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the lewish community as assimilating. On the contrary, the latter are, in the main, what SHare ehartcterized as "lurvivaligg," that is, those who personally hope for the ultimate mrvival of the Jewish community, even as they are skeptical o f the community's ability to do m. s Since this is a review essay, I chose to focus on the section of the Seltzer and Cohen collection which relates most directly to my theme, the future o f American Jewry and the American Jewish community. There are many good, interesting and insightful articles in this fine collection covering -uch such important topics as the media, politics, American Zionism, traditional Judaism, the women's movement and alternate modes o f religiosity. The absence of any reference to them here should not reflect on their merit.

REFERENCES Goldscheider, Calvin. 1986. Jewish Continuity and Change: Changing Patterns in America. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. Goldscheider, Calvin and Alan S. Zuckerman. 1983. The Transformation of the Jews. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Lipset, Seymour Martin. 1963. The First New Nation: The United States in Historical and Comparative Perspective. New York: Basic Books. Silberman, Charles. 1986. A Certain People: American Jews and Their Lives Today. New YorkL Summit. SHare, Marshall. 1993. Understanding America's Jews, edited by Jonathan Sama. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England.

THE HOLOCAUST: BRIEF COMMENTS O N RECENT BOOKS Jack Nusan Porter University of Massachusetts-Lowell and The Spencer Group (ContemporaryJewry v. 16 1995)

History of the Holocaust: A Handbook and Dictionary by ABRAHAM J. EDELHEIT and HERSCHEL EDELHEIT. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994, 544 pp., photos, maps, charts, $89.95. Preserving Memory: The Struggle to Create America's Holocaust Museum by EDWARD T. LINENTHAL. New York: Viking Press, 1995, photos, 352 pages, $27.95.

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Jews for Sale? Nazi-Jewish Negotiations, 1933-1945 by YEHUDA BAUER. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1994, 328 pp.

$30.oo. Rethinking Jewish Faith: The Child of a Survivor Responds by STEVEN L. JACOBS. Albany, N'Y: SUNY Press, 1994, 171 pp. $16.95 (paper). Dachau: The Harrowing of lieU by MARCUS J. SMITH. Albany, N-Y: SUNY Press, 1995, 313 pp. $16.95 (paper) The Dentist of Auschwitz by BENJAMIN JACOBS. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 1995, photos, 239 pp. $29.95

Nuremberg Forty Years Later, The Struggle Against Injustice in Our Time, edited by IRVIN COTLER. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 1995, 298 pp. $19.95 (paper), $49.95. The Edelheit book (father and son) attempts a great deal here. The first part consists, not of a history, but of short essays on various themes; while the second is a useful dictionary. However, despite the evident diligent work that went into it, the book is filled with cliched writing and unexciting conclusions with little new in terms of material or analysis. Unfortunately, the graphics, especially in the dictionary section, are hard to understand as one letter merges into another. In future editions, I suggest that the dictionary be expanded, and that the "history" be curtailed and merged into the dictionary to yield a one volume encyclopedia. The result, with a improved editing, layout and graphics, would be a very useful book. The Linenthal book is a gem. Beautifully written and meticulously researched, its message is simply that the Holocaust museum in Washington, DC was a miracle of birth. That American Jewry could place such a museum on the Capital Mall is a testament to their secure position in this country. The photos are stunning. I highly recommend the book to readers. Yehuda Bauer, dean of contemporary Holocaust studies, continues to author works, such as Jews for Sale?, based on archival material and previously unexamined sources that are provocative and support the "functionalist" school of the Holocaust. He suggests that Jews could have been saved, that Jews, especially Hungarian Jews, might have been released in exchange for money, trucks, goods, or political benefits. Of course, those involved faced "choiceless choices:" Do you give the Nazis 1,000 trucks to defeat the Russians in exchange for one million Jews? Is this altruism, heroism, or collaboration with the enemy? Difficult questions, indeed. I do not think the Allies would

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have traded trucks for Jews. Jewish lives were not worth it. Their goal was to win the war. Trading with the enemy would have been traitorous, would have extended the war, and would have cost American lives. Jews for Sale? is a profoundly disturbing book. Rethinking Jewish Faith is a unique book about faith, not sociology, written for the "second generation," the children of survivors. It probes the "death of God" issue raised by theologian Richard Rubenstein many years ago. Jacobs wrestles with such questions as, " H o w can we believe in God, and in what kind of GOd, after the Shoah?" and "What about the commandments, holidays, life-cycle events, Israel?" He also discusses how Judaism, and by extension Jews, have changed in light of, or should I say in the darkness cast by the Holocaust. These questions certainly need to be addressed and Rabbi Jacob is to be commended for doing so. Marcus Smith, a radiologistwho was in private practice in Santa Fe, N e w Mexico untilhe died in 1986, has leftus a minor classic. W e should be grateful to thisextraordinary man, a non-Jewish Gl liberator, for leaving behind this testimony, the simple tale of a soldier who saw too much. Branded into his memory, he could never quite forgot the emaciated bodies, the hell he saw. Quietly and simply, Captain Smith tells a story w e should all read of a doctor who took part in the liberation of Dachau and its immediate aftermath. Benjamin Jacobs has also written an impressive memoir of a survivor. It is the story of how a few dental tools and rudimentary skillsenabled him to act as a dentist at Auschwitz and to save his life. A lovely memoir by a lovely man. He decided to write his memoirs when an illness caused him to lose his voice. Sensing that time was running out, he wrote this book. As social scientists, we have, unfortunately, learned how professions were perverted by the Nazis (for example, Dr. Mengele), but here we have two books, one by a doctor (Smith), the other by a dentist (Jabobs), which show how lives can be saved and souls healed by these same professions. Each is well written and vividly tellsits respective story. Irwin Cotler, professor of law at McGill University and a civil rights activist, has gathered the papers and proceedings of an international human rights conference held in November, 1987. The goal of the conference was to help bring war criminals to justice. The papers are passionate and learned. The international flavor of the conference with updates on hate crimes and war crime trials in the United States, Canada, England, Australia, and other countries is especially noteworthy. The contributors include Elie Wiesel, Alan Dershowitz, Carmen

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Quintana, Greville Janner, David Matas, and Alan Ryan, Jr. The anthology will be very useful for those interested in the sociology of law, free speech issues, hate crimes, immigration issues, and Nazi war criminals. All and all, an excellent collection of books. There appears to be no immediate end in sight for the publication of Holocaust books. That is all to the good.

