Jewish Studies

January 2021 272 pages • 6 x 9 20 black & white illustrations Cloth • $39.00S(£32.00) 9781479803385 In North American Religions

Jewish Studies BEYOND THE SYNAGOGUE

Jewish Nostalgia as Religious Practice RACHEL B. GROSS

Reveals nostalgia as a new way of maintaining Jewish continuity

Beyond the Synagogue argues that nostalgic activities such as visiting the Museum at Eldridge Street or eating traditional Jewish foods should be understood as American Jewish religious practices. In making the case that these practices are not just cultural, but actually religious, Rachel B. Gross asserts that many prominent sociologists and historians have mistakenly concluded that American Judaism is in decline, and she contends that they are looking in the wrong places for Jewish religious activity. Tracing American Jews’ involvement in a broad array of ostensibly nonreligious activities, including conducting Jewish genealogical research, visiting Jewish historic sites, purchasing books and toys that teach Jewish nostalgia to children, and seeking out traditional Jewish foods, Gross argues that these practices illuminate how many American Jews are finding and making meaning within American Judaism today.

Rachel B. Gross is Assistant Professor and John and Marcia Goldman Chair in American Jewish Studies at San Francisco State University.

NEW IN PAPERBACK

December 2020 336 pages • 6 x 9 20 black & white illustrations Paper • $25.00S(£19.99) 9781479806034 Cloth • 9781479860432

Jewish Studies POSTCARDS FROM AUSCHWITZ

Holocaust Tourism and the Meaning of Remembrance DANIEL P. REYNOLDS

The uneasy link between tourism and collective memory at Holocaust museums and memorials

Each year, millions of people visit Holocaust memorials and museums, with the number of tourists steadily on the rise. In Postcards from Auschwitz, Daniel P. Reynolds argues that tourism to former concentration camps, ghettos, and other places associated with the Nazi genocide of European Jewry has become an increasingly vital component in the evolving collective remembrance of the Holocaust. Reynolds provides a historically-informed account of the different forces that have shaped Holocaust tourism since 1945, including Cold War politics, the sudden emergence of the "memory boom" beginning in the 1980s, and the awareness that eyewitnesses to the Holocaust are passing away. This book reveals how tourism is an important part of efforts to understand and remember the Holocaust, an event that continues to challenge ideals about humanity and our capacity to learn from the past.