EBOOK
Urban Origins of American Judaism
Deborah Dash MooreSeries: George H. Shriver Lecture Series in Religion in American History(0)
About
The urban origins of American Judaism began with daily experiences of Jews, their responses to opportunities for social and physical mobility as well as constraints of discrimination and prejudice. Deborah Dash Moore explores Jewish participation in American cities and considers the implications of urban living for American Jews across three centuries. Looking at synagogues, streets, and snapshots, she contends that key features of American Judaism can be understood as an imaginative product grounded in urban potentials.
Jews signaled their collective urban presence through synagogue construction, which represented Judaism on the civic stage. Synagogues housed Judaism in action, its rituals, liturgies, and community, while simultaneously demonstrating how Jews Judaized other aspects of their collective life, including study, education, recreation, sociability, and politics. Synagogues expressed aesthetic aspirations and translated Jewish spiritual desires into brick and mortar. Their changing architecture reflects shifting values among American Jews.
Concentrations of Jews in cities also allowed for development of public religious practices that ranged from weekly shopping for the Sabbath to exuberant dancing in the streets with Torah scrolls on the holiday of Simhat Torah. Jewish engagement with city streets also reflected Jewish responses to Catholic religious practices that temporarily transformed streets into sacred spaces. This activity amplified an urban Jewish presence and provided vital contexts for synagogue life, as seen in the captivating photographs Moore analyzes.
Jews signaled their collective urban presence through synagogue construction, which represented Judaism on the civic stage. Synagogues housed Judaism in action, its rituals, liturgies, and community, while simultaneously demonstrating how Jews Judaized other aspects of their collective life, including study, education, recreation, sociability, and politics. Synagogues expressed aesthetic aspirations and translated Jewish spiritual desires into brick and mortar. Their changing architecture reflects shifting values among American Jews.
Concentrations of Jews in cities also allowed for development of public religious practices that ranged from weekly shopping for the Sabbath to exuberant dancing in the streets with Torah scrolls on the holiday of Simhat Torah. Jewish engagement with city streets also reflected Jewish responses to Catholic religious practices that temporarily transformed streets into sacred spaces. This activity amplified an urban Jewish presence and provided vital contexts for synagogue life, as seen in the captivating photographs Moore analyzes.
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Reviews
"Miller has written a truly exceptional book that offers keen insights into the impact of amputation on soldiers, medical officers, women, and the state. This reader cannot find any major criticism of the book as it stands, for the author has written the book that he set out to write and has done so in a compelling and graphic manner. . . . Empty Sleeves stands as an excellent addition to the fiel
Abraham Hoffman, Western States Jewish History
"While it is hardly news that U.S. Judaism has 'urban origins,' Moore rightly focuses on why it made a difference. . . . Recommended. For all readers."
J. D. Sarna, Choice
"Moore efficiently recasts over three centuries of American Jewish history using the lenses of religious life, public venues and behavior, and iconic photographs to argue for urbanism as a defining facet of, and influence on, American Judaism."
Karen S. Wilson, Journal of American History