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Critical Essays on Israeli Social Issues and Scholarship: Books on Israel, Volume HI edited by RUSSELL A. STONE and WALTER P. ZENNER. Albany: SUNY Press, 1994. vi + 268 pp. $16.95. Charles S. Liebman Bar Ilan University (Conk,mporaryJewry v.16 1995) The Association for Israel Studies provides an important service in publishing this its third annual volume of essays. The editors invite a variety of authors to prepare essays on book(s) in their field of inquiry and encourage them "to reach beyond the scope of the usual book review, or even a review essay" (p.5). Given the general nature of many courses on Israel, there must be a number of scholars as well as students who could benefit from essays which discuss recent studies in areas of inquiry other than their own. The thirteen essays are divided into four sections. The first three sections, "Literature and Language," "Culture and Society," and "Social Analysis," contain articles of varying quality. Overall, I found them to be competent, though unexceptionable. I learned something from every one of them. Uri Ram's review essay of Yonathan Shapiro's work was even instructive to one such as myself who has read all of Shapiro's books. I certainly do not share Ram's sociological orientations and his political orientations are an anathema to me, but overall I think that this is a most useful essay. The fourth and final section, "History and Politics," is a different matter. The previous volumes as well as the conference programs of the Association for Israel Studies have included papers with a distinct political bias. This volume is no exception. The first essay, Jerome Slater's "The Significance of Israeli Historical Revisionism," has no place in a volume with any pretence to academic responsibility. Revisionism refers to a recent genre of scholarship on the Arab,Israeli conflict from its beginning until the present, with primary emphasis on the period immediately preceding and following the establishment of the state. Slater's reference to the Lehi as the Stern Gang (p. 180), is a giveaway. He would have us believe that the work of the historical revisionists has won general acceptance by Israeli scholars. Such is certainly not the case, as is testified to by the number of symposia on the topic, not to mention the public debate in the last two years. Secondly, Slater lumps together a variety of authors under the rubric historical revisionists. They range from Benny Morris, whose factual

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contributions are generally acknowledged by scholars as valid, although Morris' assessments have been challenged, to the polemical work of Simha F|apan whom no scholar, to the best of my knowledge takes seriously. When I looked f o r the sources for some of Slater's more startling statements, I found that the references cited Flapan. Finally, Slater offers some undocumented statements which are so ignorant they would offend any scholar whether he was or was not a partisan of Israel. For example, "during the 1930's the conflict between the Jews and the Palestinians seemed irreconcilable, for the insistence of the Zionists on the creation of a Jewish dominated state in all of Palestine led to vicious mutual violence and terrorism" (p. 186). This is followed by an apology for the rise of pro-Hitler leaders among Palestinians which is explained by their desperation. Or, "Zionism and Israel inflicted a number of grievous injustices on the Arab inhabitants of Palestine, and set in motion a chain of events that created the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict" (p. 195). The second essay in this section, by Yigal Levy and Yoav Peled, attributes the causes of the Six Day War to the effort by the Israeli state to reassert control over civil society. "...the Six Day War, and the continued occupation of the territories taken in that war, appear as a reaction by the state, designed to restore the balance between state and society" (p. 218). I am not familiar with Levy's work, but Peled, with whose prior work I am familiar, and who is certainly capable of brilliant analyses, strikes me as one in search of a theory to vilify Israel. The authors do confess (p. 218) that their theory, at this juncture, lacks empirical evidence. Ilan Peleg reviews recent books by David Shipler and Ehud Sprinzak. The symmetry which Peleg suggests between the Arab Palestinian view of the Jew-Israeli as other and the Jewish-Israeli view of the Arab-Palestinian as other is really unfair. Peleg's criticism of Sprinzak's differentiation between the moderate nationalists and the radical nationalists is wrong. His own statement, "the only real differentiation between the 'moderate' and the 'radical' right is in the methods they are willing to deploy to achieve their goals" (p. 242) reflects an ignorance of the moderate right that even include religious Zionists such as Yisrael Hard or Yoel Bin-Nun. Peleg would do well to apply his strictures about the dangers of otherness to his own conception of the Israeli right. The final article in the section is by Efraim Inbar. His use of the term Judea and Samaria for the west bank says something about his

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own political orientations but as far as I could tell the analysis itself bares no political bias. These Are Our Children: Jewish Orphanages In The United States, 1880-1925 by REENA SIGMAN FRIEDMAN. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England 1994, xiii + 298 pp. $39.95. Sydney Bernard University of Michigan Emeritus (ContemporaryJewryv.16 1995) The book relates the history of three representative orphanages in New York, Philadelphia and Cleveland within a broad and richly detailed social and ideological context. Interviews with surviving graduates of the period provide color, strength and a corrective voice to the official descriptions and evaluations derived from institution records. The agencies are repeatedly referred to as leaders in professional programming. The actual story seems more complex and difficult to evaluate. This period saw a struggle between the Uptown German Reform Jews and the East European immigrants for control of the children, the orphanages, and the communities. This story is brilliantly told in rich detail forming a major focus of the book. The Uptown leadership of the new orphanages saw their role as caring for, educating and Americanizing their charges. Teaching a "normative non-sectarian American" Reform Judaism in the "total institution" was the best program for molding "the children of the poor into sober productive citizens." Though highly regimented, it provided good physical and medical care, adequate education and vocational training. It is probable that in these areas the children received more than they would have received outside. The East European's struggle for control was not in the service of Progressive Era issues such as open institutions and individualized care. The children's parents were not willing to Americanize their children into 19th century German Reform Judaism. In the early 20th century, as some East European immigrants prospered, they began to establish their own Orthodox institutions including orphanages. Unfortunatelywe do not learn about programmatic differences, if any, beyond increased faithfulness to traditional halachic norms. The children's voice emerges strongly through many interviews with graduates of these institutions. Some still bitterly hated the

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regimentation and separation from parents and communities. Others appreciated the education and advancement they were given. Most "valued the physical care and education, (and) regretted the lack of individual attention and parental affection" (p. 183). The author concludes that despite the many valued services some were left unduly limited in their ability to secure satisfying social and sexual relationships. In the early 1900s, their graduates became directors and staff facilitating the shift to Progressive era programs. Parent visits were actively promoted. The accommodations became more personalized softening the regimented discipline. Aftercare programs and vocational education were stressed. Graduates became Rabbi's, Hebrew teachers, and, yes, lawyers, doctors and took up other occupations offering successful adult lives. Jewish values embodied in the story include the unity of the Jewish people and care for widows and orphans. Defense against anti-Semitism, though not identified as a value, had undoubted influence. That "We are One" is demonstrated by the willingness of already established German Jews to provide for their troublesome East European brethren. Perhaps, as the book asserts, care of the dependent child, emphasis on education and the high value placed on children all give Jewish orphanages "a unique quality." Yet, one wonders whether the 20th century difficulty in securing an adequate supply of foster homes indicate acculmration's corrosive impact and whether comparisons with other sectarian homes would show similar child caring efforts. Despite overt commitment to .this value the children often reported feeling like objects of charity. The orphanages had a high reputation for leadership and quality care not only within their professional peers, but also among qualified and independent Jewish and non-Jewish observers. The picture is clouded by delays in implementation of programs that moved children outside the orphanages such as adoption, boarding out, and foster care. It is likely that their motives combined resistance to attacks on their programs and to their perhaps justified fears that care in these alternative settings might not be as good as they provided. Until replaced by men, middle class Jewish women played key roles in founding and managing (sectarian and non-sectarian) orphanages. Orphanages excelled in preparing most women graduates with useful vocational skills; sending some to higher education. The book is rich in examples stressing internal and external influences adding a great deal to our knowledge of the period and of

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the development of sectarian social welfare. I found myself wishing for more explicit and analytic inter-orphanage comparisons of size, community and sponsorship. The meaning and impact of Jewish values might be clarified by comparisons between Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant orphanages. A book which might be too detailed for the general reader, it offers great value for the professional in history or social work.

