Jews and Judaism
Jewish religion (Judaism)
Jewish principles of faith
Etymology of "Jew"  · Who is a Jew?
Jewish leadership  · Jewish culture
Jewish ethnic divisions
Ashkenazi  · Sephardi  · Mizrahi
Temani  · Bene Israel  · Beta Israel
Jewish populations
Israel · United States · Russia/USSR
Canada  · Germany  · France
England  · Latin America  · Poland
Famous Jews by country
Jewish languages
Hebrew  · Yiddish  · Ladino  · Dzhidi
Judeo-Aramaic · Judeo-Arabic
Jewish denominations
Orthodox · Conservative  · Reform
Reconstructionist  · Karaite  · Other
Jewish political movements
Zionism: (Labor / General / Revisionist)
The Bund Union · Kibbutz movement
Jewish history
Jewish history timeline  · Schisms
Ancient Israel and Judah
Temples in Jerusalem
Babylonian captivity
Hasmoneans and Greece
Jewish-Roman wars · Era of Pharisees
Diaspora · The Talmudic Era
Middle Ages · Muslim Lands
Enlightenment/Haskalah · Hasidism
The Holocaust · Modern Israel
Persecution of Jews
Anti-Semitism: (History / "New")
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A Jewish American (also commonly American Jew) is an American (a citizen of the United States) of Jewish descent or religion who maintains a connection to the Jewish community, either through actively practicing Judaism or through cultural and historical affiliation. Download high resolution version (1024x1180, 21 KB)Created from Image:Wikipedia blue star of david. ... Judaism is the religious culture of the Jewish people. ... Judaism is the religious culture of the Jewish people. ... Judaism is the religious culture of the Jewish people. ... Judaism affirms a number of basic principles of faith that one is expected to uphold in order to be said to be in consonance with the Jewish faith. ... Etymology of the word Jew: The name for the Jewish people in Hebrew is Yehudim (יהודים). ... Who is a Jew? (Hebrew: מיהו יהודי?; transliterated as mihu yehudi) can be a complicated question because Judaism shares some of the characteristics of a nation, an ethnicity, a religion, and a culture, making the definition of who is a Jew vary depending on whether a religious, sociological, or national approach to... Jewish leadership: Since 70 AD and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem there has been no single body that has a leadership position over the entire Jewish community. ... Secular Jewish culture embraces several related phenomena; above all, it is the culture of secular communities of Jewish people, but it can also include the cultural contributions of individuals who identify as secular Jews, or even those of religious Jews working in cultural areas not generally considered to be connected... Jewish ethnic divisions: The most commonly used terms to describe ethnic divisions among Jews presently are: Ashkenazi (meaning German in Hebrew, denoting the Central European base of Jewry); and Sephardi (meaning Spanish in Hebrew, denoting their Spanish and North African location). ... Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim (אַשְׁכֲּנָזִי אַשְׁכֲּנָזִים Standard Hebrew, AÅ¡kanazi,AÅ¡kanazim, Tiberian Hebrew, ʾAÅ¡kănāzî, ʾAÅ¡kănāzîm, pronounced sing. ... Sephardim (ספרדי, Standard Hebrew SÉ™fardi, Tiberian Hebrew ardî; plural Sephardim: ספרדים, Standard Hebrew Sfaradim, Tiberian Hebrew ) are a subgroup of Jews, generally defined in contrast to Ashkenazim and/or . ... This article deals with those Jewish communities indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa. ... Yemenite Jews (תֵּימָנִי, Standard Hebrew Temani, Tiberian Hebrew Têmānî; plural תֵּימָנִים, Standard Hebrew Temanim, Tiberian Hebrew Têmānîm) are those Jews who live, or whose recent ancestors lived, in Yemen (תֵּימָן far south, Standard Hebrew Teman, Tiberian Hebrew Têmān), on the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula. ... The Bene Israel (Sons of Israel) are a group of Jews who, in the mid-twentieth century, lived primarily in Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi and Ahmadabad. ... Beta Israel - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... The number of Jews in the world is difficult to calculate, especially given the constant debates of the definition of Jew. ... // Early History Tradition places Jews in southern Russia, Armenia, and Georgia since before the days of the First Temple, and records exist from the fourth century showing that there were Armenian cities possessing Jewish populations ranging from 10,000 to 30,000 along with substantial Jewish settlements in the Crimea. ... This article is about the history of the Jewish people in England. ... History of the Jews in Latin America. ... Main article: List of Jews. ... Jewish languages are a set of languages that developed in various Jewish communities, in Europe, southern and south-western Asia, and northern Africa. ... Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family spoken by 6 million people mainly in Israel, parts of the Palestinian territories, the United States and by Jewish communities around the world. ... Yiddish (Yid. ... Ladino is a Romance language, derived mainly from Old Castilian (Spanish) and Hebrew. ... Dzhidi, or Judæo-Persian, is the Jewish language spoken by the Jews living in Persia. ... Judæo-Aramaic is a collective term used to describe several Hebrew-influenced Aramaic and Neo-Aramaic languages. ... The Judeo-Arabic languages are a collection of Arabic dialects spoken by Jews living or formerly living in Arabic-speaking countries; the term also refers to more or less classical Arabic written in the Hebrew script, particularly in the Middle Ages. ... Jewish denominations: Over time, the Jewish community has become divided into a number of religious denominations, also called branches or movements. Each denomination has a different understanding of what principles of belief a Jew should hold, and how one should live as a Jew. ... Orthodox Judaism is that stream of Judaism which adheres to a relatively strict interpretation and application of the laws and ethics first canonized in the Talmud (Oral Law) and later codified in the Shulkhan Arukh. ... Conservative Judaism (or Masorti Judaism) is a denomination of Judaism characterized by: A positive attitude toward modern culture The belief that traditional rabbinic modes of study, and