cover image Daughters of Kings: Growing Up as a Jewish Woman in America

Daughters of Kings: Growing Up as a Jewish Woman in America

. Faber & Faber, $26.95 (224pp) ISBN 978-0-571-19919-8

In this academic collection, 13 fellows of the Bunting Institute at Radcliffe College explore the subject of Jewish identity. Edited by psychologist Brody (Gender, Emotion, and the Family), who contributes an analytical piece on how she resolved conflicted feelings about her Jewish heritage, the book contains authors from a variety of ethnic backgrounds. Several of the selections reflect a strong fear of anti-Semitism, which was heightened by their exposure to the prejudicial attitudes of childhood friends. Rachel Kadish eloquently discusses being the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors. Karen Fraser Wyche, an African American, provides her pleasant recollections of attending a progressive school in New York City with Jewish children and her continuing untroubled interaction with the Jewish community as an academic. She makes the point that social prohibitions are greater for biracial relationships than for interfaith ones. Although the authors' ideas differ from one another, Brody notes that it is through communicating about ethnicity that mutual understanding can occur. (Jan.)