The Jewish Family and Continuity, edited by STEVEN BAYME AND GLADYS ROSEN. Hoboken, N.J.: Ktav Publishing, 1994, 342 pp. $29.50 (cloth) $14.95 (paper). Benjamin Schlesinger Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto (C~ntemporaryJewry v.16 1995)

This is an edited volume of papers previously developed as part of the work of the William Petschek National Jewish Family Center established in 1981. The book is divided into three major sections: research, social theory and communal policy. The editors state that the content would give the reader a comprehensive overview of the American Jewish family today. There are fifteen contributors, of whom seven are academics, four are Rabbis, and four institutional professionals; ten males and five females. (Rachel Biale is not given credit under the contributors.) There are four papers in the research section. In 1990, the National Jewish Population Study 0NJPS) provided some statistical data related to American-Jewish families. Sylvia Barack Fishman, gives the reader selected highlights on diverse family patterns and reviews various studies completed during the past 24 years. Much of this information is outdated, and has not been brought into the 1990's. It is sad to read her bibliography and fred that we have so little res~rch on Jewish family life during the past nine years. The 1990 NJPS reveals that we have many single, divorced, remarried, dual career families, and elderly among the American Jewish population. It would have helped a lot to cut out all the 'old' studies and allow the reader more information and interpretation of the 1990 NJPS. Some of the tables in the appendix of the article are unclear, and need some proper identification. The other contributions in the research section deal with a study of 40 mothers and 25 fathers conducted 10 years ago. They include all shades of Jewish religions observances. It is a qualitative study in

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which we learn a lot from what the respondents say about their divorce experience. The paper does not have a review of literature about divorce and Jewish families which would have greatly helped to put the information into proper context. Chaim Waxman examines the baby boomers (born 1946-1964). They represented 801 persons in the NJPS. His is a gloomy message, in that most of them are alienated from Jewish communal involvements. Rela Mintz Geffen looked at 526 Jewish women aged 21-64 as part of the NJPS. What is most interesting is a footnote in this paper which states that 27 percent of employed single Jewish women do not expect to have children. Section 2, called Social Theory, is really a misnomer. It is really a socio-religious historical overview of what the Jewish tradition and our sources have to say on varied aspects of family life. This section has a strange mixture of topics which have no relation to each other than they are topics commissioned for study by the Petschek Center. The topics include adoption, pornography, divorce, and abortion. The contributions range from "sermonettes" to "motherhood" statements. Some have supportive date, others follow politically correct paths. The literature cited in a few of the papers is 24 years old, and has changed in the 1990s. In the communal policy section, the two most creative and down to earth contributions are by Gerald Bubis and Bernard Reisman. They inject an original and forceful content in an otherwise tiresome and repetitive text. They challenge the American Jewish community to pay some attention to the changing Jewish families of the 1990's. To date this cry for help has not come through clearly, since we seem to focus on intermarriage and Jewish identity. This collection adds little to our understanding of Jewish family life in the 1990s. It pushes us into sponsoring worthwhile research dealing with the manifold changes among American-Jewish families. It helps us to move from public relation efforts which include the war cry about preserving Jewish identity to sitting down and asking if Jewish communities are serious about helping Jewish families adjust to the 21st century. For a non-American audience, it at least sheds some light on the position of Jewish families in America. For courses in Jewish studies, the content of this volume is outdated and offers very little in new, insightful, and creative efforts, related to our present Jewish communities. If this effort is a record of what the William Petschek National Jewish Family Center sponsored, then it is evidence that we need further knowledge about Jewish families in the late 1990s.

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Jewish Identities in the New Europe, edited by JONATHAN WEBBER. Published for the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, London,-Washington: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 1994. xix + 307 pp. $27.50 (paper). Ephraim Tabory Bar Ilan University (ContemporaryJewryv.16 1995) This anthology examines the fragmented identity of Europe's Jews as they adjust to one crisis after another. While Europe is no longer the principal center of Jewish life (90~ of the world's Jews lived there in 1860, only 17 %, now), the European model of identity should Still be interesting. Many Jews have roots there; many take great interest in the effort that is the subject of the book to bring about the new Europe, especially the struggle for Soviet Jewry. Indeed, for some nonEuropean Jews (as well as Western European Jews), the campaign to force Russia to let its people go contributed to their own Jewish identity. On an academic level, the contrast of identity studies conducted in the United States, Canada, or Israel, with European studies adds greater understanding to the manner in which identity is affected by external forces. The European contribution to the social psychology of identity (with much credit to the late Henri Tajfel), regarding the way in which people define themselves not only by who they are, but also by who they are not, can be well appreciated by readers of this volume. The book is based on a 1992 Oxford symposium. It contains essays spanning Europe, such as a review of demographic trends in Europe and the role of the rabbi in the new Europe, as well as specific discussions of Jewish developments in former Communist countries (Poland, Hungary, and the former Soviet Union), and of Jewish communities in Western Europe (Germany, France, and England). Webber's introductory essay and his chapter on Jewish identity are particularly effective in highlighting the impact of a European environment on its Jews. Indeed, the reader encounters comparisons throughout the book that span countries and history, or is led to consider such comparisons by the different loci of the various articles. With the exception of a quantitative study of the Jews of London, the articles are essentially qualitative impressions of Jewish life. Most authors are academicians, some are rabbis, journalists and Jewish activists. Many take a stand about how to best ensure Jewish continuity,

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whether by strengthening the local community or by having the remaining Jews emigrate. Some authors cite support for their analyses, many do-not. Empirical studies are lacking. The nature of Jewish identity varies greatly throughout Europe, and only a limited number of countries and topics can be discussed in one volume. The editor acknowledges some of the gaps that need to be filled, including the intersection of Jewish identity with gender and studies of countries such as Holland, Belgium, Scandinavia and others that might be affected more by the conception of the new Europe as a united entity without the traditional barriers. The articles on the Jews in the former Soviet Union (FSU), including one by the co-chairman of the All Union Va'ad, reflect the most dynamic changes covered in the book. One must consider the implications of what will happen to such a large aggregate of Jews if they remain in the FSU, and their impact on Jewish communities outside of the FSU if they migrate. The perception in the past of the demise of the Jewish community in the FSU is being challenged by Jewish activists there who wish to rejuvenate the local Jewish community and who seek outside help (especially in the form of financial assistance) to do so. Jewish life vis-a-vis non-Jews is the focus of a section entitled, "Rethinking Interfaith Relations in a Post-Holocaust World." Some of the articles therein, such as one on Christian perceptions of Jewish identity, and a short piece on Jewish-Catholic relationships are interesting, but misplaced. They refer less to Jewish identity than to how others react to the Jews. A more relevant article in this section on the implications of the New Age Movement for the Jewish people indicates how a decline in traditional bases of identity leads to a search for personal meaning. It is but one of the articles that highlights the decentralization of contemporary identity, and the danger it imposes for a people commonly identified by their communal orientation. Major changes are taking place regarding the identity of European Jews as members of an ethnic or religious minority, or as persons with no religious or ethnic affiliation. Webber's volume has the potential to stimulate further empirical research in Europe, as well as shedding light on the situation there for non- Europeans who tend to overlook that continent. Those who care about the future of the Jews and Judaism, whether it be in Europe or elsewhere, will find this a very welcome addition to the literature.

