At least 8,000 Jewish soldiers fought for the Union and Confederacy during the Civil War. A few served together in Jewish companies while most fought alongside Christian comrades. Yet even as they stood "shoulder-to-shoulder" on the front lines, they encountered unique challenges.

In Jews and the Civil War, Jonathan D. Sarna and Adam Mendelsohn assemble for the first time the foremost scholarship on Jews and the Civil War, little known even to specialists in the field. These accessible and far-ranging essays from top scholars are grouped into seven thematic sections--Jews and Slavery, Jews and Abolition, Rabbis and the March to War, Jewish Soldiers during the Civil War, The Home Front, Jews as a Class, and Aftermath--each with an introduction by the editors. Together they reappraise the impact of the war on Jews in the North and the South, offering a rich and fascinating portrait of the experience of Jewish soldiers and civilians from the home front to the battle front.

Over a career spanning forty years, David G. Dalin has written extensively about the role of American Jews in public life, from the nation's founding, to presidential appointments of Jews, to lobbying for the welfare of Jews abroad, to Jewish prominence in government, philanthropy, intellectual life, and sports, and their one-time prominence in the Republican Party. His work on the separation of Church and State and a prescient 1980 essay about the limits of free speech and the goal of Neo-Nazis to stage a march in Skokie, Illinois, are especially noteworthy. Here for the first time are a collection of sixteen of his essays which portray American Jews who have left their mark on American public life and politics.

At the turn of the twenty-first century, the central question confronting Jewish leaders in America is simple:

"Why be Jewish?"

Jonathan D. Sarna, acclaimed scholar of American Judaism, believes that "Why be Jewish?" is the wrong question. Judaism, he believes, is not so much a "why" as a "way"--a way of life, a way of marking time, a way of relating to the environment, to human beings, to family, and to God. Judaism is experienced through "doing"--doing things Jewish, doing things for fellow Jews in need, doing things as a Jew to improve the state of the world. The more Judaism one "does," the more one comes to appreciate what Judaism "is."

Using the Jewish calendar as his starting point, Sarna reflects on the major themes of Jewish life as expressed in a full year of holidays--from Passover in the spring to Purim eleven months later. Passover, for instance, yields a discussion of freedom; Shavuot, a discussion of Torah; Yom Kippur, the role of the individual within the Jewish community; Chanukah, issues of assimilation and anti-assimilation.

An essential brief introduction--or reintroduction--to the major practices of Jewish life as well as the many complexities of the American Jewish experience, this book will be essential reading for American Jews and the perfect gift for the holiday season.

This photographic essay highlights the little-known history of the first Jewish communities established in the New World dating to the 1600s. Award-winning photographer Wyatt Gallery documents the oldest synagogues and cemeteries on Barbados, Curacao, Jamaica, St. Thomas, St. Eustatius, and Suriname through his singular style of photos with histories written by Stanley Mirvis. The enclaves, formed by Sephardic Jews who fled the Catholic Inquisition, became so influential that they helped fuel the success of the American Revolution and partially finance the first synagogues in New York City and Newport, Rhode Island. Once home to thousands, today these historic communities are rapidly dwindling and could soon disappear. Only five historic synagogues remain in use, and many of the cemeteries have been damaged or lost to natural disasters, vandalism, and pollution. These photographs bear witness to the legacy of New World Judaism and provide a record for future generations.

The essays collected here investigate Rabbi Silver's Zionist political leadership, his impact on American Judaism, ideological orientation and relations with the leaders of the Palestine Jewish community, World Zionist Organization and the Jewish State.

A Centennial, writes Hebrew College President Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld, "is an invitation to reflect on the last century of teaching and learning at Hebrew College, to ask ourselves what has changed and what has endured, to explore accomplishments and share ongoing struggles, to articulate our aspirations for the next one hundred years." A compilation of captivating essays on Jewish studies alongside powerful personal memoirs from the College's earliest years until today, Hiddushim captures and celebrates the spirit of a learning community connected to its source and brimming with spiritual and intellectual creativity as it carries forward its legacy of rootedness and renewal into the future.

At least 8,000 Jewish soldiers fought for the Union and Confederacy during the Civil War. A few served together in Jewish companies while most fought alongside Christian comrades. Yet even as they stood "shoulder-to-shoulder" on the front lines, they encountered unique challenges. In Jews and the Civil War, Jonathan D. Sarna and Adam Mendelsohn assemble for the first time the foremost scholarship on Jews and the Civil War, little known even to specialists in the field. These accessible and far-ranging essays from top scholars are grouped into seven thematic sections-Jews and Slavery, Jews and Abolition, Rabbis and the March to War, Jewish Soldiers during the Civil War, The Home Front, Jews as a Class, and Aftermath-each with an introduction by the editors. Together they reappraise the impact of the war on Jews in the North and the South, offering a rich and fascinating portrait of the experience of Jewish soldiers and civilians from the home front to the battle front.

'Jews in America' documents the remarkable story of the Jewish presence in the New World, from the time of Columbus to the 1920s, when the Jewish community in the United States was four million strong and an essential part of American society and culture. Drawing on a mix of contemporary books, manuscripts, globes, maps and engravings from the world-renowned collections of the New York Public Library, Jews in America is a vivid document of everyday Jewish-American life, worship, law, and commerce. It tells the fascinating story of the first Jewish immigrants' arrival in the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam in 1654 (later New York City), Jewish interaction with the four colonial powers in the Western Hemisphere (Spain, Portugal, The Netherlands and England), and on the ideas and beliefs that they influenced. The final chapter looks at the evolving cultural role of Jews in late 19th and early 20th century New York, especially the rise of the Yiddish theatre.

