Carrying a Big Schtick: Jewish Acculturation and Masculinity in the Twentieth Century

Historian Mora debuts with a rigorous analysis of American Jewish masculinity. Driven partly by a desire to adapt to American culture, many Jewish men in the 20th century entered the military and other “macho” fields; others sought a “closer connection to... traditional Jewish life” to “redeem Jewish manhood.” A third group acknowledged the antisemitic trope of “feminized” male Jews and sought to change that image without changing themselves. Yet all accepted that “something in Jewish heritage, culture, or physicality held them apart and necessitated an active effort to become men,” according to Mora. As a result, their actions helped to solidify “the American assumption of Jewish difference and resistance to full assimilation.” Tracing that idea through the world wars, Israel’s 1948 founding, and beyond, Mora sheds light on Theodor Herzl’s belief that dueling could “demonstrate the Jewish ability to perform masculinity on par with their national brethren,” and the notion—which the author unpacks through a discussion of Jewish peddlers in the early 1900s­—that “mainstream Americans did not fully regard Jews as men.” General readers may find the jargon-filled prose tough sledding (“By identifying and recognizing the importance of a hegemonic masculinity, we can better evaluate the gender politics taking place... through inclusion and exclusion of more peripheral masculinities from the hegemon”). For those with a background in the subject, however, this is a trenchant analysis of assimilation and otherness. (May)