modern scholarship and critical text study, are both valid ways to learn about and from Jewish religious texts. ... Reform Judaism is the first modern branch of Judaism; it developed in Germany and is now international, and the largest in North America. ... Reconstructionist Judaism is a denomination of Judaism with a relatively liberal set of beliefs: an individuals personal autonomy should generally override traditional Jewish law and custom, yet also take into account communal consensus, modern culture is accepted, traditional rabbinic modes of study, as well as modern scholarship and critical... Karaite Judaism is a Jewish denomination characterized by reliance on the Tanakh as the sole scripture, and rejection of the Oral Law (the Mishnah and the Talmuds) as halakha (Legally Binding, i. ... Alternative Judaism refers to several varieties of modern Judaism which fall outside the common Orthodox/Non-Orthodox (Reform/Conservative/Reconstructionist) classification of the four major streams of todays Judaism. ... Jewish political movements refer to the organized efforts of Jews to build their own political parties or otherwise represent their interest in politics outside of the Jewish community. ... For other meanings, please see Zionism (disambiguation) Zionism is a political movement and an ideology that supports a Jewish homeland in the Land of Israel, where the Jewish nation originated and where Jewish kingdoms and self governing states existed at various times in history. ... General Zionists were centrists within the Zionist movement. ... Revisionist Zionism is a right wing tendency within the Zionist movement. ... A Bundist demonstration, 1917 The General Jewish Labour Union of Lithuania, Poland and Russia, in Yiddish the Algemeyner Yidisher Arbeter Bund in Lite, Poyln un Rusland (אַלגמײַנער ײדישער אַרבײטערסבונד אין ליטאַ, פוילין און רוסלאַנד), generally called The Bund (בונד) or the Jewish Labor Bund, was a Jewish political party operating in several European countries between the 1890s and the... Kibbutz Dan, near Qiryat Shemona, in the Upper Galilee, 1990s A kibbutz (Hebrew: קיבוץ; plural: kibbutzim: קיבוצים, gathering or together) is an Israeli collective community. ... Jewish history is the history of the Jewish people, faith (Judaism) and culture. ... This entry contains a timeline of the development of Judaism and the Jewish people. ... Schisms among the Jews: // First Temple era Based on the historical narrative in the Bible and archeology, Levantine civilization at the time of Solomons Temple was prone to idol worship, astrology, worship of reigning kings, and paganism. ... In compiling the history of ancient Israel and Judah, there are many available sources, including the Jewish Tanakh (the Old Testament) and other Jewish texts such as the Talmud, the Ethiopian book of history known as the Kebra Nagast, the writings of historians such as Nicolaus of Damascus, Artapanas, Philo... The Temple in Jerusalem or the Holy Temple (Beit HaMikdash בית המקדש in Hebrew) was built in ancient Jerusalem and was the center of Israelite and Jewish worship, primarily for the offering of sacrifices known as the korbanot. ... Babylonian captivity, or Babylonian exile, is the name generally given to the deportation and exile of the Jews of the ancient Kingdom of Judah to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. ... The Hasmonean Kingdom (pronunciation) in ancient Judea and its ruling dynasty from 140 BC to 37 BC was established under the leadership of Simon Maccabaeus, two decades after Judah the Maccabee defeated the Seleucid army in 165 BC. Origin of the Hasmonean dynasty The origin of the Hasmonean dynasty is... Jewish-Roman War can refer to several revolts by the Jews of Judea against the Roman Empire: The First Jewish-Roman War (66–73 CE), sometimes called the First Jewish Revolt. ... The Pharisees (from the Hebrew perushim, from parash, meaning to separate) were, depending on the time, a political party, a social movement, and a school of thought among Jews that flourished during the Second Temple Era (536 BCE–70 CE). ... Jewish diaspora (Hebrew: Tefutzah, or Galut, exile) refers to the dispersion of the Jewish people throughout the world. ... The first page of the Talmud, in the standard Vilna edition. ... This article incorporates text from the public domain 1901-1906 Jewish Encyclopedia Jews in the Middle Ages : The history of Jews in the Middle Ages (approximately 500 CE to 1750 CE) can be divided into two categories. ... Islam and Judaism: This article is part of a series on Jewish history and discusses the history of Islam and Judaism, as they have interacted with each other for 1200 years, from the seventh century up until the end of the 19th century. ... Haskalah (Hebrew: השכלה; enlightenment, intellect, from sekhel, common sense) was a religious movement among European Jews in the late 18th century that advocated adopting enlightenment values, pressing for better integration into European society, and increasing education in secular studies, Hebrew, and Jewish history. ... Hasidic Judaism (Hebrew: Chasidut חסידות, meaning pious from the Hebrew root word chesed חסד meaning loving kindness) is a Haredi Jewish religious movement. ... Children survivors of the Holocaust before their liberation The Holocaust is the name applied to the systematic state-sponsored persecution and genocide of various ethnic, religious and political groups during World War II by Nazi Germany and its collaborators. ... Main article: Israel. ... Related articles: anti-Semitism; history of anti-Semitism; modern anti-Semitism This article deals with various persecutions that the Jewish people have experienced throughout history. ... The Eternal Jew: 1937 German poster. ... This is a partial chronology of hostilities towards or discrimination against the Jews as a religious or ethnic group. ... The new anti-Semitism refers to the contemporary international resurgence of anti-Jewish incidents and attacks on Jewish symbols, as well as the acceptance of anti-Semitic beliefs and their expression in public discourse. ... The word Jew (Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity; and often a combination of these attributes. ... Judaism is the religious culture of the Jewish people. ...

