
Lone Stars of David
Brandeis University Press
Published on 3. March 2007
Book
Hardback
332 pages
978-1-58465-622-7 (ISBN)
Description
Jewish life in the United States is too often told from an East Coast perspective. Lone Stars of David presents a different panorama, with narratives of Jews who ventured to Texas before the battle of the Alamo, who fought for the Confederacy, who herded cattle up the Chisholm Trail, who drilled for oil, and who forged Jewish communities far from New York's Lower East Side. These essays also describe how Texas Jews faced the Ku Klux Klan and how they respond today to Christian fundamentalism.
This anthology examines the famous, with a close-up look at Neiman-Marcus, the chain synonymous with remarkable luxuries. It profiles Zale jewelers, founded by a young immigrant who grew into an international business icon. Another essay opens a window to the Dell Computer Corporation, with the story of Michael Dell, the college dropout whose philanthropy changed the course of the Austin Jewish community.
Written by historians, journalists, and rabbis who have experienced Texas firsthand, these essays challenge stereotypes. One chapter discounts the impact of crypto-Jews who fled the Spanish Inquisition for the New World. Another defies conventional wisdom about southern views toward Zionism. El Paso emerges as the unlikely home of a Holocaust museum. The book's essay on Jews in Texas politics analyzes the import of populist candidate Kinky Friedman and introduces Marjorie Arsht, a grassroots organizer whose living room was the setting for Republican George H. W. Bush's first foray into politics.
The Jewish population of Texas totals 131,000, a mere 0.6 percent of the state's residents, yet its impact has been widespread. This anthology explores the resiliency, diversity, and adaptability of Jews in the Lone Star State, a place with its own powerful sense of identity.
This anthology examines the famous, with a close-up look at Neiman-Marcus, the chain synonymous with remarkable luxuries. It profiles Zale jewelers, founded by a young immigrant who grew into an international business icon. Another essay opens a window to the Dell Computer Corporation, with the story of Michael Dell, the college dropout whose philanthropy changed the course of the Austin Jewish community.
Written by historians, journalists, and rabbis who have experienced Texas firsthand, these essays challenge stereotypes. One chapter discounts the impact of crypto-Jews who fled the Spanish Inquisition for the New World. Another defies conventional wisdom about southern views toward Zionism. El Paso emerges as the unlikely home of a Holocaust museum. The book's essay on Jews in Texas politics analyzes the import of populist candidate Kinky Friedman and introduces Marjorie Arsht, a grassroots organizer whose living room was the setting for Republican George H. W. Bush's first foray into politics.
The Jewish population of Texas totals 131,000, a mere 0.6 percent of the state's residents, yet its impact has been widespread. This anthology explores the resiliency, diversity, and adaptability of Jews in the Lone Star State, a place with its own powerful sense of identity.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
184 figs, 18 colour plates
Dimensions
Height: 279 mm
Width: 216 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-58465-622-7 (9781584656227)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Hollace Ava Weiner, a journalist-turned-historian, is the author of Jewish Stars in Texas: Rabbis and Their Work (1999). She is a past-president of the Southern Jewish Historical Society and has written about Texas Jewry for journals, encyclopedias, newspapers, and anthologies. Kenneth D. Roseman, rabbi at Congregation Beth Israel in Corpus Christi, has a Ph.D. in history and has written a prize-winning series of nonfiction books for juvenile readers. Robert S. Strauss, a fourth-generation Texan, was chairman of the Democratic National Party during Jimmy Carter's campaign and served as ambassador to Russia under George H.W. Bush.