"A refreshing and stimulating look at Jewish vaudeville, theater, and movies sure to revise our understanding of the Jazz Age."--Deborah Dash Moore, author of GI Jews: How World War II Changed a Generation

"In this engaging and accessible book, Merwin describes a much more empowered generation of Jewish show business than is suggested by previous work. A fresh and provocative perspective on familiar material."-Harley Erdman, author of Staging the Jew: The Performance of an American Ethnicity, 1860-1920

"Clearly written, carefully researched, and thoughtfully argued, In Their Own Image fills important gaps in existing scholarship. This book will appeal to anyone interested in American Jewish culture, American theater and film history, and American popular culture."-Joel Berkowitz, author of Shakespeare on the American Yiddish Stage

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.

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 six 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, 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.

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