America's Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today

America's Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today

Pamela Nadell
$28.95
Publication Date: March 5th, 2019
Publisher:
W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN:
9780393651232
Pages:
336

Description

Winner of the 2019 Everett Fam­i­ly Foun­da­tion Book of the Year Award from the Jewish Book Council

“A welcome addition to the American historical canon.”—Jordana Horn, New York Times Book Review

Pamela S. Nadell weaves together the complex story of Jewish women in America—from colonial-era matriarch Grace Nathan and her great-granddaughter, poet Emma Lazarus, to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Recounting how Jewish women have been at the forefront of social, economic, and political causes for centuries, Nadell shows them fighting for suffrage, labor unions, civil rights, feminism, and religious rights—shaping a distinctly Jewish American identity.

About the Author

Pamela S. Nadell is the Patrick Clendenen Chair in Women’s and Gender History and director of Jewish studies at American University. Her books include America's Jewish Women and Women Who Would Be Rabbis, a National Jewish Book Award finalist. She lives in North Bethesda, Maryland.

Praise for America's Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today

America’s Jewish Women is a thoughtful history of a group of diverse, passionate, contemplative, vocal and dynamic women, and is a welcome addition to the American historical canon.

— Jordana Horn - New York Times Book Review

The definitive history of Jewish women in America.
— Jonathan D. Sarna, author of American Judaism: A History

With an expansive knowledge of both American Jewish history and women’s history, [Nadell] brings to this book unparalleled insights.
— Deborah E. Lipstadt, author of Antisemitism: Here and Now

[A] swift-paced and concise history.… Nadell fluidly intersperses thumbnail accounts of the famous and less so with a discussion of trends in American Jewish life.
— Julia M. Klein - Forward

We learn a great deal about some spectacularly brave and innovative women who transgressed traditional boundaries to break new ground.
— Elaine Margolin - Jerusalem Post

A masterful and remarkably timely history which should be on every shelf. In becoming America’s Jewish women, generations of immigrants and their native-born daughters transformed themselves, their faith, and the nation they called home.
— Abigail Pogrebin, author of My Jewish Year

A compelling and well-researched chronicle.… The contributions of these remarkable women shine in Nadell’s impressive book.
— Julie Hale - BookPage

An accessible, yet scholarly account of our history.
— Bettina Berch - Jewish Book Council

Excellent.
— Joseph Preville - World Religion News

[Nadell] has turned the diverse life stories of dozens of women across centuries of time into a mesmerizing whole. This is a book to read and reread, then sit back and contemplate, with a smile, the wondrous achievements of Jewish women in America.
— Francine Klagsbrun, author of Lioness

Nadell has taken on a big job in covering such a multidimensional, important subject. Nadell does it in informative and succinct style, and the result is a readable, valuable text.
— Publishers Weekly