Reference Library of Jewish America
Two deluxe volumes — a tremendous resource for studying the history, religious traditions, and accomplishments of Jewish Americans.
About the Series
The two-volume Reference Library of Jewish America is a tremendous resource for studying the history and accomplishments of Jewish Americans. Essays offer substantial treatment of the lives of prominent persons and thoroughly analyze each subject's contribution to society and culture, both contemporary and historical. Three indexes — name, nationality, and occupation — facilitate research, and the series is a perfect fit for lesson plans involving Jewish American history and culture.
Jewish American history spans more than three and a half centuries, from the first community in New Amsterdam in 1654 through the great migration of two million Eastern European Jews between 1880 and 1924 — most through Ellis Island — to the community's deep contributions to American law, science, medicine, business, entertainment, and letters. The series sets that long arc alongside chapters on religious practice, customs, and community life that help students understand the tradition from the inside.
Topics Covered
Jewish philanthropy — immigration waves — Jewish American museums — family and community dynamics — religion and religious practices — customs and holidays — nations and beliefs of the Middle East — language and culture — perspectives on the Holocaust — media — famous Jewish Americans.
Volume by Volume
- Volume I: Jewish Americans — history, community, religious life, and biographical essays
- Volume II: International Jewish Figures — biographical essays on figures of world significance
In the Classroom and Library
The series supports Jewish American Heritage Month in May, comparative immigration units (pair its immigration chapters with the European America and Arab America sets, as our lesson plans guide outlines), and Holocaust education, where its measured reference treatment provides grounding before students encounter testimony. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's educator resources and the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History both offer free materials that extend the printed volumes.
Why only two volumes? Concentration, not omission. The set was designed as the biographical and cultural core of a community's story, with its immigration narrative deliberately shared across the collection — the European America set carries the full Jewish American ethnic essay among its forty-five. Read together, the two treatments complement rather than repeat each other, a small example of the collection-wide architecture described in our collection overview.
Reading Pathways
The migration route follows the immigration-waves chapters from the colonial Sephardic communities through the great Eastern European migration of 1880–1924, pairing naturally with our Ellis Island history article and the European America set's Jewish American essay for a layered account. The traditions route reads the religion, customs, and holidays chapters as cultural literacy — valuable preparation for literature units where Jewish American writers appear. The biography route spans both volumes, setting American figures beside the international figures of Volume II to trace a community's global connections.
The perspectives-on-the-Holocaust chapter is deliberately measured reference material rather than testimony; teachers building Holocaust units should read it first themselves, then use it to ground students in verified history before introducing survivor accounts from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's collections.
Reference Details
- Format
- 2 deluxe hardcover volumes; appendix, bibliography, glossary, index
- Length
- Approximately 700 pages
- Editor
- Frank V. Castronova
- ISBN
- 0-7876-4179-0 (0787641790)
- Reading level
- Middle and high school; teacher resource for elementary grades
To find this set in a library near you, search WorldCat by title or ISBN. See also the rest of the series guide or the complete 31-volume collection.