In The Feminine Mystique, Jewish-raised Betty Friedan struck out against a postwar American culture that pressured women to play the role of subservient housewives. However, Friedan never acknowledged that many American women refused to retreat from public life during these years. Now, A Jewish Feminine Mystique? examines how Jewish women sought opportunities and created images that defied the stereotypes and prescriptive ideology of the "feminine mystique."As workers with or without pay, social justice activists, community builders, entertainers, and businesswomen, most Jewish women championed responsibilities outside their homes. Jewishness played a role in shaping their choices, shattering Friedan's assumptions about how middle-class women lived in the postwar years. Focusing on ordinary Jewish women as well as prominent figures such as Judy Holliday, Jennie Grossinger, and Herman Wouk's fictional Marjorie Morningstar, leading scholars explore the wide canvas upon which American Jewish women made their mark after the Second World War.

A social history of American Jewish women reveals the relationship between Judaism and the American experience by focusing on the lives of women over the past four hundred years. (view table of contents)

Product Description: Manhattan's Lower East Side stands for Jewish experience in America. With the possible exception of African-Americans and Harlem, no ethnic group has been so thoroughly understood and imagined through a particular chunk of space. Despite the fact that most American Jews have never set foot there--and many come from families that did not immigrate through New York much less reside on Hester or Delancey Street--the Lower East Side is firm in their collective memory...read more

A history of Jewish culture and communities in American cites and rural towns explores how Jewish immigrants from 1654 to the early twentieth century adjusted to their new lives and how they contributed to the nation's politics, arts, commerce, and culture.

A compelling social history of American Jewish women reveals the relationship between Judaism and the American experience by focusing the experiences of women over the past four hundred years. 25,000 first printing. (view table of contents)

(view table of contents)

Product Description: Manhattan's Lower East Side stands for Jewish experience in America. With the possible exception of African-Americans and Harlem, no ethnic group has been so thoroughly understood and imagined through a particular chunk of space...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Examines the migration and background of those Jews who came to America, their adaptations to their new life, the rituals, traditions, and organizations of Jewish Americans, and their contemporary situation

Examines the work, culture, family life, educational achievements, and social problems of female Irish immigrants in the United States