The Jews of Boston

This book of essays and photographs, released in hardcover in 1995 to critical acclaim, is now available in an updated, revised paperback edition at less than half the hardcover asking price. The content is outstanding. The essays (by Brandeis University's Sarna, museum curator Smith, and a host of other scholars) are at once weighty and accessible to general readers who are interested in the history of Boston's Jews. From the first recorded Jew in the city (Solomon Franco, in 1649) to the 21st century, this volume organizes the Jewish experience into chronological and thematic order, with various essays addressing assimilation, synagogues, philanthropy, Zionism, education and culture. More than 100 illustrations and photographs bring history to life: we see images of community centers and synagogues, yes, but we also see Jewish life in action: customers waiting outside a kosher butchery in Brookline; a multiracial klezmer musical troupe at the New England conservatory; a ladies' auxiliary of Beth Israel hospital in 1915. The book contains some new material not in the 1995 edition, including an essay by a Boston College historian on Jewish-Christian relations, and a piece by Sarna and Kosofsky on developments since 1995. More than just a community history, this excellent book uses Boston's experience as a window into understanding American Judaism more generally.