The United States contains the world's largest Jewish population, and its most diverse. Jewish Americans span a range from the extremely religious haredi communities to the large segment of Jews that are entirely secular. Haredi Judaism, also called ultra-Orthodox Judaism, is the most theologically conservative form of Judaism. ...

History

See main article: History of the Jews in the United States History of the Jews in the United States focuses on the history of Jews in the United States, which has had the world’s largest Jewish population until 2004. ...

Though Jews arrived in the United States as early as the 17th century, Jewish immigration grew in the 19th century. During the early 19th century, many secular Jews from the former Holy Roman Empire arrived in the United States and primarily became merchants and shop-owners. There were approximately 250,000 Jews in the United States by 1880, and many of them were middle class and secular. As a result of persecution in parts of Eastern Europe, Jewish American immigration increased dramatically in the 1880s, with most of the new immigrants coming from the poor rural populations of Russia and Eastern Europe. Over two million Jews arrived between the late 19th century and 1924, when immigration restrictions increased. A large number of these immigrants settled in New York City and its immediate environs, establishing what became one of the world's major concentrations of Jewish population. (16th century - 17th century - 18th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jews have lived in Germany and contributed to German culture for over 1700 years, through both periods of tolerance and spasms of anti-semitic violence, culminating in the Holocaust and the destruction of the Jewish community in Germany and much of Europe. ... 1880 was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Pre-1989 division between the West (grey) and Eastern Bloc (orange) superimposed on current national boundaries: Russia (dark orange), other countries of the former USSR (medium orange) and other former communist regimes (light orange). ... // Events and Trends Technology Development and commercial production of electric lighting Development and commercial production of gasoline-powered automobile by Karl Benz, Gottlieb Daimler and Maybach First commercial production and sales of phonographs and phonograph recordings. ... The History of the Jews in Poland reaches back over a millennium, encompassing both a long period of tolerance and prosperity for its Jewish population and the nearly complete genocidal destruction of the community by Nazi Germany in the 20th century. ... 1924 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Midtown Manhattan, looking north from the Empire State Building, 2005 New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the most populous city in the United States, the most densely populated major city in North America, and is at the center of international finance, politics, entertainment, and culture. ...

At the beginning of the 20th century, these newly-arrived Jews lived primarily in urban immigrant neighborhoods, and built support networks consisting of many small synagogues and landsmanschaftn (associations of Jews from the same town or village). Jewish American writers of the time urged assimilation and integration with the wider American culture, and Jews quickly became part of American life. Five hundred thousand American Jews (or half of all Jewish males between 18 and 50) fought in World War II, and after the war, Jewish families joined the new trend of suburbanization. There, Jews became increasingly assimilated as rising intermarriage rates with non-Jews combined with a trend towards secularization. At the same time, new centers of Jewish communities formed, as Jewish school enrollment more than doubled between the end of World War II and the mid-1950s, while synagogue affiliation jumped from twenty percent in 1930 to sixty percent in 1960. (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human suffering, fierce indoctrinations, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons like the atom bomb World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a mid-20th-century conflict that engulfed much of the globe... // Events and trends The 1950s in Western society was marked with a sharp rise in the economy for the first time in almost 30 years and return to the 1920s-type consumer society built on credit and boom-times, as well as the height of the baby-boom from returning... 1930 is a common year starting on Wednesday. ... 1960 was a leap year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Population

