
The Future of American Jewish Pasts
University of Pennsylvania Press
Published on 11. November 2025
Book
Hardback
264 pages
978-1-5128-2824-5 (ISBN)
Description
Leading scholars of American Jewish experience offer bold historical interpretations that reimagine American Jewish studies
The Future of American Jewish Pasts boldly imagines the next chapters in the study of American Jewish life. Conceived during the COVID-19 pandemic and completed just before the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and ensuing war, this innovative volume gathers leading scholars of American Jewish experience to ask what the future of the study of the American Jewish past holds.
The contributors reconceive traditional approaches to American Jewish life and delve into underexplored topics to present a vision of a rich future for the field of American Jewish studies. Essays on antisemitism, Zionism, liberalism, immigration, feminism, family histories, and more stake out new sources, methods, and interpretations of histories and historiographies. To understand American Jewish life in its complexity and richness, these essays engage multiple disciplines, including history, ethnography, and literary studies. Many showcase comparative or theoretical approaches that illuminate new dimensions of American Jewish studies, and others offer personal reflections to reveal how scholars' own life stories intersect with the questions that animate their scholarship. For students, scholars, and the general public, this interdisciplinary volume provides a tantalizing selection of the freshest approaches to understanding American Jewish life.
Contributors: Lila Corwin Berman, Tobias Brinkmann, Ayelet Brinn, Alanna E. Cooper, Jessica Cooperman, Deborah Dash Moore, Hasia R. Diner, Kathryn Hellerstein, Markus Krah, Heather S. Nathans, Noam Pianko, Lana Dee Povitz, Riv-Ellen Prell, Kate Rosenblatt, Laurence Roth, Britt Tevis, JT Waldman, Amy Weiss, Beth S. Wenger.
The Future of American Jewish Pasts boldly imagines the next chapters in the study of American Jewish life. Conceived during the COVID-19 pandemic and completed just before the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and ensuing war, this innovative volume gathers leading scholars of American Jewish experience to ask what the future of the study of the American Jewish past holds.
The contributors reconceive traditional approaches to American Jewish life and delve into underexplored topics to present a vision of a rich future for the field of American Jewish studies. Essays on antisemitism, Zionism, liberalism, immigration, feminism, family histories, and more stake out new sources, methods, and interpretations of histories and historiographies. To understand American Jewish life in its complexity and richness, these essays engage multiple disciplines, including history, ethnography, and literary studies. Many showcase comparative or theoretical approaches that illuminate new dimensions of American Jewish studies, and others offer personal reflections to reveal how scholars' own life stories intersect with the questions that animate their scholarship. For students, scholars, and the general public, this interdisciplinary volume provides a tantalizing selection of the freshest approaches to understanding American Jewish life.
Contributors: Lila Corwin Berman, Tobias Brinkmann, Ayelet Brinn, Alanna E. Cooper, Jessica Cooperman, Deborah Dash Moore, Hasia R. Diner, Kathryn Hellerstein, Markus Krah, Heather S. Nathans, Noam Pianko, Lana Dee Povitz, Riv-Ellen Prell, Kate Rosenblatt, Laurence Roth, Britt Tevis, JT Waldman, Amy Weiss, Beth S. Wenger.
Reviews / Votes
"This critical text provides bold new frameworks, methodologies, and interpretations that challenge the narrative of American Jewish 'synthesis' and draw our attention to the collisions and contradictions of the American Jewish past." (Eric L. Goldstein, Emory University)More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Pennsylvania
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paper over boards
Illustrations
8 b/w images and 10 graphics
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 162 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
530 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5128-2824-5 (9781512828245)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Lila Corwin Berman | Deborah Dash Moore | Beth Wenger
The Future of American Jewish Pasts
E-Book
11/2025
University of Pennsylvania Press
€58.49
Available for download
Persons
Deborah Dash Moore is the Frederick G. L. Huetwell Professor of History at the University of Michigan.
Beth Wenger is the Moritz and Josephine Berg Professor of History and Associate Dean for Graduate Studies, School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania.
Lila Corwin Berman is Professor of History at Temple University.
Beth Wenger is the Moritz and Josephine Berg Professor of History and Associate Dean for Graduate Studies, School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania.
Lila Corwin Berman is Professor of History at Temple University.