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Jews in the Japanese Mind: The History and Uses of a Cultural Stereotype by David G. Goodman and Masanori Miyazawa. New York: The Free Press, 1995, xi + 360 pp. $24.95 (doth). Michael S. Molasky Connecticut College (Con/emporaryJewryv. 16 1995) This is an informative and often provocative book on a topic that has until now received only cursory treatment in English publications. It is also a surprisingly wide-ranging work which offers insights on many topics, including: Christian theology in Meiji Japan (1868-1912), diplomatic history and cultural policy during the 1930s and 1940s, literature and social criticism in the postwar years, and the commodification of culture that has accompanied Japan's emergence as an economic superpower in the past two decades. The authors' primary focus is on "the Japanese construct of the Jews, its origins, evolution, and meaning" (p. 12). Potential readers of this book might have reservations about the title. Its opposition of "Jews" (a people represented in their plurality) to "the Japanese Mind" (an abstract monolith) suggests a theoretical indebtedness to Orientalism and to the "culture and personality studies" that informed an entire generation of academic and popular works on Japan. Yet, throughout their book, Goodman and Miyazawa eschew the ahistorical generalizations that characterize these academic traditions, and the authors in fact make few if any references to "the Japanese mind." The introductory chapter declares three aims for the book: 1) to provide a history of Japanese ideas about Jews, thereby illuminating the coexistence of anti-semitism and philosemitism in this country that has never had a substantial Jewish population; 2) to demonstrate how these ideas relate to contemporary cultural and political developments in Japan; 3) to consider the implications of these ideas "for our understanding of the quality and potential of contemporary Japanese culture" (p. 14). The book generally achieves the first two goals and, in the process, offers a refreshing angle on the intellectual and cultural history of modern Japan. As for the third goal, I must confess to finding it both presumptuous and anachronistic: can scholars today seriously purport to discuss entire cultures in terms of "quality and potential"?. Fortunately, here as with the title, the authors fail to pursue the spirit of their words--and their failure leaves us with a better book.

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With the exception of the introductory chapter, Jews in the Japanese Mind is organized chronologically. The early chapters examine Japan's attitudes towards foreigners from the Tokugawa era (1600-1868) through the first decades of the twentieth century, arguing that deeply rooted indigenous religious attitudes, combined with Japan's complex encounters with Christianity, shaped the nation's conception of Jews and fostered a predisposition toward anti-semitism. The authors argue that when the notorious The Prowcols of the Elders of Zion was introduced to Japanese readers after the Russian Revolution, Japan already possessed its own theories of a global religious conspiracy bent on destroying the nation, and this heightened the effectiveness of the Protocols and of subsequent anti-semitic propaganda. These early chapters are rich with information and fascinating tidbits, but many readers may find the first half of the book rather slow-going: the meticulous documentation is commendable, but it becomes irritating when the subtext encroaches on the main text. (Sources are generally listed in endnotes, but extensive supplementary information is provided in footnotes, and there are many instances --particularly in Chapter Three--where the footnotes exceed mid-page.) The first half of the book may, therefore, be of primary interest to Japan scholars. Goodman, who organized and wrote the book, is a specialist in postwar Japanese drama and cultural history, so it is not surprising that the book's second half, which examines representations of Jews since World War II, appears more compelling and engaged than does the preceding section. The scathing chapters on postwar Japanese intellectuals and politicians, while hardly unbiased, are especially insightful and provocative. In contrast to his harsh assessment of postwar intellectuals, Goodman can be surprisingly generous with unsavory figures who have supported Jewish causes. Consider, for example, his euphemistic characterization of former Class-A war criminal, speedboat gambling impresario, and deluded Nobel Peace Prize aspirant, Sasahawa Ryoichi (p. 205). Readers seeking a theoretically sophisticated discussion of antisemitism in Japan might be disappointed with Jews in the Japanese Mind. Its treatment of problems of representation is rather onedimensional, and the book would generally benefit from engagement with related studies, such as Sander Gilman's work on German stereotypes of Jews. The book also fails to adequately address the relationship between anti-semitism in theory and Jew hatred in practice, which may

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lead those readers with no first-hand experience of Japan to mistakenly conclude that the country is inhospitable to Jews. The above reservations notwithstanding, this book has much to offer both the Japan specialist and the general reader, and I expect that Jews in the Japanese Mind will be the definitive work on the topic for many years to come.

Welcoming the UndeMrables: Brazil and the Jewish Question, by Jeffrey Lesser. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995, xviii + 280 pp. $42.00 (cloth) $18.00 (pape0. Allan Metz Drury College (ContemporaryJewryv. 16 1995) Lesser observes at the outset that both Latin American and Jewish historians have tended to overlook the study of Brazil's Jewish Question. By tracing the history of Jewish immigration in Brazil, the author admirably fills this void in his carefully researched and documented work, a major thesis of which is that the "Jewish Question is as critical to understanding race and ethnicity in modern Brazil as Brazilian notions of race and ethnicity are to understanding the vision of Jews, by Jews and others." Lesser explains a paradox. Jews, a very small percentage of immigrants at the time, were officially barred entrance to Brazil in 1937. Yet, after the ban was in effect only one year, more Jews legally entered Brazil at that time than in the previous two decades. The answer to this paradox involved the way Brazil's elite (a small but influential group of intellectuals and politicians) perceived "Brazilian national identity and the role immigrants, and thus residents and potential citizens, would play in shaping it." A consensus existed among this group that "social Darwinism and scientific racism" constituted the basis of a correct interpretation of culture and economic development in Brazil. Brazilian nationalism emphasized dedication to "the country," which placed non-Christian groups, especially those castigated throughout history, in a difficult position. The elite viewed Jews as cultural undesirables (nonwhite and thus at variance with the notion of racial whitening), but as people who could facilitate industrial development in Brazil. The Jewish Question in Brazil amounted to an attempt by the elite to reconcile the anti-Semitic stereotypes of Jews from nineteenth and twentieth century western Europe with the reality that a great majority of Jewish immigrants were of moderate incomes,

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were politically inactive, and adjusted quickly to life in Brazil. Thus, "in Brazil the imagined Jew, not the real one, was considered the danger. "Nationalism combined with racism resulted in the creation of the Jewish Question in Brazil. While providing valuable historical background, the book focuses on the 1930s through World War II. Lesser also places the study of Jews in Brazil within the larger international and Brazilian contexts. The Estado Novo regime of Getulio Vargas wished to project a positive image internationally and curry the favor of the United States, which applied diplomatic pressure on Brazil to permit more Jews entry into the country. Lesser also explains the complex diplomatic dealings Brazil had with European countries and the Vatican vis-a-vis Jews and other immigrant groups. In essence, Brazilian diplomacy regarding refugees was to say as much as was necessary to placate those encouraging the Brazilian government to do more on the immigration front while, in practice, do as little as possible, reflecting a discrepancy between word and deed. Among the other interesting features of the book are the distinction made between the issue of a "Jewish Question" in Brazil and Argentina, the distinction between the African (black) Question and the Jewish Question, and, as alluded to earlier, Brazilian elite attitudes (such as on racial whitening) toward minority groups like the Jews. Particularly on this latter point, Lesser's study forms part of the relevant literature such as the Judith Laiken Elkin and Gilbert W. Merkx anthology, The Jewish Presence in Latin America and Haim Avni's Argentina and the Jews: A History of Jewish Immigration on Jewish immigration and host country attitudes toward it. In the epilogue, Lesser also informatively updates the situation of Jews in Brazil through the 1950s, the military dictatorship, and, more recently, under democratic government. Other highlights include extensive documentation of secondary and primary sources in the notes section, a detailed bibliography and index, and eight appendices on and relating to Jewish immigration to Brazil. The paperback edition offers a more affordable alternative to the hardcover counterpart. Welcoming the Undesirables should appeal to a wide academic audience--undergraduate, graduate, and faculty--in the fields of history, Latin American Studies, Jewish studies, and ethnic studies.