As of 2005, there are somewhere between 5.1 and 5.8 million Jews in the United States. Jews in the U.S. settled largely in and near the major cities, first in the Northeast and Midwest but in recent decades increasingly in the South and West. In descending order, the metropolitan areas with the highest Jewish populations are: New York City (1,750,000), Miami (535,000), Los Angeles (490,000), Philadelphia (254,000), Chicago (248,000), San Francisco (210,000), Boston (208,000), and Washington DC (165,000). Miami's Jewish community skews older than most other U.S. Jewish centers as it heavily consists of retirees from the big cities of the northeast (however, this has been offset somewhat by more recent immigration to the area by younger Jews from Latin American countries such as Argentina and Brazil). Several other major cities have large Jewish populations per capita, like Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and St. Louis. Also, some areas of the Sunbelt outside of Florida and California (which have always had significant Jewish communities) that have seen a large general population growth have also seen both the size and proportion of their Jewish population grow significantly. Examples of this are Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, Raleigh, NC, and especially Atlanta and Las Vegas. In many cities the majority of Jewish families have moved to the suburbs. 2005(MMV) is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Location of metropolitan area in the state of Florida Major cities Miami, Florida Fort Lauderdale, Florida West Palm Beach, Florida Area  - Total  - Water 15,896 km² (6,137 mi²) 2,621 km² (1,011 mi²) 16. ... Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, Riverside and San Bernardino counties in Southern California The Greater Los Angeles Area is the agglomeration around the city of Los Angeles, California. ... Delaware Valley is the name of the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-Atlantic City, New Jersey-Wilmington, Delaware Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area. ... The Chicagoland region is colored red. ... USGS Satellite photo of the San Francisco Bay Area. ... Greater Boston is the area of Massachusetts closely surrounding Boston, Massachusetts. ... The official U.S. Census Bureau-designated Washington-Baltimore-Northern Virginia, DC-MD-VA-WV Combined Statistical Area. ... This article is about the city in Florida. ... Per capita is a Latin phrase meaning for each head. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... City nickname: The Steel City Location in the state of Pennsylvania Founded 1758 Mayor Tom Murphy (Dem) Area  - Total  - Water 151. ... This article is about the city in the US state of Maryland. ... The Gateway Arch, shown here behind the Old Courthouse, is the most recognizable part of the St. ... Categories: Stub | Belt regions of the United States ... State nickname: Sunshine State Other U.S. States Capital Tallahassee Largest city Jacksonville Governor Jeb Bush (R) Official languages English Area 170,451 km² (22nd)  - Land 137,374 km²  - Water 30,486 km² (17. ... State nickname: The Golden State Other U.S. States Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) Official languages English Area 410,000 km² (3rd)  - Land 404,298 km²  - Water 20,047 km² (4. ... Houston redirects here. ... Dallas redirects here. ... The phoenix from the Aberdeen Bestiary. ... Downtown Raleigh as seen from the Boylan St. ... This article is about the state capital of Georgia. ... This article is about the city of Las Vegas in Nevada. ... It has been suggested that Suburbia be merged into this article or section. ...

According to the 2001 National Jewish Population Survey, 4.3 million American Jews have some sort of strong connection to the Jewish community, whether religious or cultural.

Assimilation and Population Changes

The same social and cultural characteristics of the United States of America that facilitated the extraordinary economic, political, and social success of the American Jewish community have also contributed to assimilation, a controversial and significant issue in the modern American Jewish community. While not all Jews disapprove of intermarriage, many members of the Jewish community have become concerned that the high rate of interfaith marriage will result in the eventual disappearance of the American Jewish community. Assimilation, from Latin assimilatio meaning to render similar, is used to describe various phenomena: The process of assimilating new ideas into a schema (cognitive structure). ... Intermarriage normally refers to marriage to a person belonging to a different religion, tribe, nationality or ethnic background. ...

Intermarriage rates have risen from roughly 6% in 1950 to approximately 40%-50% in the year 2000.[1][2] Only about a third of intermarried couples raise their children with a Jewish religious upbringing. However, it is more common for intermarried families to raise their children as Jewish in areas with high Jewish populations, like New York City/Long Island/New Jersey/Westchester County, New York. As well, some children raised through intermarriage go through a "born-again experience" when they themselves marry and have children. This in combination with the comparatively low birthrate in the Jewish community has led to a 5% decline in the Jewish population of the United States over the last decade.[3]. In addition to this, when compared with the general American population, the American Jewish community is slightly older.[4]. Midtown Manhattan, looking north from the Empire State Building, 2005 New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the most populous city in the United States, the most densely populated major city in North America, and is at the center of international finance, politics, entertainment, and culture. ... Image of Long Island taken by NASA. Long Island is an island off the North American coast. ... State nickname: The Garden State Other U.S. States Capital Trenton Largest city Newark Governor Richard Codey (D)Acting Official languages None defined Area 22,608 km² (47th)  - Land 19,231 km²  - Water 3,378 km² (14. ... Westchester County is a suburban county with about 940,000 residents located in the U.S. state of New York. ...

