Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Interpreting American Jewish History at Museums and Historic Sites: 11 (Interpreting History)

Jews are part and parcel of American history. From colonial port cities to frontier outposts, from commercial and manufacturing centers to rural villages, and from metropolitan regions to constructed communities, Jews are found everywhere and throughout four centuries of American history. From the early 17th century to the present, the story of American Jews has been one of immigration, adjustment, and accomplishment, sometimes in the face of prejudice and discrimination. This, then, is a narrative of minority-majority relations, of evolving norms and traditions, of ongoing conversations about community and culture, identity and meaning. Interpreting American Jewish History at Museums and Historic Sites begins with a broad overview of American Jewish history in the context of a religious culture than extends back more than 3,000 years and which manifests itself in a variety of distinctive American forms. This is followed by five chapters, each looking at a major theme in American Jewish history: movement, home life, community, prejudice, and culture. The book also describes and analyzes projects by history organizations, large and small, to interpret American Jewish life for general public audiences. These case studies cover a wide range of themes, approaches, formats. The book concludes with a history of Jewish collections and Jewish museums in North America and a chapter on "next practice" that promote adaptive thinking, continuous innovation, and programs that are responsive to ever-changing circumstances. Review With contributions from three talented colleagues, Avi Y. Decter provides a unique and highly readable roadmap to this far-flung and diverse topography. Written for an audience of professionals at museums and historic sites as part of an American Association for State and Local History series, he aims to make the unfamiliar less foreign and give courage to curators and educators who are "afraid to get it wrong" (3). . . . Decter & Co. provide a crash course and a tantalizing parade of model projects.--American Jewish History Avi Y. Decter's book, Interpreting American Jewish History at Museums and Historic Sites...provides a useful guide for exploring American Jewish life in American cultural spaces. Decter's book is designed for secular American institutions; this is not a guide for interpreting material culture at Jewish museums and historical societies. Rather, this book argues for the inclusion of American Jewish stories in the larger cultural conversation.... The result is a useful toolbox for museums and historic sites interested in building the American Jewish experience into their galleries and tours.... Decter, Eleff, and Grossman provide a solid, important foundation for museums and historic sites interested in interpreting American Jewish life.--The American Jewish Archives Journal A superb accomplishment! First, Avi Decter and his collaborators set forth a bold curriculum for interpreting Jewish history--incorporating the finest recent scholarship on the Jewish experience of immigration, domestic and community life, and cultural participation in American history. And then they survey an amazingly diverse array of museum projects by which curators and public historians have advanced public understanding of this history. The result is a provocative dialogue between what we know and how we create. Everyone engaged in historical interpretation--in the classroom, the gallery, the cityscape, or on screens--has to read this book.--Richard Rabinowitz, President, American History Workshop Decter and his co-contributors offer a concise, accessible introduction to Jewish history and a far-reaching tour of public history projects that have explored its rich story. Interpreting American Jewish History is a can-do handbook for those new to the subject, and the concluding chapter on "next practice" provides a roadmap for innovation that is a must-read for all museum professionals.--Benjami