In
Their Own Image
Price: $23.95
Subtitle: New York Jews in Jazz Age
Popular Culture
Author: Ted Merwin
Subject: Jewish Studies/American History
Paper ISBN 0-8135-3809-2
Cloth ISBN 0-8135-3808-4
Pages: 240 pp. 29 b&w illus
Praise for In Their Own Image
"In Their Own Image is the most
complete study I know of the popular culture of Jazz Age Jews.
Ted Merwin's suggestive thesis -- that the more Jews portrayed
themselves the more American they became -- speaks volumes not only
about the culture of the twenties, but about contemporary American
Jewish culture as well."
-Jonathan Sarna, Brandeis University
"An enjoyable read...Well researched and smoothly written. Merwin has
real insight into how Jews helped to transform American culture."
-Robert Brustein, emeritus professor, Harvard University; founder of
the Yale Repertory Theatre and the American Repertory Theatre (A.R.T.)
at Harvard.
"An informative look at Jewish vaudeville, theatre and movies during
the 1920s. The vaudeville routines of such memorable performers as
Fanny Brice, Eddie Cantor, George Jessel and Sophie Tucker are
brilliantly recaptured, as are the silent films that showed Jewish
families struggling to leave the ghetto."
-Louis Botto, editor, Playbill.
Description:
The Jazz Age of the 1920s is an era remembered for illegal
liquor, innovative music and dance styles, and burgeoning ideas of
social equality. It was also the period during which second-generation
Jews began to emerge as a significant demographic in New York City. In
Their Own Image examines the growing cultural visibility of Jewish life
amid this vibrant scene.
From the vaudeville routines of Fanny Brice, Eddie Cantor,
George Jessel, and Sophie Tucker, to the slew of Broadway comedies
about Jewish life and the silent films that showed immigrant families
struggling to leave the ghetto, images and representations of Jews
became staples of interwar popular culture. Through the performing
arts, Jews expressed highly ambivalent feelings about their
identification with Jewish and American cultures. Ted Merwin shows how
they became American by producing and consuming not images of another
group, but images of themselves. As a result, they humanized Jewish
stereotypes, softened anti-Semitic attitudes, and laid the groundwork
for today's Jewish comedians.
An entertaining look at the role popular culture plays in
promoting the acculturation of an ethnic group, In Their Own Image
enhances our understanding of American Jewish history and provides a
model for the study of other groups and their integration into
mainstream society.
About the Author:
Ted Merwin teaches Religion and Judaic Studies at
Dickinson College (Carlisle, PA) where he also directs the Milton B.
Asbell Center for Jewish Life. For the last seven years, he has served
as chief theater critic of the New York Jewish Week, the
largest-circulation Jewish newspaper in the United States. His articles
appear in newspapers throughout the country, including The New York
Times, The Washington Post, Moment Magazine, Hadassah,
The Sondheim Review, MetroWest
Jewish News, Baltimore Jewish Times, Atlanta Jewish
Times and St. Louis Jewish Light. He holds a Ph.D. in
Theatre from the City University of New York Graduate Center. Ted's
website is www.intheirownimage.com
Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations
Preface and Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1: Jews on the Vaudeville Stage
Chapter 2: Jews on Broadway
Chapter 3: Jews in Silent Film
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
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Price: $23.95
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