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Dual Allegiance: Freud as a Modern Jew by MOSHE GRESSER.

Albany: SUNY Press 251 pp. $19.95 (paper). Daniel E. Bendor Assistant Clinical Professor Yale School of Medicine (Con:empoaryJewryv.16 1995) This book has five chapters: an introduction, one chapter each devoted to the early, middle and late phases of Freud's Jewish identity, and a conclusion. Unfortunately, Gresser does not offer any useful summary of Freud's enduring contributions to psychoanalysis, psychotherapy and psychiatry. It is a mistake to assume that even a very educated general reader is familiar with the substance of Freud's contributions. Gresser's thesis is that Freud's Jewish identity had three different phases and that his identity had "dual allegiance" to Jewish ethnicity and German enlightenment humanism. Greaser makes these points very clear in his study of Freud's correspondence. He makes them over and over and over again. He did not require 251 pages to establish them. Of the scores of articles and books I have read on Freud and psychoanalysis, this is the most tedious. My interest began to falter On page 28 where Greaser makes a series of speculations that are poorly substantiated. He examines selected religious passages, makes conjectures about the nature of the relationship between Freud and his father and between Freud and Judaism. One further problem with this book, as with any psychobiography, is that we can never know another's thoughts and feelings unless they are conscious of them and willing to reveal them. Trying to glean a person's true beliefs from his correspondence is bound to be difficult and incomplete. Given the difficulty in understanding another, there is often a tendency to project onto the subject that which the author wishes to see. While many go through a phase of idealizing Freud and then beyond it, Gresser does not seem to have gone beyond idealizing him as a model of a modem Jew. He says, "one senses that Freud would not choose to be anything other than Jewish" (p. 111). However, Gresser ignores much evidence which he himself presents that Freud had significant assimilationist tendencies. One of the few general points I did learn from the book is how conflicted Freud probably was about his Judaism. Observing Christmas and Easter, but not Shabbat, sounds like a parson who was very ambivalent about Judaism. Gresser implies

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that Freud thought of converting to Protestantism only "to avoid the Jewish marriage ritual" (p. 93). This sounds extremely superficial. If Freud were as Jewish as Gresser claims, he would not have considered conversion to avoid a single, brief, ceremony. Gresser makes a strained argument that Freud had a bar mitzvah and says (p.50) that one author claimed "he was able to convince Anna Freud that [a] passage contains a screen memory of Freud's bar mitzvah." My own personal communication with Anna Freud, however, revealed that she bad no idea as to whether her father had a bar mitzvah. I believe the question of whether Freud had a bar mitzvah remains unresolved and likely unresolvable. Gresser also says that Freud had a "merry heart" (p. 128) and a "joy at life" (p. 130). Given that Freud had multiple superstitions, a travel phobia that for years kept him from visiting his beloved Rome, an addiction to cigars (despite his physicians' warnings) that eventually led to his fatal cancer, autocratically ordered his Jewish (Orthodox) wife not to light candles on Shabbat, and who said "taken by and large, mankind are trash" (P.21), I am not all sure that he was such a "merry" person. No matter how creative he was, I think I would have found such a person to be anxious and constricted, especially if I consider that he cried only once or twice in his life (.p. 176). Finally, I do not believe Freud's life can be a model for those who wish the Jewish people to endure. Gresser does not mention until the end of the book (P.249) that his grandchildren "married out and effectively left the Jewish community." Freud's failure to have any significant Jewish observances in his home does not appear to be a model strategy for Jewish survival and may well have set the stage for his grandchildren's assimilation. I cannot recommend this book to the general reader. It ignores the evidence that is manifest about Freud's ambivalent relationship to Judaism. It is too narrow in focus. The book may, however, be of use to other students of Freud's relationship to Judaism. They can use it as a guide to the primary sources and derive their own conclusions. Readers interested in Freud's Jewishness will do better to look elsewhere for a less idealizing view and a more objective book.

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From Sofia to Jaffa: The Jews of Bulgaria and Israel by GUY H. HASKELL. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1994, 235 pp. $34.95. Walter F. Weiker Rutgers University, Newark (ConknnporaryJewry v.16 1995)

Etlmicity in Israel continues to receive scholarly attention. In recent years it has been enriched by research which seeks to link the role of various groups in Israel more explicitly to their characteristics in their old countries, and which considers groups other than Oriental Jews (edot-ha-Mizrach). Haskell's study has contributed in both these respects, joining research on Israelis from Turkey, Germany, India, Poland, Romania, the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia. A folklorist, Haskell began with an interest in how the Bulgarian Jews' cultural practices carried over into their lives in Israel, but he quickly concluded that he had to examine their history, politics and culture in Bulgaria as well. Thus one of the additional intriguing questions his study addresses is why the Bulgarian Jews became by far the most ardent Zionists of any Jewish community in central Europe (and indeed in Europe as a whole), and how their experience in Bulgaria can account for their retention of a particular combination of Bulgarian characteristics in Israel while at the same time they became intensely Israeli. In these regards, among the most important components of Jewish identity in Bulgaria were their emotional attachment to much that was generally Bulgarian (partly facilitated by the absence of generalized Bulgarian anti-semitism), and their marked non-religiosity. As one of Haskell's interviewees remarked, "There are four major types of Jews: Orthodox, religious, secular, and Bulgarian" (p.156). Thus, when Bulgaria became an independent state in 1878, its Jews also began to look on themselves as distinct from general Ottoman Jewry. Their non-religiosity enabled them to escape from rabbinical domination, so that they became a democratic community, and one which became oriented to Jewish secular nationalism, organized around political movements like HaShomer Ha-Za'ir and Maccabi. Rapid Bulgarian modernization also stimulated the Jews to quickly replace Ladino with Bulgarian language, and to integrate into many aspects of general life, even as they remained socially fairly separate. They maintained an

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independent Jewish school system which a large majority of Jewish children attended. Having little distinctly Bulgarian-Jewish culture, they willingly adopted general Bulgarian culture in such things as performing arts, many of which they continue to practice in Israel. During World War II, Bulgarian governments, which were nationalist even as they were also fascist, succeeded in protecting most of their Jews from German Holocaust pressures. The post-war communist regime, however, posed a threat to the autonomous existence of all religious and cultural groups. It was this threat which became the factor which motivated the Jews to implement their long-held Zionism and to emigrate en masse shortly after the state of Israel was founded. In Israel most lived initially in Jaffa, but soon went to more prosperous locations. They re-established some communal institutions. A few remain today catering mostly to the aged and to those needing help in dealings with Bulgaria. The Bulgarians' reputation in Israel is good. They are well-adjusted, hard-working, and participate in all forms of public life. In terms of Haskell's folldoristic interests, the areas in which Bulgarian customs are most manifest are foodways (which is one of the few spheres in which there was Jewish adaptation of Bulgarian culture), and performing arts (Bulgarian songs and dances continue to be popular) Only the old continue to speak Bulgarian. The major weakness of Haskell's valuable work, which would have made it even more important for comparison with other studies, is that it did not go on to the question of the degree to which ethnicity has passed from the immigrants to the next generation. His sixteen interviews were all with immigrants. Nonetheless, this book is an important and very well-written contribution. It also includes an insightful critique of the development of how Israeli society has looked at immigration and ethnicity. From Text to Context: The Turn to History in Modern Judaism, by

