Abstract
Widely regarded as today's foremost American Jewish historian,
Jonathan D. Sarna had a huge impact on the academy. Sarna's
influence is perhaps nowhere more apparent than among his former
doctoral students-a veritable "Sarna diaspora" of over three dozen
active scholars around the world. Both a tribute to Sarna and an
important collection in its own right, New Perspectives in
American Jewish History was compiled by Sarna's former
students and presents previously unpublished, neglected, or rarely
seen historical documents and images that illuminate the breadth,
diversity, and dynamism of the American Jewish experience.
Beginning with the earliest known Jewish divorce in circum-Atlantic
history (1774) and concluding with a Black Lives Matter Haggadah
supplement (2019), the collection travels across time and space to
shed light on intriguing and generative moments that span the
varieties of Jewish experience in the American setting from the
colonial era to the present. The materials underscore the
interrelationship of myriad themes including ritual observance,
Jewish-Christian relations, civil rights, Zionism and Israel, and
immigration. While not intended as a comprehensive treatment of
American Jewish history, the collection offers a chronological road
map of American Jewry's evolving self-understanding and encounter
with America over the course of four centuries. A brief prefatory
note sets up the analytic context of each document and helps to
unpack and explore its significance. The capacious and multifaceted
quality of the American Jewish experience is further amplified here
by a sampling of artistic texts such as photographs,
advertisements, cartoons, and more.