Jewish girls coming of age in America, 1860-1920
By: Melissa R. Klapper
Publisher: New York University Press
Published: 2005
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 310
Subjects: Jewish girls -- United States -- Social conditions -- 19th century; Jewish girls -- United States -- Social conditions -- 20th century; Jewish girls -- Education -- United States; Jewish girls -- United States -- Social life and customs -- 19th century; Jewish girls -- United States -- Social life and customs -- 20th century; Jewish religious education of girls -- United States; Jewish teenagers -- United States -- Social life and customs -- 19th century; Jewish teenagers -- United States -- Social life and customs -- 20th century
Description: "Jewish Girls Coming of Age in America, 1860-1920 draws on a wealth of archival material, much of which has never been published - or even read - to illuminate the ways in which Jewish girls' adolescent experiences reflected larger issues relating to gender, ethnicity, religion, and education." "Klapper explores the dual roles girls played as agents of acculturation and guardians of tradition. Their search for an identity as American girls that would not require the abandonment of Jewish tradition and culture mirrored the struggle of their families and communities for integration into American society." "While focusing on their lives as girls, not the adults they would later become, Klapper draws on the papers of such figures as Henrietta Szold, founder of Hadassah; Edna Ferber, author of Showboat; and Marie Syrkin, literary critic and Zionist. Klapper also analyzes the diaries, memoirs, and letters of hundreds of other girls whose later lives and experiences have been lost to history." "Told in an engaging style and filled with colorful quotes, the book brings to life a neglected group of historical figures during a pivotal moment in the development of gender roles, adolescence, and the modern American Jewish community."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 241-294) and index
Table of contents: title: 1. "Any other girls in this whole world like myself": Jewish girls and adolescence in America; title: 2. "Unless I got more education": Jewish girls and the problem of education in turn-of-the-century America; title: 3. "Education in the broadest sense": alternative forms of education for working-class girls; title: 4. "A perfect Jew and a perfect American": the religious education of Jewish girls; title: 5. "Such a world of pleasure": adolescent Jewish girls and American youth culture