In contrast, some communities within American Jewry, such as Orthodox Jews, have significantly higher birth rates and lower intermarriage rates, and are growing rapidly. Daniel Pipes noted in an essay in 2005 that the proportion of Jewish synagogue members who were Orthodox rose from 11% in 1971 to 21% in 2000, while the overall Jewish community declined in number.[5] Separate articles treat Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Orthodox Judaism. ... // Daniel Pipes Daniel Pipes is an internationally known American neoconservative [1] journalist, author, activist, and scholar of Islamic history, who has written widely on Islamism and terrorism. ... 2005(MMV) is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1971 is a common year starting on Friday (click for link to calendar). ... This article is about the year 2000. ...

Religion

Although Judaism is generally considered an ethnic identity as well as a religious one, the Jewish religion is the root of Jewish identity and culture. Jewish religious practice in America is quite varied. Among the 4.3 million strongly connected American Jews, over 80% have some sort of engagement with Judaism, ranging from Passover seders to lighting Hanukkah candles. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... The Seder (pronounced say-der, meaning order in Hebrew) is a special Jewish ceremonial dinner revolving around the story of Exodus. ... Hanukkah (חנכה ḥănukkāh, or חנוכה ḥănūkkāh) is a Jewish holiday, also known as the Festival of lights. ...

The survey found that of the 4.3 million strongly connected Jews, 46% belong to a synagogue. Among those who belong to a synagogue, 38% are members of Reform synagogues, 33% Conservative, 22% Orthodox, 2% Reconstructionist, and 5% other types. The survey discovered that Jews in the Northeast and Midwest are generally more observant than Jews in the South or West. A synagogue or synagog (from Greek συναγωγη, transliterated sunagoge, place of assembly literally meeting, assembly) is a Jewish house of prayer and study. ... Reform Judaism is the first modern branch of Judaism; it developed in Germany and is now international, and the largest in North America. ... Conservative Judaism (or Masorti Judaism) is a denomination of Judaism characterized by: A positive attitude toward modern culture The belief that traditional rabbinic modes of study, and modern scholarship and critical text study, are both valid ways to learn about and from Jewish religious texts. ... Orthodox Judaism is that stream of Judaism which adheres to a relatively strict interpretation and application of the laws and ethics first canonized in the Talmud (Oral Law) and later codified in the Shulkhan Arukh. ... Reconstructionist Judaism is a denomination of Judaism with a relatively liberal set of beliefs: an individuals personal autonomy should generally override traditional Jewish law and custom, yet also take into account communal consensus, modern culture is accepted, traditional rabbinic modes of study, as well as modern scholarship and critical...

In recent years, there has been a noticeable trend of secular Jewish Americans returning to a more religious Orthodox lifestyle, called Baal teshuva, although it is not clear how widespread or demographically important this movement is. Baal teshuva (Hebrew: master [of] return/repentance) or chozer bi-teshuva ([to] come back/returnee in repentance/return) refers to a noticeable religious return (teshuva) of a Jew to strict Judaism or to a more Jewishly observant lifestyle than previously practiced. ...

Education

American Jews are generally more highly educated than the American public as a whole. 55% have received a college degree, and a quarter have a graduate degree, this is compared with 29% college degrees and 6% graduate degrees among the general population.

There is also an active Jewish education system, with a wide network of Jewish day schools, as well as Jewish colleges and universities. Jewish education is also commonly offered at synagogues in the form of supplementary Hebrew schools or Sunday schools.

Jewish American culture

See also: Secular Jewish culture Secular Jewish culture embraces several related phenomena; above all, it is the culture of secular communities of Jewish people, but it can also include the cultural contributions of individuals who identify as secular Jews, or even those of religious Jews working in cultural areas not generally considered to be connected...

As the last major wave of Jewish immigration to America was the two million Eastern European Jews who arrived between 1890 and 1924, Jewish secular culture in the United States has become integrated in almost every important way with American culture more broadly. Many aspects of Jewish American culture have, in turn, become part of the wider culture of the United States.

