In Search of American Jewish Culture

By Whitfield, Stephen J.
Brandeis University Press, 2001, Paperback, 333 pp., ISBN: 1584651717, $20.95

American Jewish culture is both omnipresent and in danger of extinction.

These are the messages of Brandeis American Studies Professor Whitfield's (American Space, Jewish Time) scholarly and entertaining yet confusing book.

We never learn exactly what he means by "American Jewish Culture," despite an early chapter devoted to the definition. Instead we are taken on a whirlwind tour, yo-yoing through the 20th century as our guide points out all the talent of Jewish descent. "The role call," he gushes, "is awesome." The bulk of this book - in thematic chapters on such topics as music, theater and race - asks us to give warm congratulations to the great service done America by the Jews. Where cultural studies at its best offers analysis of the interplay between historical and cultural trends, this book abandons historical analysis and degenerates into stereotyped ethnic triumphalism. For instance, Whitfield compares the exemplary Jewish "hospitality" of I.B. Singer to less welcoming non-Jews Nabokov and Mann.

Later chapters are more on target, focusing on the sociological ramifications of shifts in Jewish identity and faith and less on locating the elusive Jewish qualities in American culture. But resting on the book's shaky conceptual foundation, these reflections come too late.

Whitfield has . . . a terrific enthusiasm for his subject and a sense of humor. He clearly knows a lot about, for instance, the past hundred years' worth of pop tunes and Broadway musicals. On the topic of cultural cross-pollination, we get memorable observations and piquant historical tidbits . . . It's amazing that some of the most essentially American culture was influenced or created by Jews, a tiny minority who weren't intimately acquainted with the country they were creating it for. 14 illustrations. Publishers Weekly