Jewish Women Pioneering the Frontier Trail - A History in the American West (Paperback)

aAbramas path-breaking study is filled with remarkable stories, attesting to the fact that Jewish women played a prominent role in commerce, politics, education, the professions, and religious life.
--"Reform Judaism"

aRespected authority Abrams breaks new ground with this work broadly researched in newspapers, memoirs, correspondence, other archival materials, and a vast secondary literature.a
--"Choice"

aAbrams has written a sweeping, challenging, and provocative history of Jewish women in the American West. . . . Overall, Jewish Women is a pathbreaking work. . . . It is a fast and engrossing read. As a piece of scholarly writing it should be required reading in any course on the American West that seeks to broaden the definition of what it means to be a westerner.a
--"Colorado Book Review Center"

a[This book] is a landmark of scholarship in western womenas history.a
--"Oregon Historical Quarterly"

aReaders interested in a unique chapter in Jewish history will find this book a thoughtful and generally engaging read.a
--"The New Mexico Reader"

"Jeanne Abrams knows more than almost anybody else about Jewish women in the American west, and in this well-researched volume she shares that knowledge with her readers. This pioneering study pushes the frontier of Jewish women's history and broadens our understanding of the American Jewish experience as a whole."
--Jonathan D. Sarna, Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History and author of "American Judaism: A History"

aI donat normally give astarsa to a history book, but this one deserves a full five- both for its importantcontribution to the field of Jewish history, and also for Abramas enthralling narrative style that makes this book both a captivating and edifying text to read!a
--"History in Review"

"Jeanne Abrams' remarkable scholarly contribution stands at the intersection of American Jewish history, women's history, Western history and migration history. While others have written of women's lives in steamy urban tenements, no other volume conveys the variety of important roles that Jewish women played in the development of the American West and especially its Jewish communities. Abrams' thoughtful, clear analysis and eye for rich anecdote make her book at once a great read as well an essential addition to historians' bookshelves."
--Alan M. Kraut, Professor of History, American University, and author of "Goldberger's War: The Life and Work of a Public Health Crusader"

"This engaging and enlightening volume brings together two often neglected topics in the study of American Jews-the roles of women and of Jewish communities outside the Northeast. [Historian Jeanne] Abrams illuminates the experiences of these women and the ways in which they differed from those of Jewish women in other parts of the country. In so doing, she fills a significant gap in our understanding of the development of American Jewry."--Frederick Greenspahn, Gimelstob Eminent Scholar in Judaic Studies, Florida Atlantic University

The image of the West looms large in the American imagination. Yet the history of American Jewry-and particularly of American Jewish women--has been heavily weighted toward the East. Jewish Women Pioneering the Frontier Trail rectifies this omission as the first full book to trace the historyand contributions of Jewish women in the American West.

In many ways, the Jewish experience in the West was distinct. Given the still-forming social landscape, beginning with the 1848 Gold Rush, Jews were able to integrate more fully into local communities than they had in the East. Jewish women in the West took advantage of the unsettled nature of the region to "open new doors" for themselves in the public sphere in ways often not yet possible elsewhere in the country. Women were crucial to the survival of early communities, and made distinct contributions not only in shaping Jewish communal life but outside the Jewish community as well. Western Jewish women's level of involvement at the vanguard of social welfare and progressive reform, commerce, politics, and higher education and the professions is striking given their relatively small numbers.

This engaging work--full of stories from the memoirs and records of Jewish pioneer women--illuminates the pivotal role these women played in settling America's Western frontier.

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