Food

Several staples of Jewish cuisine have been adopted into mainstream American culture; bagels and lox (cured salmon) are examples. Initially, they were adopted as part of New York City's culture, and then spread to the rest of America. For example, bagels have been a staple of New Yorkers both Jewish and non-Jewish for decades, but really didn't spread "west of the Hudson" until the 1980's. The Jewish cuisine has been formed both by the dietary laws of kashrut (keeping kosher) and the many cultures in which Jews have travelled. ... A plain bagel The bagel (or sometimes beigel, in Poland also bajgiel, bajgel, precel, obwarzanek) is a food traditionally made of yeasted wheat dough in the form of a roughly hand-sized ring which is boiled and then baked. ... Lox can stand for any of several things: Lox (salmon) - a type of salmon produce LOx (oxidizer) - liquid oxygen used as oxidizer in aerospace The Lox - was a Yonkers, NY-based rap trio This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the... The Chinook or King Salmon is the largest salmon in North America and can grow up to 58 long and 126 pounds. ... Midtown Manhattan, looking north from the Empire State Building, 2005 New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the most populous city in the United States, the most densely populated major city in North America, and is at the center of international finance, politics, entertainment, and culture. ... A plain bagel The bagel (or sometimes beigel, in Poland also bajgiel, bajgel, precel, obwarzanek) is a food traditionally made of yeasted wheat dough in the form of a roughly hand-sized ring which is boiled and then baked. ...

Language

Although almost all American Jews are native English speakers, many haredi Jews are still raised speaking Yiddish. Once spoken as a primary language by most of the several million European Jews who immigrated to the United States, Yiddish has had an influence on American English. Among the donated loan words: chutzpah ("effrontery", "gall"), nosh ("snack"), and shlep ("drag"). Haredi or Charedi Judaism, often also called ultra-Orthodox Judaism, is the most theologically conservative form of Orthodox Judaism. ... Yiddish (Yid. ...

Many American Jews also study Hebrew, the language of most Jewish religious literature, the Tanakh (bible), Siddur (prayerbook), and the modern State of Israel. Some American communities of Iranian Jews, notably the large group in and around Los Angeles, CA and Beverly Hills, primarily speak Farsi in the home and synagogue and support Farsi newspapers. Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family spoken by 6 million people mainly in Israel, parts of the Palestinian territories, the United States and by Jewish communities around the world. ... 11th century Targum Tanakh [תנ״ך] (also spelt Tanach or Tenach) is an acronym that identifies the Hebrew Bible. ... The siddur is the prayerbook used by Jews the world over, containing a set order of daily prayers. ... This article is about the largest city in California. ... For other uses, see: Beverly Hills (disambiguation). ... Persian (فارسی / پارسی), (local name in Iran/Persia, Afghanistan and Tajikistan: ‘Fârsi’), ‘Pârsi’ (older local name, but still used by some speakers), Tajik (a Central Asian dialect) or Dari (another local name in Tajikistan and Afghanistan), is a language spoken in Iran, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, western Pakistan, Bahrain, and elsewhere. ...

Jewish American literature

Although Jewish Americans have contributed greatly to American arts overall (see the following section), there remains a distinctly Jewish American literature. Generally exploring the experience of being a Jew, especially a Jew in America, and the conflicting pulls of secular society and history, the literary traditions of Philip Roth, Saul Bellow, Chaim Potok, and Bernard Malamud all fall in this category. Younger authors, like Paul Auster, Michael Chabon and Jonathan Safran Foer continue this view of Jewish American literature, examining the Holocaust, and the meaning of being an American Jew. Philip Milton Roth (born March 19, 1933) is a Jewish-American novelist who is best known for his sexually-explicit comedic novel Portnoys Complaint (1969) and for his late-90s trilogy comprising the Pulitzer Prize-winning American Pastoral (1997), I Married a Communist (1998), and The Human Stain (2000). ... Bellow as depicted in his Nobel diploma. ... Rabbi Dr. Chaim Potok (February 17, 1929 - July 23, 2002) was an American author and rabbi. ... Bernard Malamud (1914-1986) was an American writer born in Brooklyn, New York. ... Paul Benjamin Auster (born February 3, 1947) is an American author. ... Michael Chabon (born 1963) is a Pulitzer Prize winning American author who grew up in Columbia, Maryland. ... Jonathan Safran Foer (born 1977) is a writer who lives in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, with his wife, novelist Nicole Krauss, and their dog, George. ...

Jewish contributions to the United States

Popular culture

See also: List of Jewish American writers, List of Jewish American artists, List of Jewish American musicians, and List of Jewish American show business figures

