Between 1880 and 1914, Eastern European Jewish immigrants in New York's Lower East Side defined themselves as American not only by their occupations or education but by their spending practices as well. Jewish immigrants assimilated into American culture through the purchase of fashions, material goods, and resort vacations, combined with Jewish social and religious traditions to create a unique and innovative American identity.

The seventh volume of the acclaimed annual publication of the Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jews and Messianism in the Modern Era: Metaphor and Meaning examines the significance and meaning of messianic metaphors, themes, and ideals in modern Jewish history and culture. In addition to the standard symposia, book reviews, and lists of recent dissertations in Jewish studies, the volume includes contributions from such noted scholars of Jewish history as Jody Elizabeth Myerson on the messianic idea and Zionist ideologies; Aviezer Ravitsky on Zionism and the state of Israel as anti-messianic undertakings; Yaacov Shavit on realism and messianism in Zionism and the Yishuv; Hannan Hever on poetry and messianism in Palestine between the two world wars; Paul Mendes-Flohr on Jewish theological responses to political messianism in the Weimar Republic; and Richard Wolin on Jewish secular messianism.

Study of a vital immigrant institution and the formation of American ethnic identity. Landsmanshaftn, associations of immigrants from the same hometown, became the most popular form of organization among Eastern European Jewish immigrants to the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Jewish Immigrant Associations and American Identity in New York, 1880–1939, by Daniel Soyer, holds an in-depth discussion on the importance of these hometown societies that provided members with valuable material benefits and served as arenas for formal and informal social interaction. In addition to discussing both continuity and transformation as features of the immigrant experience, this approach recognizes that ethnic identity is a socially constructed and malleable phenomenon. Soyer explores this process of construction by raising more specific questions about what immigrants themselves have meant by Americanization and how their hometown associations played an important part in the process.

Recounts the story of Jews in America, from the mid-seventeenth century to the present day, examining the contributions of the Jewish people to American culture, politics, and society.

With more than 240 primary sources, this introduction to a complex topic is a resource for student research.

This bibliography is a comprehensive record of doctoral dissertations on religion and American society. Included are 4,240 citations for dissertations written through June 1991. Each work discusses the historical dimension of America's religious experience between 1620 and 1900, and the bibliography provides order numbers for all dissertations available from University Microfilms, Inc. In addition to biographical and denominational studies, the volume contains citations on communal societies, fraternal orders, literature, pragmatism, science, slavery, and temperance. Also included are titles pertaining to church-affiliated institutions of higher education. A preface overviews the scope of the work, criteria for inclusion, and research methodology. A section of bibliographic entries for denominations and movements follows. Entries in this section are grouped in clusters for particular movements and denominations, and the clusters are arranged alphabetically for ease of use. The next section contains bibliographic entries arranged in topical clusters, with topics presented in alphabetical order. The volume concludes with detailed author and subject indexes.