American Jewish Historical Society

Essential Readings in American Jewish History

The bibliography below outlines some of the elemental scholarly works on the history of Jews in the Americas. The American Jewish Historical Society compiles and maintains the list. General histories are listed first, followed by reference publications and periodicals.

General Works

• Angel, Rabbi Marc D. Remnant of Israel a Portrait of Americas First Jewish Congregation. New York: Riverside Book Co., 2004.
• Antler, Joyce. The Journey Home: How Jewish Women Shaped Modern America. New York: Free Press, 1997.
• Baum, Charlotte, Paula Hyman and Sonya Michel. The Jewish Woman in America. New York: Dial Press, 1976.
• Blau, Joseph L. and Salo W. Baron, eds. The Jews of the United States, 1790-1840: A Documentary History. New York: Columbia University Press, 1964.
• Cohen, Martin A., ed. Jewish Experience in Latin American: Selected Studies from the Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society (American Jewish Historical Society). Volumes I & II. 2 vols. Waltham, MA and New York: American Jewish Historical Society and KTAV, 1971.
• Cohen, Naomi. Encounter With Emancipation: The German Jews in the United States, 1830-1914. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1984.
• Davidowicz, Lucy S.On Equal Terms: Jews in America, 1881-1981. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1982.
• Davis, Moshe and Isidore S. Meyer, eds. The Writing of American Jewish History. New York: American Jewish Historical Society, 1957.
• Diner, Hasia. The Jews of the United States, 1654-2000 . Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004.
• Feingold, Henry, ed. The Jewish People in America. 5 vols. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press for the American Jewish Historical Society, 1992.
• Feingold, Henry. Zion in America: The Jewish Experience from Colonial Times to the Present. New York: Hippocrene, 1981.
• Glazer, Nathan. American Judaism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988.
• Glenn, Susan A. Daughters of the Shtetl: Life and Labor in the Immigrant Generation. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990.
• Grundberger, Michael W., ed. From Haven to Home: 350 Years of Jewish Life in America. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 2004.
• Gurock, Jeffrey S. and Marc Lee Raphael, eds.An Inventory of Promises: Essays on American Jewish History : In Honor of Moses Rischin. Brooklyn: Carlson Publishing, Inc., 1995.
• Howe, Irving. World of Our Fathers: The Journey of the East European Jews to America and the Life They Found and Made. New York: Schocken Books, 1989.
• Karp, Abraham J. Haven and Home: A History of the Jews in America. New York: Schocken Books, 1985.
• Karp, Abraham J, ed. The Jewish Experience in America. Waltham, MA: American Jewish Historical Society, 1969.
• Korn, Bertram W. American Jewry and the Civil War. New York: Atheneum, 1970.
• Marcus, Jacob Rader. The American Jew, 1585-1990: A History. Brooklyn: Carlson Publishing, Inc., 1995.
• Marcus, Jacob Rader. The American Jewish Woman: A Documentary History. New York: KTAV Publishing House, 1981.
• Marcus, Jacob Rader. The Colonial American Jew, 1492-1776. 3 vols. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1970.
• Marcus, Jacob Rader, ed. Memoirs of American Jews, 1775-1977. 3 vols. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1955.
• Marcus, Jacob Rader. United States Jewry, 1776-1985. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1989.
• Moore, Deborah Dash. At Home in America. New York: Columbia University Press, 1981.
• Papo, Joseph M. Sephardim In Twentieth Century America: In Search of Unity. San Jose: Pele Yoetz Books, 1987.
• Raphael, Marc Lee. Profiles in American Judaism: The Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, and Reconstructionist traditions in historical perspective. New York: Harper and Row, 1988.
• Rezneck, Samuel. Unrecognized Patriots: The Jews in the American Revolution. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1975.
• Sachar, Howard. A History of the Jews in America. New York: Knopf, 1992.
• Sarna, Jonathan D, ed. The American Jewish Experience. New York: Holmes and Meier, 1986.
• Sarna, Jonathan D. American Judaism: A History. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004.
• Sarna, Jonathan D. Jews and the Founding of the Republic. New York: Markus Weiner for Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, 1985.
• Schoener, Allon. The American Jewish Album: 1664 to the Present. New York: Rizzoli, 1983.
• Sklare, Marshall. Observing America's Jews. Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 1993.
• Weinberg, Sydney Stahl. The World of Our Mothers: Live. New York: Schocken Books, 1990.

Reference Publications

• American Jewish Historical Society. American Jewish Desk Reference: The Ultimate One Volume Reference to the Jewish Experience in America. New York: Random House, 1999.
• American Jewish Historical Society. An Index to American Jewish Historical Quarterly/American Jewish History, Volumes 51-80 [1961-1991]. Brooklyn, NY: Carlson Publishing, Inc. for the American Jewish Historical Society, 1996.
• American Jewish Historical Society. An Index to Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society, Volumes 21-50 [1913-1961]. Brooklyn, NY: Carlson Publishing, Inc. for the American Jewish Historical Society, 1994.
• American Jewish Year Book. Philadelphia [etc.]: American Jewish Committee [etc.], 1899/1900-.
• Gurock, Jeffrey S. American Jewish History: A Bibliographical Guide. New York: Anti-Defamation League of B'nai Brith, 1983.
• Hyman, Paula E. and Deborah Dash Moore, eds. Jewish Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia. 2 vols. New York: Routledge Press for the American Jewish Historical Society, 1997.
• Kaganoff, Nathan M. Judaica Americana. Brooklyn, NY: Carlson Publishing, Inc. for the American Jewish Historical Society, 1995.
• Marcus, Jacob Rader. The Concise Dictionary of American Jewish Biography. Brooklyn: Carlson Publishing, Inc., 1994.
• Sarna, Jonathan D. "The American Jewish Experience." in The Schocken Guide to Jewish Books. New York: Schocken Books, 1992.
• Singerman, Robert, comp. Judaica Americana: A Bibliography of Publications to 1900. New York: Greenwood Press, 1990.
• Stern, Malcolm. First American Jewish Families: 600 Genealogies, 1654-1977. American Jewish Archives and American Jewish Historical Society, 1977.

Periodicals

• American Jewish Archives. Cincinatti: Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, 1949-.
• American Jewish Historical Quarterly. New York and Waltham, MA: American Jewish Historical Society, 1961-1977.
• American Jewish History. Waltham, MA: American Jewish Historical Society and (as of 1994) Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press for the American Jewish Historical Society, 1978.
• Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society. New York: American Jewish Historical Society, 1892-1960.
• Southern Jewish History. Atlanta, GA: Southern Jewish Historical Society, 1998-.