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Modern Jewish History
New York Jews and the Great Depression: Uncertain Promise
This remarkable chronicle of New York City's Jewish families during the years of the Great Depression describes a defining moment in American Jewish history. Beth S. Wenger tells the story of a generation of immigrants and their children as they faced an uncertain future in America. Challenging the standard narrative of American Jewish upward mobility, Wenger shows that Jews of the era not only worried about financial stability and their security as a minority group but also questioned the usefulness of their educational endeavors and the ability of their communal institutions to survive. Wenger uncovers the widespread changes throughout the Jewish community that enabled it to emerge from the turmoil of this period and become a thriving middle-class ethnic group in the post-World War II era.
- GenresHistoryNonfictionJewish
288 pages, Hardcover
First published December 25, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 31, 2020
Most of the editorial reviews are self-explanatory - a few things that surprised me:
1. The hardship that the Great Depression caused for synagogues and other Jewish institutions; I have always taken the financial stability of Jewish institutions for granted, but evidently Jews in the 1930s did not have this luxury.
2. That concerns over assimilation are nothing new. In 1929, almost 80% of NYC Jewish children received no religious training or Hebrew instruction (p. 184).
3. Where Jews lived (see p. 82 for table). I had always known that some once-Jewish neighborhoods have lost most of their Jewish population (mostly notably in the Bronx). But I did not know about similarities between then and now: for example, the Upper West Side, then as now, was heavily Jewish- and ditto for Borough Park (though the latter area was less homogenously Orthodox in the 30s than today). Other areas were virtually Jew-free in the 30s (Greenwich Village, Park Slope, Brooklyn Heights) and may actually be more Jewish today, as gentrification has brought in Jewish professionals. Similarly, the Jewish presence in Queens was minimal in the 30s, but is far larger today- I was astonished to learn, for instance, that Forest Hills was less than 10% Jewish in 1932.
1. The hardship that the Great Depression caused for synagogues and other Jewish institutions; I have always taken the financial stability of Jewish institutions for granted, but evidently Jews in the 1930s did not have this luxury.
2. That concerns over assimilation are nothing new. In 1929, almost 80% of NYC Jewish children received no religious training or Hebrew instruction (p. 184).
3. Where Jews lived (see p. 82 for table). I had always known that some once-Jewish neighborhoods have lost most of their Jewish population (mostly notably in the Bronx). But I did not know about similarities between then and now: for example, the Upper West Side, then as now, was heavily Jewish- and ditto for Borough Park (though the latter area was less homogenously Orthodox in the 30s than today). Other areas were virtually Jew-free in the 30s (Greenwich Village, Park Slope, Brooklyn Heights) and may actually be more Jewish today, as gentrification has brought in Jewish professionals. Similarly, the Jewish presence in Queens was minimal in the 30s, but is far larger today- I was astonished to learn, for instance, that Forest Hills was less than 10% Jewish in 1932.
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May 27, 2009The book is a fascinating study of a period & a people. Although it is an extension of a thesis, it is readable for this type of book. The reader gets a clear view of the effect of the Depression on the Jewish population, from the poor to the "comfortable". It's an aspect of the Depression that doesn't always get much exposure.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews