Nostalgia And Nerves - The Ultra-Orthodox In The Jewish American Imagination

Book Summary

Before 1985, depictions of ultra-Orthodox Jews in popular American culture were rare, and if they did appear, as in films such as "Yentl" or the novels of Chaim Potok, they evoked a nostalgic vision of Old World tradition. With the ordination of women into positions of religious leadership, though, and other controversial issues, an increasingly visible and voluble culture war has broken out among America's ultra-Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews, one that has found a particularly creative voice in literature, media, and film. Through the work of Allegra Goodman, Rebecca Goldstein, Pearl Abraham, Erich Segal, Anne Roiphe, and others, as well as on television and in such films as "Pi" and "A Price Above Rubies," Nora Rubel unpacks the choices non-haredi Jews have made in representing the character and characters of ultra-Orthodox Jews. In these artistic and aesthetic acts, Rubel indentifies how the war over gender and family and anxieties over acculturation, Americanization, and continuity have been expressed. More than just a study of Jewishness and Jewish self-consciousness, "Nostalgia and Nerves" speaks to anyone who has struggled to find a balance among religion, family, and culture. -- Rebecca T. Alpert, Temple University

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