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Jewish American Heritage Month

May is Jewish American Heritage Month – On April 20, 2006, President George W. Bush proclaimed that May would be Jewish American Heritage Month. The announcement was the crowning achievement in an effort by the Jewish Museum of Florida and South Florida Jewish community leaders that resulted in resolutions introduced by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida and Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania urging the president to proclaim a month that would recognize the more than 350-year history of Jewish contributions to American culture. The resolutions passed unanimously, first in the House of Representatives in December 2005 and later in the Senate in February 2006.

The month of May was chosen due to the highly successful celebration of the 350th Anniversary of American Jewish History in May 2004, which was organized by the Commission for Commemorating 350 Years of American Jewish History. This coalition was composed of the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives, the American Jewish Historical Society, the Library of Congress and the National Archives and Records Administration. (Library of Congress: About Jewish Heritage Month)

Famous People in Jewish American History

Irving Berlin

Although he was born in Russia, Irving Berlin created songs that epitomize American music. As Michael Walsh said in Time, "Berlin's songs are as much part of American culture as any folk song. Full bio

Photo Credit: Portrait of Irving Berlin, circa 1970. © Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

On August 3, 1993, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was confirmed by the Senate in a vote of 96 to 3, becoming the 107th Supreme Court justice, its second female jurist, and the first justice to be named by a Democratic president since Lyndon B. Johnson. Full bio

Photo Credit: Supreme Court of the United States, Photographer: Steve Petteway [1], Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan (originally Robert Zimmerman), was the single most important figure in contemporary music during the 1960s, comparable in impact to Elvis Presley in the 1950s. Bob Dylan was the first and most significant singer-songwriter to emerge from the folk music scene, inspiring a whole generation of folk (and later rock) artists to explore the vast potential of songwriting in matters socially conscious, personal, spiritual, philosophical and intellectual. Full bio

Photo Credit: By Bill Ingalls - NASA.gov, Public Domain, Link

Emma Lazarus

Emma Lazarus (1849-1887), American poet, is best known as a spokesperson for the Jewish people. Her faith in America as a haven for all the downtrodden peoples of the world is expressed in her poem inscribed on the Statue of Liberty: “...Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free...”

Full bio

Photo credit: Lazarus, Emma, photograph. The Library of Congress.

Lenny Kravitz

One of the first rock superstars to emerge at the start of the 1990s, Lenny Kravitz made a name for himself by producing a string of thunderous, hook-laden, multiplatinum albums. A multiple Grammy winner, Kravitz was still going strong 20 years after recording his first album.

Full bio

Photo Credit: Serena Xu-Ning/UPI

Leonard Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein was an immensely talented American conductor, composer, pianist, and educator who has made significant contributions to the realms of both classical and popular music through numerous concerts, compositions, recordings, television appearances, and classes. Full bio

Photo Credit: © Harry Todd/Fox Photos/Getty Images

Aly Raisman

Aly Raisman is a two-time Olympic gymnast. At the Olympic Games in 2012, Raisman earned a gold medal in the floor exercise and a bronze medal for her work on the balance beam. Full bio

Photo Credit: © UPI/Phil McCarten

Jonas Salk

Jonas Salk was one of the United States's best-known microbiologists, chiefly celebrated for his discovery of the polio vaccine. In 1960, he founded the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California. Full bio

Photo Credit: SAS Scandinavian Airlines, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Henry Winkler

Henry Winkler became a television star in the 1970s with his role as "The Fonz" on the television series Happy Days. Winkler has since acted, directed, and produced in film and television. Hank (like Winkler) also has a learning disability called dyslexia that makes it difficult for him to read, write, and spell. Full bio

Photo Credit: Jim Ruymen/UPI

Levi Strauss

Levi Strauss (1829-1902) made and sold blue jeans in San Francisco, California, during and after the gold rush. His pants were so popular that Strauss' first name became a household word. Full bio

Photo Credit: The Granger Collection, New York. Reproduced by permission.

Lillian Hellman

Lillian Florence Hellman (1905-1984), American playwright, wrote a series of powerful, realistic plays that made her one of America's major dramatists. She explored highly controversial themes, with many of her plays reflecting her outspoken political and social views. Full bio

Photo Credit: Hellman, Lillian, 1966, photograph. AP Images.

Richard Meier

American architect Richard Meier is internationally renowned as a leader of modern architecture. Among Meier's most well-known projects are the Getty Center in Los Angeles, the High Museum in Atlanta, the Frankfurt Museum for Decorative Arts, Canal Plus Television Headquarters in Paris, the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Atheneum in New Harmony, Indiana. Full bio

Photo Credit: Meier, Richard, 1983, photograph. Archive Photos, Inc. Reproduced by permission.

