Boundaries of Jewish Identity

by Glenn, Susan A.; Sokoloff, Naomi B.

• ISBN13: 9780295990552
• ISBN10: 0295990554
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-11-01
• Publisher: Univ of Washington Pr

Summary

The subject of Jewish identity is one of the most vexed and contested issues of modern religious and ethnic group history. This interdisciplinary collection draws on work in law, anthropology, history, sociology, literature, and popular culture to consider contemporary and historical responses to the question "Who and what is Jewish?"These essays are focused especially on the issues of who creates the definitions, and how, and in what social and political contexts. The ten leading authorities writing here also look at the forces, ranging from new genetic and reproductive technologies to increasingly multicultural societies, that push against established boundaries. The authors examine how Jews have imagined themselves and how definitions of Jewishness have been established, enforced, challenged, and transformed. Does being a Jew require religious belief, practice, and formal institutional affiliation? Is there a biological or physical aspect of Jewish identity? What is the status of the convert to another religion? How do definitions play out in different geographic and historical settings? What makesBoundaries of Jewish Identitydistinctive is its attention to the various Jewish "epistemologies" or ways of knowing who counts as a Jew. These essays reveal that possible answers reflect the different social, intellectual, and political locations of those who are asking.This book speaks to readers concerned with Jewish life and culture and to audiences interested in religious, cultural, and ethnic studies. It provides an excellent opportunity to examine how Jews fit into an increasingly diverse America and an increasingly complicated global society.Susan A. Glennis Howard and Frances Keller Endowed Professor of History and a member of the Jewish Studies Program at the University of Washington.Naomi B. Sokoloffis professor of Near Eastern languages and civilizations and professor of comparative literature at the University of Washington, where she has also served as the Samuel and Althea Stroum Endowed Chair in Jewish Studies. Other contributors are Gad Barzilai, Lila Corwin Berman, Laada Bilaniuk, Jonathan Freedman, Calvin Goldscheider, Susan Martha Kahn, Erica Lehrer, and Shulamit S. Magnus."Jewish identity presents a particular challenge for students of culture because the Jews are at once a profoundly variable group--both religious and secular, national and cosmopolitan, ethnically diverse--and also highly unified by historical and textual associations.Boundaries of Jewish Identityis a provocative and stimulating book on a much talked about but surprisingly underanalyzed subject."-David Biale, University of California, Davis

Author Biography

Susan A. Glenn is Howard and Frances Keller Endowed Professor in History at the University of Washington. Naomi B. Sokoloff is Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Washington.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
Introduction: Who and What Is Jewish?	p. 3
Controversies and Comparative Perspectives on the Boundaries of Jewish Identity
Are Genes Jewish?	p. 12
Conceptual Ambiguities in the New Genetic Age
Who is a Jew?	p. 27
Categories, Boundaries, Communities, and Citizenship Law in Israel
Jewish Character?	p. 43
Stereotype and Identity in Fiction from Israel
"Funny, You Don't Look Jewish"	p. 64
Visual Stereotypes and the Making of Modern Jewish Identity
Blame, Boundaries, and Birthrights	p. 91
Jewish Intermarriage in Midcentury America
Boundary Maintenance and Jewish Identity	p. 110
Comparative and Historical Perspectives
Good Bad Jews	p. 132
Converts, Conversion, and Boundary Redrawing in Modern Russian Jewry, Notes toward a New Category
"Jewish Like an Adjective"	p. 161
Confronting Jewish Identities in Contemporary Poland
Conversos, Marranos, and Crypto-Latinos	p. 188
The Jewish Question in the American Southwest (and What It Can Tell Us about Race and Ethnicity)
The Contested Logics of Jewish Identity	p. 203
Bibliography	p. 216
Contributors	p. 233
Index	p. 237
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