Many individual Jews have made significant and diverse contributions to American popular culture. Probably the most famous examples are the early Hollywood moguls such as Samuel Goldwyn, Louis B. Mayer, William Fox, Jesse L. Lasky, Carl Laemmle, Marcus Loew, Adolph Zukor, and the original Warner Brothers and the characteristically Jewish humor of the Marx Brothers, Milton Berle, Woody Allen, Joan Rivers, and Gilda Radner, but the legacy also includes songwriters as diverse as Irving Berlin, Burt Bacharach, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, Lou Reed, and Paul Simon and writers as diverse as J.D. Salinger, Joseph Heller, E.L. Doctorow, Lillian Hellman, Allen Ginsberg, Isaac Asimov, and Harlan Ellison in addition to the authors listed above. This is a list of Jewish American writers. ... This is a list of Jewish American artists. ... This is a list of Jewish American musicians. ... This is a list of Jewish American show business figures. ... Samuel Goldwyn (August 17, 1879, Warsaw, Poland – January 31, 1974, Los Angeles, California, United States) was a major producer of motion pictures. ... Louis B. Mayer (July 4, 1885–October 29, 1957) was an American film producer. ... William Fox could refer to the following persons: William Fox – Prime Minister of New Zealand on four occasions in the 19th century Wilhelm Fried, better known with his adopted name William Fox – founder of the Fox Film Corporation (now 20th Century Fox) William Fox Talbot – a pioneer of photography. ... Jesse Louis Lasky (September 13, 1880 - January 13, 1958) was a pioneer Hollywood film producer. ... Carl Laemmle ( January 17, 1867, Laupheim, Württemberg, Germany – September 24, 1939, Beverly Hills, California) was a pioneer in American film making and a founder of one of the original major Hollywood movie studios. ... Marcus Loew Marcus Loew (May 7, 1870–September 5, 1927) was an American business magnate and a pioneer of the motion picture industry who formed Loews Theatres and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, MGM. Born into a poor Jewish family in New York City, circumstances dictated he go to work at a... Adolph Zukor ( January 7, 1873– June 10, 1976) founded Paramount Pictures Studios in 1913, and became one of the greatest film moguls of all time. ... Warner Bros. ... The brothers in Hollywood: (left to right) Chico, Zeppo, Groucho, Harpo The Marx Brothers were a team of sibling comedians that played in vaudeville, stage plays, film and television. ... Milton as Mad Man Mooney (right), with Sweetums in The Muppet Movie. ... Woody Allen. ... Joan Rivers (born 8 June 1933) is a United States comedian, talk show host, and celebrity. ... Gilda Radners Live From New York LP cover Gilda Radner (June 28, 1946 – May 20, 1989) was an American comedian and actress. ... Irving Berlin (May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989) was an American composer and lyricist. ... Burt Bacharach (born May 12, 1928 in Kansas City, Missouri) is a Jewish-American pianist and composer. ... Mike Stoller, Elvis Presley, Jerry Leiber Jerry Leiber (born April 25, 1933) and Mike Stoller (born March 13, 1933) are among the most important songwriters and music producers in post-World War II popular music. ... Lou Reed Lou Reed (born Lewis Allen Reed on March 2, 1942 in Brooklyn, New York), is a rock and roll singer-songwriter. ... Paul Simon This article is about the musician; for other Paul Simons, see Paul Simon (disambiguation). ... Jerome David Salinger (born January 1, 1919) is an American author best known for The Catcher in the Rye, a classic coming-of-age story that has enjoyed enduring popularity since its publication in 1951. ... Joseph Heller in 1961 Joseph Heller (May 1, 1923 - December 12, 1999) was an American satirist best remembered for writing the satiric World War II classic Catch-22. ... Edgar Lawrence Doctorow (born January 6, 1931, New York, New York) is a writer who has written several critically aclaimed novels that blend history and social criticism. ... Lillian Hellman Lillian Florence Hellman (June 20, 1905 – June 30, 1984) was an American playwright and left-wing activist, romantically involved for thirty years with pulp writer Dashiell Hammett. ... Allen Ginsberg in San Francisco. ... Dr. Isaac Asimov enthroned with symbols of his lifes work (Rowena Morrill) Dr. Isaac Asimov (c. ... Harlan Ellison, c. ...

Government and military

Since 1845, 25 Jews have served in the Senate, and seven have served in the Supreme Court. Sixteen American Jews have won the Congressional Medal of Honor.

