A History of the Jews in America

by Howard M. Sachar

Spanning 350 years of Jewish experience in this country, A History of the Jews in America is an essential chronicle by the author of The Course of Modern Jewish History.

With impressive scholarship and a riveting sense of detail, Howard M. Sachar tells the stories of Spanish marranos and Russian refugees, of aristocrats and threadbare social revolutionaries, of philanthropists and Hollywood moguls. At the same time, he elucidates the grand themes of the Jewish encounter with America, from the bigotry of a Christian majority to the tensions among Jews of different origins and beliefs, and from the struggle for acceptance to the ambivalence of assimilation.

Genres: History, Judaism, Jewish, American History, Nonfiction, Religion, Historical

1072 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Howard Morley Sachar was an American historian. He was Professor Emeritus of History and International Affairs at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. and the author of 16 books, as well as numerous articles in scholarly journals, on the subjects of Middle Eastern and Modern European history.

Reviews

[Nathan Albright]

It appears that the author of this weighty tome believed that anyone who read this book would be likely to view its contents as speaking positively about the state of Jews in America.  This is unfortunately not the case.  In reading this book I was struck by the tension if not contradiction between the author's belief that he was an unbiased and fair-minded reporter on the legitimacy of the Jews and of the leftist and even socialist perspective within American politics while showing an inveterate hostility to conservative and Orthodox Judaism as well as conservative views in general.  The fact that the author views the New York Times and Washington Post as being truthful and objective sources of truth (both owned by Jewish families, it should be noted, during the time when this book was written), and rejoices in the electoral defeat of populists whose America first appeals would tend to be hostile to Jewish interests suggests that the author treads dangerously close to ground that would justify those views as being in the interests of the United States as a whole, which is surely not what the author would wish or intend.  If one reads this book as a foe of the left, this book comes off rather poorly.

As one might expect from a book by someone who is deeply committed to leftist causes, this book is tediously biased in several fashions.  For one, the book is heavily slanted towards more contemporary history as opposed to earlier history.  By the end of the third chapter of the book the author has already covered up to the late 19th century, leaving more than 800 pages of the book to talk about the period between the end of the nineteenth and the end of the twentieth centuries.  This extreme slant means that the beginnings of the Jewish presence in America is nearly ignored and glossed over very rapidly while the less interesting and more tedious aspects of the Jewish experience in America are covered in excruciating if not nauseating detail.  The book would have been immensely more enjoyable had the proportions been reversed and we read the glowing accounts of the building of the first Jewish synagogues and communities in the United States and were able to rapidly pass over leftist plays and Hollywood and sordid arms deals and espionage in support of Israel and the fears that the Jews might lose their influence over the Democratic party because of the rising anti-semitism of blacks.

The real severe problem with this book is that the author is unaware that he might be writing to people who are less than impressed with the institutional power that has been gained by a Jewish establishment that works on nepotistic grounds, that has a hostility to Christian morality and American nationalism but that demonstrates a commitment to Jewish nationalism despite a fervent desire to enjoy the wealth that they can gain by living in America, that has long been associated with a high degree of criminality, and that has a low degree of fervor when it comes to obeying the biblical law or in supporting the greater influence of the Bible upon American society as a whole.  This book is written for Jewish insiders as a way of getting them to feel good about themselves but to remain vigilant about the threats to the well-being of the deeply divided Jewish people in this nation, but when a book like this is read by someone who is hostile to the politics of the left and who has not benefited from the clubby atmosphere of the Jewish establishment, this book tends to lend support to the harsh criticism that Jewish influence often receives, though this may reflect the author's tendency to try to bolster Jewish leftist self-esteem by talking up the importance of Jews in America.

[Harold Citron]

A scholarly tome that details the presence of Jews in the United States, from its earliest days through (at least in this version) about 1990.

With a combination of broad strokes and detail, professor Sacher follows the lives of both the various Jewish communities, notable individuals, and highlights a number of trends, including religious, cultural, economic, professional, and political throughout the variety of Jewish communities. From the earliest presence of Sephardic Jews to the more well known mass immigration starting from the late 1880's through the 1920's, through the shifting generations. Sacher notes how this community impacted the United States, and in turn was impacted through assimilation of various American values and mores.

Well worth the read, though, clocking in at over 900 pages, was a marathon march, rather than a quick read.

[Noah]

Exhaustive

[Andy Oram]

I found this book an excellent foundation for understanding the many
faces of American Judaism. I had the opportunity to read the whole
book cover to cover while recovering from an accident, and found that
it fleshed out facets of the Jewish experience I had heard about
elsewhere. Some of my perceptions of history were challenged, all were
deepened. And I still use it as a reference.

[Holli]

Very concise. Excellent reference.