Coming to Terms with America

Essays on Jewish History, Religion, and Culture

Jonathan D. Sarna

• Publisher: The Jewish Publication Society
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780827615113
• eBook ISBN: 9780827618787
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Jewish History

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Donor Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Notes about the Cover
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part 1
• 1. The Cult of Synthesis in American Jewish Culture
• 2. The Democratization of American Judaism
• 3. Jewish Prayers for the United States Government
• 4. The Lofty Vision of Cincinnati Jews
• 5. Reconciling Athens and Jerusalem: The Jews of Boston in Historical Perspective
• 6. Subversive Jews and Early American Culture
• Part 2
• 7. The Late Nineteenth-Century American Jewish Awakening
• 8. Jewish Publishing in the United States
• 9. Timeless Texts or Timely Issues? Competing Visions of Seminary Scholarship
• Part 3
• 10. The American Jewish Response to Nineteenth-Century Christian Missions
• 11. The “Mythical Jew” and the “Jew Next Door” in Nineteenth-Century America
• 12. Cultural Borrowing and Cultural Resistance in Two Nineteenth-Century American Jewish Sunday School Texts
• 13. Jewish-Christian Hostility in the United States
• 14. Christians and Non-Christians in the Marketplace of American Religion
• 15. Church-State Dilemmas of American Jews
• Source Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Selected Bibliography
• Index
• About Jonathan D. Sarna
• Series List
• Other Works by Jonathan D. Sarna