Car­ry­ing a Big Schtick by Miri­am Eve Mora

Car­ry­ing a Big Schtick by Miri­am Eve Mora

Jew­ish Accul­tur­a­tion and Mas­culin­i­ty in the Twen­ti­eth Century

For twentieth-century Jewish immigrants and their children attempting to gain full access to American society, performative masculinity was a tool of acculturation. However, as scholar Miriam Eve Mora demonstrates, this performance is consistently challenged by American mainstream society that holds Jewish men outside of the American ideal of masculinity. Depicted as weak, effeminate, cowardly, gentle, bookish, or conflict-averse, Jewish men have been ascribed these qualities by outside forces, but some have also intentionally subscribed themselves to masculinities at odds with the American mainstream. Carrying a Big Schtick dissects notions of Jewish masculinity and its perception and practice in America in the twentieth century through the lenses of immigration and cultural history. Tracing Jewish masculinity through major themes and events including both World Wars, the Holocaust, American Zionism, Israeli statehood, and the Six-Day War, this work establishes that the struggle of this process can shed light on the changing dynamics in religious, social, and economic American Jewish life.

Year first published: 2024

Read a review on Jewish Book Council

You may also like...

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *