In celebration of the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of the American Jewish Archives and its current director Gary P. Zola, this festschrift combines articles on Jewish life in America from the arrival of Jews in New Amsterdam to the nostalgia of the film Yentl. Nadell (history, American University), Sarna (history, Brandeis University) and Rabbi Sussman have selected essays that reflect the burgeoning field of American Jewish history. There are studies covering Yiddish in America, the Jews of the South, the growth of Hanukkah as a form of assimilation, and other examples of Jewish adjustment to America. There are also interesting micro-studies of individuals such as Henrietta Szold and Robert King Merton. A look at the integration of Jews into the largely Protestant campus of the University of Oregon in the twenties is a good example of a fascinating investigation into an area that is generally not part of American Jewish studies. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

New Essays in American Jewish History

Commemorating the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Founding of the American Jewish Archives

KTAV Publishing House. Inc.

Copyright © 2010 The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-60280-148-6

Contents

Preface Lance J. Sussman.....................................................................................................................................xiAfter Sixty Years: An Appreciation David Ellenson............................................................................................................1Jacob Rader Marcus and the Archive He Built Kevin Proffitt...................................................................................................5"A Land That Needs People for Its Increase:" How the Jews Won the Right to Remain in New Netherland Paul Finkelman...........................................19Architecture of Autonomy: The Blessing and Peace Synagogue of Suriname Aviva Ben-Ur and Rachel Frankel.......................................................51David Nassy's "Furlough" and the Slave Mattheus Natalie Zemon Davis..........................................................................................79The Democratization of American Judaism Jonathan D. Sarna....................................................................................................95Jonas Phillips Levy: A Jewish Naval Captain in the Early Republic William Pencak.............................................................................109Beyond the Parochial Image of Southern Jewry: Studies in National and International Leadership and Interactive Mechanisms Mark K. Bauman.....................137An Ambivalent Relationship: Isaac M. Wise and the Independent Order of B'nai B'rith Cornelia Wilhelm.........................................................155The Odyssey of a Liturgist: Isaac S. Moses as Architect of the Union Prayer Book Eric K. Friedland...........................................................175Modern Maccabees: Remaking Hanukkah in Nineteenth Century America Dianne Ashton..............................................................................197"The Spirit of Jewish History:" From Nachman Krochmal to Ahad Ha'am Alfred Gottschalk z"l....................................................................229Creating Cultural Space: Jews and Judaism at a Public University in the 1920s William Toll...................................................................247Robert King Merton, his Science, and the Promise of the Enlightenment Samuel Haber...........................................................................271When Harry Met Max Leonard Greenspoon........................................................................................................................289Rethinking the History of Nonobservance as an American Orthodox Jewish Lifestyle Jeffrey S. Gurock...........................................................305The United States in Abba Hillel Silver's World View Allon Gal...............................................................................................325Heschel and the Roots of Kavanah David Ellenson and Michael Marmur...........................................................................................345The Postwar Pursuit of American Jewish History and the Memory of the Holocaust Hasia Diner...................................................................367The Historical Consciousness of Mid-Century American Reform Judaism and the Historiography of Ellis Rivkin Robert M. Seltzer................................387Telling the American Story: Yiddish and the Narratives of Children of Immigrants Rakhmiel Peltz..............................................................417Henrietta Szold: The Making of an Icon Shuly Rubin Schwartz..................................................................................................455Yentl: From Yeshiva Boy to Syndrome Pamela S. Nadell.........................................................................................................467Notes.........................................................................................................................................................485Contributors..................................................................................................................................................591Index.........................................................................................................................................................599

Chapter One

After Sixty Years: An Appreciation

The rich collection of scholarly essays contained in this sixtieth anniversary commemorative volume displays the enduring vitality and foresight of Jacob Rader Marcus, and celebrates the tenth anniversary of Gary P. Zola as Executive Director of the AJA and Editor of The American Jewish Archives Journal. Talmid muvhak of Jacob Rader Marcus, Gary Zola has followed in the footsteps of his teacher, building upon and extending the structures Professor Marcus created. The American Jewish Archives has moved into renovated and expanded new quarters under his leadership, and Dr. Zola has made the AJA and its unparalleled resources available to the world of scholars and interested laypeople alike. The American Jewish Archives Journal itself has maintained its tradition of scholarly excellence under his editorship, and has addressed an ever-expanding range of topics and subjects related to the American Jewish experience. This volume is ample testimony to that assessment, and reflects the high esteem in which Gary Zola is held by his academic peers. Following in the tradition of the 1958 publication, Essays in American Jewish History-which marked the tenth anniversary of the founding of the AJA it is a pleasure and an honor to salute the achievements of the executive director on this occasion, and to wish the AJA and its journal many more years of continued success under his leadership.

As President of HUC-JIR, I cannot avoid noting that this sixtieth anniversary of The American Jewish Archives Journal parallels the sixtieth anniversary year of the State of Israel. Both were born in the crucible that was Jewish life alter the Shoah, and this moment of joy-as we celebrate sixty years of the publication of The American Jewish Archives Journal, and of the AJA itself, as well as the decade of leadership Dr. Zola has contributed-invites reflection upon the philosophy that guides and animates HUC-JIR as well as the role that the AJA plays at the College-Institute as this institution seeks to fulfill its mission of service to the Jewish and academic worlds.

Simply put, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion affirms the spiritual-religious assertion that the late Brandeis University Professor Simon Rawidowicz put forth in his famed work, Babylon and Jerusalem. In that book, Professor Rawidowicz employed the two ancient sites contained in the title of his book as emblematic of the reality and indivisibility that marks Jewish existence-whether in the Diaspora or the Land of Israel. He unquestionably considered Israel as a center of Jewish life, but, at the same time, affirmed the Diaspora as a center of Jewish life as well. By affirming as a core Jewish belief the integral connectedness that binds Jews and Jewish settlements everywhere, Professor Rawidowicz affirmed the moral obligations that bind Jews worldwide to one another and proclaimed a broad notion of Jewish...