The Manhattan Project, America's World War II effort to develop the atomic bomb, included the contributions of American Jewish physicists, many of whom were refugees from Hitler's Germany or from anti-semitic persecution in other European nations: J. Robert Oppenheimer, Richard P. Feynman, Wolfgang Pauli, Leo Szilard, John von Neumann, Isidor I. Rabi, Edward Teller, Eugene Wigner, Otto Frisch, Samuel Goudsmit, Jerome Karle, Stanislaw Ulam, Robert Serber, Louis Slotin, George Kistiakowsky, Walter Zinn, Robert Marshak, Felix Bloch, Emilio G. Segrè, James Franck, Harold C. Urey, Sir Joseph Rotblat, Joseph Joffe, Eugene Rabinowitch, Hy Goldsmith, Samuel Cohen, Victor F. Weisskopf, David Bohm, and Sir Rudolph Peierls. Hans Bethe and Niels Bohr both had Jewish mothers. Control panels and operators for calutrons at the Y-12 Plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. ... The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, 1945, rose some 18 km (11 mi) above the epicenter. ... The Eternal Jew: 1937 German poster. ... J. Robert Oppenheimer, father of the atomic bomb, served as the first director of Los Alamos National Laboratory, beginning in 1943. ... Richard Feynman Richard Phillips Feynman (May 11, 1918–February 15, 1988) (surname pronounced FINE-man) was one of the most influential American physicists of the 20th century, expanding greatly the theory of quantum electrodynamics. ... Wolfgang Pauli Wolfgang Ernst Pauli (April 25, 1900 – December 15, 1958) was an Austrian-Swiss physicist noted for his work on the theory of spin. ... Leó Szilárd (right) working with Albert Einstein. ... John von Neumann in the 1940s. ... Isidor Isaac Rabi (July 29, 1898 - January 11, 1988) was an American physicist of Austro-Hungarian origin. ... Edward Teller in 1958 as Director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. ... Eugene Wigner (left) and Alvin Weinberg Eugene Paul Wigner (Hungarian Wigner Pál JenÅ‘) (November 17, 1902 – January 1, 1995) was a Hungarian physicist and mathematician. ... Samuel Goudsmit (1902–1978) was a Dutch-American physicist famous for jointly proposing the concept of electron spin with George Eugene Uhlenbeck. ... Jerome Karle is an American physical chemist. ... Stanisław Marcin Ulam (April 13, 1909–May 13, 1984) was a Polish-American mathematician who helped develop the key theory behind the hydrogen bomb. ... Robert Serber (1909 - June 1, 1997) was a physicist who participated in the Manhattan Project. ... A sketch used by doctors to determine the amount of radiation to which each person in the room had been exposed during the excursion. ... George Kistiakowsky (1900 - 1982) was a chemistry professor who participated in the Manhattan Project. ... This page only addresses the German physicist, for other usages, see Felix Bloch (disambiguation) Felix Bloch, Courtesy of Nobelprize. ... Portrait of Dr. Emilio Segre Emilio Gino Segrè (February 1, 1905 - April 22, 1989) was an Italian American physicist who, with Owen Chamberlain, won the 1959 Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery of the antiproton. ... James Franck (August 26, 1882 - May 21, 1964) was a German-born physicist and Nobel laureate. ... Harold Urey, circa 1963. ... Sir Józef Rotblat or Joseph Rotblat, (born November 4, 1908) is a Polish-Jewish (though with British citizenship) physicist who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995 in conjuction with the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, an organization of scientists which he headed at the time, for... Samuel T. Cohen is a physicist who is known for inventing the neutron bomb. ... External links National Academy of Sciences biography Categories: People stubs | 1908 births | 2002 deaths | Manhattan Project | Physicists ... Photograph of David Bohm. ... Sir Rudolf Ernst Peierls, (June 5, 1907, Berlin – September 19, 1995, Oxford), was a German-Born British physicist. ... Hans Bethe Hans Albrecht Bethe (pronounced Bay-tuh; July 2, 1906 – March 6, 2005), was a German-American physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1967 for his discovery of stellar nucleosynthesis. ... Niels Bohr Niels Henrik David Bohr (October 7, 1885 – November 18, 1962) was a Danish physicist who made essential contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics. ...

Science and academia

See also: List of Jewish American scientists, List of Jewish American academics This is a list of Jewish American scientists. ... This is a list of Jewish American academics. ...

Jews have traditionally been drawn to academia (see Secular Jewish culture for some of the causes), and have made major contributions in science and the humanities. Of American Nobel Prize winners, 37% were Jewish Americans (19 x their % of the population), as are 71% of the John Bates Clark Medal winners (35 x their % of the population). Secular Jewish culture embraces several related phenomena; above all, it is the culture of secular communities of Jewish people, but it can also include the cultural contributions of individuals who identify as secular Jews, or even those of religious Jews working in cultural areas not generally considered to be connected... The John Bates Clark Medal is awarded biannually by the American Economic Association to that American economist under the age of forty who is adjudged to have made a significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge. Named after the American Neoclassical economist John Bates Clark (1847-1938), it is considered...

Related articles

• Jew
• History of the Jews in the United States
• List of Jewish Americans
• Secular Jewish culture
• Model minority - Highly successful minority racial groups

History of the Jews in the United States focuses on the history of Jews in the United States, which has had the world’s largest Jewish population until 2004. ... This is a list of famous Jewish Americans. ... Secular Jewish culture embraces several related phenomena; above all, it is the culture of secular communities of Jewish people, but it can also include the cultural contributions of individuals who identify as secular Jews, or even those of religious Jews working in cultural areas not generally considered to be connected... Cover of Newsweek featuring an article on the success of Asian American students Model minority refers to a minority ethnic, racial, or religious group whose members visably achieve a higher degree of success than the population average. ...

External links

• Feinstein Center. Comprehensive collection of links to Jewish American history, organizations, and issues.
• United Jewish Communities of North America. Also site of population survey statistics.
• Jews in America from the Jewish Virtual Library.
• American Jewish Literature
• Jewish-American History on the Web
• Jewish American Hall of Fame
• List of Famous Jews