"A sort of photo album. Ard and Rockland focus mainly on storekeepers, farmers, children, homemakers and factory workers. There are wonderful photos of Weingartens Corset Factory in Newark, for example, and of Fanny Dubnik with chicks at her poultry farm in Farmingdale."New York Times (New Jersey edition)

"Ard and Rockland. . . elected to tell this story through the experiences of ordinary people and to eschew the frequently pandering practice of concentrating on highly successful and visible Jews. . . .And one pores over the scores of photographsmany of them from the 19^th and early 20^th centuriesstudying the faces, the clothing and the details of grocery stores and factories. . . . This volume is a previously unheard-of effort to chronicle the Jewish experience in a crossroads state."Home News Tribune

"The books photographs will walk readers through the early Jewish communities of major New Jersey cities and suburbs. Whether they were nurses caring for infants at Beth Israel Hospital in Newark; silk workers at their looms in Paterson; bakers making challahs in Trenton; farmers raising chickens in Monmouth county; garment workers sewing in Roosevelt . . . Jews contributed enormously to the life of the state. . . . But perhaps what moved Ard and Rockland the most while creating the book are the family bonds that last through time and continue to form and strengthen the Jewish people."Rutgers Focus

"Kudos to the authors for producing an easy reading, historically outlined, informative, educational book with a marvelous pictorial layout. I am sure both Jews and non-Jews will relate to the stories of the early immigrants as they established themselves in the urban communities and, as they prospered, moved to the suburbs."Newsletter of the Jewish Historical Society of Central Jersey

Jews have called New Jersey home since the late seventeenth century, and they currently make up almost 6 percent of the states residents. Yet, until now, no book has paid tribute to the richness of Jewish heritage in the Garden State. The Jews of New Jersey: A Pictorial History redresses this lack with a lively narrative and hundreds of archival and family photographsmany rarethat bring this history to life.

Patricia Ard and Michael Rockland focus on representative Jewish communities throughout the state, paying particular attention to the extraordinary stories of ordinary people. Through the joys and struggles of homemakers, storekeepers, factory workers, athletes, children, farmers, activists, religious leaders, and Holocaust survivors, the authors tell the stories of how these communities have evolved, thrived, and changed. They note the difficulties posed by intermarriage and assimilation and, at the same time, depict a burgeoning revival of Jewish orthodoxy and traditions.

The Jews of New Jersey will please both the historian and general reader. Its heartwarming stories and pictures truly make the point that it is through the joys, triumphs, and defeats of everyday people that history is made.

Patricia M. Ard is an assistant professor of English at Ramapo College and the editor of Juanita: A Romance of Real Life in Cuba Fifty Years Ago. Michael Aaron Rockland is a professor of American studies at Rutgers University and the author of Snowshoeing through Sewers and coauthor of Looking for America on the New Jersey Turnpike (both from Rutgers University Press).

"We . . . decided that this would be a book not about famous New Jersey Jews but about the texture of everyday life of New Jerseys 460,000 Jews and their ancestors. We were not interested in celebrating this Jewish scientist, that Jewish poet, or in constructing yet another book full of revelations that such-and-such a movie star or politician or athlete is/was Jewish. We believe the Jewish community has become sufficiently self-confident and mature, and that America has become sufficiently accepting of Jews, that it is no longer necessary to engage in this form of Jewish public relations."from The Jews of New Jersey: A Pictorial History

Newark, Paterson, Trenton, and Camden

Southern New Jersey farming communities

The Hasidic community in Morristown

The artists colony of Roosevelt in Monmouth County

Beach towns such as Deal and Bradley Beach

New Brunswick/Highland Park

Postwar suburbs such as the Oranges, Cherry Hill, and Short Hills