Jeffrey S. Gurock's Books

City of promises : a history of the jews of New York

By: Deborah Dash Moore,Howard B. Rock,Jeffrey S. Gurock,Annie Polland,Daniel Soyer

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City of promises : a history of the jews of New York

By: Deborah Dash Moore,Howard B. Rock,Jeffrey S. Gurock,Annie Polland,Daniel Soyer

New York Jews, so visible and integral to the culture, economy and politics of America's greatest city, has eluded the grasp of historians for decades. Surprisingly, no comprehensive history of New York Jews has ever been written. City of Promises: The History of the Jews in New York, a three volume set of original research, pioneers a path-breaking interpretation of a Jewish urban community at once the largest in Jewish history and most important in the modern world.

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1154

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NYU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0814717314

ISBN 13

9780814717318

A Modern Heretic and a Traditional Community

Mordecai M. Kaplan, Orthodoxy, and American Judaism

By: Jeffrey S. Gurock,Jacob J. Schacter

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A Modern Heretic and a Traditional Community

Mordecai M. Kaplan, Orthodoxy, and American Judaism

By: Jeffrey S. Gurock,Jacob J. Schacter

Mordecai Kaplan, the founder of the Reconstructionist movement, was the most influential and controversial radical Jewish thinker in the twentieth century. This book examines the intellectual influences that moved Kaplan from Orthodoxy and analyzes the combination of personal, strategic, and career reasons that kept Kaplan close to Orthodox Jews, posing a question crucial to the understanding of any religion: Can an established religious group learn from a heretic who has rejected its most fundamental beliefs?

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252

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Columbia University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0231504497

ISBN 13

9780231504492

Orthodox Jews in America

By: Jeffrey S. Gurock

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Orthodox Jews in America

By: Jeffrey S. Gurock

Although there are many good books on the history of Jews in America and a smaller subset that focuses on aspects of Orthodox Judaism in contemporary times, no one, until now, has written an overview of how Orthodoxy in America has evolved over the centuries from the first arrivals in the 17th century to the present. This broad overview by Gurock (Libby M. Klaperman Professor of Jewish History, Yeshiva Univ.; Judaism's Encounter with American Sports) is distinctive in examining how Orthodox Jews have coped with the personal, familial, and communal challenges of religious freedom, economic opportunity, and social integration, as well as uncovering historical reactionary tensions to alternative Jewish movements in multicultural and pluralistic America. Gurock raises penetrating questions about the compatibility of modern culture with pious practices and sensitively explores the relationship of feminism to traditional Orthodox Judaism. There are several excellent reference sources on Orthodox Jews in America, e.g., Rabbi Moshe D. Sherman's outstanding Orthodox Judaism in America: A Biographical Dictionary and Sourcebook, to which this is an accessible and illuminating companion; recommended not only for serious readers on the topic but for general readers as well.David B. Levy, Touro Coll. Women's Seminary Lib., Brooklyn, NY Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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802

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Indiana University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0253220602

ISBN 13

9780253220608

Jews in Gotham

New York Jews in a Changing City, 1920-2010

By: Jeffrey S. Gurock

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Jews in Gotham

New York Jews in a Changing City, 1920-2010

By: Jeffrey S. Gurock

Jews in Gotham follows the Jewish saga in ever-changing New York City from the end of the First World War into the first decade of the new millennium. This lively portrait details the complex dynamics that caused Jews to persist, abandon, or be left behind in their neighborhoods during critical moments of the past century. It shows convincingly that New York retained its preeminence as the capital of American Jews because of deep roots in local worlds.

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358

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NYU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0814738273

