Imagining Jewish Authenticity: Vision and Text in American Jewish Thought

Exploring how visual media presents claims to Jewish authenticity, Imagining Jewish Authenticity argues that Jews imagine themselves and their place within America by appealing to a graphic sensibility. Ken Koltun-Fromm traces how American Jewish thinkers capture Jewish authenticity, and lingering fears of inauthenticity, in and through visual discourse and opens up the subtle connections between visual expectations, cultural knowledge, racial belonging, embodied identity, and the ways images and texts work together.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Introduction: Visual Authenticity in the American Jewish Imaginary Section I. The Anxiety of Authenticity in Image and Text 1. Seeing Israel in Bernard Rosenblatt's Social Zionism 2. Seeing Things in Abraham Joshua Heschel's The Sabbath 3. Seeing Food in The Jewish Home Beautiful and Kosher by Design Section II. The Embodied Language of Visual Authenticity 4. The Language of Jewish Bodies in Michael Wyschogrod's The Body of Faith 5. The Language of Gendered Bodies in Adler's Engendering Judaism 6. The Language of Racial Bodies in Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz's The Colors of Jews Conclusion: Imagining Jewish Authenticity in Every Generation Notes Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Ken Koltun-Fromm is Professor of Religion at Haverford College. He is author of several books including Material Culture and Jewish Thought in America (IUP, 2010).

Review :
This volume will have great appeal for anyone interested in classic Jewish literary sources and popular culture that have contributed to the American Jewish psyche. Not only does Koltun-Fromm's deep investment in the fallible constructions of authenticity bring new and provocative insights into media we thought we knew, it is itself a demonstration of the sort of psychological and intellectual challenges with which American scholars of contemporary "Jewish studies" continue to struggle. (Studies in Contemporary Jewry) [T]his volume is not about traditionalist philosophical and theological underpinnings of the rabbinic covenant of learning Jewish authenticity but instead about creative Talmud Torah that speaks of two minds: emotional and experiential.  A compelling read. Recommended. (Choice) Koltun-Fromm has written an important book, one that serves as a reminder not only of the value of boundaries and distinctions—particularly for minority groups—but also of the need for 'new relations of justice'. (Modern Judaism) Imagining Jewish Authenticity is an innovative approach to how American Jewish thinkers have explored concepts of identity and belonging and should be required reading for religious practitioners and scholars of Jewish thought alike. - Amy Weiss (Religious Studies Review)