For a Jew, describing a place as 'home' conveys connotations of
heritage as well as of residence. Additionally, feeling 'at home'
suggests a sense of comfort in one's social surroundings. The
questions at the heart of this volume are: what things make a home
'Jewish, ' materially and emotionally, and what is it that makes
Jews feel 'at home' in their environment? The material dimensions
are explored through a study of the symbolic and ritual objects
that convey Jewishness and a consideration of other items that may
be used to express Jewish identity in the home - something that the
introduction identifies as 'living room Judaism.' The discussion is
geographically and ethnically wide-ranging, and the transformation
of meaning attached to different objects in different environments
is contextualized, as, for example, in Shalom Sabar's study of
hamsa amulets in Morocco and Israel. For diasporic Jewish culture,
the question of feeling at home is an emotional issue that
frequently emerges in literature, folklore, and the visual and
performing arts. The phrase 'at homeness in exile' aptly expresses
the tension between the different heritages with which Jews
identify, including that between the biblical promised land and the
cultural locations from which Jewish migration emanated. The essays
in this volume take a closer look at the way in which ideas about
feeling at home as a Jew are expressed in literature originating in
Brazil, Argentina, and the United States, and also at the political
ramifications of these emotions. The question is further explored
in a series of exchanges on the future of Jews feeling 'at home' in
Australia, Germany, Israel, and the United States. Jews at Home is
the first book to examine the theme of the Jewish home materially
and emotionally from a variety of disciplinary perspectives,
including literature, history, anthropology, sociology, psychology,
art history, and folk and popular culture. The essays in the
collection use the theme of home and the concept of domestication
to revise understanding of the lived (and built) past, and to open
new analytical possibilities for the future. Its discussion of
domestic culture and its relevance to Jewish identity is one with
which readers should feel right at home. Selected as a finalist for
the 2010 National Jewish Book Awards in the catagory of Anthologies
and Collections. 'Highly readable and captivating. The conceptual
thread linking the fifteen articles is their emphasis on how the
Jewish family has shaped Jewish life . . . the articles are
intriguing and far-ranging in topic and geographic area.' Jewish
Book World, Summer 5771/2011
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