Each chapter creates a biography of a single woman through an object, offering a new methodology that looks past texts alone to material culture in order to further understand early Jewish American women’s lives and restore their agency as creators of Jewish identity. While much of the available history was written by men, the objects that Leibman studies were made for and by Jewish women. Speaking to American Jewish life, women’s studies, and American history, The Art of the Jewish Family sheds new light on the lives and values of these women, while also revealing the social and religious structures that led to Jewish women being erased from historical archives.
Series Editor’s Preface
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. Paper Fragments
2. Pieces of Silver
3. Portraits in Ivory
4. Commonplace Things
5. Family Silhouettes
Conclusion
Appendices
Table 1: Hannah Louzada Family Tree
Table 2: Reyna Levy Moses Family Tree Table
Table 3: Sarah Brandon Moses Family Tree
Table 4: Sara Ann Hays Mordecai Family Tree
Table 5: Jane Symons Isaacs Family Tree
Table 6: Table of Judaica Types by Gender, 1750–1840
Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
Index
“This is a pathbreaking volume by a master scholar.”—Jonathan Sarna, author of American Judaism: A History
“The Art of the Jewish Family is an elegantly written, astonishingly researched, and persuasively argued collective biography of five early American, New York Jewish women… . From the moment that the book opens, we know that we are in the hands of a terrific writer… . Leibman’s detailed analyses of the messages encoded in the objects is brilliant… . Given the power of the material and the grace of the writing, I would hope that this book would reach beyond scholars to the significantly wider audience of those outside the academy who are deeply interested in early American history… . I am in awe of Leibman’s accomplishment.” — Pamela Nadell, author of America’s Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today