The Wonders of America

By Joselit, Jenna Weissman
Owl Books, 2002, Paperback, 368 pp., Out of print, ISBN: 0805070028

Joselit (Our Gang: Jewish Crime and the New York Jewish Community, 1900-1940, 1983) provides a marvelously entertaining, enlightening, and insightful view into the development of the social mores and customs of American Jewry.

While she paints the American Jewish social landscape in broad brushstrokes, she also supplies myriad details based on meticulous scholarship. Joselit deftly describes how the Jewish immigrants adapted and modified age-old traditions, emphasizing those aspects of the past that seemed to meld with the perceived needs of the new environment. She even traces the development of the culinary locus of contemporary American Jewry; it is fascinating to learn that the conspicuous consumption evident at weddings and the quintessential American bar mitzvah had their genesis at the turn of the century. With both humor and affection, Joselit portrays the Americanization of Jewish culture. Highly recommended for all social history and Judaica collections. From Library Journal