Jews in American Academy, 1900-1940: The Dynamics of Intellectual Assimilation (Judaic Traditions in Literature, Music, and Art) - Softcover

Klingenstein, Susanne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0815605412 ISBN 13: 9780815605416

Publisher: Syracuse University Press, 1998

Synopsis

This work examines how the philosophy and literature departments of Ivy League colleges in the early 20th century gradually accepted Jewish men, and how this integration transformed the thinking of these Jewish professors, many of whom had been raised in Orthodox homes.

About this title

About the Author:

Susanne Klingenstein is associate professor of writing and humanistic studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The author of Jews in the American Academy, 1900-1940 (forthcoming in paper from Syracuse University Press, see below), she has contributed many articles on American Jewish literature and culture to scholarly journals.

From Kirkus Reviews:

An absorbing study of American Jews who first broke the ``color line'' at the humanities faculties of Ivy League colleges. The Jewish Jackie Robinsons of this ``league'' were foreigners hired at Harvard for their linguistic abilities. They included men like Judah Monis (1683-1764), who was appointed instructor of Hebrew (then celebrated as the ``Mother Tongue'') suspiciously close to his conversion to Christianity, and the talented polyglot Leo Wiener (1862-1939), a Russian agnostic. Klingenstein is herself a foreign-born instructor at Harvard (and this book was her doctoral dissertation at the Univ. of Heidelberg), but her command of Jewish thought and learning seems vastly superior to that of any of her subjects here. Her insightful preface on Jewish concepts of freedom would likely sound unfamiliar to C.C.N.Y. philosophy professors Horace Kallen and Morris Cohen, and to Columbia men-of- letters like Ludwig Lewisohn and Lionel Trilling. According to Klingenstein, Lewisohn was less self-hating than other Jewish academics of his generation, but he clearly stated that he was only Jewish by ``name and physiognomy.'' Where Klingenstein cannot offer an authentic clash of cultures, her subjects engage in spirited debates, such as the ``Zionism is tribalism'' issue. Well written and researched--though more about socioeconomic than intellectual Jewish gains. (Twelve illustrations--not seen.) -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Syracuse University Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0815605412
• ISBN 13: 9780815605416
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272