Jewish American Heritage eBooks

Child Survivors of the Holocaust by Beth B. Cohen
ISBN: 9780813584973
Publication Date: 2018-03-28
2017 Wiener Library Ernst Fraenkel Prize (WLEFP) Finalist The majority of European Jewish children alive in 1939 were murdered during the Holocaust. Of 1.5 million children, only an estimated 150,000 survived. In the aftermath of the Shoah, efforts by American Jews brought several thousand of these child survivors to the United States. In Child Survivors of the Holocaust, historian Beth B. Cohen weaves together survivor testimonies and archival documents to bring their story to light. She reveals that even as child survivors were resettled and "saved," they struggled to adapt to new lives as members of adoptive families, previously unknown American Jewish kin networks, or their own survivor relatives. Nonetheless, the youngsters moved ahead. As Cohen demonstrates, the experiences both during and after the war shadowed their lives and relationships through adulthood, yet an identity as "survivors" eluded them for decades. Now, as the last living link to the Holocaust, the voices of Child Survivors are finally being heard.
"How Come Boys Get to Keep Their Noses?" by Tahneer Oksman
ISBN: 9780231172752
Publication Date: 2016-02-16
American comics reflect the distinct sensibilities and experiences of the Jewish American men who played an outsized role in creating them, but what about the contributions of Jewish women? Focusing on the visionary work of seven contemporary female Jewish cartoonists, Tahneer Oksman draws a remarkable connection between innovations in modes of graphic storytelling and the unstable, contradictory, and ambiguous figurations of the Jewish self in the postmodern era. Oksman isolates the dynamic Jewishness that connects each frame in the autobiographical comics of Aline Kominsky Crumb, Vanessa Davis, Miss Lasko-Gross, Lauren Weinstein, Sarah Glidden, Miriam Libicki, and Liana Finck. Rooted in a conception of identity based as much on rebellion as identification and belonging, these artists' representations of Jewishness take shape in the spaces between how we see ourselves and how others see us. They experiment with different representations and affiliations without forgetting that identity ties the self to others. Stemming from Kominsky Crumb's iconic 1989 comic "Nose Job," in which her alter ego refuses to assimilate through cosmetic surgery, Oksman's study is an arresting exploration of invention in the face of the pressure to disappear.
The Jews Should Keep Quiet by Rafael Medoff
ISBN: 9780827618305
Publication Date: 2019-09-01
Based on recently discovered documents, The Jews Should Keep Quiet reassesses the hows and whys behind the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration's fateful policies during the Holocaust. Rafael Medoff delves into difficult truths: With FDR's consent, the administration deliberately suppressed European immigration far below the limits set by U.S. law. His administration also refused to admit Jewish refugees to the U.S. Virgin Islands, dismissed proposals to use empty Liberty ships returning from Europe to carry refugees, and rejected pleas to drop bombs on the railways leading to Auschwitz, even while American planes were bombing targets only a few miles away--actions that would not have conflicted with the larger goal of winning the war. What motivated FDR? Medoff explores the sensitive question of the president's private sentiments toward Jews. Unmasking strong parallels between Roosevelt's statements regarding Jews and Asians, he connects the administration's policies of excluding Jewish refugees and interning Japanese Americans. The Jews Should Keep Quiet further reveals how FDR's personal relationship with Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, American Jewry's foremost leader in the 1930s and 1940s, swayed the U.S. response to the Holocaust. Documenting how Roosevelt and others pressured Wise to stifle American Jewish criticism of FDR's policies, Medoff chronicles how and why the American Jewish community largely fell in line with Wise. Ultimately Medoff weighs the administration's realistic options for rescue action, which, if taken, would have saved many lives.
American Jewry by Christian Wiese (Editor); Cornelia Wilhelm (Editor)
ISBN: 9781441126221
Publication Date: 2016-11-03
American Jewry explores new transnational questions in Jewish history, analyzing the historical, cultural and social experience of American Jewry from 1654 to the present day, and evaluates the relationship between European and American Jewish history. Did the hopes of Jewish immigrants to establish an independent American Judaism in a free and pluralistic country come to fruition? How did Jews in America define their relationship to the 'Old World' of Europe, both before and after the Holocaust? What are the religious, political and cultural challenges for American Jews in the twenty-first century? Internationally renowned scholars come together in this volume to present new research on how immigration from Western and Eastern Europe established a new and distinctively American Jewish identity that went beyond the traditions of Europe, yet remained attached in many ways to its European origins.
American Jewish History by Gary Phillip Zola (Editor); Marc Dollinger (Editor)
ISBN: 9781611685091
Publication Date: 2014-11-04
Presenting the American Jewish historical experience from its communal beginnings to the present through documents, photographs, and other illustrations, many of which have never before been published, this entirely new collection of source materials complements existing textbooks on American Jewish history with an organization and pedagogy that reflect the latest historiographical trends and the most creative teaching approaches. Ten chapters, organized chronologically, include source materials that highlight the major thematic questions of each era and tell many stories about what it was like to immigrate and acculturate to American life, practice different forms of Judaism, engage with the larger political, economic, and social cultures that surrounded American Jews, and offer assistance to Jews in need around the world. At the beginning of each chapter, the editors provide a brief historical overview highlighting some of the most important developments in both American and American Jewish history during that particular era. Source materials in the collection are preceded by short headnotes that orient readers to the documents' historical context and significance.
American Judaism by Jonathan D. Sarna
ISBN: 9780300101973
Publication Date: 2004-03-11
This magisterial work chronicles the 350-year history of the Jewish religion in America. Tracing American Judaism from its origins in the colonial era through the present day, Jonathan Sarna explores the ways in which Judaism adapted in this new context. How did American culture - predominantly Protestant and overwhelmingly capitalist - affect Jewish religion and culture? And how did American Jews shape their own communities and faith in the new world? Jonathan Sarna, a preeminent scholar of American Judaism, tells the story of individuals struggling to remain Jewish while also becoming American. He offers a dynamic and timely history of assimilation and revitalisation, of faith lost and faith regained. The first comprehensive history of American Judaism in over fifty years, this book is both a celebration of 350 years of Jewish life in America and essential reading for anyone interested in American religion and life.

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