The Jewish Americans: Three Centuries of Jewish Voices in America

By Beth Wenger

Book Overview

The PBS series The Jewish Americans offers a look at the growth, difficulties, and accomplishments of the Jewish-American community from the mid-17th century to the present day. This tie-in volume... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385521391
• ISBN13: 9780385521390
• Release Date: October 2007
• Publisher: Doubleday
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 3.01 lbs.
• Dimensions: 10.3" x 1.1" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

A Great Chorus of Interesting Jewish Voices

While I understand the concerns of the previous reviewers, I don't think it's fair to judge a book by what it isn't. In a way the criticisms are interesting precisely because there are so many American Jewish contributors to our national life that it is incredibly hard to set limits and make final choices. There are numerous fascinating interesting voices who have a chance to speak about the incredible experience of being Jewish in America. In that sense, the book is a wonderful way to see the extraordinary range of Jewish life in The Golden Land. Maybe it's because I once wrote a book about Jewish comedians, but I found the selections to be very congenial to my tastes. I can imagine this book as a gift to introduce people to Jewish life. Lawrence J. Epstein, author of "At the Edge of a Dream: The Story of Jewish Immigrants on New York's Lower East Side."

Agreed

If the book follows the show than Mr. Freedman and I have exactly the same complaint: far too much emphasis on entertainers and lawyers. Not a single word about scholars and scientists. OK, if you watch carefully, Einstein's picture flashes by, and in the final wrap up there is a snippet of Carl Sagan (who may be recognized by many) and two seconds of Dr. Judith Resnick (who died in the Challenger shuttle explosion) who is not named or identified.

A small selection of the history of American Jews

This book aims to tell the story of the American- Jewish community. It includes riveting first - person accounts of individual lives. The American- Jewish community though small in number ( presently about two- percent of the American population) has made disproportionate contributions to American life in a wide - range of fields of endeavor. This somewhat awkward and heavy volume mentions certain contributions but to my mind definitely short-changes the tremendous scientific, scholarly and literary contributions made by American Jews. It too towards the end of the volume makes a serious tilt politically to the radical left. So while I applaud the overall idea and effort- and believe there certainly is much to celebrate in the overall Jewish- American story- I feel this work could have been done in a far richer and more balanced way.