Jewhooing the Sixties: American Celebrity and Jewish Identity - Sandy Koufax, Lenny Bruce, Bob Dylan, and Barbra Streisand (Brandeis Series in American Jewish History, Culture, and Life)
“Kaufman’s book is a packed study of Jewish identity, Jewish celebrity, celebrity in general, celebrity and homosexuality, Jews and homosexuality, and ‘the challenge of balancing universalist tendencies and particular concerns.’ It’s all told through and around profiles of four exemplary Jewish celebrities of the 1960s: Sandy Koufax, Lenny Bruce, Bob Dylan, and Barbra Streisand—and the fans who loved them. . . . Jewhooing succeeds as a study of Jewish identity and sheds new light on the lives of his four subjects by contextualizing them within the broader contours of American Jewish social history.”—Jewish Review of Books“Kaufman casts a new light on the landscape of American popular culture and allows us to see how Jewish celebrities have changed the rules of the game.”—Jewish Journal“Kaufman digs deep into media coverage of the time to explore just how the Jewish background of this mosaic quartet was treated, and he is on solid ground.”—The Jewish Daily Forward“Fascinating delivery by Kaufman. . . . Koufax, whose meteoric luster proved both brief and enduring, comes across as aloof but mensch-like. Bruce appears as the manic comic genius, insistent on collapsing entertainment barriers but having to pay the price. Dylan, whose treatment is perhaps the least satisfying, exudes a quicksilver-like quality, somewhat untethered, and certainly little inclined to his Jewish ancestry. Streisand proves to be a star among stars, exuding artistic brilliance and a determined identification with her religious kin. . . . .Recommended.”—Choice