ISMAR SCHORSCH. Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry Series, 19. Hanover, NH and London: New England University Press, 1994. xviii + 403 pp. $ 39.95 (cloth). Michael Brenner Brandeis University (ContemporaryJewryv. 16 1995)

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When Ismar Schorsch took office as Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1986, students of Jewish history felt some regret in addition to sincere appreciation. They knew his long-awaited history of IV~ssenschafi des Judentums (the scientific study of Judaism launched in early nineteenth-century Germany) would not soon be written. While their fears have been confirmed, there is now considerable consolation. From Text to Context, a collection of Schorsch's essays, is no replacement for a systematic monograph on Wissenschafi des Judentums, but it is the most comprehensive and insightful volume on the subject so far. And more. While most of the twenty essays focus on the emergence of modem Jewish historiography and its nineteenthcentury German-Jewish context, others go beyond this framework. Such diverse topics as the myth of Sephardic supremacy among nineteenth-century German Jews, the Jewish cultural renaissance of the Weimar period, and German anti-semitism in the light of post-war historiography have their place in this volume, as well. Rarely do title and cover of a book so well reflect its content.The move "from text to context" is indeed one entailing "the turn to history in modem Judaism', as the work's subtitle suggests. Before the early nineteenth century, Jews used to study texts exclusively as religious documents. With the rise of Wissenschafi des Judentums, Jewish scholars now read the same texts (together with others previously thought irrelevant) in their context, as historical documents shedding light upon their cultural heritage. Like no other intellectual movement, the turn to history transformed the Jewish mind in the modem world. The jacket illustration, Maurycy Minkowski's "He Cast a Look and Was Hurt," not only makes for an appealing cover, it giv~ a plastic sense of the infiltration of new ideas (in this case the Haskalah in Eastern Europe) into a traditional Jewish mode of thought. The choice of such an illustration was only appropriate for Schorsch, a scholar who was one of the first in the field of Jewish Studies to grasp the importance of visual depiction. In "Art as Social History," he profiles Moritz Oppenheim, the first professional Jewish painter in Germany. While other scholars have concentrated solely on written documents in nineteenth-century German-Jewish history, Schorsch used visual depictions in order to demonstrate that Oppenheim "translated ... emancipation ideology into the medium of art," parallel to what the founders of Wissenschafi des Judentums did in the realm of scholarship. The book appeared, not coincidentally, two hundred years after the birth of Leopold Zunz, who, according to Schorsch, more than any other person shaped the "turn to history in modem Judaism." He was

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the author of the first systematic outline for a future field of Jewish Studies, and the major spirit behind the Vereinfur Cultur und Wissenschafl der Juden, founded in 1819 by a small circle of Jewish students at the University of Berlin. Ztmz's predominant role in transforming Jewish history into a new tradition, which served as a means to preserve Jewish distinctiveness in the future, is undisputed. But whether he really was "a figure of Mendelssohnian proportions," as Schorsch writes in his introduction, is debatable. In contrast to Mendelssohn, Zunz's glory was limited to the Jewish world. Unlike the most important Jew of the eightenteenth century, Zunz never received adequate recognition and standing among his non-Jewish colleagues. This cannot only be reduced to the fact that there was no Lessing in Zunz's time, but may find an additional explanation in the less universal character of his writings. In addition to discussing the extensive writings of Zunz and his colleagues, Schorsch documents their isolation within the German academic context. Zunz's life-long struggle for the integration of Jewish Studies within German universities ultimately failed. Just as he himself never achieved a position at a German university, Jewish Studies was denied its part within the academic system, as in fact Jewish scholars in any field required the baptismal certificate as their entr6e billet into the world of German mandarins. If one follows Zunz's own logic and assumes that "the equality of the Jews in customs and life will follow from the equality of Wissenschafl des Judentums" then indeed the emancipation of the Jews in Germany was never completed. The concluding essays document the development of Jewish scholarship well into the twentieth century. The mere fact that a contribution such as Schorsch's "Jewish Studies from 1818 to 1919" would enter the Encyclopedia of Religion in the 1980s is a sign of how far the recognition of the field has progressed in the last few decades. Not only as a historian of German Jewry, but also as the president of the New York Leo Baeck Institute, the history of which is told in this collection, Schorsch has been instrumental in preserving and updating the German-Jewish heritage.

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The Changing Agenda of Israeli Sociology: Theory, Ideology and Identity by URI RAM. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1995, 232 pp. $23.95. Eliezer Ben-Rafael Tel Aviv University (ConzemporaryJewryv.16 1995) This book seeks to relate the development of Israeli sociology to the political development of Israel itself. Unfortunately, its only achievement consists in summarizing a handful of works of leftist sociologists. Regarding Israel's mainstream sociology, its presentation is reductionist and biased. The author defines himself as an "HegelianMarxist and a veteran...of the Israeli left and the peace movement who, as a good Israeli, nay even a very good one, takes pride in refusing to serve in the occupied territories" (p. xi). It is from this startpoint, that the author asserts that his goal is to present an objective account of Israeli sociology. The book is introduced with a flurry of post-modernist jargon. We are then given, contrary to explicit promises of a new understanding of the Israeli reality, a superficial, unaccurate and biased description. One example among many is the claim that the achievements of Ashkenazim in all social areas are explained by racist social screening ('by birth," in the author's words, p. 19). We are also told that the 20 or so people who made up the Israeli sociological academe in the 1950s and 1960s identified with the ruling party, while in actual fact, the greatest political diversity reigned among them. We are informed that the political establishment imposed a sociological agenda, which ignores the tremendous influence of Harvard, Columbia and Chicago, where Israeli sociologists obtained their PhD or spent their sabbaticals. This deliberate attitude is at its worst when it describes the works of the founders of Israeli sociology. S. N. Eisenstadt or Joseph Ben-David are "but civil servants more than independent intellectuals ... [moved by a] vocation [to provide].., professional support and counseling for various state and national agencies" (13. 25). Yet, a simple look at the topics of the books of these worldwide renowned researchers which are always general and theoretical and the language (English) in which they are written makes it evident that they are little concerned by local policy-oriented issues. For Ram, what is important is that these sociologists participated to seminars convened by political leaders, Ben-Gurion, the historical leader of Israel, in particular.

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Ram is aware that some non-Marxist or non-declared anti-establishment sociologists are not functionalist-strncturalist either. Ram forges a. new label for them, "revised f~nctionalism-strncturalism." Eliezer Ben-Rafael and Stephen Sharot, for instance, are classified under this label, despite their own explicit conceptual clarifications positing a strncturalist, but non-functionalist, approach, through arguments with Eisenstadt, Sammy Smooha and others. Other examples concern several social anthropologists or Eisenstadt's later work. Now comes the turn of the good guys, the non- or anti-Zionist sociologists. At this point, Ram's book gains in interest for those who are not acquainted with the works reviewed, though even then caution is requested. Yonatan Shapiro's studies of elites and political parties are interestingly reported, up to, but not including, the point where Ram interprets this elite-oriented sociology as class-oriented. Smooha's work about inequality is described quite rudimentarily. A good point, here however, is the summary of Smooha's work about Israeli Arabs who have evolved into a community that cannot be confused anymore with any other Middle Eastern Arab category. Ram turns then to Marxist Slalom Svirski, who analyzes the cleavage among Israeli Jews between the Mizrahi (those of Middle Eastern or African national origin) and the Ashkenazi (those of European national origin) in terms of systematic dominant-class strategy. The reductionist shortcoming of this approach remains, of course, unnoticed by the author. Further pages then discuss three scholars, out of dozens, who have investigated gender relations and who are pushed by Ram into categories, on the basis of their assumed radicalness. The last chapter quotes from Gershon Shafir that Israel is a colonizing belligerent society. To strengthen the case, a notable pro-Arab French-Jewish Islamist, Maxime Rodinson, is brought in to state that "the State of Israel is the culmination of a process that fits perfectly into the great European-American movement of expansion" (p. 173). Arab anti-Israeli scholars are then cited to compare Israel to Mozambique or Angola. This book can hardly be read as a sociological work. It is Ram's stand that while Zionism is an ideology which causes sociologists to misread reality, anti-Zionism is the key to correct understanding. Hence, this book belongs rather to the polemic literature, as plainly asserted by the epilogue, which calls for a new agenda for the Israeli sociologists. The agenda consists of but one item: to eradicate Zionism, from sociology and from Israel.