ISBN 13

9780814738276

The Jews of Harlem

The Rise, Decline, and Revival of a Jewish Community

By: Jeffrey S. Gurock

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The Jews of Harlem

The Rise, Decline, and Revival of a Jewish Community

By: Jeffrey S. Gurock

The complete story of Jewish Harlem and its significance in American Jewish history New York Times columnist David W. Dunlap wrote a decade ago that “on the map of the Jewish Diaspora, Harlem Is Atlantis. . . . A vibrant hub of industry, artistry and wealth is all but forgotten. It is as if Jewish Harlem sank 70 years ago beneath waves of memory beyond recall.” During World War I, Harlem was the home of the second largest Jewish community in America. But in the 1920s Jewish residents began to scatter to other parts of Manhattan, to the outer boroughs, and to other cities. Now nearly a century later, Jews are returning uptown to a gentrified Harlem. The Jews of Harlem follows Jews into, out of, and back into this renowned metropolitan neighborhood over the course of a century and a half. It analyzes the complex set of forces that brought several generations of central European, East European, and Sephardic Jews to settle there. It explains the dynamics that led Jews to exit this part of Gotham as well as exploring the enduring Jewish presence uptown after it became overwhelmingly black and decidedly poor. And it looks at the beginnings of Jewish return as part of the transformation of New York City in our present era. The Jews of Harlem contributes much to our understanding of Jewish and African American history in the metropolis as it highlights the ever-changing story of America’s largest city. With The Jews of Harlem, the beginning of Dunlap’s hoped-for resurfacing of this neighborhood’s history is underway. Its contemporary story merits telling even as the memories of what Jewish Harlem once was warrants recall.

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305

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NYU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1479890421

ISBN 13

9781479890422

American Jewish Orthodoxy in Historical Perspective

By: Jeffrey S. Gurock

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American Jewish Orthodoxy in Historical Perspective

By: Jeffrey S. Gurock

American freedom, opportunity and voluntarism has created challenges to the traditional faith and practice of all religious denominations. Jeffrey S. Gurock's pathbreaking work on the history of Jewish Orthodoxy in America has identified and explored the many ways that one religious group responded to those challenges. His model and influential studies of the American Orthodox rabbinate and synagogue have shown that attitudes favoring religious reconciliation and accommodation to the American environment were not less important than Orthodoxy's staunch resistance to that same environment. His seminal work has challenged scholars to understand that Orthodoxy is composed of a spectrum of approaches and has demonstrated that merely labelling a person or institution as "Orthodox" is only the first step towards understanding a particular stance on the most contentious of issues. American Jewish Orthodoxy in Historical Perspective brings together fifteen of Professor Gurock's most important essays with a new introduction that places his work in historiographical perspective. Beginning with his now-classic "Resisters and Accommodators" and "The Orthodox Synagogue", which provide the general viewpoint for what follows, this collection proceeds to individual case studies that examine the ways in which Orthodox Jews understood Christian religious threats, the challenges of modern Zionist ideologies, the varieties of Orthodox lay behavior, profiles of influential Orthodox rabbis, the styles of American Orthodox synagogues, and a description of one type of Orthodox day-school education.

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492

Publisher

KTAV Publishing House, Inc.

Published Date

ISBN 10

088125567X

ISBN 13

9780881255676

Marty Glickman

The Life of an American Jewish Sports Legend

By: Jeffrey S. Gurock

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Marty Glickman

The Life of an American Jewish Sports Legend

By: Jeffrey S. Gurock

The first comprehensive biography of the preeminent voice of New York sports For close to half a century after World War II, Marty Glickman was the voice of New York sports. His distinctive style of broadcasting, on television and especially on the radio, garnered for him legions of fans who would not miss his play-by-play accounts. From the 1940s through the 1990s, he was as iconic a sports figure in town as the Yankees’ Mickey Mantle, the Knicks’ Walt Frazier, or the Jets’ Joe Namath. His vocabulary and method of broadcasting left an indelible mark on the industry, and many of today’s most famous sportscasters were Glickman disciples. To this very day, many fans who grew up listening to his coverage of Knicks basketball and Giants football games, among the myriad of events that Glickman covered, recall fondly, and can still recite, his descriptions of actions in arenas and stadiums. In Marty Glickman, Jeffrey S. Gurock showcases the life of this important contributor to American popular culture. In addition to the stories of how he became a master of American sports airwaves, Marty Glickman has also been remembered as a Jewish athlete who, a decade before he sat in front of a microphone, was cynically barred from running in a signature track event in the 1936 Olympics by anti-Semitic American Olympic officials. This lively biography details this traumatic event and explores not only how he coped for decades with that painful rejection but also examines how he dealt with other anti-Semitic and cultural obstacles that threatened to stymie his career. Glickman’s story underscores the complexities that faced his generation of American Jews as these children of immigrants emerged from their ethnic cocoons and strove to succeed in America amid challenges to their professional and social advancement. Marty Glickman is a story of adversity and triumph, of sports and minority group struggles, told within the context of the prejudicial barriers that were common to thousands, if not millions, of fellow Jews of his generation as they aimed to make it in America.

