New York Jews and the Great Depression
Subtitle: uncertain promise
By: Beth S. Wenger.
Series: Yale historical publications; Yale historical publications (Unnumbered)
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 1996
Place of publication: New Haven
Language: eng
Number of pages: 269
Subjects: Jews -- New York (State) -- New York -- Economic conditions; Depressions -- 1929 -- New York (State) -- New York; New York (N.Y.) -- Ethnic relations
Description: 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.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 213-259) and index.