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New World Hasidim: Ethnographic Studies of Hasidic Jews in America edited by JANET S. BELCOVE-SHALIN. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1995. xv + 285 pp. $18.95.

Egon Mayer Center for Jewish Studies,CUNY Graduate School (ContemporaryJewryv. 16 1995) The title of this erudite book invites the reader to sample the religio-etlmic world of America's Hasidim, Jews whose religious and ethnic life style has set them sharply apart not only from Americans in general, but also from the American Jewish community. Such an invitation have been long overdue as glimpses of the Hasidim's exotic world has teased the public imagination for decades. Its ten essays focus upon special problems of community boundary maintenance, gender identity and sexuality among women, the role of music, the nature of charismatic leadership, economic survival and coping with memories of the Holocaust. Represented in its pages are scholars with a long-established record of research on Hasidic community life, namely, George Kranzler, Solomon Poll, and William Shafir, as well as younger scholars such as Lynn Davidman, Debra R. Kaufman, and Jane S. Beleove-Shalin, with new approaches to issues of gender identity and comparison with fundamentalist Christian sects. Those familiar with the fuller treatments of entire communities, e.g., Israel Rubin's Satmar: An Island in the City, will particularly appreciate the more comparative approaches of recent scholars. The anthology also breaks new ground in the research on Hasidim by its focus on women in at least two of the selections, those by Debra R. Kaufman and Bonnie Morris. Indeed, in addition to the author-editor, six of the writers whose work is included in the anthology are women--surely something of a record in Hesidic studies. For all its considerable merits, this anthology will nevertheless prove somewhat disappointing, and perhaps even a little misleading to the non-specialist. The focus primarily on Lubavitcher and Szatmarer hasidim invites the question of why no significant attention is paid to the others. What are the similarities and what are the differences among the various groups? A more detailed overview chapter would have been helpful in this regard. Further, most of the writers devoted their energies to complex anthropological analyses either of singular dimensions of hasidic life such as values and norms surrounding sexuality and family life or specialized activities, e.g., the Purimspiel.

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Yet, amidst the complex analyses one has little sense of the ebb and flow of the normal lives of the people under scrutiny. One has no sense of the Hasidim's geographic/social vulnerability, for example, to the ills that beset the urban environment they call home. We learn nothing about the complex food taboos and how they structure hasidic life, nor about their ironic political alliances in the rough-and-tumble milieu of New York State politics. The preponderance of effort was devoted by nearly all writers to analysis rather than description, a particularly frustrating if not misleading defect in a book that promises ethnography, and leads the reader to expect to be treated to a portrait of the "new world of hasidim." In fact, however, one is mostly treated in this book to the new intellectual world of the scholarly interpreters of the Hasidim. I kept wishing that the writers would remove their heavy, dusty disciplinary conceptual scaffolding so as to permit the reader a richer and more detailed view of the world they are so at pains to interpret.

A l~mefor Searching: Entering the Mainstream: 1920-1945 by HENRY L. FEINGOLD (Vol. 4 of 5 of The Jewish People in America edited by Henry Feingold) Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press and the American Jewish Historical Society of America, 1992, 338 pp. $145 (set). Samuel Heilman Queens College, CUNY (ContemporaryJewryv.16 1995) Although much is made about Jewry in the second half of this century, as Henry L. Feingold makes clear in this wonderfully written volume, many of its psychological and social preconditions were set in the years between 1920 and 1945. These were years when immigration was slowed to a trickle by restrictive laws passed by Congress, and hence a time when a native Jewish American culture began to emerge. It was also a time when public expression of anti-Semitism flourished and limitations on Jewish advancement were, if not legal, at least tolerated. It was a time when Americans seemed to perceive Jews as an alien force seeking to take over what many still viewed as a fundamentally Christian nation. Furthermore, Jews were often characterized negatively as did an official of the State Department who described them in 1921, as "filthy ... often dangerous in their habits ... lacking any conception of patriotism or national spirit."

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Yet, as Feingold demonstrates, it was also a time when Jews looked upon America as the focus of their hopes and dreams. Feingold quotes the director of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, who pt~t it thus: "they come here as to the Holy Land, and if one is not admitted he feels as though he were ejected from a Holy Temple." Once in, however, Jews went through what Feingold calls "acculturation and its discontents." Here is the story of the transformations of Jewish institutional life, of the move from lansdmanschaft to synagogue life, from Yiddish writing to Jews writing in English for a non-Jewish audience, of the extraordinary Jewish flow into higher education, of the uncommonly swift transition from the lower to the middle class, and finally of the development of abiding feelings of cultural insecurity, cultural ambivalence, and excessive cultural self-consciousness as American Jews tried to discern how much of their Jewish character they could retain and what they would have to abandon as they tried to become absorbed by a native America that continued to resist their full-fledged assimilation. Some Jews who appeared successfully to become part of the American cultural reality effectively turned their back on the Jew from which they came. For example, as Feingold notes, "Walter Lippmann harbored an intense distaste for his nouveaux riches Jewish brethren, and he had almost nothing to say about the slaughter during the Holocaust" (pp. 71-72). In effect, many of these acculturating American Jews "needed to invent themselves from scratch" (p. 79). Even when American society made some room for the expression of Jewish culture, many Jews did not know what, if anything, to put in that space. Instead, they suffered a "crisis of faith," as Feingold sees it. They became divided into denominations here that steadily ignored that which united them and all too often emphasized that which divided them. It was also a time when Zionism in America became galvanized by the increasingly realizable goal of the establishment of a Jewish state. Though not all Jews were ready to join in the effort, the support for what would become Israel steadily grew through the period. There are heroes in the years that Feingoid captures here: Louis Marshall, president of the once-powerful American Jewish Committee and a major player in the evolution of the American Jewish community; Stephen S. Wise and Louis Brandeis, as well as lesser known, but no less influential, people like Professor Morris R. Cohen of the City College of New York, that great academic gateway to American Jewish

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success. In the domains of popular culture there are figures like Samuel Goldwyn, George Gershwin, Irving Thalberg, and AI Jolson who distinguished themselves during these years and beyond. And there are all the writers and their publishers. Finally, Feingold details the emergence of American Jewish political clout, a power and influence that was, however, insufficient to do much about the Holocaust or even manage to get the country to let in more than the ten percent of those who could have been allowed into this country as refugees (a poll taken during the war showed that 78 % of Americans did not believe that such refugees should be allowed in even after the war's conclusion). It was a Jewish lobby that could not manage to persuade the Americans to bomb Auschwitz or take any steps to end the Nazi killing when they first received conclusive evidence of the Jewish death camps in 1942. Perhaps it was the abiding anxiety Jews of this era felt about their place in America, the trauma of anti-Semitism, or their assimilation into the isolationism of American life that kept them from being more effective in opening America to refugees. Feingold does make clear that America's Jews were in love with America's democracy--so much so that they could overlook the toll it demanded of them in terms of their ethnic and religious identity. It was a complex era, filled with events that would shape the essential character of this country's Jews. Feingold provides us with a detailed and interesting tapestry of the times. Those who read his account will be richly rewarded.