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249

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NYU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1479820881

ISBN 13

9781479820887

Parkchester

A Bronx Tale of Race and Ethnicity

By: Jeffrey S. Gurock

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Parkchester

A Bronx Tale of Race and Ethnicity

By: Jeffrey S. Gurock

The eight-decade story of a New York neighborhood In 1940, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company opened a planned community in the East Bronx, New York. A model of what the neighborhood would become was first displayed to an excited public at the 1939 World’s Fair. Parkchester was celebrated as a “city within a city,” offering many of the attractions and comforts of suburbia, but without the transportation issues that plagued commuters who trekked into New York City every day. This new neighborhood initially constituted a desirable alternative to inner city neighborhoods for white ethnic groups with the means to leave their Depression-era homes. In this bucolic environment within Gotham, the Irish and Italian Catholics, white Protestants and Jews lived together rather harmoniously. In Parkchester, Jeffrey S. Gurock explains how and why a “get along” spirit prevailed in Parkchester and marked a turning point in ethnic relations in the city. Gurock is also attuned to, and documents fully, the egregious side to the neighborhood’s early history. Until the late 1960s, Parkchester was off-limits to African Americans and Latinos. He is also sensitive to the processes of integration that took place once the community was opened to all and explains why transition was made without significant turmoil and violence that marked integration in other parts of the city. This eight decade history takes Parkchester’s tale up to the present day and indicates that while the neighborhood is today predominantly African American and Latino, and home to immigrants from all over the world, the spirit of conviviality still prevails on its East Bronx streets. As a child of Parkchester himself, Gurock couples his critical expertise as leading scholar of New York City’s history with an insider’s insight in producing a thoughtful, nuanced understanding of ethnic and race relations in the city.

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320

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NYU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1479867977

ISBN 13

9781479867974

Jewish New York

The Remarkable Story of a City and a People

By: Deborah Dash Moore,Jeffrey S. Gurock,Annie Polland,Howard B. Rock,Daniel Soyer

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Jewish New York

The Remarkable Story of a City and a People

By: Deborah Dash Moore,Jeffrey S. Gurock,Annie Polland,Howard B. Rock,Daniel Soyer

The definitive history of Jews in New York and how they transformed the city Jewish New York reveals the multifaceted world of one of the city’s most important ethnic and religious groups. Jewish immigrants changed New York. They built its clothing industry and constructed huge swaths of apartment buildings. New York Jews helped to make the city the center of the nation’s publishing industry and shaped popular culture in music, theater, and the arts. With a strong sense of social justice, a dedication to civil rights and civil liberties, and a belief in the duty of government to provide social welfare for all its citizens, New York Jews influenced the city, state, and nation with a new wave of social activism. In turn, New York transformed Judaism and stimulated religious pluralism, Jewish denominationalism, and contemporary feminism. The city’s neighborhoods hosted unbelievably diverse types of Jews, from Communists to Hasidim. Jewish New York not only describes Jews’ many positive influences on New York, but also exposes their struggles with poverty and anti-Semitism. These injustices reinforced an exemplary commitment to remaking New York into a model multiethnic, multiracial, and multireligious world city. Based on the acclaimed multi-volume set City of Promises: A History of the Jews of New York winner of the National Jewish Book Council 2012 Everett Family Foundation Jewish Book of the Year Award, Jewish New York spans three centuries, tracing the earliest arrival of Jews in New Amsterdam to the recent immigration of Jews from the former Soviet Union.

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510

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NYU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1479802646

ISBN 13

9781479802647

Judaism's Encounter with American Sports

By: Jeffrey S. Gurock

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Judaism's Encounter with American Sports

By: Jeffrey S. Gurock

Judaism's Encounter with American Sports examines how sports entered the lives of American Jewish men and women and how the secular values of sports threatened religious identification and observance. What do Jews do when a society -- in this case, a team -- "chooses them in," but demands commitments that clash with ancestral ties and practices? Jeffrey S. Gurock uses the experience of sports to illuminate an important mode of modern Jewish religious conflict and accommodation to America. He considers the defensive strategies American Jewish leaders have employed in response to sports' challenges to identity, such as using temple and synagogue centers, complete with gymnasiums and swimming pools, to attract the athletically inclined to Jewish life. Within the suburban frontiers of post--World War II America, sports-minded modern Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform rabbis competed against one another for the allegiances of Jewish athletes and all other Americanized Jews. In the present day, tensions among Jewish movements are still played out in the sports arena. Today, in a mostly accepting American society, it is easy for sports-minded Jews to assimilate completely, losing all regard for Jewish ties. At the same time, a very tolerant America has enabled Jews to succeed in the sports world, while keeping faith with Jewish traditions. Gurock foregrounds his engaging book against his own experiences as a basketball player, coach, and marathon runner. By using the metaphor of sports, Judaism's Encounter with American Sports underscores the basic religious dilemmas of our day.

