Jews in Christian America - The Pursuit of Religious Equality

Zusatztext In the end this book stands on its own. It finally gives American Jewish historiography a picture of its varied legal and institutional response to being 'strangers in the land'. In a host nation that above all else reveres the law, that story is indispensable for understanding the American Jewish experience. Klappentext A driving force in the history of American Jews has been the pursuit of religious equality under law. Jews reasoned that state and federal legislation or public practices which sanctioned religious! specifically Christian! usages blocked their path to full integration within society. Always a small minority and ever fearful of the outspoken proponents of the Christian state! nineteenth-century Jews became ardent defenders of church-state separation. In the twentieth century! Jewish defense organizations took a prominent role in landmark court cases on religion in the schools! Sunday laws! and public displays of Christian symbols. Over the last two centuries! Jews shifted from support of a neutral-to-all-religions government to a divorced-from-religion government! and from defense of their own interests to the defense of other religious minorities. Jews in Christian America traces in historical context the response of American Jews to the issues presented by a Christian-flavored public religion. Discussing the contributions of each major wave of Jewish immigrants to the reinforcement of a separationist stand! Cohen shows how Jewish communal priorities! pressures from the larger society! and Jewish-Christian relationships fashioned that response. She also makes clear that the Jewish community was never totally united on the goals and tactics of a separationist posture; despite the continued predominance of the strict separationists! others argued the adverse effects of that position on communal well-being and on the very survival of Judaism. Zusammenfassung This book examines how American Jews from colonial times to the present have contended with living in a fundamentally Christian state. Separation of church and state has become a veritable creed in the American Jewish community, and the focus of the work is the way in which Jewish actions have contributed to the development of this separation in the US....

Product details

• Authors: Naomi W. Cohen, Naomi W. (Professor of History Cohen, naomi wiener Cohen, Cohen Naomi W.
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 03.09.1992
• EAN: 9780195065374
• ISBN: 978-0-19-506537-4
• No. of pages: 310
• Series: Studies in Jewish History; Studies in Jewish History (Oxf; Studies in Jewish History
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Cultural history; USA, Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900, RELIGION / Judaism / General, 20th Century, HISTORY / Social History, Social & cultural history, 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000, HISTORY / Jewish, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Jewish Studies, c 1800 to c 1900, 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899, 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999, 18th century, c 1700 to c 1799, Jewish Studies, Judaism, Social and cultural history, United States of America, USA, Relating to Jewish people and groups, C 1700 To C 1800, Social groups: religious groups and communities