Bibliography: Culture
If you are seeking to build your
personal Jewish library, the following are the top books about Jewish Culture,
as recommended by the editors of MyJewishLearning.com. Click on any book's
title to purchase it.
To go directly to a specific category, click below:
General
The
Blackwell Companion to Jewish Culture: From
the Eighteenth Century to the Present, edited by Glenda Abramson, Dovid Katz,
Nicholas de Lange (Blackwell Publishers, 1990).
The
Jews: A Treasury of Art and Literature, edited by Sharon R. Keller
(Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, 1992).
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Food
The
Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York, by Claudia
Roden (Knopf, 1996).
Sephardic
Cooking, by Copeland Marks (Donald I. Fine, Inc., 1992).
Eat
and Be Satisfied, by John Cooper (Jason Aronson, 1993).
Jewish
Cooking in America, by Joan Nathan (Random House, 1998).
The
Foods of Israel Today, by Joan Nathan (Knopf, 2001).
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Literature
The
Modern Jewish Canon, by Ruth Wisse (Free
Press, 2000).
Jewish
American Literature: A Norton Anthology, edited by Jules Chametzky,
John Felstiner, Hilene Flanzbaum, Kathryn Hellerstein (W.W. Norton & Company, 2000).
Modern
Hebrew Literature, edited by Robert Alter (Behrman House, 1975).
What
is Jewish Literature?, edited by Hana Wirth-Nesher (Jewish Publication
Society, 1994).
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Music
Jewish
Music: Its History, People, and Song, by Ronald Isaacs (Aronson, 1997).
Jewish
Musical Traditions, by Amnon Shiloah (Wayne State University Press,
1992).
Passport
to Jewish Music, by Irene Heskes (Greenwood Publishing, 1994).
Discovering
Jewish Music, by Marsha Bryan Edelman (Jewish Publication Society,
2003).
Rock
'N' Roll Jews (Judaic Traditions in Literature, Music, and Art), by
Michael Billig (Five Leaves Publications, 2000).
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Art
Jewish
Art, by Grace Cohen Grossman (Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, 1995).
Jewish
Texts on the Visual Arts, edited by Vivien Mann (Cambridge University
Press, 2000).
Complex
Identities: Jewish Consciousness and Modern Art, edited by Mathew
Baigell and Milly Heyd (Rutgers University Press, 2001).
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Languages
Jewish
Languages, Theme and Variation (Association for Jewish Studies, 1978).
The
New Joys of Yiddish, by Leo Calvin Rosten (Crown, 2001).
A
History of the Hebrew Language, by Angel Saenz-Badillos (Cambridge
University Press, 1993).
Death
of a Language: The History of Judeo-Spanish (University of Delaware
Press, 1994).
Meshuggenary:
Celebrating the World of Yiddish, by Payson Stevens, Charles Levine,
and Sol Steinmetz (Simon & Schuster, 2002).
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Film
Reel
Jewish, by Joel Samberg (Jonathan David Publishers, 2000).
American-Jewish
Filmmakers: Traditions & Trends, by David Desser and Lester D.
Friedman (University of Illinois Press, 1993).
Over
the Top Judaism: Precedents and Trends in the Depiction of Jewish Beliefs and
Observances in Film and Television, by Elliot B. Gertel (University
Press of America, 2003).
Independent
Jewish Film: A Resource Guide, by Janis Plotkin, et al (San Francisco
Jewish Film Festival, 2000).
Ethnic
Images in American Film and Television, edited by Randall M. Miller
(Garland Publishers, 1987).
The
Jewish Image in American Film,
by Lester D. Friedman (Citadel, 1991).
Indelible
Shadows: Film and the Holocaust, by Annette Insdorf (Vintage Books,
1983).
Bridge
of Light: Yiddish Film Between Two Worlds, by Jim Hoberman (Museum of
Modern Art and Schocken Books, 1991)
Visions,
Images and Dreams: Yiddish Film Past and Present, by Eric A. Goldman
(Ergo Media, Teaneck, 1979).
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Humor
101
Classic Jewish Jokes: Jewish Humor from Groucho Marx to Jerry Seinfeld,
by Robert Menchin (Mustang Publishing, 1997).
The
Schlemiel As Metaphor: Studies in Yiddish and American Jewish Fiction, by Sanford Pinsker (Southern Illinois University Press, 1991).
Jokes: Philosophical
Thoughts on Joking Matters,
by Ted Cohen (University of Chicago
Press, 2001).
Big Book of JewishHumor,
by William Novak and Moshe Waldoks (Harper Collins, 1981).
Jewish
Humor: What the Best Jewish Jokes Say About the Jews, by Joseph Telushkin (William
Morrow, 1992).
The
Haunted Smile: The Story of Jewish Comedians in America, by Lawrence
Epstein (Public Affairs, 2001).
Encyclopedia
of Jewish Humor: From Biblical Times to the Modern Age, by Henry D. Spalding (Jonathan David, 2001).
Jewish
Wry: Essays on Jewish Humor, by Sarah Blacher Cohen (Wayne State University Press, 1990).
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Theatre and Dance
Vagabond
Stars: A World History of Yiddish Theater, by Nahma Sandrow (Syracuse
University Press, 1995).
Converging
Movements: Modern Dance and Jewish Culture at the 92nd Street Y, by
Naomi M. Jackson (Wesleyan University Press, 2002).
Ha-Rikud:
The Jewish Dance, by Fred Berk (American Zionist Youth Federation,
1972).
Drama and Ideology in Modern Israel, by Glenda Abramson
(Cambridge University Press, 2006).
International
Encyclopedia of Dance, edited by Selma Jeanne Cohen (Oxford University
Press, 2004).
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Sports
When
Boxing was a Jewish Sport, by Allen Bodner (Prager Trade, 1997).
Emancipation
Through Muscles, edited by Michael Brenner and Gideon Reuveni
(University of Nebraska Press, 2006).
Jews,
Sports, and the Rites of Citizenship, edited by Jack Kugelmass
(University of Illinois Press, 2007).
Jews and the Olympic Games, by Paul Yogi Mayer
(Vallentine Mitchell, 2004).
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