to life in all its splendour and squalor, mixing the greys, browns, and blacks of European Realism with the bright, sparkling colours of legend, myth, fairy tale, and tradition. ... Read more