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258

Publisher

Indiana University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0253111609

ISBN 13

9780253111609

Lake Waubeeka: A Community History

By: Jeffrey S. Gurock

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Lake Waubeeka: A Community History

By: Jeffrey S. Gurock

In 1951, a small group of Jewish firefighters from New York City established a summer colony called Lake Waubeeka in Danbury, Connecticut. Today, it is a religiously, ethnically and racially diversified community of some 250 families... Over recent decades, Waubeeka has become a predomincately year-round settlement. While community demographics changed, a cooperative spirit has been passed from generation to generation."--Back cover.

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112

Publisher

Arcadia Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1467149462

ISBN 13

9781467149464

The Holocaust Averted

An Alternate History of American Jewry, 1938-1967

By: Jeffrey S. Gurock

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The Holocaust Averted

An Alternate History of American Jewry, 1938-1967

By: Jeffrey S. Gurock

In The Holocaust Averted, Jeffrey Gurock imagines what might have happened to the Jewish community in the United States if the Holocaust had never occurred and forces readers to contemplate how the road to acceptance and empowerment for today’s American Jews could have been harder than it actually was.

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316

Publisher

Rutgers University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0813572401

ISBN 13

9780813572406

Haven of Liberty

New York Jews in the New World, 1654-1865

By: Howard B. Rock,Annie Polland,Daniel Soyer,Jeffrey S. Gurock

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Haven of Liberty

New York Jews in the New World, 1654-1865

By: Howard B. Rock,Annie Polland,Daniel Soyer,Jeffrey S. Gurock

Part 1 of a three part series, Deborah Dash Moore, general editor.

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400

Publisher

NYU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0814776329

ISBN 13

9780814776322

Jewish New York

The Remarkable Story of a City and a People

By: Deborah Dash Moore,Jeffrey S. Gurock,Annie Polland,Howard B. Rock,Daniel Soyer

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Jewish New York

The Remarkable Story of a City and a People

By: Deborah Dash Moore,Jeffrey S. Gurock,Annie Polland,Howard B. Rock,Daniel Soyer

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510

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NYU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1479864471

ISBN 13

9781479864478

The Jews of Harlem

The Rise, Decline, and Revival of a Jewish Community

By: Jeffrey S. Gurock

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The Jews of Harlem

The Rise, Decline, and Revival of a Jewish Community

By: Jeffrey S. Gurock

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305

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NYU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1479890421

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9781479890422

City of Promises

A History of the Jews of New York, 3-volume box set

By: Howard B. Rock,Deborah Dash Moore,Jeffrey S. Gurock,Annie Polland,Daniel Soyer,Diana L. Linden

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City of Promises

A History of the Jews of New York, 3-volume box set

By: Howard B. Rock,Deborah Dash Moore,Jeffrey S. Gurock,Annie Polland,Daniel Soyer,Diana L. Linden

Winner of the 2012 National Jewish Book Award, presented by the National Jewish Book Council New York Jews, so visible and integral to the culture, economy and politics of America’s greatest city, has eluded the grasp of historians for decades. Surprisingly, no comprehensive history of New York Jews has ever been written. City of Promises: A History of the Jews of New York, a three volume set of original research, pioneers a path-breaking interpretation of a Jewish urban community at once the largest in Jewish history and most important in the modern world. Volume I, Haven of Liberty, by historian Howard B. Rock, chronicles the arrival of the first Jews to New York (then New Amsterdam) in 1654 and highlights their political and economic challenges. Overcoming significant barriers, colonial and republican Jews in New York laid the foundations for the development of a thriving community. Volume II, Emerging Metropolis, written by Annie Polland and Daniel Soyer, describes New York’s transformation into a Jewish city. Focusing on the urban Jewish built environment—its tenements and banks, synagogues and shops, department stores and settlement houses—it conveys the extraordinary complexity of Jewish immigrant society. Volume III, Jews in Gotham, by historian Jeffrey S. Gurock, highlights neighborhood life as the city’s distinctive feature. New York retained its preeminence as the capital of American Jews because of deep roots in local worlds that supported vigorous political, religious, and economic diversity. Each volume includes a “visual essay” by art historian Diana Linden interpreting aspects of life for New York’s Jews from their arrival until today. These illustrated sections, many in color, illuminate Jewish material culture and feature reproductions of early colonial portraits, art, architecture, as well as everyday culture and community. Overseen by noted scholar Deborah Dash Moore, City of Promises offers the largest Jewish city in the world, in the United States, and in Jewish history its first comprehensive account.

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