Coming to Terms with America examines how Jews have long "straddled two civilizations," endeavoring to be both Jewish and American at once, from the American Revolution to today. In fifteen engaging essays, Jonathan D. Sarna investigates the many facets of the Jewish-American encounter-what Jews have borrowed from their surroundings, what they have resisted, what they have synthesized, and what they have subverted. Part I surveys how Jews first worked to reconcile Judaism with the country's new democratic ethos and to reconcile their faith-based culture with local metropolitan cultures. Part II analyzes religio-cultural initiatives, many spearheaded by women, and the ongoing tensions between Jewish scholars (who pore over traditional Jewish sources) and activists (who are concerned with applying them). Part III appraises Jewish-Christian relations: "collisions" within the public square and over church-state separation. Originally written over the span of forty years, many of these essays are considered classics in the field, and several remain fixtures of American Jewish history syllabi. Others appeared in fairly obscure venues and will be discovered here anew. Together, these essays-newly updated for this volume-cull the finest thinking of one of American Jewry's finest historians.

Presents Jewish history from the turmoil and strife of Russia in the 1880's to the great migration to the United States the creation of the modern State of Israel modern American Jewish life and life in the Diaspora.

Collected essays by a preeminent authority on American Jewish history.

For the first time, Religion and State in the American Jewish Experience makes available critical documents which have shaped debate over religion and state issues throughout the course of American Jewish history. Following a comprehensive historical introduction, Professors Jonathan D. Sarna and David G. Dalin present a wide range of primary source materials which articulate the different positions held within the American Jewish community on numerous past and present church-state issues, including the constitutionality of former state Sunday Laws, or "blue laws"; whether or not Orthodox Jews serving in the military should be permitted to wear yarmulkes while in uniform; whether Jewish prisoners have a right to kosher food; whether prayer, nonsectarian or otherwise, should have any role in public schools; whether menorahs should be displayed alongside Christian symbols such as creches during the Christmas season; or whether all types of religious symbols should be banned from public arenas.

The chapters proceed chronologically, beginning with the colonial period and progressing through the 1990s, and give readers a clear sense of the changes which have occurred over the years.

In Religion and State in the American Jewish Experience, Professors Sarna and Dalin recover divergent voices and opinions from the American Jewish community, and their research reveals that the community has never been limited to a single voice on issues of religion and state but has instead accommodated a rich variety of outlooks and positions. By gathering these individual voices into one comprehensive sourcebook, Sarna and Dalin offer a unique and well-documented look at a major aspect of the experience ofbeing Jewish in America.

Following a comprehensive historical introduction, Professors Sarna and Dalin present a wide range of primary source materials articulating the different positions held within the American Jewish community on numerous past and present church-state issues: including former state Sunday Laws, or "blue laws"; dress code variations for Orthodox Jews in the military; kosher food for Jewish prisoners; school prayer; public displays of religious symbols; and whether all religious symbols should be removed from public arenas. The chapters proceed chronologically, from the colonial period to the present day, giving readers an understanding of the changes that occurred over several centuries. This book recovers the divergent voices and opinions of the American Jewish community, revealing that one single voice on these issues has never been capable of accommodating the rich variety of positions within the community. By gathering these divergent outlooks in one sourcebook, Sarna and Dalin offer a unique and well-documented look at a major aspect of being Jewish in America.

Jonathan Sarna's meticulously documented centennial history presents the personalities and the controversies, the struggles and the achievements behind a century of publishing by America's foremost publisher of Jewish books in English. Sarna's engaging blend of anecdote and analysis contextualizes the Jewish Publication Society within American Jewry's evolving social, political, and cultural history. He demonstrates that the society has been a major factor. Sarna recounts the inspired struggle of the Jewish Publication Society's founders, a group of genteel Philadelphia philanthropists including Cyrus Adler and Mayer Sulzberger, who believed fervently in the need to educate their immigrant coreligionists with Jewish books in the new vernacular. He also tells the story of Henrietta Szold, best known for her later achievements as the founder of Hadassah and Youth Aliyah. Szold worked doggedly for twenty-three years as the society's first editor until a shattered love for a JPS author became the catalyst that led her to Palestine and Zionist leadership. Here too are fascinating accounts of the long deliberations and intense work that produced the authoritative JPS Bible translations of 1917 and 1985, translations acceptable to all major branches of Judaism. Sarna also recounts the controversy surrounding the 1973 publication of The Jewish Catalog, a project developed by the bold JPS editor Chaim Potok. The Catalog, embodying the spirit of the Jewish counterculture, not only became the best-selling JPS book after the Bible, but it also showed that JPS could meet the challenge of a new generation as it moved toward its second century.

Bringing together, for the first time, several distinguished historians of Zionism and the American Jewish experience, Abba Hillel Silver and American Zionism offers a comprehensive treatment of one of the twentieth century's pre-eminent Jewish political figures. Silver was a champion of American Zionism whose singular role in modern Jewish history and the establishment of the State of Israel has been hitherto neglected. The contributions to this volume are diverse in scope; they are based on previously inaccessible and unexplored archival material. The essays investigate Silver's Zionist political leadership, impact on American Judaism, ideological orientation and relations with the leaders of the Palestine Jewish community, World Zionist Organization and the Jewish state.