Jewish Farmers of the Catskills: A Century of Survival by ABRAHAM D. LAVENDER AND CLARENCE B. STEINBERG. Gainsville, FL: University Press of Florida, 1995. xiv + 271 pp. $39.95. Jerome E. Fischer Executive Director, Jewish Federation of Eastern Connecticut (ContemporaryJewryv. 16 1995) Abraham Lavender and Clarence Steinberg have given us a carefully researched, richly documented account of the Jewish farming community in the Catskills area north of New York City. A good overview of the historical forces that inspired the effort by philanthropists of the 19th century to encourage Jews to enter farming, from Argentina to Colchester, Connecticut to Palestine (Israel) precedes a well constructed presentation of both oral histories and documentary

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research that yields a perhaps too finely detailed account of the most intense area of Jewish farming in North America. The story they present should fascinate both scholarly and general readers as it covers the effort to survive the Depression, efforts which saw both collectivization of farms and diversification into resort enterprises as responses that allowed the community to transform itself and survive. Their treatment of the role of rail lines, New York City markets, and refrigeration ('iced" milk) provides a glimpse of the transformation of the farm that, while part of the story of the Jewish farmers, documents the challenges to most farmers in the Northeast. The challenges Jewish farmers faced were not, in the end, different from challenges that all farmers faced, except that the Jewish farmers needed to, and did, overcome the initial skepticism and anti-Semitism of creditors and the general community. Photographs of synagogues and of individual farmers with their stock or equipment add to the value of the book and offer visual experiences that make this book a pleasure for both the social scientist and the general reader. The book is well documented with names of all interviewees and dates of all interviews, generous footnotes, and a seventeen page bibliography. Two phrases comes to mind as I contemplate this book. First, "just in time," as I realize that such documentation will be impossible in a few more years, and, "thank God" that the authors took the pains to produce a book that suits both scholar and layperson. The scholar will delight in the detailed documentation and the layperson will find pleasure in browsing. It is a valuable contribution to the history of Jews in America.

A Breath of Life: Feminism in the American Jewish Community by SALIVA BARACK FISHMAN. Hanover NH: University Press of New England (Brandeis Series in American Jewish History, Culture, and Life), 1995, xii + 300 pp. $17.95 (paper). Gender and Judaism: The Transformation of Tradition edited by T.M. RUDAVSKY. New York: New York University Press, 1995. xvii + 236 pp., $45.00 (cloth), $18.95 (paper). Rela Mintz Geffen Gratz College (ComemporaryJewry v. 16 1995)

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A Breath of Life and Gender and Judaism are examples of Jewish women's studies coming of age. Neither would have been written twenty years ago. The first would not have been written because there was neither a perceived need nor enough material for a 300 page sociological and literary analytical summary of the impact of feminism on the American Jewish community in general and on one hundred and twenty particular women who were interviewed in depth. The second volume would have been impossible to produce because there simply were not enough Jewish Studies scholars who had spent enough time on issues related to women's studies or the use of feminist tools to relearn or uncover the hidden places in such varied and often esoteric areas as the text of the Babylonian Talmud, responsa literature from the middle ages, kabbalah (Jewish mystical literature), or, to give a more contemporary example, the misuse of rhetoric by German feminist thinkers who derive Nazism from Judaism. Gender and Judaism is an anthology of twenty articles first presented as papers at a conference of the same name at the Ohio State University in 1993. Most of the authors polished their work for the printed volume and the resulting mix is surprisingly even and of high quality. The articles vary in subject matter from ancient Judaism and its texts to contemporary issues. Moreover, the work involves many disciplines including history, rabbinics, contemporary literary analysis and criticism, social psychology, political science and philosophy. The broad rubrics treated, with five contributions in each, are: "Gender and Judaism: Theoretical Concerns;" "Gender and Judaism: The History of a Tradition;" "Literary Dimensions of Gender and Judaism;" and "The Social Fabric of Gender and Judaism." Of particular interest to social scientists are: the fine article by Naomi Graetz on rabbinic responses to wife beating; Howard Adelman's analysis of the role of Jewish servants in Jewish homes in early modern Italian Jewish families; Pamela Nadell's analysis of the women who wanted to be rabbis in America in the hundred years prior to 1970; the aforementioned article on German feminist thought by Susannah Heschel; Alice Shalvi's cross-cultural accounting of the geopolitics of Jewish feminism, Laura Geller's thoughtful analysis of the impact of women on the role of the rabbi; Harry Brod's discussion of images of Jewish masculinity and finally Maurie Sacks postmodern critique of feminist theory from the vantage point of anthropology. In addition to the interest these articles might have for individual readers, the nonspecialist in Jewish Studies will Fred information from pre-modern sources which might fruitfully be integrated into contemporary

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sociology or anthropology courses in which Jews and/or Judaism are studied. A Breath of Life is a book more likely to be picked up by social scientists in the first place. In what she hopes will be a new model for social science Fishman (who also has a chapter in the Rudavsky volume explaining her intent in writing A Breath of Life) interweaves sociological data from quantitative sources such as the Council of Jewish Federation's National Jewish Population Study with qualitative materials from in-depth interviews together with insights from literary analysis to paint a word picture of the development and impact of feminism on the American Jewish community. Chapters are devoted to the history of Jewish feminism, its impact on marriage, parenthood, volunteerism, gender roles, spirituality, education and attainment of leadership roles in lay and professional spheres. Fishman sometimes adopts a moralizing tone when considering the valences of tradition and change. For instance, in her concluding chapter, "Balancing Jewish and Feminist Goals," she writes: "Certain trends within feminist thought must be recognized as antithetical to the survival of Judaism as a distinctive culture, religion and peopiehood." She goes on to note (p.233): advising the Jewish community blithely to ignore questions of authenticity denies the fact that change and transformation can as easily result in disaster as revitalization. Jewish history has included not only successful transitions . . . . Jewish history has also endured less successful and even disastrous attempts at revolution that tore the Jewish people apart and left permanent s c a r s . . . . The Sabbatian and Franldst debacles did not succeed in renewing Jewish life" and thought, despite the vitality they first inspired. Comparing feminist critiques of what she terms "establishment Judaism "to heretical messianic movements of the Jewish past is not consistent with Fishman's role as a social scientist. Such rhetoric might more appropriately be placed in a clearly announced polemical piece in a journal of opinion such as Sb'ma or Tradition or perhaps in the introduction to the book so as to help locate the position of the author in this discussion. With this one caveat in mind, A Breath of Life is a useful work which can be adopted as a required or recommended text in survey courses about the contemporary American Jewish Community or on evolving roles of Jewish women and men. Each of the works reviewed here is a welcome addition to the shelves needed to hold the growing number of scholarly and more popular works on the emergence of the Jewish women's movement and

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the impact on a variety of disciplines within Judaic scholarship of feminist theory and methods.