This biography of a pioneering Zionist and leader of American Reform Judaism adds significantly to our understanding of American and southern Jewish history. Max Heller was a man of both passionate conviction and inner contradiction. He sought to be at the center of current affairs, not as a spokesperson of centrist opinion, but as an agitator or mediator, constantly struggling to find an acceptable path as he confronted the major issues of the day--racism and Jewish emancipation in eastern Europe, nationalism and nativism, immigration and assimilation. Heller's life experience provides a distinct vantage point from which to view the complexity of race relations in New Orleans and the South and the confluence of cultures that molded his development as a leader. A Bohemian immigrant and one of the first U.S.-trained rabbis, Max Heller served for 40 years as spiritual leader of a Reform Jewish congregation in New Orleans--at that time the largest city in the South. Far more than a congregational rabbi, Heller assumed an activist role in local affairs, Reform Judaism, and the Zionist movement, maintaining positions often unpopular with his neighbors, congregants, and colleagues. His deep concern for social justice led him to question two basic assumptions that characterized his larger social milieu--segregation and Jewish assimilation. Heller, a consummate Progressive with clear vision and ideas substantially ahead of their time, led his congregation, his community, Reform Jewish colleagues, and Zionist sympathizers in a difficult era.

Jews have long been in the vanguard of the struggle for civil liberties in America. But as this excellent new collection demonstrates, the American Jewish community's reaction to the black civil rights movement was less enthusiastic than many may realize or be willing to accept.... Many of the most provocative points concern northern Jewish ambivalence toward African-Americans and integration.... A carefully crafted and subtle collection that will interest scholars of American Jewish history, black-Jewish relations, and the American civil rights movement.

Containing the proceedings of the convention ...

Apart from a few articles, no comprehensive study has been written about the learned men and women in America with Czechoslovak roots. That’s what this compendium is all about, with the focus on immigration from the period of mass migration and beyond, irrespective whether they were born in their European ancestral homes or whether they have descended from them. Czech and Slovak immigrants, including Bohemian Jews, have brought to the New World their talents, their ingenuity, their technical skills, their scientific knowhow, and their humanistic and spiritual upbringing, reflecting upon the richness of their culture and traditions, developed throughout centuries in their ancestral home. This accounts for the remarkable success and achievements of these settlers in their new home, transcending through their descendants, as this monograph demonstrates. The monograph has been organized into sections by subject areas, i.e., Scholars, Social Scientists, Biological Scientists, and Physical Scientists. Each individual entry is usually accompanied with literature, and additional biographical sources for readers who wish to pursue a deeper study. The selection of individuals has been strictly based on geographical ground, without regards to their native language or ethical background. This was because under the Habsburg rule the official language was German and any nationalistic aspirations were not tolerated. Consequently, it would be virtually impossible to determine their innate ethnic roots or how the respective individuals felt. Doing it in any other way would be a mere guessing, and, thus, less objective.

A lively look at southern Jewish history and culture.

In 1886, Josephine Louise Newcomb donated funds to Tulane University for the founding of the H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College. Her contribution created the nation's first degree-granting coordinate college for women. For more than a century, Newcomb College educated thousands of young women in the liberal arts and sciences, preparing them for positions in the civic and economic world of New Orleans and the South. Newcomb College, 1886--2006 explores the rich history and tradition of the college through a diverse and multidisciplinary collection of essays. Early chapters focus on the life of Josephine Louise Newcomb and her desire to memorialize her daughter Sophie, as well as the development of student culture in the Progressive Era. Several essays explore the staples of a Newcomb education, from its acclaimed pottery and junior year abroad programs to lesser-known but trailblazing work in physical education and chemistry. Concluding biographical and autobiographical chapters recount the lives of distinguished alumnae and the personal memories of Newcomb's influence on New Orleans. The essays offer insight into the work of artists Caroline Wogan Durieux and Ida Kohlmeyer, education reformer Sarah Towles Reed, U.S. representative Lindy Boggs, and other Newcomb leaders in various fields. Throughout the book, contributors reflect on the curriculum, pedagogy, and alliances that created paths for students, not only for advanced studies, but also for their roles as friends, wives, mothers, reformers, and professionals. Touching on three centuries, the book concludes in 2006 when Tulane University closed Newcomb College and Paul Tulane College, the arts and sciences college for men, and united the two as Newcomb-Tulane College. This absorbing collection offers both a scholarly history and an affectionate tribute to a Newcomb education.

What has it meant to be Jewish in a nation preoccupied with the categories of black and white? The Price of Whiteness documents the uneasy place Jews have held in America's racial culture since the late nineteenth century. The book traces Jews' often tumultuous encounter with race from the 1870s through World War II, when they became vested as part of America's white mainstream and abandoned the practice of describing themselves in racial terms. American Jewish history is often told as a story of quick and successful adaptation, but Goldstein demonstrates how the process of identifying as white Americans was an ambivalent one, filled with hard choices and conflicting emotions for Jewish immigrants and their children. Jews enjoyed a much greater level of social inclusion than African Americans, but their membership in white America was frequently made contingent on their conformity to prevailing racial mores and on the eradication of their perceived racial distinctiveness. While Jews consistently sought acceptance as whites, their tendency to express their own group bonds through the language of "race" led to deep misgivings about what was required of them. Today, despite the great success Jews enjoy in the United States, they still struggle with the constraints of America's black-white dichotomy. The Price of Whiteness concludes that while Jews' status as white has opened many doors for them, it has also placed limits on their ability to assert themselves as a group apart.