Examines the relationship between alcohol and the Jewish community throughout the nineteenth century and the period of Prohibition, describing the role of Jews in the liquor industry and the relationship between the anti-alcohol movement and anti-Semitism.

In Yankel's Tavern, Glenn Dynner investigates the role of Jews in tavern-keeping in the Kingdom of Poland between 1815 and the uprising of 1863-4 and its aftermath.

In this work, Marni Davis examines American Jews' long and complicated relationship to alcohol during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the years of the national prohibition movement's rise and fall.

By presenting a Jewish perspective on The Twelve Steps and offering consolation, inspiration, and motivation towards recovery, this guide explains how the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous are relevant for Jewish people as well as Christians. Afterword on "Where to Go for Help" by The JACS Foundation (Jewish Alcoholics, Chemically Dependent Persons and Significant Others). Illustrations by Maty Grunberg.

In Drunk on Genocide, Edward B. Westermann reveals how, over the course of the Third Reich, scenes involving alcohol consumption and revelry among the SS and police became a routine part of rituals of humiliation in the camps, ghettos, and killing fields of Eastern Europe. Westermann draws on a vast range of newly unearthed material to explore how alcohol consumption served as a literal and metaphorical lubricant for mass murder. It facilitated "performative masculinity," expressly linked to physical or sexual violence. Such inebriated exhibitions extended from meetings of top Nazi officials to the rank and file, celebrating at the grave sites of their victims. Westermann argues that, contrary to the common misconception of the SS and police as stone-cold killers, they were, in fact, intoxicated with the act of murder itself. Drunk on Genocide highlights the intersections of masculinity, drinking ritual, sexual violence, and mass murder to expose the role of alcohol and celebratory ritual in the Nazi genocide of European Jews. Its surprising and disturbing findings offer a new perspective on the mindset, motivation, and mentality of killers as they prepared for, and participated in, mass extermination. Published in Association with the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.

“Is the 12 step program suitable for Jews? In this book Michael Levin shows with learning, sensitivity and wisdom why the answer is a resounding ‘Yes.’” –Rabbi David Wolpe “Shikkur is a goy.” This Yiddish phrase means “Only Gentiles can be alcoholics,” but it’s not true. Jews suffer from alcoholism and addiction at the same rate as everyone else in society. Due to the stigma surrounding addiction in our community, people are dying unnecessarily…because they believe they can’t get help. Jews and Booze attacks the stigmas surrounding addiction and recovery in our world.

Compared to other religious or ethnic groups in the United States, Jewish Americans have lower rates of alcohol abuse and dependence. Most theories have concentrated on religious and cultural explanations to account for the low level of alcohol involvement found among Jewish individuals, while recent studies have focused on possible biological explanations. It is also possible that the factors associated with level of alcohol involvement among Jewish Americans may not be specific to religion, culture, or specific biological traits, but may be similar to vulnerability factors associated with alcohol-related behavior in other groups, but occurring in either lower or higher frequency among Jews. The present study used a risk and protective factor approach to determine variables associated with level of alcohol involvement and the prevalence of alcohol-related behavior in 273 Jewish and non-Jewish American Caucasian college students (47% male, mean age = 22 years). The risk and protective factors evaluated were based on vulnerability factors related to alcohol use and alcohol-related problems in previous studies and were used to create a risk factor index and a protective factor index. As hypothesized, results showed that Jewish students reported significantly fewer drinking days (19 days vs. 22 days) over the past 90 days, reported consuming significantly fewer drinks (2.5 vs. 3.2) per occasion, and had a lower prevalence of lifetime alcohol abuse (11% vs. 21%) and dependence (4% vs. 16%) than non-Jewish students. There is evidence to suggest that differences in these rates are related to Jewish individuals possessing fewer risk factors (M = 1.6 vs. 2.4) and more protective factors (M = 2.2 vs. 1.4) than non-Jews. Furthermore, results from exploratory analyses suggest that although the two groups have common vulnerability factors related to alcohol involvement, some risk and protective factors may have more significance for Jews, such as peer drinking and attitudes toward alcohol use. This research has potential to provide critical information for understanding how variables might interact to modify drinking behaviors among Jewish Americans, and on the universality of risk and protective factors across populations.

"In this innovative book on the attitudes toward and consumption of alcohol, Rod Phillips surveys a 9,000-year cultural and economic history, uncovering the tensions between alcoholic drinks as healthy staples of daily diets and as objects of social, political, and religious anxiety. In the urban centers of Europe and America, where it was seen as healthier than untreated water, alcohol gained a foothold as the drink of choice, but it has been regulated by governmental and religious authorities more than any other commodity. As a potential source of social disruption, alcohol created volatile boundaries of acceptable and unacceptable consumption and broke through barriers of class, race, and gender. Phillips follows the ever-changing cultural meanings of these potent potables and makes the surprising argument that some societies have entered "post-alcohol" phases."--Jacket.